Guitar Village - not impressed

[prowla]

I went into Guitar Village, in Farnham, for a look today.

They had a Trace Elliot 1x10 cab there, so I asked if I could try it, as I have an Elf.

The assistant (who was wearing a Trace Elliot shirt) said the only amp they had was a combo which was sat on top of it, to which I pointed out that that wouldn't work very well, as it had its own speakers too; he said there might be another one in another room, but really that combo was it.

I don't believe that they didn't have another amp head in the shop, but they plainly couldn't be bothered.

I said don't bother.

[TheGreek]

They're clearly not worried that you can buy gear from other shops and on the internet....

I really think we need to have all these threads together in one place ("shop service quality"??) so that we get a consensus on which shops offer good/bad service. Might also affect the QOS if music shops knew that we're keeping a record.

[Steve Browning]

Had a bad experience myself a few years ago. I won't give them any of my money ever.

[Sibob]

Isn’t it pointless trying the cab with a different amp than yours? Let alone in a shop (not a gig setting).

I’d suggest taking your Elf back (enough has been made of how easy they are to transport), try it as you see fit and buy it if you want.

Job done, no more negativity. 

Easy

Si

[Cato]

2 hours ago, TheGreek said:

They're clearly not worried that you can buy gear from other shops and on the internet....

I really think we need to have all these threads together in one place ("shop service quality"??) so that we get a consensus on which shops offer good/bad service. Might also affect the QOS if music shops knew that we're keeping a record.

I suspect that we'd end up listing bad experiences in every music shop in the country and, eventually, the world.

Every shop is going to have a bad day at some point and ,given the amount of gear that basschatters seem to get through, we've got to be statistically more likely to be dealing with that shop when the bad day occurs than most.

Edited May 14, 2018 by Cato

[Mykesbass]

16 minutes ago, Cato said:

I suspect that we'd end up listing bad experiences in every music shop in the country and, eventually, the world.

Every shop is going to have a bad day at some point and ,given the amount of gear that basschatters seem to get through, we've got to be statistically more likely to be dealing with that shop when the bad day occurs than most.

And just think of what the shops have to put up with. My mate could fill a very entertaining book with some of the punters he gets.

[prowla]

54 minutes ago, Sibob said:

Isn’t it pointless trying the cab with a different amp than yours? Let alone in a shop (not a gig setting).

I’d suggest taking your Elf back (enough has been made of how easy they are to transport), try it as you see fit and buy it if you want.

Job done, no more negativity. 

Easy

Si

Not really pointless - it'd give a good idea of its capabilities and I'm not sure that a 1x10 is really a gig cab. (I'd likely use it with other amps too, so it's not Elf-specific.)

I happened to be there and would have probably bought it, but no plans to go back in the forseeable.

2 hours ago, TheGreek said:

They're clearly not worried that you can buy gear from other shops and on the internet....

I really think we need to have all these threads together in one place ("shop service quality"??) so that we get a consensus on which shops offer good/bad service. Might also affect the QOS if music shops knew that we're keeping a record.

Precisely - I can get one of these from (presumably) many places, and perhaps at a better price.

The difference between a shop and the Internet is that you can go to a shop, try the item, and walk out with it there and then.

It's up to the shop to make me want to buy the item from them, or I'll go elsewhere.

 

[prowla]

3 minutes ago, Mykesbass said:

And just think of what the shops have to put up with. My mate could fill a very entertaining book with some of the punters he gets.

Well, if asking to try out a cab makes me a difficult customer, then they're in the wrong business.

[Mykesbass]

3 minutes ago, prowla said:

Well, if asking to try out a cab makes me a difficult customer, then they're in the wrong business.

Sorry, I didn't mean it that way at all, was just trying to continue the conversation, hence quoting Cato's post. For any bad experience we have in a music shop the guys in the shop can probably trump us every time.

[M@23]

4 hours ago, TheGreek said:

They're clearly not worried that you can buy gear from other shops and on the internet....

I really think we need to have all these threads together in one place ("shop service quality"??) so that we get a consensus on which shops offer good/bad service. Might also affect the QOS if music shops knew that we're keeping a record.

The problem is, people get so upset over this sort of thing. Without much context, or the other side of the story. Not suggesting for a second the poster here isn't telling the full story, just that, if you make a thread to record every interaction a person got their feelings hurt, then there's not going to be many places left to shop.

Why not just make your own mind up without any preconceived notions? For what it's worth, I love Guitar Village and had great service there. 

[skankdelvar]

4 hours ago, prowla said:

he assistant (who was wearing a Trace Elliot shirt) said the only amp they had was a combo which was sat on top of it, to which I pointed out that that wouldn't work very well, as it had its own speakers too; he said there might be another one in another room, but really that combo was it.

I don't believe that they didn't have another amp head in the shop, but they plainly couldn't be bothered.

A quick look at the Guitar Village web site reveals that every bass amp they have in stock is a combo. Not a head to be seen. 

Of course, just because they actually didn't have a head doesn't mean they gave a sh!t either. 

 

[skankdelvar]

... and another thing. Lots of people seem to like certain retailers to whom I would not give the steam off my p1ss let alone good money. OTOH, there are other retailers where I've had good experiences but which seem to have incurred the wrath of others here.

Usually it's pretty minor stuff that sets people off; so these days I don't bother posting about iffy service unless the shop boy was egregiously rude or hilariously stupid: see Chandlers, PMT Birmingham, Wunjos (when it was down the other end of Denmark St) and Andy's. For this reason dullards like the bloke in Frome who kept insisting that 'Martin owns Sigma' don't usually rate a mention.

Edited May 14, 2018 by skankdelvar

[prowla]

27 minutes ago, M@23 said:

The problem is, people get so upset over this sort of thing. Without much context, or the other side of the story. Not suggesting for a second the poster here isn't telling the full story, just that, if you make a thread to record every interaction a person got their feelings hurt, then there's not going to be many places left to shop.

Why not just make your own mind up without any preconceived notions? For what it's worth, I love Guitar Village and had great service there. 

It's slightly over-dramatising to use terms like "so upset" and "feelings hurt"; I was more commenting on the futility of going to a shop.

I'll go to places I enjoy and I'll walk past the ones which can't be bothered.

[prowla]

2 hours ago, Mykesbass said:

Sorry, I didn't mean it that way at all, was just trying to continue the conversation, hence quoting Cato's post. For any bad experience we have in a music shop the guys in the shop can probably trump us every time.

Sure - I don't doubt that.

[TheGreek]

There are plenty of posts about how good members here have found the service from some shops - it hasn't all got to be about giving shops a hard time...rather than have to search through thousands of posts it would give users a chance to give their opinion - it'll give us a chance to see if there is a consensus or a pattern at least. Will also give shops the chance to see what potential customers want and what they think of the service provided.

[M@23]

23 minutes ago, prowla said:

It's slightly over-dramatising to use terms like "so upset" and "feelings hurt"; I was more commenting on the futility of going to a shop.

I'll go to places I enjoy and I'll walk past the ones which can't be bothered.

Is it? 

You've seen the topics about Bass Direct? Or read their reviews on Facebook? 

[prowla]

1 minute ago, M@23 said:

Is it? 

You've seen the topics about Bass Direct? Or read their reviews on Facebook? 

Well, if you're talking about other threads, than perhaps not.

In the case here, I had good day out, but I didn't buy anything from that shop and I wouldn't make an effort to go there in particular.

I can get the item in question without leaving the house.

[Monkey Steve]

Have to say, I like Guitar Village a lot, and have only ever had excellent service there.  They always seem to get the balance right between being helpful when you need assistance and leaving you alone to try the instruments out for as long as you want/need.

But I'm very unlikely to go there to get any bass gear because that's not really their business, very much a token effort (and having just had a look at their website to refresh my memory it is a fairly standard high street largely Fender and Ibanez selection, with only one five string in the whole shop - this is a vast expansion on what they had in the way of basses a few years ago).  Unlike, say, Andertons, they don't have a warehouse down the road stocked with gear that isn't on display,, and given that they aren't bass specialists and the website says that they don't have any bass heads in stock, perhaps you owe the assistant an apology

[prowla]

1 hour ago, Monkey Steve said:

Have to say, I like Guitar Village a lot, and have only ever had excellent service there.  They always seem to get the balance right between being helpful when you need assistance and leaving you alone to try the instruments out for as long as you want/need.

But I'm very unlikely to go there to get any bass gear because that's not really their business, very much a token effort (and having just had a look at their website to refresh my memory it is a fairly standard high street largely Fender and Ibanez selection, with only one five string in the whole shop - this is a vast expansion on what they had in the way of basses a few years ago).  Unlike, say, Andertons, they don't have a warehouse down the road stocked with gear that isn't on display,, and given that they aren't bass specialists and the website says that they don't have any bass heads in stock, perhaps you owe the assistant an apology

 

I don't understand - are you suggesting that I should apologise for the fact that they couldn't demo an item they had for sale and for not spending my money there?

I hadn't checked their web site beforehand, because I just went out to Farnham for a drive and a stroll about but I do agree that I probably wouldn't go there looking for bass gear again.

[Monkey Steve]

21 hours ago, prowla said:

 

I don't understand - are you suggesting that I should apologise for the fact that they couldn't demo an item they had for sale and for not spending my money there?

I hadn't checked their web site beforehand, because I just went out to Farnham for a drive and a stroll about but I do agree that I probably wouldn't go there looking for bass gear again.

I'm suggesting that you apologise for accusing the salesman of lying to you and saying that he couldn't be bothered to go and find a bass head that you were sure they had in stock when all the evidence seems to suggest that he was in fact telling you the truth and they didn't have a bass head in stock that you could have tried.

I'm not saying that it's a great way to sell a bass cab and if your criticism was that it's a stupid way to sell something because it can't be demo'd then that would be fair, but that's not what your complaint was, is it?

[KevB]

Does sound possibly like casual servce. Alternatively stash the Elf in the car glove box and if you end up anywhere likely to have a music shop take it along, then you know exactly what your amp sounds like with whatever cab you test it with.

[prowla]

2 hours ago, Monkey Steve said:

I'm suggesting that you apologise for accusing the salesman of lying to you and saying that he couldn't be bothered to go and find a bass head that you were sure they had in stock when all the evidence seems to suggest that he was in fact telling you the truth and they didn't have a bass head in stock that you could have tried.

I'm not saying that it's a great way to sell a bass cab and if your criticism was that it's a stupid way to sell something because it can't be demo'd then that would be fair, but that's not what your complaint was, is it?

Perhaps you should read what I wrote in the OP, ie. "he said there might be another one in another room".

So, no.

[prowla]

1 hour ago, KevB said:

Does sound possibly like casual servce. Alternatively stash the Elf in the car glove box and if you end up anywhere likely to have a music shop take it along, then you know exactly what your amp sounds like with whatever cab you test it with.

Well, my car hasn't got a glove box, but I get what you're saying... :-)

However, I didn't go out intending to try out a cab; I went into a shop and they happened to have one.

By that logic, perhaps I should take my bass and rig everywhere too, so that I've got all the permutations covered if I happen to spot anything I might like to try out.