[Joe Jazz]

Just got my new Shadow tenor from Roger at Chuck Levins Music. Very nice buying experience. When they come out with the Shadow soprano I might have to give them another call!

 

[grevsax24]

Yeah, I bought my Yanagisawa Alto and Tenor there. They were absolutely great. They know what they are talking about. It also helps that they have some of the best prices of anyone around. I'll probably be buying my soprano from them next summer too.

 

[Joe Jazz]

Unfortunately I can no longer recommend Chuck Levin's. I bought a used soprano from them which was not in the promised "mint" condition. I sent it back right away for a full refund. I just received my credit card bill and they kept $500 of my money for my trouble..........Merry Christmas to me!:evil:

 

[Joe Jazz]

Well, I just heard back from them and they are supposed to fix it. If they do, I will chock it up to human error. They were very nice and apologetic. I do have to wonder why mistakes are rarely made in my favor.........I like to think the best of people but sometimes they make it difficult... Then again, I've been mistreated so many times I'm a little quick to think the worst.....I guess more patience is in order.....

 

[LampLight]

I'm basically pro-Chuck's even though my experience with them is not perfect. They're a great local resource with a wide selection of stock and good prices. I've had good work done in their guitar shop, plus an absolutely excellent job done (on my own Shadow) by Eric Beach in their wind instrument shop.

Joe Jazz: Even though I'm a Chuck's fan, it's not surprising that you had a problem with them - or maybe it was just a misunderstanding - whatever. In any case, I think most of us would be quite upset by a $500 charge that we didn't think should be there. So thanks for letting us know about it, and good luck getting things worked out. Please keep us posted.

 

[Joe Jazz]

Well, apparently the credit card company got the amount wrong, not Chuck's. So, they are back on my "buy from" list....my apologies for being so fast to conclude they had evil intentions.......

 

[saxphil]

Wow, that's great news for you Joe.
It now can be added to, Joe's List Of Funny Stories.

 

[Joe Jazz]

Well, the final word on my funny story is that they got it right in the end. Turned out they had refunded my money to the wrong credit card account number. Once I figured that out, Roger Keiper was very apologetic and fixed it right away. He was gracious throughout the whole thing. All is well that ends well!

 

[bradshawm]

My experience with Chuck Levins has been so-so. They have a great selection and some good prices and the Woodwind salesman is very nice. The problem I run into is that very rarely do they hand me a horn that plays good. Usually the Yani's have played well right out of the case, but most others don't. When I bought my alto, I was interested in the Ref 54 so I went up there and he brought out 4 Ref 54's to try. Only one of them would play from top to bottom. When I asked him about it, the response was, "If you buy it, we will send it down to the tech before you take it home." Sorry, but my attitude is, "If you want to sell it, you send it down to the tech before you hand it to me so I can really try out he horn." I ran into the same thing when I tried out pro level sopranos there. It's not like we were talking student level horns.

The other issue is space. I tried some Tenor mouthpieces there once, and they had no place for me to go and that place was so packed it was a zoo. You really can't try out MPs with people bumping into you and it being very noisy.

 

[LampLight]

As my earlier post indicates, I'm basically "Pro-Chuck", but I agree that the place is a zoo during busy times. IMO, the reason it's a zoo is because they have a wide selection of many things and they deliver a lot for the money. By the same token, if you want a good play-test experience at Chuck's, you do need to go there during an "off-hour", like Tuesday through Thursday early. That's not easy for everyone to do.