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Musicians Friend
- Thread starter bassundergrace
- Start date
The last few things I've asked on I also got the "sorry we can't do anymore than the listed price" from MF Gearheads. I ended up either going to Sweetwater or Music Store Live for my discounts.
Yeah hopefully they will realize that they created that monster, and people will stop ordering from them if they can get those discounts elsewhere. If anyone has a similar email or hook up with one of the other internet sellers, please share.
Please tell me the gearheads stuff is an April fools. That's not what I wanted to hear.
- Oct 7, 2000
- 18,619
- 38,941
- Disclosures
- Endorsing artist: Musicman basses
Would love to see the original source of this info. I've purchased tons of stuff from Musiciansfriend, and aside from maybe 2 things that I received (which they immediately exchanged), I'm pretty certain it was all brand new. And I'm pretty neurotic about that kind of stuff, checking closely for fingerprints and any kind of packaging that doesn't look as though it's factory packed. What the article MAY have said, that I'm going to guess was misconstrued, was that they resell those returned items at a discount, hence the scratch and dent offerings at Musiciansfriend. The prices at MF aren't otherwise even really discounted, unless you do your own haggling.
With that said, I don't count on emailed price matches anymore. And I don't know anything about the gearheads stuff, I always call MF. I just found a $305 price (after digging REAL deep on the internet) on an Alvarez classical guitar that goes for $439 on MF, and everywhere else. They matched it immediately with a phone call. And FWIW, I emailed a price match and didn't get a response until a few days later, after I had already purchased it. Had the site with the lower price sold that guitar (they had only 1 in stock), MF wouldn't have honored it. They agreed to match it in the email, but I have a strong suspicion that wouldn't have happened had I not already purchased it with a phone call. I have had MF not agree to a price match when I emailed in the past. And I bought from the other place with the lower price.
The Gearheads email has always done great by me. The absolute worst offer I got was whatever the max coupon they had going (without the buy more save more), and the best offer I got was ridiculous.
Hit or miss. Without checking, I'm gonna guess that the "no more discounts" post was 4/1 um, "humor."
EDIT: oops, my respected friend tjh said it yesterday. Say it ain't so!!!
EDIT: oops, my respected friend tjh said it yesterday. Say it ain't so!!!
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Completely untrue unless buying open box, restock or used item. Then it would make sense. Never bought anything new that was anything but new. Staples and manufacturer labels still completely intact on all packaging, etc. And I have bought a lot of stuff from them over the years...
It happened twice to me last week and a few weeks before that. On a set of mic stands and mics. Their response was that it was already at a low price. Which, I understand if it is on a clearance or sale. I've always had great luck getting awesome prices up until then.
Again, my contacts at Sweetwater (Ryan Holquist) and Music Store Live (Brian Harris <<bass specialist) have done well on the product discounts as well.
Again, my contacts at Sweetwater (Ryan Holquist) and Music Store Live (Brian Harris <<bass specialist) have done well on the product discounts as well.
Proaudioland has 20 percent off 250 and up and 15 perc off 100 and up this week. That should help bit their selection is a little limited
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From a lot of what I am seeing, I think a lot of retailers that have been offering a low price guarantee are going to slowly eliminate that policy
That's too bad about the Gearhead thing. It was the best thing I had seen to save money. I don't know how MF made money when they sold us the stuff so cheap. Maybe they suddenly came to their senses...
John
John
I have had this before. From what i understand, it usually either means that the manufacturer doesn't allow discounts or there's not enough margin to discount.
I just emailed gearheads about a particular bass that I've been asking/budding them about for MONTHS. It only recently got in stock. I just asked them what their best price would be. I will let you know if gearheads is on hold or still making customers happy. Stay tuned....
If it is on hold it's very new. I got a killer deal on a Mono Vertigo gig bag not even two weeks ago.
There's quite a bit of mark up even at their advertised prices. MSRP is probably about triple cost, then they advertise double and can afford to take 5-20% off. Someone posted a link to their published financials a while back and they actually cash flow pretty well but they're saddled with an enormous amount of debt.
