Horrifying experience. Bob Kain was demeaning, rude, and shockingly unprofessional.



As we teach privately and rent several instruments to our students, my husband and I were looking for new violins in which to invest. We found a few on Craigslist. We also found Country String Shop on Google and popped in for a look. Bob seemed a kind---albeit anxious---man. He shuttled us towards his most expensive violins in the thousands of dollars range and seemed annoyed when I asked about his less expensive violins. We tried several and went home to consider a Vuillaume copy though it was more expensive than we had wanted to spend.



Later, I went to try a Strad copy from a Craigslist seller and learned that the Vuillaume copy at Country String Shop was actually his on consignment, which was merely an interesting point. A few days later, I returned to Bob Kain's and left a substantial deposit to try out two violins and several bows over a weekend, per purchasing protocol. I have never known any serious musician to purchase an expensive instrument or bow without first testing them in various acoustic settings. My husband and I performed with several different violins we were considering in a large hall at a local church that Sunday to test the performance power of each violin. The Strad copy easily outperformed the rest and was worth most for its price at only several hundred dollars. We purchased that one and a different Craigslist seller's Strad copy whose value-to-cost ratio was also extremely high. To thank Bob for his time, we decided to purchase a case, bow, and strings from him despite not desiring to purchase either of his two violins at this time.



Upon returning the instrument, I was only able to say, "Unfortunately" before Bob yelled at me, "I just knew you weren't going to buy this violin from me! You played me for a fool! You just needed a violin to play over the weekend! [Owner of Strad copy] came in earlier today and I know what games you guys are playing. You never were going to buy anything from me!" He threw my deposit check at me and stormed off. I was thunderstruck and never got a chance to thank him for his time and make the bow, case, and strings purchase.



As we own five instruments and have friends who would happily lend us violins were we in need, I must say we did not "just need a violin to play over the weekend." Had the Vuillaume copy strikingly outperformed the other violins we were considering, we would have made the purchase. Bob's accusations were misdirected and unfortunate. He later went on to tell other customers that I bought a violin from him and then returned it and demanded my money back. This is a complete fabrication, and I can show every carbon copy of my checkbooks and credit card history showing I never made such a purchase. Perhaps he decided that my deposit money was purchase money, but that would be highly delusional, as he gave me a receipt saying "Deposit for violin and 3 bows," not "Purchase." If he did believe my deposit to be a purchase, I believe he would have given me a purchase receipt of some sort.



Akin to Wyatt True's review, Bob treated me terribly for having had two brief impersonal encounters with me as a customer. Despite being a small man, his volatile behavior and lack of professionalism put me in quite a fright. Needless to say, we cannot recommend this business to you.