Best music store in our area, by far. Best customer service and the owner was super helpful and nice. They work with you for instruments for the kids school, lessons, and repairs. We are greatful for you in Crestview and now in Fort Walton Beach. Thank you for opening a store in FWB! Yeah for us! We needed competition!!! Thank you for a great place for our musicians. read more

Upbeat Music in Fort Walton is the best music store in our region and I have been to all of them. Love this store, no BS or hard sell here and the repair guy is fantastic,! Also I must mention, I am not affliated with them in any way. I won't go anywhere else. The address below and no they are not friends of mine, don't know any of them. They just treated me so well that I felt like I had to share. read more

This was my second trip to Upbeat and on my first visit I was absolutely blown away by the friendliness of the staff and the selection of gear. That being said, I was really looking forward to bringing my family here to show off this cool music store. We walk in this time and no one says hello. That didn't bother me too much as I have worked in a lot of retail places and understand accidentally missing someone. My brother and I begin checking out guitars and I spot a beautiful Martin in the corner of the acoustic room. I pick it up and begin playing to check out the sound. Not even 1 minute goes by and a sales person comes up and says something along the lines of, "I see you just picked up a guitar and I'm figuring you don't have $2400 to spend on a guitar today." He goes into telling me that store policy is to ask when wanting to play a guitar. I look around the room and see no signage, no warning that this is the rule. I apologize and he keeps going on. He didn't stop until I put the guitar back on the wall. Music is my whole family's life and we all play, we all perform and lead in different venues. We go to a lot of music stores and this was a first. I'm sorry but how do you know if I do or do not have that kind of money? I was extremely offended by how this sales person spoke to me and my family was very put off by the store. I would have given Upbeat 1 star if this was my first visit. They impressed me last time which helped them get the second star. read more

Absolutely the rudest people I've ever worked with. The owner has lost all passion for his business. He tried ripping me off, fortunately credit cards have consumer protection from a fraudsters like them charging my card any amount they chose. read more

Very poor customer service. I made two purchases totaling almost $300. Never once was I told that they would not be returnable except for store credit. The person at the store even acknowledged that she forgot to tell me this but still no offer to return my purchases for a refund. The product that I purchased did not even offer live support, the store acknowledged that they could not help me with getting the product operational and claimed they didn't know there was no live support. Take your money then you're on your own. Extremely low standard of customer support from this business. read more

This is the only music store in Crestview that also offer music lessons for a veryyyy good price ($100/month- once a week for 30 minutes). Their staff is very approachable and knowledgeable. I hope this place will be open for a lonnggggg time. Definitely a great "hang out" for musicians and music aficionados in general. My son is taking drum lessons there which is worthwhile. read more

Had a very positive experience at UpBeat Music today, John was helpful and knew exactly where everything I was looking for was, offered me an alternative to one product that I will look into before purchasing my next set of strings and helped me decide between two metronomes(I hate the annoying synthetic clicks and like a more traditional sounding nome from years of playing piano with the old style). I inquired about some intermediate level lessons and was given information regarding them. The prices on the products I bought were competitive and I felt like I got a good deal. I did not have the time to look around for anything except what I came in for but will be sure to next time. Thanks! read more

I've had 2 bad experience with Upbeat music, mainly with the owner. When they first opened I need two 3ft xlr cables, which they did not stock. I needed them in about 2 weeks, so he ordered them for me. When I went to pick them up, the company had "sent the wrong ones". I went back again to pickup the new ones, and they "had not come in". I will say the owner did let me borrow 2 10ft cables for my gig and that they would have the ones I ordered when I returned them. I went back to return the borrowed cables, and he said he hadn't ordered them yet and that he was waiting to place a bigger order. I canceled my order and bought them online and had them 3 days later. My second experience wasn't much better. We rented my daughters band clarinet from them for 2 years. After we returned the clarinet, the automatic payment went through for the next month since they hadn't canceled it. When we brought this up to the owner, he wouldn't refund it. Also, the reeds for the clarinet are twice the price in the store as they are online. My most recent experience with the owner was better. After my first two experiences, I figured I was gonna get shafted, but he was accommodating. It's a nice looking store, haven't dealt with any other staff, but the owner hasnt been the greatest. read more

I paid to have two saxophones serviced at UpBeat Music in Crestview. I paid $90 each for an all over check and repair. I recieved both back and had some concerns about one of the saxophones. I was having a hard time hitting low notes. I have been out of practice so I didn't think too much of it. I went by a different store to purchase a new mouthpiece and while I was there I asked them to run a leak light down the instrument. Well it ended up having a lot of leaks and several were pretty bad. I had the second saxophone also checked out and it too had leaks although there were only two and both were adjusted on the spot. The first saxophone had more than 4 and two were severe. I contacted UpBeat music and let the owner Dick Reinlie know of the situation. I asked for a partial refund on one of the service charges. So although I paid $180 to service both I was only asking for 1/2 of the saxophone that had severe leaks ($45 total asked for refund). I did offer to bring the instrument in (the repairs had not been completed) so he could verify that it was not done correctly and know I was not making it up. Mr. Reinlie responded with a variety of responses to include, "You dissed my store" and "You should have never had it checked by someone else. If you thought there was a problem you should have come in and anyone who checks the instrument will find something wrong every time because they are out to prove my store wrong." Through it all he did offer to have his service person repair it again. I did decline because I personally feel if such a sloppy job was done the first time, I would prefer to have someone else do the repairs going forward. I no longer held any confidence in repairs. I did tell Mr. Reinlie that I would not be able to use the store for repairs but could continue to shop there for reids and such. He continued to rant at me and tell me I was "being ridiculous" by going to another facility to have it checked and declined to look at the instrument to see the leaks for his own reference. By the end of the conversation, I was more disappointed in the company than at the start. I had purchased $80 in supplies the day before the repair conversation. I went into the store later the same day and returned the unused items. I had my 14 year old daughter and 8 year old son that had no idea of what had transpired. Upon the return Mr. Reinlie saw my name (I had not said anything of our disagreement, just that I wanted to return some unused items) and then proceeded to yell about how his store (UpBeat Music) was "dissed" by me and I was being "ridiculous". I stated I was not there for an argument and left the store after receiving a refund and a 5 min rant from Mr. Reinlie while my refund processed. Upon leaving, my 14 year old said, "Mom what was that?! I mean clearly he was mad but he was the rudest person I have ever seen to a customer! And you kept telling him you just wanted to have a return and didn't want to talk. He should be respectful even if he is angry." So through it all at least my children were able to have a lesson in adult behavior. We will not be back to shop at UpBeat Music and I hope this review helps others in the future. read more