Buying online from.......

[guyl]

Bought my son an electronic Drum Kit for Christmas. Worried I'd left it too late, but it came the very next day. Couldn't ask for better service a few days before Christmas.

[ambient]

The thing with couriers, like the Royal mail, they handle tens of thousands of items each day, some are gonna get lost or damaged.

For every one that is lost or damaged, there are a thousand more that aren't, but you only get to hear about the ones that are damaged or mis-delivered.

Yodel are or were DHL.

I bought a cab from a guy on here a couple of years ago. He lived in Scotland and shipped it without a box or any packaging, just in its cover. He just stuck the label on and gave it to the courier (DHL), it got as far as Lichfield which is just up the road from me, before the cab and the label became separated from one another.

It took just a couple of phone calls from me to track the cab down, it was tracked to Lichfield luckily, so I knew it was there, I just described what it was and they found it. They were extremely helpful.

Edited December 30, 2013 by ambient

[Johnm93]

[quote name='Myke' timestamp='1388363763' post='2321319']
To be fair to Royal Mail, you probably receive a lot more items from them than via courier, so the number of problems will seem higher than the problems with a courier. But going on percentages then the problems via courier with probably be higher.

(In this case you is meant as plural, not specifically you)
[/quote]

Hmmmm, yes. A case of statistics showing you what you want them to show...

[MiltyG565]

[quote name='ambient' timestamp='1388409453' post='2321635']
The thing with couriers, like the Royal mail, they handle tens of thousands of items each day, some are gonna get lost or damaged.

For every one that is lost or damaged, there are a thousand more that aren't, but you only get to hear about the ones that are damaged or mis-delivered.
[/quote]

Absolutely. For the most part, I've had no trouble with Royal mail. It just happens that the couple of times that we know of where our post was lost, it happened to be very important things (hospital appointments and bank statements). If it had have been something not as important, I wouldn't care too much.

[Myke]

[quote name='Johnm93' timestamp='1388424035' post='2321841']
Hmmmm, yes. A case of statistics showing you what you want them to show...
[/quote]

I was just rebalancing the rebalance

And yes, they do show what I want them to show. Otherwise I wouldn't have used them..

[thisnameistaken]

Gear4Music are just up the road from me, so I've nipped in there before when I need something quickly, but I've never ordered from them online. What put me off was seeing the way some of their instruments in the showroom are set up. The double basses are all unplayable, and I assume that's how they ship.

I would always look at Thomann first.

[MiltyG565]

[quote name='thisnameistaken' timestamp='1388437436' post='2322057']
Gear4Music are just up the road from me, so I've nipped in there before when I need something quickly, but I've never ordered from them online. What put me off was seeing the way some of their instruments in the showroom are set up. The double basses are all unplayable, and I assume that's how they ship.
[/quote]

I assume they have a music shop? I really don't understand how a shop puts a product out for display that's not up to standard. That's baffling.

[thisnameistaken]

[quote name='MiltyG565' timestamp='1388437796' post='2322064']
I assume they have a music shop? I really don't understand how a shop puts a product out for display that's not up to standard. That's baffling.
[/quote]

Well it's more like a showroom out on an industrial estate, it's definitely an afterthought rather than the centre of their business, they're really a website and a warehouse. Actually if you go in their showroom and ask one of the staff for something, they look it up on the website!

I think they ended up with the showroom so they could become dealers of some of the bigger brands. I guess those brands insist that their kit is out on show somewhere where punters can actually try them out, but ultimately I don't think G4M want anybody going in their showroom, it's just there literally 'for show'.

Edited December 30, 2013 by thisnameistaken

[howdenspur]

Having visited G4M a couple of times, I would say they are an online retailer with a physical presence you can visit, rather than a shop with an online presence.
If you catch my drift.
They have stuff on display and will get it shipped in from their main storage place if you want to see it. I wasn't knocked out with the set ups I looked at, but they are hardly unusual in that respect.

[MiltyG565]

[quote name='thisnameistaken' timestamp='1388438451' post='2322080']
Actually if you go in their showroom and ask one of the staff for something, they look it up on the website!
[/quote]

We did this all the time when I worked in a warehouse. Sometimes it was the quickest and easiest way to find something out.