Door County Music Co — Local services in Sturgeon Bay

I've never seen worse service or had a worse consumer experience. Please, read to the end of this review before you waste money here.

I was on vacation in Door County the week before my daughter's seating audition with the Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra. Her A string was fraying and close to breaking, making practicing impossible. We were relieved to find that this store carried violin strings.

We drove the half-hour from Egg Harbor, purchased the last set of violin strings (Prelude D'Addario strings, medium tension, 4/4, for $34.91--the same strings are $16.99 on amazon.com). We were grateful when the store's owner offered to replace the A string himself. (My daughter’s teacher had replaced her strings in the past.)

We waited for over half an hour with the store owner in the back with my daughter's violin—a long time to replace a string, but we were so grateful to have this crisis averted that we didn't question it. It wasn’t until we were back in Egg Harbor (total time investment: 1.5 hours driving and waiting) that we realized something was wrong.

The string was tuned to an A, but it was the A a full octave below where the A string on a violin should be. My daughter tried to tune it properly, and the string snapped. On closer inspection, she realized the A string was still in the package. Looking at the color coding on the package and the strings, we realized the owner of the music store had put the D string on the violin. The string he put on the violin had a yellow binding, meaning it was a D string according to the package. The A string has a black binding. My daughter, with online instructions and her violin teacher’s help, put the correct string, the A string, on her violin.

Ideally, when replacing one string, you replace all four strings at the same time. That was our intent in purchasing the set of four strings from Door County Music Co. The A string replacement was a quick fix, and our plan was, after vacation, to replace the rest of the strings with the set we had purchased. With the D string broken due to the store owner's mistake, we now have to purchase a new set of strings.

We called the owner of Door County Music Co., described the problem, and requested a refund since we had purchased a full set, and because of his mistake, we did not have a full set of strings.

Instead of apologizing and finding a solution, he was confrontational and belligerent. He had me repeat the problem several times, and seemed unfamiliar with the color coding used by Prelude and unable to grasp the problem I was describing. When he finally seemed to understand the situation, he told me new strings would be in his store tomorrow (after our vacation, when we would be back home). He then angrily said he couldn’t possibly have made the error. ("I've been doing this for 16 years! I wouldn't have done something like that!")

I calmly repeated the fact that the D string was used to replace the A string. He said, "There's no way I made that mistake. You just have to come to the store and show me. I'm here until 5:30."

We ended our vacation plans hours early so that we could reach his store in time to talk to him in person, with the violin. We were there at 4:22 pm, and found his store locked and closed, in spite of the posted sign (and his earlier statement) saying closing time was 5:30 on Thursdays.

Now we are stuck having paid double the normal price for a set of violin strings, strings ruined by this rude, apparently ignorant store owner who refuses to give us the refund we deserve. We all make mistakes. I would’ve hoped a store owner would be reasonable enough when faced with a mistake he'd made to refund the money for strings he himself ruined. This man should not be running a store.

I only wish I'd read the store's online reviews before we wasted so much time driving to and from his store. I write all of this in hopes of saving at least one person from...

He lost my guitar or sold it without completing paperwork properly and then he accused me of running a scam. When I went to pick up my guitar after sitting in his shop on consignment for three years it was no where to be found- along with a stand, case, and capo. He asked me three times in our conversation if someone else could have picked it up and each time the answer was NO. He had no copy of my original consignment contract, and he had no record of it being sold. I did get reimbursed for the value, at the lowest amount I had indicated I would accept, but it was not until he offered me less, and treated me in a very disrespectful manner. He could not imagine any scenario where an error on his part could possibly be the cause. "I've been doing this for 17 years and nothing like this has ever happened." One just has to read other reviews to see that while this may not have happened before, other mistakes have and his response has been the same. This man is long overdue for a retirement and should not be...

Went in there at 7/15/23 around 2:00 pm. I walked in with my dad and asked politely if I could try out a bass he had there and he rudely replied “DONT TOUCH THE DIALS!” So I respectfully placed the bass guitar back on the stand he had it on and walked out. By the way he told me to plug in to the guitar amp instead of a bass amp so if I blew the speaker on accident he probably would have charged me! Don’t waste your time or money...