thomann - any catch?

deaddonkey · 12-02-2007 07:05PM

Congratulations, you didn't read my post.

deaddonkey wrote:

I don't have the time or the means during the day to call german numbers during office hours over there

I *work* during the day. You know, real work where you're busy? I don't have an office job, I don't have a phone at work I can use. And when I get home from work their offices are closed. Nice to see it's that easy for you though.

selephonic · 12-02-2007 10:14PM

If you want to deal with a person and buy from a kind of Irish shop, try musictechnology.ie. They're pretty much dealers for thomann I think and will generally match their price. My experiences with them have been very good and you collect from them in the city centre.

darragh666 · 13-02-2007 11:43AM

I have bought thousands from them.

Never had a problem,they also are very easy to return too.

Voodu Child · 13-02-2007 01:51PM

selephonic wrote:

If you want to deal with a person and buy from a kind of Irish shop, try musictechnology.ie. They're pretty much dealers for thomann I think and will generally match their price. My experiences with them have been very good and you collect from them in the city centre.

Actually, I forgot about them.

I used to deal with them too, sometimes i still do. No problem at all. If something shows up and its the wrong item, or broken, just drive back into town and give it to Cormac (the owner). He's legally obliged to take care of it, which means he'll be the one hassling thomann to get it returned.

electro.ie · 13-02-2007 02:17PM

God bless Thomann, stops the little guy getting sh1t on by Irish Shops and their exorbitant prices. Generally speaking you will always get a better deal through them or technikdirect. Bought a yamaha 01x mixer from them and it was DOA, Emailed them (politely:) ) and I recieved a new one before I had even sent the dead one back.

nettranny · 13-02-2007 03:15PM

Thomann sent me a text the other day to say that they had dispatched my guitar case, which was nice of them.

Never had much of a problem with Thomann. Ordered an amp from them once, they said they had it, then said that they didn't have it. It didn't bother me a whole lot though.

The difference between Thomann and an Irish store seems to be the same difference between buying something in a department store and buying it in a bargain shop. You get get better value in the bargain store, but you often have to fight with some greasy fella who smells of piss to get it. At the end of it though, i get the same item and it costs half the price. It's just a question of what sort of person you are: do you mind getting your hands dirty?

Johnny Storm · 13-02-2007 09:06PM

nettranny wrote:

...some greasy fella who smells of piss ..... It's just a question of what sort of person you are: do you mind getting your hands dirty?

:eek: How dare you talk about my uncle that way ?!?!?!?!

nettranny · 13-02-2007 09:52PM

How dare you talk about my uncle that way

Tell him that the jeans fit perfectly and they look great on me. What a bargain!

DeadSkin · 14-02-2007 10:15AM

I've dealt with thomann a couple of times and had no issues.
As regards to dealin' with customer services, I just recently purchased an item from 247guitar.ie last Wednesday, the cost of which was under 44Euro, so I opted for the Fastway delivery[2 days, which cost 7Euro], hoping I would have gotten it for the Friday.
Still no sign yesterday, so I sent them a short to the point email that when logged onto their website, my item was still showing as pending???
They got back to me stating they had an unexpected delay in receiving the item and that they would waiver my shipping costs of 7Euro.
Not a big thing, but a nice touch

.
BTW I have no association with said company.

Jonakin · 14-02-2007 03:39PM

R_H_C_P wrote:

Yeah thomann is great for delivery. tho sometimes if your parcel hasnt arrived for a week its hard to find where it it..

When I orderd my Marshall from GAK.co.uk I would come home early hoping it was their. They left a note saying its at the side of the house, when I went around it was a guitar, a fender at that. It was a Tele 79 reissue with a bigsby.. worth 1200 compared to the 800 of the amp.. well monday they collected it and brought my amp.. just thought I would add that!

do you mean they just left it there with no one looking after it and it could have been stolen?

whiskeyman · 20-02-2007 10:48PM

I ordered around 50 Euro worth of stuff of them last week, and they sent me out the wrong stuff today... what they sent me is worth around 400 Euro! Gonna drop them a mail and see what they'll do

electro.ie · 20-02-2007 10:52PM

whiskeyman wrote:

I ordered around 50 Euro worth of stuff of them last week, and they sent me out the wrong stuff today... what they sent me is worth around 400 Euro! Gonna drop them a mail and see what they'll do

yeah thomann are great!
what they send you?

whiskeyman · 20-02-2007 11:32PM

electro.ie wrote:

yeah thomann are great!
what they send you?

One of these http://www.thomann.de/ie/yamaha_my8_ad24.htm and this http://www.thomann.de/ie/behringer_miniamp_amp_800.htm and a pile of plectrums.

Anyone out there order that stuff but just get a cheapish overdrive pedal today?

Jonakin · 21-02-2007 12:00AM

I'd keep it if i were you.

How long do the orders take you its been 4 days and i know they said aorund 4-6 days but im just impatient and wondering =p

Voodu Child · 21-02-2007 12:06AM

whiskeyman wrote:

One of these http://www.thomann.de/ie/yamaha_my8_ad24.htm and this http://www.thomann.de/ie/behringer_miniamp_amp_800.htm and a pile of plectrums.

Anyone out there order that stuff but just get a cheapish overdrive pedal today?

The worst part is, they won't even say thanks for giving it back..:rolleyes:

whiskeyman · 21-02-2007 12:39AM

Jonakin wrote:

I'd keep it if i were you.

How long do the orders take you its been 4 days and i know they said aorund 4-6 days but im just impatient and wondering =p

Meh... they're no use to me, and I'm too much of an honest Joe

I won't return them unless they make it damn easy for me to do so though - I'll expect swift correspondance and cover payment for postage etc...

I ordered last Tuesday, got a text Wednesday afternoon saying it had shipped, and received today (Tues).
Pretty good going.

aoife161 · 21-02-2007 09:56PM

why don't people shop around???

You walk into one shop and get a quote, and then thats it! No more shopping. So the next stage is to suss out Thomann?

Why don't you ring around a few places. I BET you that if you said honestly, listen i'm interested in buying it online..but i'd rather keep my money in the country, what deal if any can you do me? You'd get a positive responce!

yes thomann are a lot cheaper than most high street shops. However, i know this from experience, that they aren't cheaper on everything.

i'm in a band, and the lead guitarist is a Thomann junkie. Its quite sad really. He'll buy anything and everything from that site, and ASSUME he's getting a deal.

So he recently bought some Marshall combo thingy - i can't remember the specific name. Paid close to a grand....and then found out that a music shop in Bray is selling it for 600 .

Its his own fault...why not ring around?? I mean fair enough if you honestly are getting a good deal but lets not tar all the music shops in Ireland with the same brush!!

Personally i've always bought my instruments, accessories etc from a nice friendly shop in Dun Laoghaire. NIce staff...honest, and i tell you they'll always try and match the prices, if not BEAT the prices of internet stores.

I just feel safer, manybe i'm old fashioned, but i feel safer knowing that if i buy something and for whatever reason something should go wrong, i can always physically bring my instrument back into the shop and get it fixed.

PS The lead guitarist amp is giving him trouble and there's nothin he can do about it. Way to costly to ship it back to Germany!!

electro.ie · 21-02-2007 11:57PM

aoife161 wrote:

why don't people shop around???

!

Do you think we're muppetts who just fu@k our money away. Of course we shop around. It just so happens that these shops are most of the time (almost all of the time actually in my experience) considerably cheaper than Irish shops, sure there can be limited complications for some with ordering online from overseas but I'd much prefer to take my chance than give money to these local rip-off merchants who in all likelyhood probably bought it off Thomann.
I'm not saying all shops are like this (Aquarius are top notch) but they just haven't the same bulk buying power as Thomann for the latest Equipment and as such cant match their prices

aoife161 wrote:

Why don't you ring around a few places. I BET you that if you said honestly, listen i'm interested in buying it online..but i'd rather keep my money in the country, what deal if any can you do me? You'd get a positive responce

You'd get told what you can do with your money

Karl Hungus · 22-02-2007 12:03AM

electro.ie wrote:

You'd get told what you can do with your money

This is the truth right here.

I've tried to go into music stores in Ireland and see if they'll make me a deal on numerous occaissions, and the response is never good. I was sneered at in Musician Inc. and when I wanted to buy an amp from Instrumental, not only would they not give me any deal, they were trying to force a different product on me that I had 0 intrest in.

That doesn't take into account the sheer amount of staff that are outright ignorant, clueless and unhelpfull even if you are buying something at face value.

Frankiestylee · 22-02-2007 01:04AM

I've had a fair bit of dealings with Thomann... some of them good, most of them bad.

My major problem with Thomann was paying by credit card. They were delivering to the card address and I supplied the security code, yet they wanted me to send a photocopy of the card etc. Rang the credit card company for advice and they told me that there was no way I should do what Thomann ask.
So with the credit card option out I tried a bank draft. I sent the money (best part of a grand for an acoustic guitar) and they started saying they didn't get it. I checked with my bank, yes... the money was sent and it was confirmed etc. Thomann still said they didn't get it. My bank started making noise about bringing it to some European banking authority and this got a bit more of a response from thomann. I faxed them a copy of the bank transfer so they could see all the details were correct etc. Still no joy. Eventually when it got into legal action territory they "found" a transaction for the exact amount and tried to blame me for putting the name in as Bank Of Ireland etc etc ... I said yes, that's the name of my bank, that's who transferred the money to you, the address of the bank is in the same postcode as my address... god damn just give me my guitar. Eventually I got my guitar. Very unpleasant experience that I'd forgotten til I had to dig it up just a minute ago.

Next time I needed something I went elsewhere, but the prices weren't as tasty.

I went back to thomann hoping it was a once off, spent about €2000 plus on a PA... again with the credit card lark, this time I did actually mail them a copy of the credit card albeit with most of the numbers blacked out. It took about two weeks longer to deliver. They were very unhelpful when I asked where the shipment was. Either myself or relative spent two weeks waiting for the damn delivery.

From then on I ordered from Musictechnology Ireland who have pretty much the same prices but at least theirs a human face and it's an Irish company.

I bought something recently off thomann and it was grand except I ordered it all at the same time and the deliveries were spread over 3 days for no reason that I could see.

Strangely I'd still go back to Thomann as things have always worked out in the end and I'm more then happy with the products I've bought, but really musictechnology seems to be the way to go.

I found you also get to know the Thomann employees... so writing rude emails isn't as faceless as you'd imagine.

henny262 · 22-02-2007 11:58AM

electro.ie wrote:

I'd much prefer to take my chance than give money to these local rip-off merchants who in all likelyhood probably bought it off Thomann.

Trade stores buying from Thomann.. ...Eh right.

The very fact you've just said something as ridiculous as this makes me wonder why you're allowed post here.

henny262 · 22-02-2007 12:08PM

Karl Hungus wrote:

I've tried to go into music stores in Ireland and see if they'll make me a deal on numerous occaissions, I was sneered at in Musician Inc. and when I wanted to buy an amp from Instrumental, not only would they not give me any deal, they were trying to force a different product on me that I had 0 intrest in..

HI Karl,
i'm sorry to hear that you had a rough experience with some of the major shops, but in fairness anyone who knows anything about musical instruments wouldn't be shopping in Musicians Inc!!! Had a few run ins with that place.

Also, instrumental? They don't even open before 11am most mornings so why would anyone bother giving them my business!!

But seriously, there are some great shops out there. First class staff etc.

My own recommendations (probably spent best part of €10,000 on gear over the last few years, from guitars, pa's lighting, dj stuff)

K'n'B Music in Maynooth - man, excellent shop!

Perfect Pitch - I've always had good dealing here with Gerry and co

Monastery Music -Clondalkin This place is flipping great for any custom jobs you want doing on your guitar. Pro instrument makers in this place. ANd they don't charge through the roof! I've had a few jobs done to my guitar and they know what they are talking about.

Anyway listen if you prefer Thomann, then by all means continue with them. BUt from my own personal experience (i've been playing guitar for donkeys years at this stage, and been in countless bands , probably not a good thing to be shouting!) i had a nasty experience with Thomann and it taught me a lesson.

Owen · 22-02-2007 12:15PM

I only once had to verify my Credit Card with Thomann, once I'd placed an order, it was never asked for again, nor was verification required when I upgraded my Credit Card either. Sometimes communications are slack with them, but I've found a phone call always does the trick.

For the record, I'll be placing another order with them this week, which brings me to almost 8k spent with them on my gear alone, and the band's equipment adding to that total.

henny262 · 22-02-2007 12:29PM

ned78 wrote:

For the record, I'll be placing another order with them this week, which brings me to almost 8k spent with them on my gear alone, and the band's equipment adding to that total.

Hey Ned,
do you go into shops before purchasing online? Or do you find the descriptions / reviews etc on the site enough for you to make a decision?
Hen

electro.ie · 22-02-2007 01:35PM

henny262 wrote:

Trade stores buying from Thomann.. ...Eh right.

The very fact you've just said something as ridiculous as this makes me wonder why you're allowed post here.

Is that right? It would make perfect sense when you consider the prices some Irish shops charge. Oh and welcome to boards....most of us use the one account tho

electro.ie · 22-02-2007 01:44PM

henny262 wrote:

HI Karl,
i'm sorry to hear that you had a rough experience with some of the major shops, but in fairness anyone who knows anything about musical instruments wouldn't be shopping in Musicians Inc!!! Had a few run ins with that place.

Also, instrumental? They don't even open before 11am most mornings so why would anyone bother giving them my business!!

But seriously, there are some great shops out there. First class staff etc.

My own recommendations (probably spent best part of €10,000 on gear over the last few years, from guitars, pa's lighting, dj stuff)

K'n'B Music in Maynooth - man, excellent shop!

Perfect Pitch - I've always had good dealing here with Gerry and co

Monastery Music -Clondalkin This place is flipping great for any custom jobs you want doing on your guitar. Pro instrument makers in this place. ANd they don't charge through the roof! I've had a few jobs done to my guitar and they know what they are talking about.

Anyway listen if you prefer Thomann, then by all means continue with them. BUt from my own personal experience (i've been playing guitar for donkeys years at this stage, and been in countless bands , probably not a good thing to be shouting!) i had a nasty experience with Thomann and it taught me a lesson.

Hahahah, you donkey! "They don't even open before 11", are you for real, and to make a comment like "anybody who knows anything about musical instruments wouldn't be shopping there, wtf, stop, you're making a fool of yourself.....and then to make the outrageous comment about Perfect Pitch being a great shop......... Probably why you spent ten grand on 5 grands worth of gear, and in all honesty I'd say you never had a bad dealing with Thomann, i'd say you're just some loser with too much time on his hands!
You like that doggy! woof woof!

henny262 · 22-02-2007 01:52PM

electro.ie wrote:

Hahahah, you donkey! QUOTE]
Have to say its a first, to be insulted by being called a donkey. I'm hurt man. I'm really hurt.

Think i'll take my 14 accounts with me and go then, nice welcome electro. What are you - 15?

Well, next time you're in dublin with your ma check out some of the real shops.

electro.ie · 22-02-2007 01:54PM

henny262 wrote:

Have to say its a first, to be insulted by being called a donkey. I'm hurt man. I'm really hurt.

Think i'll take my 14 accounts with me and go then, nice welcome electro. What are you - 15?

Well, next time you're in dublin with your ma check out some of the real shops.

Yeah but not before eleven in the morning!

feylya · 22-02-2007 02:12PM

henny262 and electro.ie banned for 2 weeks for personable abuse. Remember kids, don't feed the trolls.

TelePaul · 22-02-2007 02:57PM

electro.ie wrote:

Is that right? It would make perfect sense when you consider the prices some Irish shops charge. Oh and welcome to boards....most of us use the one account tho

Don't wanna cause any hassle, but remember that Thomann are still turning a profit on the goods they sell; which means the distributors price is less than Thomanns for sale price. Irish Shops are more than likely using the same distribution channels as Thomann, but their profit margin is higher. It could be higher for legitimate reasons (the costs of running a brock and mortar outlet as opposed to an online vending outfit), or actual price inflation.

thomann - any catch?

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