My experience with Bax Music
12/03/24 13:12
My review of my experience with this NEGLIGENT, ALOOF, GASLIGHTING, INCOMPETENT and DISHONEST retailer.
My review of my experience with this NEGLIGENT, ALOOF, GASLIGHTING, INCOMPETENT and DISHONEST retailer. If you’re a professional in the industry, I’d highly recommend avoiding. They tempt you in by being about £10 cheaper than other retailers, and with a long warranty, but that saving absolutely does not translate into a pleasant experience when you need to act on your legal rights under the Consumer Rights or the Sale of Goods and Services Acts.
I am a full time performing musician who also runs a PA company, and for a company who’s slogan is “we support your stage” with customer service as negligent and aloof as Bax’s, this slogan is wholly laughable.
I bought a Presonus AvB stagebox from them in July 2023 for my second engineer. Sadly, the contract that his unit was going to go out on didn’t go ahead, so it was first used in October 2023.
The unit manifested a couple of faulty sends at the show, so we returned it under warranty, hopefully to have it replaced. Bax refused and insisted it be repaired instead, which, to be fair, is the law on a product that’s 3 months into warranty. So fine.
It was sent by parcel force on the last day of October and arrived on the 1st November. THEY DIDN’T SEND IT off for repair until til the 21st November. So, my asset was sat in their office for, let's count them - 21 days before anyone did anything with it.
I was then told it would be 4-5 weeks from when it was received by the repairer, despite the fact that it arrived with THEM 3 weeks prior. So, and considering it arrived with them on the 1st November, I’m now looking at a potential return in mid December, although I wasn’t given any actual indication.
On 16th January, I receive an email from Bax to say the unit can’t be repaired and will be replaced. I then receive subsequent emails to say that my item has been replaced and shipped and I’ll be receiving it mid-week.
Parcel force knocked on the door mid-week as expected, although with a smaller than expected box.
The box contained….. an IEC cable! Confused?! Me too! That’s an expensive way to mail a power cable.
Despite all of their communications alluding to the unit having been replaced and shipped, this turned out to be false.
I email the company but get no reply. (This was common throughout - if a reply comes it’s 3-4 days later). I didn't get a reply to my email.
So I call to find out what’s going on and, after. 30 min wait for an answer, and to cut a long story short, I was told they didn’t have any stock and didn’t know when they’d get stock, so I just asked them to refund it so I could buy one elsewhere. Plenty of other retailers showed stock. (And I bought one, which arrived 2 days later).
I received a confirmation of my refund on 18th Jan telling me my refund out take 7-10 days. 9 days later on 27th Jan, when no refund was received, I call at around 330pm to find out where my refund was. I was then told my refund wasn’t a refund, it had been applied as store credit (it’s in-sure whether this was an error or not, but as I had an email confirmation of a refund in progress, I can only assume it was an error). I asked if the guy thought that the way I’ve been treated was acceptable, and whether he would be happy with how his was being handled. I get told that he wouldn’t, but this sadly didn’t seem to make any difference with how it gets handled!
I asked for him to call the finance department to find out if my refund will be issued today, and to call me back in an hour. He agreed.
In 1hr 25, I call back and speak to someone else. After explaining the whole thing again, I’m told the finance department don’t have a phone and can only contacted by email!!! How ridiculous. I’m wondering if they’re actually Goblins at this point and I’m also wondering why I was told prior that a call would be made, and I’ll get a call back in an hour.
I’m also told that I’ll be receiving my refund in 24-48 hours. (As it turns out, one was issued…see next paragraph). But then I receive an email on 5th Feb to say that a refund was processed on the 4th Feb, (bare in mind it turns out that the refund was processed on the 29th Jan….) and that it would take 7-10 days to process.
I call on the 19th Feb to find out where my refund was to be told it had been processed, although to a card I wasn’t familiar with. It turns out that a refund had been issued to my wife’s credit card on the 29th Jan. So the fact that I get told it was refunded as store credit, and the. an email to say it had been processed on the 4th, and I’ll have to wait 10 days for it, suggests that they really have no clue what’s happening inside their business. Who knows, maybe another payment will arrive?!!!
During the course of this, I email to say that I’ll be writing to Trading Standards and that I’ll be starting a breach on contract claim, citing the Sales of Goods and Services Act breaches. I asked for the name of the manager, name of the owner and the address of the Head office. This was ignored. I could easily find out, but I wanted to see if they’d reply.
My claim is for interest and charges conferred to me under the Late payments of commercial debts act. This has never been acknowledged.
This company is clearly dishonest, negligent and uncaring towards their customers. Don’t let the small discount fool you, this company is not worth anyone’s business or anyone’s time. A 10 quid saving is not worth the hassle or stress of dealing with people who literally do not give a crap about your custom. Needless to say, I won’t be buying from them again.