Pearl will not sell me an individual bass drum that they have in stock - they want Amazon to buy it from them. Any ideas on how to make this work?

  • Thread starter aarono2690
  • Start date
    • This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links like Ebay, Amazon, and others.
So, a good thing turned into a bad thing. Funny how often that happens. I hate situations like this. You’re basically given additional work.
 
bassanddrum84 said:
Well it sounds like everyone needs to mass spam Jeff bozo owner of amazon!!!!! This is such a horrible situation and a lesson learned for everyone on here. DO NOT BUY A DRUMSET FROM AMAZON.
Click to expand...
This. Also Amazon is such a huge organization it's impossible to coordinate anything and it feels like every person gives you a different answer. I'm going to cancel Prime and try to never buy from them again. This left such a sour taste in my mouth.
 
aarono2690 said:
This. Also Amazon is such a huge organization it's impossible to coordinate anything and it feels like every person gives you a different answer. I'm going to cancel Prime and try to never buy from them again. This left such a sour taste in my mouth.
Click to expand...

Enough people will adopt this attitude. This, coupled with the “we’ll never fail” mentality that seems prevalent with them will be their demise. It may not be for a few years, but it will happen. Look at the stranglehold that WalMart used to have.
 
This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links like Ebay, Amazon, and others.
Well, I’ve been checking in on this saga every now and then just to see if it shakes out any differently for you than it did for me a few years back. I had an almost identical experience, including a customer service rep telling me I could buy the missing bass drum elsewhere and they’d reimburse me, only to be told by a different rep later on that the previous guy had been wrong. (Good thing I double-checked that, because I’d actually tracked one down and was about to hit “buy.”)

Anyway, sorry you don’t seem to be having any more luck with this.

I’ve scored some incredible deals through Amazon, but when it comes to buying kits, it’s always a big gamble. I’d say probably 2/3 of the kits I’ve bought through Amazon have showed up incomplete. At a certain point, the hassle of having to return them just made it not worth trying for me, no matter how appealing the deals seemed at first.
 
Fascinating story, sorry to both parties for the trouble. Not defending Amazon, but you do get what you pay for these days. Shop at a specialty store, the price you pay is the cost of goods + some premium for service. Amazon, not so much... It really shouldn't be a surprise to all of us though, that's the business model, eyes should be open.

What would be an ideal outcome is if both parties return their half kits, get full refunds, then watch Amazon like a hawk for it to get re-listed far cheaper as scratch and dent, then one of you re-buy it! Worst case something goes wrong and you just return again, you get the satisfaction of knowing you are costing Amazon a $ or two shipping drums back and forth.

Thanks for sharing OP, hope it all works out for you.
 
So if I watch Amazon closely I should soon see a damaged Pearl drumset become available for short money? Or will it be two damaged Pearl drumsets?
If you're bold and have time and patience there may yet be a deal to be had here.

@owr, I was typing while you were posting, thinking alike eh?
 
  • Like
Reactions: owr
premierplayer said:
So if I watch Amazon closely I should soon see a damaged Pearl drumset become available for short money? Or will it be two damaged Pearl drumsets?
If you're bold and have time and patience there may yet be a deal to be had here.

@owr, I was typing while you were posting, thinking alike eh?
Click to expand...
Best of luck to you. :happy1:
 
Last edited:
I can’t say I blame you for being angry. However, if the set goes back on sale, I would buy it again and make a note that says there should be two boxes ;)
 
This Whole exchange illustrates exactly why you should buy musical equipment in person.
Instruments are really personal and for my well being I want to HEAR an instrument. Too personal not to.
Although I get cymbal weights and sound bites, it's not the same.
I'd really rather go to a stocking shop to buy, then get lassoed into a scene like this one turned into.
 
gbow said:
I buy a fair amount of things from amazon. I recently bought some cheap reader glasses, a cat5 cable, and some vitamins. But major purchases, like drums, no way!
Click to expand...
Same here. I just bought a 20-gallon garbage can from Amazon because they didn't have one at Lowes. Amazon has very nice garbage cans.
 
Skinsmannn said:
This Whole exchange illustrates exactly why you should buy musical equipment in person.
Instruments are really personal and for my well being I want to HEAR an instrument. Too personal not to.
Although I get cymbal weights and sound bites, it's not the same.
I'd really rather go to a stocking shop to buy, then get lassoed into a scene like this one turned into.
Click to expand...
I get this, but some people are losing sight of that fact that this kit goes for like $1,500+ new and we bought a “used” one for $760. I wasn’t aiming to buy this kit brand new at full retail. The drums we received are legit new. I guarantee someone returned them because of this same issue.
 
aarono2690 said:
I'm going to cancel Prime and try to never buy from them again.
Click to expand...
I really don't know what anyone gets from Amazon Prime, unless you enjoy the movies. If you think Prime saves a lot of money on free shipping, you are really mistaken. I buy stuff from Amazon occasionally for the convenience, particularly if I can't get it locally, or it is significantly cheaper.
 
aarono2690 said:
I get this, but some people are losing sight of that fact that this kit goes for like $1,500+ new and we bought a “used” one for $760.
Click to expand...
well You got what you paid for: a ton of aggravation

and You don't have to buy "in-person"...
Heck that went out pretty much 25 years ago But off a reputable seller either private or a dealer (that understands) somewhat (drums)
 
aarono2690 said:
I get this, but some people are losing sight of that fact that this kit goes for like $1,500+ new and we bought a “used” one for $760. I wasn’t aiming to buy this kit brand new at full retail. The drums we received are legit new. I guarantee someone returned them because of this same issue.
Click to expand...
But that price saving isn't real, because you were not able to buy those drums for that money. Amazon could not complete their part of the transaction, so you didn't save anything. In fact, it cost you time (the only commodity that people can never recover once it is spent). This is a sterling example of the maxim: "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is too good to be true."

The folks here making warnings about purchasing drums from Amazon are saying that there's an additional risk in spending that kind of money with a business that's built to make millions of daily transactions from hundreds of warehouses manned by thousands of workers. Their infrastructure is designed to make one attempt to send you what you ordered, and if a mistake is made, to negate the whole transaction and return your funds. Their infrastructure is not designed to follow-through and make sure that you ultimately get what you paid for. This business model works great when you order shampoo or a dozen rolls of paper towels because the risk of your not getting what you ordered is acceptably low for you. But when you order an expensive and complex item like a set of drums, a business built on a model that is designed to ship millions of bars of soap all over the world is much less likely to succeed. And when they fail, your only recourse is to cancel the deal, return whatever they did send you and get your money back.

That's why we're saying that it's better to pay more and buy drums from a drum dealer who specializes in drums, and has proven mechanisms in place to ensure that they can satisfy their customers. This type of service is worth paying more for because it dramatically increases your chances of the transaction resulting in your complete satisfaction.
 
Sorry about your luck but also serves you right for putting any amount of faith in Amazon to do the right thing. The “deal” that you were blinded by doesn’t exist and you’ve wasted a lot of time and energy in this process, but I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that. They’re a warehouse company that’s designed to maximize profit margins, and their customer service is nonexistent for that reason. Hopefully it’s a hard lesson learned.
 
aarono2690 said:
This. Also Amazon is such a huge organization it's impossible to coordinate anything and it feels like every person gives you a different answer. I'm going to cancel Prime and try to never buy from them again. This left such a sour taste in my mouth.
Click to expand...
My household hasn't spent a dime with Amazon in years. I know we're not putting them out of business, but it's all I can do.
 
Ludwig Classic Maple Bop Kits . $1199

This forum would have a thread dedicated just for them , pics of sets , stories like the above . Much happiness and sadness all in one place …..
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top