I am not happy with Fender

I bought a Fender Mustang 200 amp last year and I am very happy with it. I bought a beautiful 88 key electric keyboard that I really love but the built in amp is weak. Earlier in the year I bought a pair of Fender Champion 20 amps to run my Chromebook through. The Chromebook and the two amps sit on top of the keyboard. I was planning on buying a pair of Fender Champion 40 amps to run the keyboard through next month. However one of the Champion 20 amps quit working. The is no sound coming out of it when I plug into the instrument input. The Aux input works fine though. So I called the Fender customer support hotline to discuss my problem. No discussion occurred. I was told to take it to Donald Lee instrument repair in Kissimmee, 45 minutes from my house. i arrive and show Don my amp and he says he won't work on it. He will send it to Fender and they will send out a new amp to him. And since this is the holiday season he won't be receiving the amp until sometime in January. So I am now out of an amp for at least a month and i must spend three hours driving to get this problem solved.

Now just about every other company I have dealt with would ship me a new amp and then I would return the amp in the packaging they sent the new amp in. It would take a few days and I would not have to travel. Well I decided that since Fender's customer service sucks there is no way I was going to buy two more Fender amps.

The is no sound coming out of it when I plug into the instrument input.

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Turn the volume up  ???

Tom said:

Turn the volume up  ???

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Now you tell me :

Is it plugged in? 

Back2PA said:

Is it plugged in? 

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Well if the Aux input works and the Instrument input does not work I am going to assume it was plugged in. ;D

Yeah I would have to agree ....That's pretty sorry customer service.

They should at least ship the new amp to your home.

Gizmo100 said:

Yeah I would have to agree ....That's pretty sorry customer service.

They should at least ship the new amp to your home.

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That is the least they could have done. I have been putting my story up on every social media platform I can find. I also sent a copy to Fender and told them I am posting it everywhere.

That will make you very popular at Fender 

Tom said:

That will make you very popular at Fender 

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That is fair since Fender is not popular at my house.

SeilerBird said:

That is fair since Fender is not popular at my house.

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I just did a mental inventory of my sound gear .....No Fender stuff. I'm thinking it may just stay that way ;D ;D

I got a reply from Fender right away.

Hi Tom,
Sorry to hear of the problems. This is the first contact from this email that we've received. We pride ourselves on having the best customer service in the industry. Can I ask what gave you a bad impression of us? I'd like to correct that. I can send you an amp directly. Please attach a copy of the receipt. Is the amp still with Donald Lee?

Nathan Jones

Pretty funny stuff. Best customer service in the industry? What gave me a bad impression?

SeilerBird said:

I got a reply from Fender right away.

Hi Tom,
Sorry to hear of the problems. This is the first contact from this email that we've received. We pride ourselves on having the best customer service in the industry. Can I ask what gave you a bad impression of us? I'd like to correct that. I can send you an amp directly. Please attach a copy of the receipt. Is the amp still with Donald Lee?

Nathan Jones

Pretty funny stuff. Best customer service in the industry? What gave me a bad impression?

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Sounds like you got someone that wants to make things right.......To bad the first person didn't take the time to make things right.

What should have happened....

We're sorry our amp failed...We will send you a box to repack the amp. Inside the box will be a UPS shipping label. place it on the box and call your local UPS to have it picked up. as soon as we receive it we will ship you a new one.
And once again we are sorry.

NOW THAT'S CUSTOMER SERVICE.

Just for the record...
This is what happened with Dell computer, Apple Computer, APC Battery backup.

But some companies just don't understand.

I agree Giz. What I have had happen in the past is that they will ship out the product immediately after charging my credit card for the item. Then they remove the charge after I ship back a defective item in reasonable condition. I was shocked that they put all the burden on me. But they lost a few sales. I will not be buying from Fender again.

Last month my 2 year old Pixel phone refused to make or receive a phone call. So I called Google on my backup phone and spent a half an hour on the phone trying everything they suggested to try and make it work. They decided the phone was defective. They took down my credit card numbers and charged my card with a $900 temp charge. I had the new phone two days later. I put my old phone into the shipping box and sent it back to them. A few days later they lifted the temp charge. This is why I am a Googleaholic and not a Fenderaholic. ;D

Actually I am quite happy with the outcome. A typical case of making lemonade out of lemons. On the way home from the repairman my blood was boiling. I was going to buy two more Fender amps but I decided I would buy two more amps, just not from Fender. So when I got home I started shopping for two new amps. My keyboard has room on the top to put the two Fender Champion 20s with a Chromebook in the middle but that is all. The two new amps would be on the floor at my feet pointed up towards my ears. There is 21 inches on each side of the pedals, just enough room for some amps. I had moved the Champion 20s down there to see if it would work and it did work, but the amps were a bit unstable due to being tilted back at a 45 degree angle.

Low and behold I found the perfect solution at Amazon. I found an amp by Coolmusic that is basically shaped like home plate from the side. The amp is designed to be stood upright like most amps or to be laid at a 45 degree angle like a floor monitor. These would be a lot more stable than propping up a Fender.

And on top of that the amps are the right physical size. They are the right wattage, the correct color, and has the features I want. Plus they are a few dollars cheaper than the Fender. Win win in my book. The funny thing is the web site description of the odd shape:

"Versatile and Portable PA workstation combo in a irregular shape style cabinet for drop resistance." Yep, people be dropping amps all the time and that shape will definitely help : : :