Dorsey Music, Nampa - Nampa, Idaho

The K.

Shopped here for the last time today. I’ve had several interactions with officious/indifferent staff at the Nampa location in the past, but was able to look past it because they had guitars & pedals I was looking for, and they’re close to my house. I’ve purchased a lot from them over the years, I like supporting local, but today the rudeness was too much.

I was buying speaker cables for my guitar head and cabinets. An employee asked me what they were for, I told him, he proceeded to tell me in a condescending tone that I needed an instrument cable and took the speaker cables from my hands. Once he realized I was correct I was able to get the speaker cables back from him and move on with my day. I’ve been playing and touring for 20+ years. I understand what gear I need for the work. I wasn’t given the benefit of the doubt. For some reason he assumed that I was dumb, and felt the need to stop me, ask me why I was buying something, took it from me and then held up my day due to his inability to listen to what I was saying.

Based off of other reviews, Dorsey has a history of rudeness and an inability to fix it. Go shop at the 12th Fret in Boise. May be out of the way, but it’s a local store that is friendly and cares to build a relationship with musicians.

Cadence J.

I could write a novel about this place...but I won't. Suffice it to say these folks are great, knowledgeable over vast planes of music. And if you have the 'music bug' in you. Regardless of what capacity and level. I warn you to be careful and prepare to get trapped in the store for 1-3 + hours. Given the massive inventory of just about everything, in a relatively smaller building. Now if I could just come up with a big chunk of money I would spend at least a day there and get 1 of everything. I literally have to force myself out everytime I go in.

KG

Amazing staff! Totally professional! Spend your money here! Huge selection

Chris C.

Terrible customer service. Would not exchange or even give credit for item that was still in original packaging because it was just over 30 days. Talking low dollar guitar part that isn’t electronic. Would think if a local store wanted to keep a customer base they would be more open and kind to their customers. Better off shopping anywhere else. Been in music for a long time and I have always been told to stay away from Dorsey, learned my lesson.

Homemade M.

When we rented our cello at Dorsey Music in Nampa, they had recommended we use Carol for private lessons outside of school to help her get used to playing the cello. After our daughter had been doing this for a few months with Carol, listening to all the constant put downs about how bad our daughters school music teacher was, and telling our daughter to just change schools because the music teacher was bad, our daughter finally decided she did not want to play the cello anymore.our. Carol was trying to sell her different music lessons, was constantly sending her home with different music books that we had to purchase, all while making our daughter feel like playing this instrument was not a good idea. Caroll had agreed with us that we would let our daughter stop for a month or so to give her a break and see if she actually wanted to do cello again. We had prepaid her for four lessons and this was at lesson number one of the four that we had prepaid. Of course, during that lesson, Carol found something wrong with her cello. She was trying to make us pay out-of-pocket for a repair that was completely covered under our rental agreement. As you can tell, Carol tries to keep selling and making money on different things by bullying and belittling the customers and making the customers feel that everyone else around them is wrong and she’s the only one who is right. Well during the time off we agreed on with Carol, . A family member passed away and we had to help with family and take care of personal family business. When we spoke to Carol, after that, Carol refused to honor what she had agreed upon which was to refund the amount of prepaid lessons that were not used. We had paid for four and she had three lessons left to do. She just flat out refused and said no. Now she will not take our calls. We spoke to the manager of the store and asked him to have Mr Dorsey call us, he has not done so yet. And the manager could care less and said go ahead and put a Google review. It’s about keeping your word and teaching the younger generation to be good honest people as opposed to just taking people’s hard earned money and It’s also about teaching the kids how to play the music and enjoy it instead of making them feel like they’re going to a school which has bad teachers, which is what happened with Carol.
What kind of music teacher tells you that after you’ve only seen her a few times for music lessons and never knew her before that. That’s just not a music teacher, that is somebody looking to sell more stuff and bully a young child into thinking their music teacher is not doing a good job and that their school is bad and that the instructor that we are paying money to is the only one who understands Music. Now I know that she says she has been doing music for a long time, which is fantastic, however her style of teaching And putting everybody down is not OK and it’s not acceptable. If you do sign up with music lessons with their private instructor, Carol at Dorsey music, we based on our experience would recommend paying lesson by lesson meaning one at a time only.

Laura H.

Dave and Derek saved me by locating a specific item for me in inventory. It was to be a gift and needed right away. They located the item for me, shipped it out, texted me the estimated delivery info, and even followed up to make sure I received it. All is good! I would highly recommend Dorsey Music for all your musical needs. 🙂

Katie M.

I brought my daughter's flute in for repair. The technician looked at it briefly. He asked my daughter to play and then said it was an old flute that needed a lot of work and he wouldn't sell it in the store. Then he said it was "up to her" how good it would sound, implying the problem was my daughter's playing more so than the condition of the flute. We were sent by her band director since he realized she could play well on another flute and that her's was not functioning properly. He then said we could set a dollar amount and they "could make it that much better". For $10 they could make it sound $10 better or for $100 or could sound $100 better, but it would take about $450 worth of work to function well. When I asked what the specific problem was he didn't answer. He indicated we should purchase a new instrument entirely. He was condescending and dismissive. My daughter left feeling upset and defensive about her playing and we still didn't have an answer as to why a flute that was playable two weeks ago was no longer playable.

I drove to Meridian and Dunkley Music's technician immediately noted a broken spring and had it repaired for us for under $30 within an hour. The difference was night and day. I highly recommend taking the drive to Meridian.

Parker K.

I’m brand new to playing instruments and had no prior experience, so I went to Dorsey’s Music Shop intending to rent a cello. Unfortunately, my experience was disappointing. The staff wasn’t clear about their rental process and seemed uninterested in renting me a cello. After filling out paperwork and finally getting some straightforward answers, I found out it would cost over $400 just to start renting—$300 down, plus the first two months’ rent and additional fees. The price was way too high for me, so I decided to visit my grandma to pick up her old violin from the 1960s. When I brought the violin back to Dorsey’s to ask what it would take to make it playable again, they told me there were numerous issues. Their estimate for repairs ranged from $400 to over $1,000. They claimed even with all that work, it might only sound like a $200 violin and tried to push me toward paying for the repairs, which felt unreasonable. I decided to get a second opinion and went to Dunkley’s Music instead. My experience there was night and day. Within ten minutes of talking to their staff, I got clear and helpful information about cello rentals. They set me up with a brand-new cello rental for just $70, all costs included. I also asked Dunkley’s to inspect the violin, and their staff did a thorough examination. They concluded it only needed new strings and fine tuners to make it a great beginner instrument. For $70, they restrung it, replaced the fine tuners, and provided a new bow to replace the warped ones that wouldn’t work well. They also tuned both the cello and violin, answered all my beginner questions, and offered excellent advice. If you’re new to music or need honest help, I highly recommend Dunkley’s Music. Their team is knowledgeable, transparent, and genuinely helpful—they won’t try to rip you off like I felt Dorsey’s did.