 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: hkzr
Date: 2011-10-12 19:20
Hi folks, just wonder how many people here purchased from prowinds before? and how long do they take to ship you stuff to you? There are many good and bad comments but not many mentioned if they received their items eventually. Some said they filed for a refund and taken a couple of months to actually process it. Any comment or experience would be helpful. Thanks.
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Author: CWH
Date: 2011-10-12 23:15
Never an issue, great people to deal with.
Study, Practice, Play and Enjoy.
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Author: TJTG
Date: 2011-10-13 00:23
Everything is great until you have a problem. Fast shipping, great selection.
It took me over a month to get my reeds once when they sent me the wrong strength. They said they had shipped them and didn't. Nobody communicates with each other there. So if you talk to one guy another won't know your problem.
I also ordered an Altieri case from them and it took 4 months. They said it would take a month to ship. Every time they called they said, "oh... then it should sip in about a week". Apparently it got sent to the wrong warehouse and nobody noticed.
They also had a "we'll match any competitors promotion". They didn't want to send my reeds for free like the WWBW promotion would have (whatever it was). Apparently they'll only want to match a competitor when they can still make a buck.
Their unprofessional and unreliable in regards to problem solving.
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Author: lstermer
Date: 2011-10-14 03:25
[ ProWinds is now under new management, not associated with the old management. Mark C., 03/24/3014 ]
I agree with TJTG. Everything was great until you have a problem. I'm sure many people out there have never had a problem with ProWinds. I'm not here to bash ProWinds but I seriously question their business practices and when they refund the customer on returned items. Since you asked the question, here was my experience.
In April of 2011, I requested two Leblanc Noblet C clarinets for trial and actually ended up purchasing one. I called other vendors but ProWinds was the only company who could find this particular horn. I ended up purchasing one of the horns and am very pleased with it, but to my surprise the customer service/follow-up afterwards was not good.
My credit card was charged for both clarinets at the time of order, which was fine with me, however I had a problem of when they charged my card (early April), and the arrival of the clarinets which was 3 weeks later in May!
However, the big issue I had was getting the refund applied for the return of the second clarinet. The second clarinet was returned promptly within one week of their 2 week trial policy. Make a long story short, it took them 7 weeks after they received the second clarinet to refund my card (don't forget the additional 3 weeks on top of that when the card was initially charged). As a result of not refunding my card in a timely manner, I ended up paying costly finance charges.
The last straw was when I asked to speak to the owner to get his help on resolving the problem. I was placed on hold and when the sales rep came back he said "send him an email, he's really busy right now." So I said thank you, hung up, called the credit card company and kicked back the charge (duh, should have done that sooner) and then wrote a lengthy email to the owner.
In all fairness, after writing the email the owner did send me a response email with his apologies and explaining they were experiencing personnel issues. They sent me a $200 gift certificate towards my next purchase. I might end up using it on something like reeds that I know I won't be returning, but my brain is still thinking "too little, too late."
[ ProWinds is now under new management, not associated with the old management. Mark C., 03/24/3014 ]
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Author: hkzr
Date: 2011-10-15 08:59
Is there any possible compensation for such situations whereby delivery has taken so long?
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Author: hkzr
Date: 2011-10-16 20:05
Did you guys get a tracking numbers when they ship out your order?
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Author: Roxann
Date: 2016-04-23 22:37
I'm currently getting the "run around" from ProWinds. I ordered a C clarinet (that comes from China via England) and was told I would have it by Monday, April 25th...BUT that I would receive an email when it shipped so I would know exactly when it would arrive. It's the 23rd and I've received no email. I've called at least a dozen times and only once has anybody answered the phone and talked with me. I've left several phone messages and nobody has ever bothered to return my call. They billed my credit card the very same day I placed the order. I'm not at all pleased with their service. It sounds like things haven't changed much in the past five years!
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2016-04-24 16:24
It has changed. From what I heard, the brick and mortar store within the confines of Indiana University's campus had closed
Is that not true?
.................Paul Aviles
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Author: dorjepismo ★2017
Date: 2016-04-24 19:08
In fairness, the time required to clear U.S. customs is currently unpredictable. I've ordered several things from England with detailed tracking, and the hold up has never been with the seller or shipping company. No excuse, though, for promising you a firm delivery date or not answering your inquiries.
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Author: Roxann
Date: 2016-04-25 18:38
Update. Instead of flying the clarinets to England, as they said they would, the manufacturer in China shipped them. So, both the distributor in England and ProWinds are unable to fulfill their orders in the amount of time they had hoped.
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Author: nellsonic
Date: 2019-10-24 01:33
Very poor experience with this company recently. 2 emails, 2 phone calls about an order placed in September. No response. No shipment. No bueno.
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Author: donald
Date: 2024-02-09 18:49
Uh oh.... I went and made two (smallish) orders from them before seeing all the reviews (here and on Saxontheweb). The first order I made shipped immediately (if I am to believe the email) and the tracking says it's due to be delivered on Monday.
The 2nd order was made a few hours ago, so if everything is in stock will ship out on Friday *hopefully*. Let's see- they are both being delivered to a hotel in Santa Fe that my wife is staying at for work, so any delay will be disasterous.
The thing that scares me is reading that at least twice people have had their card details stolen and unexpected charges etc make on their credit card. Fingers crossed....
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Author: lmliberson
Date: 2024-02-09 19:14
I placed an order for a ligature in August of 2022. Soon after I was informed that the ligature would be delayed and if that was ok with me. That was fine; however, unlike many online retailers, the item was immediately charged to my credit card as opposed to charging me upon shipping. Anyway, after not hearing from them for some time, I contacted them more than once via phone (messages only, as nobody would ever answer) and email (no response - ever!).
Well, after a couple of months messing with them, I went directly to the Wisconsin Better Business Bureau and lodged a complaint. Apparently, that (ultimately?) did the trick as I received (now, this was about five months later, mind you!) a full refund PLUS the ligature. Added to this was a bonus of both an Eb ligature and a bass ligature, neither of which I ordered.
Needless to say, I came out of this more than whole but I will never even think of doing business with ProWinds again!
It's not worth the hassle of dealing with people like ProWinds as there are plenty of businesses more, shall we say, on the up-and-up.
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Author: Hunter_100
Date: 2024-02-09 21:02
I ordered some mouthpieces from them about 2 years ago. I took about 3 weeks for their shipping which I thought was excessive but I did get them eventually. I ended up returning all of them and they refunded my money in a reasonable amount of time. But I would probably not buy from them again given their slow processing time.
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Author: Slowoldman
Date: 2024-02-09 22:16
I order reeds and small accessories from them often, and have never had a problem. I've never made a "big" purchase.
The used to have a shipping point in northern NJ, which got orders to me quickly (in PA), but it takes longer now that everything is shipped from Wisconsin.
I agree that their customer service (email and phone) leave a lot to be desired, though.
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Author: donald
Date: 2024-02-10 01:18
Hmmmm well I've made two small orders- both with free shipping- that according to the tracking sent to me seem to be quite prompt (and will get to destination at the "right time").
What scares me now is the reports of credit card info being stolen (probably a website issue rather than actual dishonesty from Prowinds, but still worrying).
However, "so far so good", I seem to be one of the lucky ones fingers crossed.
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Author: Anonymoose
Date: 2024-02-13 23:05
I've always had no problems with them. They're my go to for clarinet accessories.
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Author: donald
Date: 2024-02-14 08:07
Well, the two packages I ordered have arrived, my wife will collect them tomorrow (at her hotel in Santa Fe) and check it's all the correct stuff.... but.... "so far so good" once more. Now to keep an eye on the credit card for odd purchases....
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Author: donald
Date: 2024-02-16 05:39
The stuff all seems to be correct, this looks like
Prowinds 1
Doubters 0
Of course, the people who had bad experiences, HAD bad experiences- they didn't make that stuff up- so obviously the question is "exactly HOW lucky was I?"
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Author: petrosv
Date: 2024-02-18 04:06
I ordered a ligature from them last year 2023 in July which never arrived so I asked to cancel the order and it took several weeks and nothing I called and sent a couple emails and finally emailed giving them my phone # (which they did not have) to call me I though can't say for sure if Pro Winds has this scam going or if someone has hacked their payment process but it was odd that after I emailed them with my phone # hour later I got fraud alerts from my bank (like 20 of them) within a 10 minute period and two different people used my CC# and phone # to register on 8-9 different sites like camping and sports goods even a medical supply and bought items from $50 to $200 with shipping addresses in TX and SC luckily the vendors ended up quickly cancelling the orders but I had to close my bank account and it took me 7 days to get it straight with the bank, I WILL NEVER ORDER ANYTHING FROM THEM EVER AGAIN!!!
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Author: Robert N.
Date: 2024-02-18 05:57
I ordered two things from them, in separate orders, both in 2020.
I ordered a box of reeds and a reed geek.
Both arrived with no problems.
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