John Keal Music Company, Inc.

Great music instrument store in the Albany area. Came here on a tour with a minor repair (that I can't do myself) that I was worried I wouldn't have time to fix. The repair tech is a wizard and had it finished before I could even worry myself about it. Great selection of beginner and pro saxes (as well as loads of other beginner instruments), great repertoire selection, excellent help from the people working there, a nice atmosphere that reminds me of an old instrument shop I had back home. I could not say enough nice things about this shop!

From Crooks to Thieves - update I thought I'd never have anything to do with this company (please see my review for details), but I incidentally found a charge of $38.88 on my credit card from John Keal today! I called John Keal at Livingston Ave immediately. The answer was that I did not close my clarinet rental account. I pointed out that on 1/13/2023 I paid $204.12 to purchase my son's rental clarinet after the store staff refused our attempt to use equity to purchase a higher end clarinet. I told them that I would report fraudulent use of my credit card if there was no reasonable explanation. They'd call me back. Yes, they did call me back and explained that they charged my account after I paid off my son's clarinet because they thought I'd purchase a higher end clarinet. ???. And they refunded me $145.80 that they fraudulently charged (really this is a proper word) my credit card. Then I was curious enough to go through my credit card statements and was quite amazed: After I purchased the clarinet with the full payment of $204.12 on January 13, 2023, they stopped charging my account from February to May 2023, but in June they resumed charging! Here is the time sequence of the account activities: 1/13/2023 - $204.12 clarinet paid in full and account closed Feb/2023 - No charge March/2023 - No charge April/2023 - No charge May/2023 - No charge 6/20/2023 - $29.16 7/20/2023 - $38.88 8/20/2023 - $38.88 9/20/2023 - $38.88 Did they stop charging for five months and then thought I'd upgrade my son's clarinet and activated my account without my knowledge? What is the most puzzling is there's a lack of sincerity in the explanation. Couldn't they just say "Sorry, we screwed up"? I will report fraud to my credit card agency. Be careful with John Keal! ******** original review My son has rented a clarinet from this store (in Albany) for many years that he accumulated some $1,000 equity towards a new clarinet. Today I took him to the store to pick out a new one. We told the staff upfront that we had equity on a clarinet. There was one particular clarinet, which originally cost over $7,000 and was on sale today for $4,400 when we walked in. When my son was trying it, the staff put a yellow sticker on the case that indicated it could be bought for $3,700. Somehow, the staff replaced the yellow sticker with a new price of $6,400 because they realized that we might use equity - they just simply scratched the original price off and raised the price by almost $3,000! They did it in such a frenzy that they didn't even get their math together: If we applied our equity of $1,000 to the purchase, we'd pay $1,000 more than the original on-sale price of $4,400 - I worked with students with poor math when teaching college but not this bad! The reason from the staff for over charging customers with equity: We are not a bank but more like leasing a vehicle to customers… Go figure! Outside the store, I talked to a customer, a music teacher for 40 years, who just came out, the gentleman indicated "they are the only store in town and they can do what they want." Currently my children are renting from them, but I have noticed there ARE other places that lease out decent instruments to students - I will follow up with a list of stores that lease music instruments. We will definitely stop doing business with John Keal because of their crooked operation: the equity is just a trap to get you involved so that they can have a bigger rip off in the end. If they could raise the price by $3,000 under your eyes against the $1,000 equity we have, I am not sure what they wouldn’t do when you are not looking. I will also recommend at PTA and local education board meetings that music teachers in the area look at alternative music instrument rental places simply because that rental business with John Keal does not give your students any real equity for a better instrument years later but the students end up with a cheap rental that would have been over paid many many times than its value. John Keal Music Company - Thy Name Is Crook!

daughter needed repair of her saxophone. Decided to let this company do the repairs since they pick up right from the school. Apparently they went on vacation for 2 months. Why would you accept new instruments when going on an extended vacation? They definitely wanted the money up front though. She had to use a loaner for 2 concerts and now the concerts for the year are over before she got the instrument back. Garbage way to operate your company.