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Bass Directs Second Hand Stock - An Unfortunate (maybe isolated?) Experience


binky_bass

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1 hour ago, 4000 said:

Well I agree that The Gallery’s website needs work, but I’ve been going there since 1996 and have yet to have a bad experience (yes, I know others have had). The thing is, The Gallery is not just a shop, it’s also the main calling point for most of London’s - and elsewhere, given I’m up North! - bass repairs and customisation. Most of the times when I’ve been over the years, it has been incredibly busy. 
 

Given the choice between dealing with BD and the Gallery, it’d be the Gallery every time, by an absolute country mile. 

 

I’ve had several very poor experiences there, which just goes to show that threads like this might make people feel better to get things off their chest, but don’t really serve any useful purpose. I’ve had plenty of excellent and very reasonably priced repair work done on my basses in the last 10 years and none of it has been done by the Gallery.

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I find it quite extraordinary how polarising BD and its proprietor is!

 

I have visited there twice and found Mark to be quite friendly if a bit forthright.

 

It seems once they've sorted the website and online sales out things should improve but the attitude and customer service issues will surely continue unless another viable company starts to pose a serious threat?

 

 

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4 hours ago, FDC484950 said:

Really big multi billion-pound companies like Virgin Media, who can afford to employ entire customer relationship departments, have appalling customer service - I wonder if the common thread is a captive audience with few alternatives open to customers?


Nail on head. I can say with personal experience that Virgin are up there with the worst in terms of customer service - they have a complaints system that takes you in circles with the aim of you giving up and just going away. So there’s no link between business size and quality of service, IMO.

 

For what it’s worth my dealings with Bass Direct have been OK. People are more than entitled to voice their concerns with something in a constructive way, which from what I can see is the case in this thread. I feel like as a society we’ve gone from one extreme - constant complaints and review bombing - to another these days of some customers being named and shamed/called out for daring to complain about a business in public. We need something between the two.

 

37 minutes ago, EJWW said:

I find it quite extraordinary how polarising BD and its proprietor is!

 

I have visited there twice and found Mark to be quite friendly if a bit forthright.

 

It seems once they've sorted the website and online sales out things should improve but the attitude and customer service issues will surely continue unless another viable company starts to pose a serious threat?

 

 

 

Also agree with this. I find I’ve had to be a bit more ‘patient’ than usual when dealing with Bass Direct, but that’s because I tell myself that running a relatively niche business and maintaining relationships with a number of boutique suppliers means they don’t have enough time to fill their comms with niceties. It’s a trade off I’m willing to accept to be able to access products I can’t get elsewhere, but appreciate others may have a different experience/opinion.

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I find BD quite a strange business. Last year I went there and got an Epiphone EB-3 that was advertised as a 30" scale bass and they were astounded when I said it was 34" (they even got the tape measure out). I was then left totally alone to noodle on it, which is quite nice, I then had to get someone to actually sell it to me.
Just after Christmas I went to get a pedal board, but the one on the website didn't exist in their stock. They did have a different board that they didn't even know they had.

My first experience with them was back in 2010 when I went to buy a Mono Strap. Mark asked me what bass it was for, when I told him a Fender Steve Harris P he scoffingly told me I should buy a proper bass. My first online experience was to get a Polytune. I had to call them after a week to ask where it was, to be told it was sat on his desk as he'd forgotten to post it.

 

Yet, the quality, and diversity, of stuff sold it pretty much unmatched by anyone else.

 

 

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6 minutes ago, bartelby said:

I find BD quite a strange business. Last year I went there and got an Epiphone EB-3 that was advertised as a 30" scale bass and they were astounded when I said it was 34" (they even got the tape measure out). I was then left totally alone to noodle on it, which is quite nice, I then had to get someone to actually sell it to me.
Just after Christmas I went to get a pedal board, but the one on the website didn't exist in their stock. They did have a different board that they didn't even know they had.

My first experience with them was back in 2010 when I went to buy a Mono Strap. Mark asked me what bass it was for, when I told him a Fender Steve Harris P he scoffingly told me I should buy a proper bass. My first online experience was to get a Polytune. I had to call them after a week to ask where it was, to be told it was sat on his desk as he'd forgotten to post it.

 

Yet, the quality, and diversity, of stuff sold it pretty much unmatched by anyone else.

 

 

 

Oh dear.  Sounds like someone who is trying to be funny, but doesn't really know how to do it properly or where the lines/social norms are.  I could make a joke like that to a good friend, but definitely not to a prospective customer.

 

Also, maybe you should buy a proper... ahh, nearly had you going there :)

 

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4 minutes ago, neepheid said:

 

Oh dear.  Sounds like someone who is trying to be funny, but doesn't really know how to do it properly or where the lines/social norms are.  I could make a joke like that to a good friend, but definitely not to a prospective customer.

 

Also, maybe you should buy a proper... ahh, nearly had you going there :)

 

 

Oh he doubled down on it too when I said I had an old Warwick and an Aria SB Elite. "Yeah, Sell them all and get a proper one. My aim is to educate people with multiple basses, to sell them and get a premium bass that covers it all"

It took me a few years to buy something from them again.

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Just now, bartelby said:

 

Oh he doubled down on it too when I said I had an old Warwick and an Aria SB Elite. "Yeah, Sell them all and get a proper one. My aim is to educate people with multiple basses, to sell them and get a premium bass that covers it all"

It took me a few years to buy something from them again.

 

Has he confused the words "educate" and "berate" maybe?

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5 hours ago, 4000 said:

Well I agree that The Gallery’s website needs work, but I’ve been going there since 1996 and have yet to have a bad experience (yes, I know others have had). The thing is, The Gallery is not just a shop, it’s also the main calling point for most of London’s - and elsewhere, given I’m up North! - bass repairs and customisation. Most of the times when I’ve been over the years, it has been incredibly busy. 
 

Given the choice between dealing with BD and the Gallery, it’d be the Gallery every time, by an absolute country mile. 

 

5 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

 

I haven't had a problem with the gallery, they have been friendly enough, certainly no less friendly than BD. I didn't go in the first few times I was there as I assumed it was closed, so I have only been in a couple of times.

 

This is good to know.  🙂

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1 hour ago, neepheid said:

Oh dear.  Sounds like someone who is trying to be funny, but doesn't really know how to do it properly or where the lines/social norms are.  I could make a joke like that to a good friend, but definitely not to a prospective customer.

I had a sound guy do that to me at a festival while we were setting up. He was also in the "headline" band. "Sh!t bass" he said to me as I was tuning up. It was my Japanese Fender P, a true beaut of a P bass in my eyes. Was it a compliment, was it a dig? I don't know. Was it inappropriately timed, Yes!  Did it make me think he was a d!CK regardless, Yes again!

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1 hour ago, bartelby said:

 

Oh he doubled down on it too when I said I had an old Warwick and an Aria SB Elite. "Yeah, Sell them all and get a proper one. My aim is to educate people with multiple basses, to sell them and get a premium bass that covers it all"

It took me a few years to buy something from them again.

Looks like Geddy Lee needs some education from the store Guru.

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2 hours ago, bartelby said:



My first experience with them was back in 2010 when I went to buy a Mono Strap. Mark asked me what bass it was for, when I told him a Fender Steve Harris P he scoffingly told me I should buy a proper bass. 

 

 

Jesus. If he’d said that to me - assuming it wasn’t a lame joke - I dread to think how I’d have reacted. It wouldn’t have ended well, let’s put it like that. 

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1 hour ago, bartelby said:

 

Oh he doubled down on it too when I said I had an old Warwick and an Aria SB Elite. "Yeah, Sell them all and get a proper one. My aim is to educate people with multiple basses, to sell them and get a premium bass that covers it all"

It took me a few years to buy something from them again.

Having just got to this post, it really wouldn’t have ended well at all. I’d have shoved one of his premium basses where the sun doesn’t shine. 

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1 minute ago, 4000 said:

Jesus. If he’d said that to me - assuming it wasn’t a lame joke - I dread to think how I’d have reacted. It wouldn’t have ended well, let’s put it like that. 

Quite so. Same here.

Not so funny the other way around either when I commented he still had that overpriced eyesore hanging in his shop - ‘Nice bass that’.

It’s still there as far as I’m aware (depends whether the web site accurately reflects the 2nd hand stock 😂).

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49 minutes ago, uk_lefty said:

I had a sound guy do that to me at a festival while we were setting up. He was also in the "headline" band. "Sh!t bass" he said to me as I was tuning up. It was my Japanese Fender P, a true beaut of a P bass in my eyes. Was it a compliment, was it a dig? I don't know. Was it inappropriately timed, Yes!  Did it make me think he was a d!CK regardless, Yes again!

Think my reply would have been to point at him and utter sh!tc!nt

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7 hours ago, Osiris said:

I'm another one who's had mixed dealings with Bass Direct.

my last dealing with them 4 or 5 years ago was selling an amp through their commission sales, long story short, the owner claimed it sold for much less than we'd agreed - not that he'd consulted me on reducing price - and it took weeks of chasing to get my money from them. And it was quite clear from the phone calls and email exchanges that he really couldn't give a toss, he couldn't even spare a half arsed apology. Prior to that I'd bought 3 basses, an amp and several odds and sods from them, spending more than 5 grand with them over the years. But I have not spent another penny with them since and don't intend to ever again.

 

 

 

 

Hows about a £1500 commission sale bass going missing, to this date, never to resurface 3 ish years on ? It was documented on here, but the thread has been hidden.  That has to take the biscuit.  If anyone who posted earlier about "  i would do this and that etc "  we're on the same page.  I was actually preparing to go there to lump him in the face and drag the lying pr*ck round his  shop.  Lies lies and more lies is all i got. I've been looking online ever since to see if the bass popped up anywhere for sale but it never has. 

 

In the end,  i relented after thinking about it.  Cracking him a good one would only have got me arrested.  I threatened legal action which ended up with me accepting 200 quid less , and cokky git moaning he wont make any money on the bass that had disappeared

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19 minutes ago, fleabag said:

 

 

Hows about a £1500 commission sale bass going missing, to this date, never to resurface 3 ish years on ? It was documented on here, but the thread has been hidden.  That has to take the biscuit.  If anyone who posted earlier about "  i would do this and that etc "  we're on the same page.  I was actually preparing to go there to lump him in the face and drag the lying pr*ck round his  shop.  Lies lies and more lies is all i got. I've been looking online ever since to see if the bass popped up anywhere for sale but it never has. 

 

In the end,  i relented after thinking about it.  Cracking him a good one would only have got me arrested.  I threatened legal action which ended up with me accepting 200 quid less , and cokky git moaning he wont make any money on the bass that had disappeared

Are there details if the missing bass that you can share. More eyes etc. I know it’s been a while, but it’s got to be somewhere.

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