Yamaha do not ship their active basses with battery

Gear
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I recently bought Yamaha BBNE2 that’s a $3500 bass with tax from Sweetwater. It didn’t have the battery, after plugging in my bass and there’s no sound I started eliminating possibilities and the battery was literally the last thing I would look because sweetwater has the 55 point inspection and one of them was the electronic.

Fast forward to today, my SW rep text me and trying to see how I like the new bass and if I want to gas more stuffs. I told him that mine came with no battery.

He replied, maybe it didn’t come with one.

I said it’s not about the battery, I was wondering if the inspection was even done on the bass.

He replied, what made me think that?

I said well there’s no battery so it’s dead. If the tech installed the battery and took it out that’s bad, if the tech didn’t check that’s bad, either way it’s bad from the customer standpoint.

Just for curiosity, I contacted Yamaha, their HQ is local to me. Got on the chat and explained my situation.

I said my BBNE2 did have the battery it’s dead on arrival.

He said, it didn’t get shipped with one to avoid leaking, and he doesn’t have one for replacement.

I said yeah I bought mine from SW and it didn’t have one.

He again said , sorry he doesn’t have one to send to me, he can forward this in an email to marketing but he doubted that I’d get a different answer.

Something is wrong here. What’s up with customers service people giving all the wrong answers.
First of all this is not the industry standard. Even $200 active basses are shipped with batteries installed. It’s ok if they are not going to provide one just make sure the customers know about it.

I called them out and they started the BS. Terrible.

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Why didn’t you just message the Vice President of international sales aka @howard he’d have got his Yamaha minions onto it straight away.

He’s probably got Jun Nishimura‘s number on speed dial.

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I so wish that were the direction the cash flowed.

FWIW my TRBX304 had one (from Amazon), and both of my BB734A had one (maybe from the store but I doubt it).

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lol. Because it’s not about the battery, I have Costco Duracell 12 pack of 9V on hand. It’s the customer service. Why do they have to suck so bad. .

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That is some serious bullshit, @Al1885. Not one of my active basses arrived without one or more batteries (two of my basses are 18v).

Really lame of those guys.

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My guess - they come with batteries (not installed) and when the tech tested it out at Sweetwater he took it back out and didn’t put it in the box again.

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Yeah seriously I think this is on Sweetwater. All of mine (incl from Amazon) came with batteries.

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Agree with everyone especially @Barney

It’s so easy for Sweetwater to just own up to the muck up but no the rep doubled down and said it didn’t come with one.

Just for kicks I contacted Yamaha so I could say that it included from Yamaha and that fool just made it worse. Saying that it’s danger from leaking and explosions what the F? What if it exploded when I’m using it? You phucking knitwit. Hmmm!

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How many people here have received basses with a preamp from Sweetwater and with the battery? That’s “so it won’t leak” is BS and I hate when a company BS’s.

I received a bass from them whose preamp (with battery) did not work. It was dead. Clearly it was never plugged in. I am in doubt about their 55 step checklist

How’s the bass btw?

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My Ibby 300 had a battery. My Ray34 had a battery. My Stingray Special had two batteries. Sounds like they fed a line of horseshit and figured you would just accept it without question.

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Well thanks @Wombat-metal all my basses from Sweetwater have been active and they all have batteries. They didn’t tell me that the battery would leak during shipping it was Yamaha which is even worse. lol.

As for the 55 points inspection, it’s for them rather than the customers benefit. As you probably know already they are a very high volume store and they have on site full time products managers from both Fender and Gibson they are there to see the QA/QC of their companies. If more instruments take longer than usual it get sent to the next department and ones that can’t be fixed they report those. So at the end of the period they can negotiate even better deal for poor craftsmanship. lol.

We just get the leftover crumbs of the benefits

The bass is fantastic it’s my second one and the same color.

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Yeah basically Sweetwater was telling me that they put a battery in so they can test
The circuit and took it out because Yamaha did not provide one. I’m not sure which is worse them not checking or check but not leaving the battery in for me. :joy:

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What do you want for $3500?

The 9v is eating into their profit margin.

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Well when you put it that way, it make sense. 9V cost almost $7 at the market.

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wait seriously? A 9V is $7 retail now?

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Ya! I believe CVS is selling $9 Duracell 9V

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Amazon has a 4 pack for $15

When I was a kid in the 60s batteries leaking was a thing. But it hasn’t been for ages.

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Hah! Same with a sandwich purchase yesterday. I selected “no mayo” and selected “dijon mustard”, added a note - “please put the dijon mustard on the bread instead of in a packet in the bag” because, well, I’m paying them to make a sandwich for me and this is a known customer service short falling at this sandwich joint. Clicked the button knowing full well where the mustard would be. Yep, in a packet in the bag. Invectives, vituperations, sandwich disassembly, completion, reassembly, then lunch. Anyway, my TRBX304 arrived with no battery and no expectation that anyone had inspected or set the beast up. Now I’m hungry again.

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Sadly, this seems to be a huge trend, the customer doing the employee’s job.
I see it everywhere.
It starts as a mustard packet, but grows and grows.
Almost every doctor’s office around here basically demands you schedule your appointments yourself, manage paying bills without sending the actual bill, etc.
We have been checking ourselves out in many places for years, pumping our own gas (except NJ) etc.
Shake Shack has ipads to order on - I refuse, I always walk up to the person standing there doing nothing and order. Why should I have to figure out how to make the bun gluten free, remove the cheese, etc?..You do it person standing there anyway. Funny thing is now they bring your food to the table instead of taking your order, which is a pain if something is wrong.

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Hey @thumpsquatch if it’s a simple request in modification I think that it should be done the way you want it. That said, I’m on the other side as a chef, I’ve seen some crazy order. I try to accommodate them all with one caveat, if the customers don’t like anything we produced I’d change it or give the money back. However, if they don’t like what they ordered as in add this, no that and make it super spicy and what not, YO-YO, lol.

Speaking of sandwich, I may have to stop by Phillippes French dip today, their homemade mustard is legendary. Thanks @thumpsquatch