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Mesa-Boogie STUPID price control. I am mad!

Coelho

Coelho

May 10, 2006
2,323
40
Astoria, NY
#1
Ok, I need to vent.

My local GC has a Mesa M6 Carbine for sale. They only have 1 unit, and it is the demo unit.

The amp is all scratched and with some dings. I asked the salesperson if they had another unit in the store. After searching the inventory, not only this is their only unit in a radius of 50 miles, it is also back-ordered with Mesa.

So, I asked what would be the price for the blemished demo unit. Response? SAME FULL PRICE. The (very nice) salesperson said that Mesa don't alow them to touch the price. Not even the store manager was able to give a discount on the computer.

How stupid is that? Prohibiting stores to discount blemished items doesn't help with the sales of your products...
 
#2
I wouldn't be surprised if Mesa had a much more rigid policy in place with GC than any other retailer. Their contract to sell MB bass gear was suspended for a while due to unauthorized markdowns.

Also, all demo units are, given enough time, blemished. Especially at GC. I think its possible that the policy is in place to protect dealers from having to mark down abused demo units that they could just as easily return to Mesa for new units. Once they go back to Mesa, they fix the cosmetics, and sell for full price again. I'm usually pretty aggressive in dealing with blem'd gear. They might just not want to deal with a price adjustment from Mesa or whatever. Or they're afraid of having the contract yanked again.

Just a hypothesis based on my understanding of how retail demo units often work.
 
#5
Well, started calling some other GC stores... called about 4 of them.

They all have 1 unit each, and this unit will be out to be demoed.

So I guess I will never really find a "new" one at a GC store.

One of the stores suggested that I could buy the demo one and they would call me when a new one arrive and swap it for me.
 
#8
Call Mark at the Lutheir Shoppe in Springfield, IL. He has a brand new M6, he will ship and you do not have to pay tax since you don't live in Illinois. 217.546.1615 (I am not associated with the Luthier Shoppe, but I do like supporting the small independent shop whenever possible.) Tell him James sent ya.
 
#11
IMHO, the policy of selling floor models like they are new is bullcrap, period. The GC people do not supervise the equipment hardly at all and I've found things like:

-Amps left on all day
-Amps plugged in with speaker cables as instrument leads and instrument cables as speaker leads


And more. Abused floor model gear is not new :)
 
#13
Coupla things. I used to work at GC, and as mentioned before, they really are not allowed to deal on Boogie. It is a fireable offense as far as I know, or it was when I worked there. And the person getting fired would be the assistant manager since they would have to be the one to approve it.

That being said, I have one, and I couldn't be happier with it, paying full price and all. It is such a great amp, and combined with my berg nv412 it is lethal.
 
#14
The best way to handle those situations is have the store throw in extras to sweeten the deal. For instance, strings, cords, pedals, etc. That way they can show on paper the amp sold for the price required and you get a little extra out of the deal.
 
#15
Coelho said:
Ok, I need to vent.

My local GC has a Mesa M6 Carbine for sale. They only have 1 unit, and it is the demo unit.

The amp is all scratched and with some dings. I asked the salesperson if they had another unit in the store. After searching the inventory, not only this is their only unit in a radius of 50 miles, it is also back-ordered with Mesa.

So, I asked what would be the price for the blemished demo unit. Response? SAME FULL PRICE. The (very nice) salesperson said that Mesa don't alow them to touch the price. Not even the store manager was able to give a discount on the computer.

How stupid is that? Prohibiting stores to discount blemished items doesn't help with the sales of your products...
Click to expand...
if they sell you the demo they have to buy another demo.....at full price.....and since they are on b/o have nothing in the interim....
 
#19
Bass Junkie said:
The best way to handle those situations is have the store throw in extras to sweeten the deal. For instance, strings, cords, pedals, etc. That way they can show on paper the amp sold for the price required and you get a little extra out of the deal.
Click to expand...


Yeah, if I needed anything else this could be done.

I bought floor model stuff from GC before with huge discounts.

This is not about GC, is about Mesa policy prohibiting to discount their products even if they are not new (for new I mean unused, in box).

Imagine an auto dealer with a floor model with miles on it, some scratches and dirty interior... Being sold for full price! Who would buy that?

The fact is that all Mesa stuff on GC is just like that. They would discount, but they can't.
 

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