.....with a twist. I know there is always stuff on here about (blank) store doing this and that but lets hear the other side of the coin. If you sell/sold instruments I wanna hear YOUR customer nightmares. I have a couple but I will start with my favorite.
It was the November of 2005 and this young yuppie couple walks in wanting a guitar for their 5 year old daughter whom they keep telling me is a musical prodigy and only the best for their reincarnated Mozart, I ask them how long she's been playing (I was honestly curious, because I know parents all tend to think their kids are special but the things they were saying made me assume their daughter actually played i.e "the things she does musically Ive never heard done before" ect ec ect.)
them: "well, she hasn't started yet"
me: "ok, well what other instruments does she play?"
the mother "none this is going to be her first, she sings and hums now"
I do my best salesmen smile and show them some squier starter sets the usual amp,guitar,cable,dvd thing and give them my usual routine when I showed these to customers. Something akin to "Think of this in car terms, it's a kia, its not flashy, it dosent have the best featuers but its great to start out with and will get her comfortable with the guitar" so the dad looks at me dead in the eye and in complete seriousness says "I would never dream of having her drive in a kia, her first car is gonna be a bmw, show me a bmw" now normally I would have seen dollar signs but seeing as their daughter was 5 I knew there was gonna be a 95% chance whatever they got was going to be returned but i showed them some P.R.S, 2 used F.C.S we had all the while telling them I didn't think a child that age would be able to benefit from those guitars. The wife at this point was going up to people trying out guitars and telling them in the most nose in the air kind of way they sucked and to please stop playing (In one of the few days there was no wanking in the store) turns to me and says "what they're to big for her?" I explain that no its not a size issue its the fact that a kid won't appreciate hand wound pickups, and book matched tops ect ect; but she got it in her mind that its a matter of size and walk over to a novelty 10 fret mini guitar we have on the wall that's not even for sale and we proceed to have the following descussion
her: why would we want a full sized guitar, this is better for a child her size
me: well that's more a toy, and this (the starter pack) is more a real instrument and if you want her to be serious about it, you need a real instrument
her:but she is only 5
me:I know but this is not a real guitar, if you want her to learn guitar she needs a real guitar
her:but she's only 5
at this point I lose my cool alittle and explain to them with the smallest bit of harshness that they didn't play music so if they could kindly stop talking down to me, I was trying to help them get the best thing suited for their daughter....and here the nightmare begins.....
all of a sudden the wife starts screaming over and over again "WHATS WRONG WITH YOU, SHE'S ONLY FIVE!!!!" as if I had just told them I thought their daughter was sexy or something to that effect and she begins telling me how I'm disgusting, running over to customers telling them "he's a monster my daughter is only 5 years old!!!" while her husband repeatedly pokes me in the chest repeating "you got alot of nerve, I make more in a day then you make in a year" the entire store is staring at me, so about 3 managers run over and tell me to go on lunch break, looking at me like I'm a pedo, I come back a half an hour later to find out they left and had gotten the strat pack for $10 and the woman was so hysterical and the husband so angry that management could not get out of them what had happned, when I explained it to them it became obvious the store just had one pulled over on them.....Oh yea the day after Christmas the next month they came back wanting a refund for the full amount of the strat pack ($200) because it didn't matter what they paid for it, that's how much it was worth. THE END
alittle long winded I know but whenever I think about it I still laugh, ok who's got one?
It was the November of 2005 and this young yuppie couple walks in wanting a guitar for their 5 year old daughter whom they keep telling me is a musical prodigy and only the best for their reincarnated Mozart, I ask them how long she's been playing (I was honestly curious, because I know parents all tend to think their kids are special but the things they were saying made me assume their daughter actually played i.e "the things she does musically Ive never heard done before" ect ec ect.)
them: "well, she hasn't started yet"
me: "ok, well what other instruments does she play?"
the mother "none this is going to be her first, she sings and hums now"
I do my best salesmen smile and show them some squier starter sets the usual amp,guitar,cable,dvd thing and give them my usual routine when I showed these to customers. Something akin to "Think of this in car terms, it's a kia, its not flashy, it dosent have the best featuers but its great to start out with and will get her comfortable with the guitar" so the dad looks at me dead in the eye and in complete seriousness says "I would never dream of having her drive in a kia, her first car is gonna be a bmw, show me a bmw" now normally I would have seen dollar signs but seeing as their daughter was 5 I knew there was gonna be a 95% chance whatever they got was going to be returned but i showed them some P.R.S, 2 used F.C.S we had all the while telling them I didn't think a child that age would be able to benefit from those guitars. The wife at this point was going up to people trying out guitars and telling them in the most nose in the air kind of way they sucked and to please stop playing (In one of the few days there was no wanking in the store) turns to me and says "what they're to big for her?" I explain that no its not a size issue its the fact that a kid won't appreciate hand wound pickups, and book matched tops ect ect; but she got it in her mind that its a matter of size and walk over to a novelty 10 fret mini guitar we have on the wall that's not even for sale and we proceed to have the following descussion
her: why would we want a full sized guitar, this is better for a child her size
me: well that's more a toy, and this (the starter pack) is more a real instrument and if you want her to be serious about it, you need a real instrument
her:but she is only 5
me:I know but this is not a real guitar, if you want her to learn guitar she needs a real guitar
her:but she's only 5
at this point I lose my cool alittle and explain to them with the smallest bit of harshness that they didn't play music so if they could kindly stop talking down to me, I was trying to help them get the best thing suited for their daughter....and here the nightmare begins.....
all of a sudden the wife starts screaming over and over again "WHATS WRONG WITH YOU, SHE'S ONLY FIVE!!!!" as if I had just told them I thought their daughter was sexy or something to that effect and she begins telling me how I'm disgusting, running over to customers telling them "he's a monster my daughter is only 5 years old!!!" while her husband repeatedly pokes me in the chest repeating "you got alot of nerve, I make more in a day then you make in a year" the entire store is staring at me, so about 3 managers run over and tell me to go on lunch break, looking at me like I'm a pedo, I come back a half an hour later to find out they left and had gotten the strat pack for $10 and the woman was so hysterical and the husband so angry that management could not get out of them what had happned, when I explained it to them it became obvious the store just had one pulled over on them.....Oh yea the day after Christmas the next month they came back wanting a refund for the full amount of the strat pack ($200) because it didn't matter what they paid for it, that's how much it was worth. THE END
alittle long winded I know but whenever I think about it I still laugh, ok who's got one?
