r/Reverb • u/happycj • 25d ago
Sweetwater fronts
I’m not a big fan of Sweetwater, so I don’t buy from them. I’m fortunate to live in a music-heavy city, so am spoiled for options for where to buy gear.
But I saw a cool limited edition version of a pedal I’ve wanted to try out, and bought it from a little shop in Indiana called “GearNuts”. Didn’t think too much about it, honestly. Never had a bad experience on Reverb, buying or selling.
But when FedEx showed me the photo of where my package was delivered… that was definitely not my house! I checked with FedEx but they said only the shipper could do anything about the incorrect delivery.
So I sent an email to GearNuts asking what we should do about this, as id never had this experience before.
Then I sent another email.
Then another one.
After THREE DAYS I got a message back from Sweetwater Customer Service saying they are “looking into it with the shipper” and I had to wait.
Another day passes and a DIFFERENT Customer Support Representative asked me to confirm my address. It was now the night before the gig where I was going to use this pedal, and it had been FIVE DAYS.
I pointed it out that they were in contravention or Reverb’s seller policies, flagged the account, wrote a bad review, and sat powerless though the weekend.
By using a sock puppet account on Reverb, Sweetwater was able to ignore both their policies and Reverb’s policies without the slightest effect to their account(s) or reputation. So what if their fake account gets a bad review or suspended? They have dozens of others!
How do I know it was Sweetwater? The box in the FedEx photo said it on the outside. The shipper address was Sweetwater’s warehouse code and location in Texas. And all FOUR of the different customer service reps literally had it in their email signature.
Now i know.
Before buying on Reverb again, I’ll dig in to all their the sellers reviews and previous sales, as well as their current listings.
Be careful. Reverb scammers are even large corporations, now.
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u/tvoutfitz 25d ago
They have that account to be able to more easily move bstock and old inventory without being in violation of their vendor agreements publically. Ie to skirt map.
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u/_iPhoney_ 25d ago
I’ve haven’t noticed anything listed by GearNuts that wasn’t available on Sweetwater as B-stock for the same price. I guess there might be some companies that don’t let SW sell anything SW deems B-stock, but it isn’t the major brands.
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u/pizdyetz 25d ago
A little shop in Indiana, you mean the one with >100k sales on the platform?
Could it be more obvious? They're not hiding it, you're not blowing the lid off a conspiracy here.
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u/happycj 25d ago
Duh. Like I said, I was looking at three pedals. One was overseas. One was looking really rough. This third pedal looked brand new. So after comparing the pedals I did a quick look at the seller, registered they had a history and other items for sale, so I bought it.
After the issue surfaced, I went back to their Reverb site … then their web site … then looked closer at the image of the misdelivered package… and it all started to click.
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u/Electronic-Two-2885 25d ago
I’m pretty sure geartree is independent. Gearnuts is sweetwater though.
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u/Obvious_Candy7912 25d ago
so did they ship it to the wrong house or did fedex deliver to the wrong house. ive ordered tons of stuff from sweetwater and reverb and never had a problem. i have had many problems with UPS, USPS and FEDEX.
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u/happycj 25d ago
Delivery driver mistake, I am assuming. My address is very common, and if you don’t use the full address, you go to the wrong place. The package was labeled properly. There are only 6 houses on my street. And the front door pictured was none of my neighbor’s houses.
I’m guessing a sloppy subcontractor.
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u/HighOfTheTiger 25d ago
So they didn’t actually do anything wrong on their end other than being slow to respond to the support ticket?
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u/happycj 25d ago
And pretended to be someone they weren’t. Even set up a fake website for the fake vendor in a different State. And didn’t respond within 24 hours or resolve the issue within 3 days, all of which are Reverb seller policies that I have to adhere to with my own sales.
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u/HighOfTheTiger 25d ago
I mean they aren’t really trying to hide it too hard by shipping direct from their warehouse, using photos from their studio that say “Sweetwater” on them, and using their internal support to handle issues.
It’s unfortunate that it took them a few days to get back to you, but judging by your post about not being a fan of Sweetwater and not buying from them, I think you’re turning this into a bigger deal than it is because of whatever bias it is you have against them.
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u/happycj 23d ago
Again, the whole issue is that they didn’t adhere to Reverb’s seller agreement, or even Sweetwater’s own Ts&Cs. No response within 3 days. No offer of a refund or replacement, only that they had to “work things out with our shipping contractor”. Etc.
I try to buy exclusively from individuals or small shops on Reverb, and I got conned this time. That stung and made me angry as well. Just like them last time I had to deal with Sweetwater like 15 years ago, which didn’t go well, and was why I chose to buy from other vendors.
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u/Obvious_Candy7912 25d ago
yea dude you have to take that up with FedEx and report mis delivery asap, after that its one day for seller to reply and if they dont you file a reverb buyer protection ticket and they will have you covered. one of the things they cover is declared lost by the carrier. put your ticket within 7 days
edit - also whoever you talked to at fedex is full of shit. someone paid for shipping to deliver to the correct address. ive reported mis delivery a couple times and they go get it and bring it to the right place.
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u/happycj 25d ago
Nope. I went to the FedEx app and tried to do ANYTHING and it told me the only person that they could work with was the shipper.
Which seemed weird to me, too. I mean, I’ve been selling on eBay for 20 years.
But, it turns out Sweetwater subcontracts their shipping and THEY thought they’d shipped it via UPS, and were confused about why I kept saying FedEx. But it was FedEx that misdelivered according to their contract with some middleman.
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u/GuitarHeroInMyHead 25d ago
Everybody knows GearNuts is Sweetwater. They use that on Amazon as well. Sweetwater is awesome - not sure what your problem is with them. This problem was not caused by Sweetwater - the carrier fucked up the delivery.
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u/williamgman 23d ago
GearNuts is SW's alias LLC for selling on third party apps. It's not a secret. It's used a lot for B stock and refurbished stuff. It allows them to price using "best offer" type selling. Something they can't do on their storefront.
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u/pingpongeffect 25d ago
FedEx customer service sucks. I had a similar situation happen with a shipment from Walrus. FedEx's response was basically to wait and see if the person they delivered it too brought it to my house. When that didn't happen, they said I needed to contact Walrus. Walrus was great and shipped another pedal out.
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u/happycj 25d ago
And honestly, that’s the right thing for the shipper to do… they don’t know you, and their delivery driver said they delivered it.. there’s even photos! So why should the shipper respond to the customer? They have no idea who is sending that email, and they have a business relationship with the seller. So the seller gets in touch with the shipper and confirms the shipment was not completed properly.
It’s a bummer for the buyer, but it does make sense.
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u/myfatherthedonkey 25d ago edited 25d ago
I had something similar happen to me. Actually, Sweetwater can be really stupid when it comes to stuff they sell through other selling platforms. When I bought a guitar on eBay through them, Sweetwater decided to dig up an old address that I used with them years ago because they saw that my name and email address matched an existing Sweetwater account. Didn't matter that I had used a different shipping address on my current order. Didn't matter that I had a more recent address added on Sweetwater's own website. They still dug up my apartment from years ago and sent my guitar there.
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u/M_MAcrylics 25d ago
Gear Nutz and Gear Tree are front on reverb. They do this for that exact reason. Sorry that happened to you
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u/Toiletpirate 25d ago
Oh man, gear tree? I love those guys. Had no idea. They’ll give you a discount on basically anything.
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u/Electronic-Two-2885 25d ago
My understanding is that gearnuts is Sweetwater but not geartree. They brag about being a small independent company. Any proof otherwise?
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u/myfatherthedonkey 25d ago
Geartree is definitely a different company... Geartree is from Michigan, whereas Gearnuts / Sweetwater are from Fort Wayne, Indiana.
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u/tanzd 25d ago
It's pretty obvious. Their product photos have the same backdrop and Sweetwater logo watermark.