I was looking for a new cornet (a small trumpet) and found on-line the web store of Jim Laabs Music, based in Wisconsin (I live in Michigan). They were advertising a brand of trumpets and cornets supposedly made in Germany:
"Schiller, Frankfurt, Germany". The look of the instruments was good, the prices were competitive, and I was reassured from the fact that these trumpets were made in Germany and not in some place in the Far East and China where, very often, bad quality products are manufactured. I sent an e-mail at 11pm and immediately got an answer, in which they strongly recommended the Schiller Pro Rose Bell cornet as an "excellent" instrument. I sent them $ 270.00 including shipping and after a few days I got my new "German" trumpet. What a disappointment! The bell of the trumpet was as thin as a baked beans can, the intonation was way off, the mouthpiece was unplayable. I immediately contacted Jim Laabs Music in order to return the trumpet and get a refund. No answer. I tried again, several times, during a whole week. No reply. Finally I managed to talk on the phone with a guy at the store, very unfriendly and rude, who told me that they do not have a return policy and then shut down the phone. I did a research and finally discovered that the "Schiller, Frankfurt, Germany" original Company does not exists any more, and that a Chinese entrepreneur bought years ago the rights to use the Schiller name in order to market some cheap instruments made in China as German "Schiller, Frankfurt", instruments. And you know who is the official Distributor for the United States of this supposedly "German" Company?
Jim Laabs Music itself! Any way, long story short, all my attempts to return this piece of junk have failed, and I am stuck with a bad trumpet and $ 270.00 lost.
I am posting this complain with the hope that it will save some other customer from being ripped off by these dishonest people. Thanks.
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