Steve’s Music Store

Be warned. Do not shop at Steve’s Music.
I’ve been shopping with Steve’s Music for probably 30 years. Its always been my goto music store in Ottawa… Until now… I will never again set foot in that place and won’t buy so much as a guitar pick from them ever again.
By my assessment I’ve spent about $ 10 000 at Steve’s over that last 7 or 8 years. While I’m sure this doesn’t exactly make me their biggest client, I’d guess it means I spend more there than the average person… This and my 30 years of patronage apparently means absolutely nothing to them.
What happened you ask?
Well, about 6 weeks ago I bought a brand new Taylor Guitar for $ 1100 from them. I also purchased a guitar humidifier for proper care of the instrument.
After only 6 weeks, the guitar developed 4 serious cracks in the body despite my following the care instructions to the letter (incidentally every other guitar in my house is in great condition).
When I took the guitar back to the store a couple days ago, the manager became defensive, belligerent and accusatory before I’d even opened the case to show him the damage. With a cursory look at the guitar he accused me of mistreating it and his exact words when I said that I really just wanted to return it for store credit were «Not gonna happen!» He continued to speak to me in a demeaning tone and refused to do anything for me except to tell Taylor guitars that I’d bought and destroyed a brand new guitar (which was simply not the case).
I left the guitar at the store in hopes that some form of customer service might happen once Taylor Guitars got involved… Sadly they appear to have the same non existent customer service and I’m now on the hook for repairs to this clearly defective guitar for up to $ 350.
Returning to the store today to pick the guitar up and see if there was anything they would do to keep me as a customer, I received the same belligerent, condescending attitude from the same rude and disrespectful manager.
Although I really just wanted my money back, Steve’s Music could have made any number of small gestures that would have kept me as a customer. Had they offered to pick up the cost of repairs or even offered some store credit I would not be writing this right now but instead they offered only an insulting, demeaning and completely unprofessional attitude.
I will never buy anything from Steve’s Music ever again.

My experience at Steve’s music store was short lived and unpleasant to say the least. It took all of 10 minutes in the store to be criticized and arbitrarily picked on by an employee. My friend and I went to the store with the intent to try the guitars that we planned on purchasing in the future. These were not the most expensive guitars, but not cheap either. After picking them and playing them for a few minutes we were approached by an employee who implied that we would «scratch» or «damage» the guitars simply by playing them, and said that it would make HIM feel better if we place them back on the wall so that they would not get damaged for future customers. Now am I mistaken or is the purpose of a music store to go in, try an instrument, and based on your experience with that instrument, decide whether or not you would like to purchase it? This employee assumed that because two young adults walked into his store, they were there to only look and not buy (which is fine by the way), and based on that assumption he bullied us out of the store. One thing is for sure, when I DO buy that guitar, it will not be from Steves. They have lost my business because of a stupid act of discrimination based on age.

When I think of Steve’s Music, guitars and drum sets usually come to mind. I didn’t realized that they had such an extensive collection of keyboards too. I am always on the lookout for good places for music supplies, as music teacher and there are lots of little gadgets that you can get here that are fun for the kids. This is also a «cool» place to come for older kids and teens to get instruments and learn that music is fun!
The prices are normal for instruments and the service is great. It’s good that the workers here are all musicians, so that they have a good knowledge base for what they are selling.

In my search for some Christmas presents, a friend of mine recommended Steve’s Music Store. Originally, I wanted to get some type of acoustic guitar stand, but I know nothing about this kind of thing, so I thought it would be best to call ahead and ask a few questions before heading over.
They picked up the phone right away and I explained exactly what I needed and why, and the man on the phone was very nice and more than willing to help. He not only answered my questions, but asked some of his own to try and get an idea of what I was looking for. He suggested that I get a wall mount instead, gave me a price range, and told me that there’s always something they can do, and whenever I came in to ask for Phil.
I had some free time so I bussed over to the store later that day and asked for Phil. He was with another customer at the time but asked someone to help me and explained what I needed. There were a few guys there that were ready to help me out, and one walked over to show me the different kinds they had and gave me a little information on each of them.
The store itself had a bunch of people in when I came in, but I was helped right away and was able to walk in and out with no problems. For what I bought, it was very inexpensive, but I want to stress that the service was incredible. Great guys — very friendly, helpful, knowledgeable, and funny!

It’s huge! That’s the first thing that comes to mind when you see Steve’s Music. It is an entire building of musical instruments and other music related objects.
Steve’s is known throughout the area as being the place to go for musical instruments in the city. The top floor is almost entirely drums, this should give you an idea about what they have to offer.
Beyond that, the staff are, well, experts. Most, if not all, are musicians themselves, so if you’re looking for advice, it is still a great place to stop in. You will likely leave as a customer.
Of course it helps that the store is right on Rideau Street, just a couple of blocks down from the Rideau Centre AKA. Shopping Central