The Bass centre online

[blamelouis]

They had a crap reputation on here in the last couple of years.
Anybody ordered anything recently ?
Seen a few things that caught my eye.

[icastle]

[quote name='blamelouis' post='1038571' date='Nov 27 2010, 09:06 AM']They had a crap reputation on here in the last couple of years.
Anybody ordered anything recently ?
Seen a few things that caught my eye.[/quote]

Yes.
Ordered on Nov 5th, still not had it as they're "out of stock".
Item still showing as "In stock" on their website.

Not impressed at all.

[blamelouis]

Oh dear sounds familiar .

Edited November 27, 2010 by blamelouis

[Fat Rich]

I ordered a DVD which it turned out was out of stock and unavailable although it's still on their website last time I looked.

Took several months to get a refund, they were very apologetic and helpful on the phone and eventually sorted it out but ultimately a bit of a rubbish experience.

[icastle]

[quote name='blamelouis' post='1038594' date='Nov 27 2010, 09:41 AM']Oh dear sounds familiar . [/quote]

Hmmm

I had to mail them twice over a three day period just to get a response as to what was going on.
I don't care who they've had as "renowned customers" in the past, my £100 is worth exactly the same as Mark King's £100 and I certainly wont use them again.

[icastle]

[quote name='Fat Rich' post='1038600' date='Nov 27 2010, 09:55 AM']I ordered a DVD which it turned out was out of stock and unavailable although it's still on their website last time I looked.

Took several months to get a refund, they were very apologetic and helpful on the phone and eventually sorted it out but ultimately a bit of a rubbish experience.[/quote]

I'm getting "we have the more expensive on in stock..." routine at the moment.
Good job I'm not a more cynical individual or I could surmise that "someone" is attempting to play silly b*ggers here...
I'll give them another week and then decide what to do to them - I mean what to do [i]with [/i]them of course...

[blamelouis]

[quote name='icastle' post='1038610' date='Nov 27 2010, 10:03 AM']I'm getting "we have the more expensive on in stock..." routine at the moment.
Good job I'm not a more cynical individual or I could surmise that "someone" is attempting to play silly b*ggers here...
I'll give them another week and then decide what to do to them - I mean what to do [i]with [/i]them of course... [/quote]
Well a good customer relations policy would be to give you the more expensive one for the same price and apologise !
And then you would be on here singing their praises but no... short sighted as ever .

[Martin E]

Well, I bought a Sterling bass from these people recently and they were fine.

Their online price for the colour I wanted appeared to be wrong and a phone call confirmed that. At the same time I queried the delivery time and ordered it there and then.
So not strictly online but my dealings with them were fine. The delivery time was as promised and they phoned me the day before to check I was in.

To be honest how many suppliers keep their websites totally up to date? Not just musical instruments – anything. I always phone before ordering online to check if it's in stock.

[keeponehandloose]

The one who does keep their site up to date,no mean feat in itself,is Thomann.
They are the only ones I have dealt with who are totally reliable online.

[Prime_BASS]

It's not just sites that are slow to update, I was in sainsburies yesterday and something listed at £12 was £10 at the till. No complaints obviously but if it was the other way round I'm sure a quick talk with te CS desk would refund me the difference.

Also it's not hard to write a simple excel file to run under the website to keep track of stock coming in and going out, and to automatically update the site accordingly.

[dave_bass5]

Ive always found Soundslive and Reidys to be pretty swift updating their websites.

Personally i will always phone the shops first (other than Thomanns), even though i prefer to order online.

Any issues with orders are always worth a phone call IME. Email is too easy to ignore or genuinely missed.

As far as the BC goes, ive had good experience's with the shop but lesson learnt and i would never order anything that was out of stock from them.

[bassatnight]

How 'not' to run an online business it seems...

[mrtcat]

Ordered some Seymour Duncan pups from Bass Centre a few months back. I was after two different sets and ordered one set from BC and the other from Blue Arran. The Blue Arran ones arrived next day and the BC ones arrived two weeks later with no explanation. Says enough IMO to keep me from buying from them again when 99% of online stores give excellent service.

[icastle]

[quote name='mrtcat' post='1038852' date='Nov 27 2010, 03:02 PM']Ordered some Seymour Duncan pups from Bass Centre a few months back. I was after two different sets and ordered one set from BC and the other from Blue Arran. The Blue Arran ones arrived next day and the BC ones arrived two weeks later with no explanation. Says enough IMO to keep me from buying from them again when 99% of online stores give excellent service.[/quote]

This is what I can't understand with crap online service - all they have to do is display pretty pictures of stuff they want to sell, print off the order and ship the goods out.
Everything is automated! There's no chatting to customers, no sales cycle to follow, no smiling at people who are talking total b*ll*cks or making them cups of coffee.
How can online sites fail, it's money for nothing?

[AntLockyer]

This is my pet hate. A shop advertising something as in stock when they know full well it isn't is fraudulent. It's really damaging to industry as a whole as there is no incentive for online shops to keep inventory anymore if they are getting sales pulled form under them by stores telling porkies. There was an extreme example some time ago where it turned out the company had absolutely zero stock despite have 100s of items marked as such on their website.

[Cat Burrito]

I was put off by the numerous stories here. Soundslive are always good so I stick with them

[Machines]

[quote name='Martin E' post='1038714' date='Nov 27 2010, 12:26 PM']To be honest how many suppliers keep their websites totally up to date? Not just musical instruments – anything. I always phone before ordering online to check if it's in stock.[/quote]
Their stock system should be linked to their website in order not to mislead customers. It's not hard to implement.

[Wolverinebass]

I've only had one experience with the BC that was positive. When I bought my Alembic and that was when the shop was still in Wapping. I haggled absolutely ferociously and they amazingly gave in which I admit I really didn't expect. Every other time they have been complete and utter tools acting like they were doing me a favour by making a mess of what I wanted.

In respect of the stock thing, they did the same thing to me 5 years ago when I got a gig bag for my buzzard. Strung it out for 3 weeks then sent it to me despite me specifically asking them not to (forcing me to go to Charlton to get it when I wasn't in to get it). No apology. No money off or anything other than a monkey chewing gum on the other end of the phone doing a well known Catherine Tate impression.

I truly hope they go out of business. Same as every guitar shop on Denmark Street. All the people that work in these shops have been cloned in test tubes for maximum arrogance and had their heads preloaded Matrix style with innumerable patronising or "we're trying to rip you off" comments.

I'd go to Thomann or Soundslive every time. Prompt delivery and brilliant customer service.

Edited November 28, 2010 by Wolverinebass

[AndyTravis]

What pisses me off about the Bass Centre online is that they have a scrolling praise banner at the side of their page about their A+ Service, yet all i seem to hear is poor ordering and lengthy refund policy.

Bad Business.

[BobTheBassist]

Never understood why they went exclusivly on line. I shopped with them a few times 8 or so years ago and they were great. Then they shut the shop "to compete with online supliers". Now they're service is appalling and if you shop around on line they're not the cheapest by a long shot. So it's the worst of both worlds. The only thing I use them for is strings cos they can seem to manage that.

[BigRedX]

The original Bass Centre in Wapping the other versions that have followed have pretty much nothing in common other than the name.

Not having the website directly linked to actual stock levels is a pretty half-arsed way of doing things, but then it might show potential buyers how few of the items shown are actually available in stock for immediate delivery.

The cynical person would also say that the reason they don't have an actual shop any more is that in makes it harder for you to turn up in person and demand your money back when things go wrong.

[icastle]

[quote name='BigRedX' post='1039723' date='Nov 28 2010, 11:09 AM']The original Bass Centre in Wapping the other versions that have followed have pretty much nothing in common other than the name.

Not having the website directly linked to actual stock levels is a pretty half-arsed way of doing things, but then it might show potential buyers how few of the items shown are actually available in stock for immediate delivery.

The cynical person would also say that the reason they don't have an actual shop any more is that in makes it harder for you to turn up in person and demand your money back when things go wrong.[/quote]

I got the impression that they *do* have a shop still but you have to phone ahead and make an appointment.
As a customer I'm just not prepared to do that.

[BigRedX]

[quote name='icastle' post='1039768' date='Nov 28 2010, 11:40 AM']I got the impression that they *do* have a shop still but you have to phone ahead and make an appointment.[/quote]
Probably because if you turned up unannounced all you'd find would be an empty room...

[Spoombung]

I was thinking of ordering a cab from them but now I'm not so sure.

[icastle]

[quote name='BigRedX' post='1039773' date='Nov 28 2010, 11:43 AM']Probably because if you turned up unannounced all you'd find would be an empty room...[/quote]

LOL yeah.

The other thing I find a little disconcerting is that they seem to only sell "Elites" strings - whilst they may be good strings, I kinda like the brands I'm already using and would like to at least have the choice of something other than something they've decided I have to use...

... such a weird setup and the more I think about it the more I will never use them again...