Kit arrived late, and damaged, what to expect now?

im pretty sure it was Sweetwater i ordered a Pacific kit from years ago, and the snare drum was cracked like that, i just wanted a new snare, but they sent me a whole other kit, and told me to take the snare out of it, and send the kit back with the broken snare in it....so i did....
when i got my credit card bill, the only charge on there was shipping!!!!
So i called them, and said hey, you didnt charge me for the kit....they said dont worry about it....
and i offered AGAIN to pay them for it, cos i loved the drums....accidents happen....they fixed it, and i didnt have to tear them down and re pack the whole thing...they said no, dont woprry about it, all good...
so i got the whole drum kit for $35, except cymbals...
my daughter learned to play on that kit....it was great.
 
I can also vouch for Sweetwater. I ordered a Ludwig jazz festival snare. It arrived in a Sweetwater box, not a Ludwig box. It lacked all of the packing material normally used by Ludwig. I emailed my sales engineer. He had a replacement jazz festival to me in two days. He even had the shipping department verify that it was in the correct box.

Don't worry at all. Sweetwater will make everything right.
 
I would pull off all of the heads on every drum and inspect them with a magnifying glass if you haven't done so already.

I re-read everything, and I don't think you mentioned whether or not the box was damaged. Were there any signs of damage to the box?
 
PorkPieGuy said:
I would pull off all of the heads on every drum and inspect them with a magnifying glass if you haven't done so already.

I re-read everything, and I don't think you mentioned whether or not the box was damaged. Were there any signs of damage to the box?
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Box was not banged up.
 
DenK said:
I have not heard back from Sweetwater yet.
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If you emailed them over the weekend, it's easy to miss. They get a ton. I've dealt with that before. You need to re-message or pick up the phone (y)
 
DenK said:
I have not heard back from Sweetwater yet.
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Don't worry, you will--as others have stated, their customer service is pretty thorough. I mean, they call me to follow up when I make a <$10 purchase, so I expect they will reach out to you. Depending on how much information you gave them, they may want to gather all their details before they contact you, as opposed to contacting you, figuring out the situation, then having to contact you again before taking action.

Seriously, they're on top of it with customer service. To the point where I find it a touch overbearing, but that's just me and it's comforting to know they're on it.
 
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Yes as long as they insured it, and Sweetwater can prove that item was 1. properly packed to avoid damage, and 2. damage was actually done by FedEx during shipping.

As an example, if the drum was just in a cardboard box with no protection, then I’m not surprised that it was damaged, and FedEx is probably not gonna pay an insurance claim. But that doesn't preclude SW from taking care of you and replacing the defective item. The rest is between SW and FedEx, or SW and distributor or manufacturer if item was drop shipped, which means SW never had item in inventory and distributor or manufacturers ships to you from their facility. So SW never actually handles the physical package. It will still be SW that arranges the replacement.


Ktbartsc said:
I was told that Fedex reimburses Sweetwater for damages deliveries.
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The service department at SW is checking into this. As much of a pain as it would be to pack the entire kit back up, I will return the entire kit before waiting months for a replacement tom. This is my slow time so the time of year I get to enjoy me-time.
 
I was notified by SW that Tama will be shipping me a new Tom on 1/6...so the wait should not be too bad at all. Hopefully the fine people at Tama decide to put a little padding around the drum this time and not just throw it in a flimsy cardboard box.
 
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