Marketplace · Sep 10, 2026
With Heather Bickford, chief operating officer of Death by Audio
A year after telling Marketplace host Sabri Benishour she was stressed about tariffs and considering not launching a new product, Heather Bickford came back with the opposite problem: her newest pedal sold out faster than she expected, in a summer that's usually dead for her Queens effects-pedal maker.
The tariffs didn't go away, though. They just moved from a launch-day threat into a nearly six-figure refund claim stuck in a government portal Bickford says she still can't reliably log into.
"It's a little less than $100,000."
Heather Bickford is chief operating officer of Death by Audio, a Queens, New York business that makes effects equipment for musical instruments, and returned to Marketplace roughly a year after her first appearance on the show.
The full segment is covered here so you can skip it.
Here are the 4 takeaways that matter.
Key Takeaways
Business turned around from a year ago: a new product "sold way more than we anticipated" and sold out, in a summer that's normally dead for the company
The company is owed a little less than $100,000 in tariff refunds, but Bickford isn't confident she'll ever see it
The DHS refund process is opaque and slow: waits of 45–60 days between contacts, and instructions that reportedly change each time she follows up
Even if the refund arrives, Bickford isn't planning to hire — she'd use it for roughly two part-time employees at most, and isn't actively looking
1. From Stressed to Sold Out
Benishour opened by reminding listeners of Bickford's prior appearance, when tariffs had her considering not launching a new product at all.
A year of not looking directly at the problem
"I think I've just had to really not focus on tariffs as much, which has really helped. I think I was checked out last time, but I'm more just kind of not paying attention as much." — Heather Bickford
Asked whether that's really possible, she said: "I just try not to focus as much time on it because there's nothing I can really do about it." On the business itself, the news was good — the new product "sold way more than we anticipated and it's sold out," with pre-orders now open for more, in what she called a normally dead season for sales.
