Marketplace · Thursday, September 10, 2026
Heather Bickford, COO of Death by Audio, a business creating equipment for musical instrument special effects, reports improved business performance despite ongoing tariff complexities. While the business has seen success with a new product launch, navigating tariff refunds and the associated administrative portal (ACE) has been an arduous and time-consuming process.
“I'm actually, I'm doing a lot better. I think I've just had to like really not focus on tariffs as much, which has helped.”
“Have you gotten any tariffs refunds? Oh my gosh. Um, we have gotten two. And those were from DHL. But I still cannot even log in to the Ace portal. I don't know if you've ever tried to log in, it's diabolical.”
“So basically, you're just running in circles, you have no idea what's going on.”