Retail frustration:

dav nagle

Would it be fair to say that the music/guitar shops in Dublin city offer a terrible service and never seem to have basic audio equipment? because in my recent experiences it has been just that. I couldn't get a 1/4 inch jack to microphone cable the other day and some parents of my guitar students were very poorly looked after when buying starter guitar packs for kids. I really wonder is it just bad luck or am I dead right?? Don't know what Dublin is coming to with this lazy customer service at al at all (tut tut). I get this line all to often these days ' we have none in stock so can you just leave me alone and let me get back to the easy stuff '....

studiorat

Ya go in Dav. Lean over the counter at them stare right into their eyes and say " Got any free stuff?"
This throws them off immediately. This is now your chance to take the upper hand. Now, ask him for what you want!

Do this and you'll have them running around like you were the Edge in looking for a new guitar.

dav nagle

Will give it a try, can I borrow your cowboy boots and pistol to?


See you in town in the morning,I am jaded with it all for jayzus sake

Rockshamrover

I think part of the problem is that some of the guys behind the counter are either aspiring rock gods or the next Moby.

It's a dream job if you are a muso though, think of the discount on all that high end gear. The only real drawback is that you sometimes have to deal with customers:D

dav nagle

Bad service = shop online

old gregg

I'd wonder whether it's a problem that exists in many music shops when it comes to the rock god behind the counter dealing with the beginner or unenlightened parent. For years in a city close to where I live there were countless kids starting to play guitar and they all went to the same shop and they all came out with truly awful starter guitars that had frets like razors and an inability to stay in tune. Yet if you were an experienced muso the same rock gods behind the counter would virtually offer you a free shoe shine to go with your set of strings. It's like they think being ripped off and treated badly is part of some right of passage that every young player must go through in order to learn how to play.

<vent>
For myself, around 18 months ago I started to do regular live work again after many years of studio isolation and approached a number of shops and an Irish online retailer/shop looking for advice and equipment. My local music shop sold me an SP B1 mic as a take it on the road mic that will take plenty of knocking around (not true) and a well known Dublin online retailer/shop took me for nearly a €1000 on a portable 16 channel mixing desk (that weighs a ton, almost) and a multi effects processor that only does variations on one effect. The point being that even after many years working with music I was suddenly in unknown territory and two retailers decided to blatantly ill advise me and sell me equipment that is not really suited to a guy with laptop and keyboard doing ambient/space music.

Lesson learned though and I suppose that's something. And the mixing desk does look impressive even if it's just using 2 channels in my home studio. The mic sounds good but I'll pick up a 57 or 58 or 2 tin cans and some string before heading off to play the Life fest next month. *sighs*
</vent>

i57dwun4yb1pt8

it seems to be part an parcel of the music business though ,
you are set to be screwed at every level if someone spots a possibility.

but

i actually thinks its a feature in many irish businesses to be honest
pick the sucker and flog them all the crap tatty stuff at a super inflated price

I havent seen many irish busineses that actually think of the future ,
that maybe one day that spotty faced beginner may have got good and now needs top line gear
that maybe going for the quick "never see them again" euro is NOT better then laying the ground work for future purchase ( s)

granted 90% of beginner musicians never pickup the instruments again after a year or so , but they all have friends and familys who
may take up an interest and will remember being screwed.

and the other 10% will always need gear and have great memorys for who were the d1ckheads to them.

then they wonder why everyone goes up north or online .

change or die is my advice to these morons .


on the customer side - there is no excuse now for not doing your research .
in the olden days ( !) we had no interweb , a guitar was a guitar , a drum was a drum
I personally hadnt a clue why some where better than others , or what I should look for as a beginner .

do a search , read reviews , then do some pricing - the whole web is out there at your disposal.

TelePaul

Why are you buying a 1/4 inch jack-to-mic cable in an instrument shop? Maplins my dear fellow, Maplins! And the parents of your students get sub-standard serivice because the margins on a Squier strat pack and considerably lower than those on a PRS guitar (which are sold to doctors, lawyers and accountants). Time is money! The thing that pisses me off the most, however, is when I drop a grand on a guitar and the set-up hasn't been tweaked in-store.

i57dwun4yb1pt8

TelePaul wrote: »

a PRS guitar (which are sold to doctors, lawyers and accountants). .

haha ,

thats so true , i was wondering why there are so many of them for sale in adverts or buy and sell

i would add architects to this list


this made me laugh hard

11811

TelePaul wrote: »

Why are you buying a 1/4 inch jack-to-mic cable in an instrument shop? Maplins my dear fellow, Maplins! And the parents of your students get sub-standard serivice because the margins on a Squier strat pack and considerably lower than those on a PRS guitar (which are sold to doctors, lawyers and accountants). Time is money! The thing that pisses me off the most, however, is when I drop a grand on a guitar and the set-up hasn't been tweaked in-store.

HA Maplins??
The service there is even worse! Went in to the one cork last year looking for a 3.5mm jack to 3.5mm jack cable to be told by the assistant slouching up at the counter "er you can't get them, they don't exist"
have heard many more stories like this from the place.
Online they're fine - you don't have to deal with the staff.

I must say tho, I do find staff in Guitar shops in Dublin to be a bit snotty sometimes regardless of what you are purchasing.

tubedude

I was in one of the music stores in the city looking for a 5metre planetwaves xlr, a while back told me they only make them down to 10m. Quick look online revealed....he was a moron.

dav nagle

Damn them all to hell with their CRAP service

TelePaul

11811 wrote: »

cork

There's your problem right there.

Welease

Gave up shopping in them years ago.

Dolphin have been fantastic and I see no reason to stop giving them business regardless of what opens in Ireland. If they screw something up, then X Music might get a look in, but it would take something amazing from the Irish shops to make up for years of crap service.

Someday they might wake up and realise that if you treat a customer with indifference, you probably lose them for life, and it makes it even easier for them to go when they actually save money doing it.

dav nagle

TelePaul wrote: »

There's your problem right there.

I have yet to see X music (I am sure it is an amazing store no doubt) but in my opinion it is in a terrible location. My original post was about the fact that Dublin city guitar shops are not very useful. This has nothing to do with Cork although with a smaller population the service should be a bit better.

Rockshamrover

dav nagle wrote: »

I have yet to see X music (I am sure it is an amazing store no doubt) but in my opinion it is in a terrible location. My original post was about the fact that Dublin city guitar shops are not very useful. This has nothing to do with Cork although with a smaller population the service should be a bit better.

It's definitely worth a trip out. Some of the stuff is very good value compared to the prices you pay in town.

tubedude

Yeah the location is kinda bogey...but has anyone ordered anything from the online store yet...?

BumbleB

TelePaul wrote: »

Why are you buying a 1/4 inch jack-to-mic cable in an instrument shop? Maplins my dear fellow, Maplins! And the parents of your students get sub-standard serivice because the margins on a Squier strat pack and considerably lower than those on a PRS guitar (which are sold to doctors, lawyers and accountants). Time is money! The thing that pisses me off the most, however, is when I drop a grand on a guitar and the set-up hasn't been tweaked in-store.

I had a gig in the USA didn't want to bring my Custom shop strat on the plane for obvious reasons .I went to the a guitar superstore in Boston was served by the next coming of Alice Cooper and the f***ker was half stoned He tried to sell my a Tele with a parsons string bender installed (same as mr page's guitar ) when he took it down, the warp in the neck was horrific ,it was nearly like semicircle looking down on the neck ,then he got an allen key and twisted it around 10 times and gave me the guitar to try out .No way I was buying that . I bought a Mexican Fender Strat in the next store for 200 dollars just the other day I looked at the bridge setup ,you wanna see it my kid brother could set it up better ,still it plays beautiful.

TelePaul

BumbleB wrote: »

I had a gig in the USA didn't want to bring my Custom shop strat on the plane for obvious reasons .I went to the a guitar superstore in Boston was served by the next coming of Alice Cooper and the f***ker was half stoned He tried to sell my a Tele with a parsons string bender installed (same as mr page's guitar ) when he took it down, the warp in the neck was horrific ,it was nearly like semicircle looking down on the neck ,then he got an allen key and twisted it around 10 times and gave me the guitar to try out .No way I was buying that . I bought a Mexican Fender Strat in the next store for 200 dollars just the other day I looked at the bridge setup ,you wanna see it my kid brother could set it up better ,still it plays beautiful.

Crazy man. Here's one for ya! Two years ago I was looking for a Nashville Deluxe Tele in Dublin. Found one in town, reputable enough shop but I wont name names. Gave it the once over in the shop, played fine, took her home. A couple of weeks later I decided the action was a little high for my taste so gauged the neck relief and tried to tweak the truss a little...but there was no bite. Took it back to the shop where the guy immediately started asking me leading questions - had I stored the guitar somewhere hot, etc etc. When I convinced him I hadn't stashed it in my hot press for two months, he said he'd have it checked out.

A couple of days after leaving it in, I got a call to tell me that the problem in the neck was down to me stringing the guitar with .09s (even though Fender ship it with .09's, it was store policy to re-string and set-up Telecasters with .10s, because 'Telecasters are mostly used for rhythm :rolleyes:). I was getting pretty pissed off at this stage, and his BS didn't help one bit. He said he'd bring it to the attention of the Fender rep...after another couple of weeks I just asked for a replacement or my money back. Got the replacement and the shop owner was apologetic, but it just goes to show you what shops will try to get away with.

Neurojazz

I tried ordering from Xmusic recently in a vain attempt to pump some money into the Irish economy and they failed epically.

It was a disaster.

PaulBrewer

Neurojazz wrote: »

I tried ordering from Xmusic recently in a vain attempt to pump some money into the Irish economy and they failed epically.

It was a disaster.

In what way Neuro ?

Neurojazz

Ordered a Virus TI (Hardware Synth), was going away to the uk a few days later, and would have taken it away with me and tested etc... (it's can be troublesome with some setups)...

Ok, no problems there - ordered, paid, guy on phone said these exact words 'do i need your card pin?... (long pause)....no i don't....' (this was with lazer) - erm... i've worked in retail for many years, nothing needs the users pin - nothing.

Ok, forgive that little possible blag/lack of knowledge - lets wait for it to turn up.

No problems - arrives intact - hold on, NO PSU in the box and rack screws still hanging out the unit. Ring Xmusic and ask why i've got a display model paying close to the retail value - (they knocked a few quid off and chucked in a bag for it) - the unit is being charged to me at over 1600e)

Ok, they forgot to mention it was display - ok, forgive that little error - the PSU can't be found, so i ask for refund - no problem - pick up arranged for a monday morning before i go on holiday - this is so i can get another unit in uk when i get my refund.

Nice plan, but no pick up on Monday- go to uk without refund of course.

Come back from UK and find phone full of DHL 'where are you' - xmusic hadn't bothered ringing to cancel the pickup.

Ok, very, very bad - all phone calls i made had to be followed up - only once was i rang back by xmusic without nudging them.

I had to chase everything. They need a floor manager FAST, if they don't have one - i'll volunteer to go up there and show them how a music shop should be run

I feel sorry for the DHL bloke, left completely in the dark about the situation which xmusic were aware of. It wasn't just one member of staff - but a few, a case of Chinese whispers or something. I got my refund, after chasing that - so all good in the end (for another retailer)

It must be a case of early days (i hope!), they badly need protocol in place to handle customers.

ooo, before i forget - the unit is back on site at 1100e even before it's back in the shop.

Savman

X Music is fine is you apply the traditional shopping ethos: walk in with cash, pick what you want off the wall and take it away there and then.

I have yet to deal with any company in the world who are in any way competent at handling Backorders or out of stock items. Music Store & Thomann are no angels here either, in fact they are spectacular failures. This doesn't forgive X music for shoddy practice but there has to be an element of 'buyer beware' especially from practicisng professionals.

jtsuited

i just had a great experience with a UK retailer.

Ordered a Uad xpander (outdated I know, but 500 dollars of plugin vouchers for 400 euro and all the UAD jazz etc. - basically worked out a lot cheaper than getting the uad2 laptop thingamagoo).

They gave me a tracking number instantly, and didn't process the transaction until dispatch.
They were a few days late getting their shipment in, but with the tracking facility I could see that. They emailed me (unprompted) apologising for the delay (which was nice).

Then, because of the delay (which was three days), they used one of those 'next day delivery' services (which is a good bit more expensive than the usual 2-3 days service). THey didn't even make a point of it.

They received the product in their store at 5 o clock on wednesday evening, it left there at 5.20. At 7 it was 'on route to delivery destination'. 9.30 the next morning, the doorbell rings and it's sitting in my apartment.

I was so surprised at this level of service, I emailed them to say thanks. They emailed back almost instantly, once again apologising for the 3 day delay, which didn't matter as by using the next day delivery service the total time from ordering to delivery was 4 days.

I'm still in shock tbh at the whole ordeal (in the best possible way). The retailer in question is http://www.gak.co.uk/.

Welease

Neurojazz wrote: »

Ordered a Virus TI (Hardware Synth), was going away to the uk a few days later, and would have taken it away with me and tested etc... (it's can be troublesome with some setups)...

Ok, no problems there - ordered, paid, guy on phone said these exact words 'do i need your card pin?... (long pause)....no i don't....' (this was with lazer) - erm... i've worked in retail for many years, nothing needs the users pin - nothing.

Ok, forgive that little possible blag/lack of knowledge - lets wait for it to turn up.

No problems - arrives intact - hold on, NO PSU in the box and rack screws still hanging out the unit. Ring Xmusic and ask why i've got a display model paying close to the retail value - (they knocked a few quid off and chucked in a bag for it) - the unit is being charged to me at over 1600e)

Ok, they forgot to mention it was display - ok, forgive that little error - the PSU can't be found, so i ask for refund - no problem - pick up arranged for a monday morning before i go on holiday - this is so i can get another unit in uk when i get my refund.

Nice plan, but no pick up on Monday- go to uk without refund of course.

Come back from UK and find phone full of DHL 'where are you' - xmusic hadn't bothered ringing to cancel the pickup.

Ok, very, very bad - all phone calls i made had to be followed up - only once was i rang back by xmusic without nudging them.

I had to chase everything. They need a floor manager FAST, if they don't have one - i'll volunteer to go up there and show them how a music shop should be run

I feel sorry for the DHL bloke, left completely in the dark about the situation which xmusic were aware of. It wasn't just one member of staff - but a few, a case of Chinese whispers or something. I got my refund, after chasing that - so all good in the end (for another retailer)

It must be a case of early days (i hope!), they badly need protocol in place to handle customers.

ooo, before i forget - the unit is back on site at 1100e even before it's back in the shop.

See thats my problem with a lot of the Irish retailers.. It's like the staff can't be arsed trying to make a sale..
It would have been just as easy for them to contact the distributor and DHL a power supply to you that day and apologise.. End result, you get what you wanted and they keep the sale, and probably keep a customers as they have proven they want to keep you as a customers and will respond quickly and efficiently to any issues that arise..
But sadly that would involve getting off their arses, just easier to tell you to bring it back.. end result, you don't get what you wanted, they lose a sale and a customer.. really don't understand the logic..

I tried to buy a valve amp off X-Music about 2 months ago over the phone and the person I spoke to just couldn't be arsed.. When I asked them the price of a particular Blackstar, I got told they didn't know offhand.. didn't offer to find out or anything.. Got the same response with a Blackheart amp (which they don't stock).. So I gave up and went to a UK competitor (Dolphin were out of stock, which was the main reason I thought I'd give X Music a try, waste of a phone call imo).

fitz

I've been in there once.
Went to price a cab. Spent 40 minutes waiting for them to figure out what the price was.
I was speaking to the manager shortly after and when I mentioned the price he told me straight off that the price was something else, the one I'd been given was wrong.

They talked up how they were gonna bring something new to the Irish market, but tbh, all I've seen is the same shoddy standard of service and arse-about-face business approach that you get from all the city centre shops, just in a bigger, more awkward-to-get-to location.

Don't even get me started on the website.

Savman

I still don't see why this is exclusively an X Music problem. At least (and it's a small saving grace) you can walk back into the store to sort out the inevitable problems. Try getting a refund from Germany, after the 4th ignored email and after all phone lines ring out you will be ready to kill.

I am nor a defender nor a supported of X Music, just pointing out some home truths about music stores everywhere. Good ones are really hard to find.

PaulBrewer

Welease wrote: »

It's like the staff can't be arsed trying to make a sale..
.

Don't be pickin' on me ...

Neurojazz

Yeah, goto Nevada music in the UK for *anything* that isn't hi-tech - the managers regularly have staff flogged at the docks and hung from the yard arm for minor discretions.

I was there when they had a big shake up - a guy had sent an amp back from the ascension islands and it was fixed but wasn't checked after coming out of the engineers and sent back with another fault - costly and a fuming customer. Everyone got bollocked an awful lot until the customers had a perfect service.

Dolphin = great for everything else.

Scan for computers - they send many automated emails (which cost nothing) as your order goes through the process - even ones telling you what is being sent and what isn't in stock or how far your custom computer is in the assembly - awesome. I have to say that the build quality was second to none and found recently why - the guy who used to run Vadmin helps them with the builds, he was at the top of the heap for overpriced luxury machines before the recession.

BumbleB

TelePaul wrote: »

Crazy man. Here's one for ya! Two years ago I was looking for a Nashville Deluxe Tele in Dublin. Found one in town, reputable enough shop but I wont name names. Gave it the once over in the shop, played fine, took her home. A couple of weeks later I decided the action was a little high for my taste so gauged the neck relief and tried to tweak the truss a little...but there was no bite. Took it back to the shop where the guy immediately started asking me leading questions - had I stored the guitar somewhere hot, etc etc. When I convinced him I hadn't stashed it in my hot press for two months, he said he'd have it checked out.

A couple of days after leaving it in, I got a call to tell me that the problem in the neck was down to me stringing the guitar with .09s (even though Fender ship it with .09's, it was store policy to re-string and set-up Telecasters with .10s, because 'Telecasters are mostly used for rhythm :rolleyes:). I was getting pretty pissed off at this stage, and his BS didn't help one bit. He said he'd bring it to the attention of the Fender rep...after another couple of weeks I just asked for a replacement or my money back. Got the replacement and the shop owner was apologetic, but it just goes to show you what shops will try to get away with.

so true, Paul.