i have no rate to give. i paid the bill upon receit of shipment. payment was sent
to "anton gear music" on 10-29-09----of $21.00. ck no 1056. why should i pay
$27.00 to you when the bill has been paid in full?

BOB JOHNSTON

BUYER BEWARE! I couldn't believe it! It's a SCAM!

I ordered merchandise from Musician’s Friend. They asked me how I would like to pay for the order, credit card or would I like them to bill me later. I said “bill me later” ASSUMING (Ass out of U and Me) that I would be sent an invoice from Musician’s Friend and then I could pay them by check. I would deem that a normal response for how I expected to pay for these items.

Fast forward a few days later. I receive a piece of mail, by all accounts, appeared to be junk mail. The address in the upper left hand corner read “BillMeLater®.” with a PO Box number under it. The right hand corner had a “Presorted, FIRST CLASS MAIL, U.S. POSTAGE PAID, Mail Services, Inc.” pre-printed stamp. It was the kind of stamp one would see on junk mail. You know the kind of mail you never open and throw away. The face of the envelope, in reverse printing, said “Statement Enclosed.” I thought it was another solicitation for a credit card. Nowhere in the statement did it say it was a bill from Musician’s Friend. Upon further scrutiny, in the middle of the statement I saw a description that read, MSCN-FRND-WB with a phone number and amount. Only then did the light go on! “BillMeLater®.” is a payment system employed by Musician’s Friend!

Then, words like surreptitious, devious, sneaky, and misleading crossed my mind. This is probably not illegal but I’m reporting them the Massachusetts Attorney General and let them figure that part out.

In the meantime, I won’t be doing business with Musician’s Friend again. They are not a “friend” of mine!

By the way, the Annual Percentage rate is 19.99%, minimum finance charge is $2.00, and the fee for paying late for items over $249.99 is $39.00.

So, if I threw that piece of mail out, which I almost did, I’d be screwed!

In my opinion, these people are bordering on predatory lending practices. After a couple of statements (via email) they disappeared. Of course I then forgot about the balance due and let it lapse. Not my style or usual method of operations. They then sent a lame email saying that they had mistakenly not sent me a recent statement and that if I paid the amount shown that they would forgive some of my charges. Tried to figure this out and by the time I did, they had slapped another nasty charge on me. When I protested they smugly stated that this was legal and basically, tough luck kid. Really pissed me off. I paid the creaps off and have no intention of ever doing business with them again. Hopefully, I will be able to clue in others about their sleazy ways.

There are much better options. They don't have a very good interest rate and don't follow through with their advertised promotions. I was supposed to get $20 back as a new customer and not have to pay for 90 days. They started charging interest after 30 days. I also didn't get my $20 credit because I had used them though my work and they wouldn't include me as a "new" customer. On top of it all, they initially said they'd give me the credit, but when I called back, they said the issue had been researched and the money would not be credited back into my account. Use another payment option if you can.