Check Out Sweetwater

I wanted to toss a shout out to the good folks at Sweetwater!

Over the last fifteen or so years I’ve purchased all sorts of music items (guitars, amps, strings, straps, 4-tracks, saxophones, books, videos, and who knows what else) from a handful of internet and mail order providers. I tried Sweetwater this week and was impressed.

First, they had what I wanted. I was looking for two VOX headphone amps. While checking through my usual online sources, nobody had both flavors; only one or two outlets had one or the other; and a couple shops weren’t clear as to whether or not they had what I wanted in stock. I stumbled upon Sweetwater via search. These guys have a truly impressive selection and inventory.

Second, their pricing was damn reasonable. While they weren’t the dirt-cheapest option, they were absolutely in the game.

Third, my order included free shipping. I like free shipping .

Fourth, I placed the order just after Noon on Wednesday, and the package was here this morning – in less than 48 hours. For free! Can’t argue about that!

Fifth, these guys ship stuff in used boxes – really! They reuse what I have to assume are TONS of boxes that pass through their warehouse(s). Your order goes into an old box, and is then sealed with security tape so you know it hasn’t been tampered with en route. That tape has text on it to let you know that they reuse boxes. Brilliant! Why bother recycling the corrugated cardboard when you can just slap new labels and whatnot on a perfectly-good box? Why on earth doesn’t everybody do this?!?!?! Also worth noting on the ‘green’ front: their new headquarters facility is apparently the first LEED-Gold-certified building in Indiana – kudos!

Definitely my new “go-to-guys” for future musical needs. Check ‘em out.

Giving Up on AMEX :-(

After a year of random silliness, I seem to have come to the decision to give up on American Express.

I’ve been a dedicated (seriously … insane & hardcore) AMEX user since 1988. 20 years. Two decades. I was the kind of guy who wouldn’t shop someplace if they didn’t take AMEX. Whenever one of my companies set up credit card processing, I insisted on accepting AMEX out of the gate – even with the higher fees, and always in disagreement with my employees who had to operate the processing. I wrote letters and emails to companies that didn’t take the card. I was an AMEX fanboi.

I’ve charged on the order of a million dollars on my AMEX – including a ton of business travel and corporate expenses (“We need five more $5K computers? No problem. Call DELL – they’ve got my AMEX on file.”). I doubt I’m in AMEX’s top 10%, but I have to assume the top tercile – if not quartile (that’s gotta be a really long tail graph…).

In the last year, they’ve gotten “unhelpful” – and always about stupid things. Given how much the card costs (card fees + rewards program + a second card for the boss) plus the fees they’re collecting on my transactions, it just doesn’t make sense unless they’re gonna be helpful. Although they have bent over backwards for me before, it’s been many many years since I’ve needed anything from them, and the last set of  interactions throughout 2008 elicited nothing but “sorry, no” responses from them.

Well AMEX, “Sorry. No.”