THIS INFORMATION DOES NOT PERTAIN
TO ALLIED MUSIC IN SOUTH TOLEDO!!!
Our Temperance Allied Music is physically closed permanently as of May 31, 2011
Please read further!
YOUR ACCOUNT BALANCE IS STILL DUE!
The Allied Music, Inc. corporation is not gone - just the retail store!
Allied Music of Temperance, as a retail store, is closed permanently and will not be returning. All repaired instruments have been returned to their owners, all inventory is gone, and the building is empty.
Our phone will still be in service for several months and you will be able to leave messages on the voicemail concerning your band instrument rental account ONLY.
We will not accept calls from vendors, solicitors, or anyone other than account holders who want to discuss their accounts. If you do not leave a message we don't know you called so you won't get a return call.
We no longer have store hours. If you want to continue calling in your rental payments you can leave a message on our voicemail and we will return your call to take your payment and credit card information.
Do not bring payments to the store nor slide them under the front door because we are no longer in that location and can't enter the building to retrieve your check.
If you have a band or orchestra instrument rental account balance with us nothing changes concerning your account balance, due date, or address to mail it to. Your account is active, due on the same date, and payments will be received and processed as usual.
If and when a change occurs concerning our address to send checks to, we will send you a letter stating the new address which will most likely be a P.O. Box in Temperance or Lambertville.
For repairs on your rental instruments our former repair tech has a shop in Toledo near Ottawa Hills to service instruments from stores and schools. He does not have a drop off counter or retail hours so you can't take your instrument directly to him.
If you have a rental instrument from us you will need to take it to the south Toledo Allied Music for any repairs. Tell them it is one of our rentals so we can verify that with our corporate database of customers. The tech will pick it up there and return it there as well. We are sorry for this inconvenience but it is an unfortunate circumstance of closing the Temperance store. The south Toledo store is at 2025 S. Byrne Rd. at Heatherdowns Blvd. This is about one mile east of Heatherdowns Country Club. The phone number is (419) 381-0300. Ask for Eric.
If you have a non-rental band instrument that you own personally that is needing repair, you can also drop it off at the south Toledo Allied Music of Ohio store and they will have it serviced for you by the honest tech with excellent prices that was formerly our repair department.
If you need clarinet, alto sax, or tenor sax reeds (Rico only) you may visit Full Score Music on Tremainsville Road in Toledo (slightly north of Carmel's Mexican Restaurant) and across from St. Clements Catholic Church. This is about 1/2 mile south of Alexis Road. This will save you a long 17 to 25 mile trip to south Toledo.
We cannot recommend Richard's Music on Central Ave. for band instrument or accessory needs because of the enormous amount of bad publicity on television. You can access the Toledo Channel 11 TV website for more information on that.
We are not familiar with any store in Monroe MI that carries a healthy stock of fresh band supplies, books, or reeds in stock.
Good Bye and Good Luck To Most of You!
We would like to thank all our faithful customers for six and a half years of patronage. It has been a great pleasure and many times fun to work with some of you. To get a call asking one question and it turns into an hour conversation with a newfound friend is amazing. You know who you are!
Your cards and letters of thanks that you sent or handed me over the years are greatly appreciated. We will keep them for memories of the good times. I have always enjoyed your concern for my family, our new baby, our future, my plans for the future, and your recognition of our store's honesty and efforts to do the best we could for your child.
It's unfortunate that it is necessary to close but this store realized a 75% loss of business between December 2009 and December 2010. The national domestic economy, the State of Michigan economy, area school per-student budget cuts by the state, ever increasing overhead to do business, banks that refused to work with businesses for desperately needed financing but put double-digit interest on loans (while they buy the money from the government at almost zero percent), smaller area band and orchestra participation each year, and other factors caused our early demise in Temperance. We ran a tight ship with lean overhead and didn't have the liquid capital of a huge chain to hang in there during a multiple-year economic lull of loss. When a store sells less merchandise in a day than the electricity costs to light the store, and you can't afford to take a salary to feed your family, it's time to call it quits. More than 2,000 stores nationwide have closed and the downward spiral is not over. Every month I still get the trade magazines and the pages are filled with store closings nationwide.
The main cause of the demise of ourTemperance store are the more than 200 dishonest individuals who signed legally-binding contracts between 2004 and 2010 to pay rental payments on brand new instruments (ranging from $850 to $1850 retail) for their children to be in school band and then didn't pay for, nor return, the instruments that belongs to Allied Music.
Some paid for a while then quit paying - some walked out with instruments and never made a single payment. The cost of those instruments didn't get paid by a huge corporation that could absorb the loss or covered by some sort of insurance - the cost came directly out of our personal pockets. It is money that should have paid our bills to keep this store running so we could serve the community longer and provide a living to support our families. It was our personal savings that was invested in musical instrument inventory to provide for southeast Michigan school band needs. Irresponsible, cowardly, dishonest parents took advantage of our trust and ripped us off to the tune of so much money you can't imagine it.
To those crooks, and I mean true criminal crooks who have ripped us off and committed "larceny by conversion," moved to avoid being caught, changed phone numbers, left the area completely, or changed school systems so that collection agencies couldn't find them - I just want to say that you have also trained your children to be thieves like you and escape responsibility for their actions now and in the future. You have ruined their lives by example before they even get to live them. This training that you provided to your children, to take advantage of others and rip them off, will come back to bite you eventually because they will take advantage fo you and rip you off.
You have also set yourself up for personal failure throughout this life because for every action there is an equal reaction. Do unto others as you want to be done unto. Reap what you sow. And you will reap your just rewards for taking my family's future away from us.
For every dollar you stole from Allied Music in rental payments and merchandise, at least one dollar will be taken from you in life - and it will be when you most need it. Next time you are backed into a corner financially and can't find a way out - remember that stolen band instrument in your closet and congratulate yourself for putting yourself exactly where you are.