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Ordering online - The landscape is changing

#81
I had a QSC speaker that malfunctioned that I'd purchased from sweetwater. A quick call and I had shipping instructions. No charge. I had a replacement in a couple days. Not bad for shipping it across the country.

For the record, I've used Musicians Friend and AMS and have never had a problem with any of them.

There is one local upstart that I'm impressed with. Good guys. The first distributor of Chapman Guitars in the US. Link Removed
 
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#84
Watchootognbout said:
I've seen many other online store that don't incure any added cost because of posting a pic of the actual bass.
Digital phone pics are not expensive or hard to upload.
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There's often a very poor picture of used inventory on the Guitar Center site. If you compare those types of shots against, say, the detailed pictures we typically see in the classifieds here, it's clear that the stores aren't allocating much time or effort to this.

I have seen some smaller online retailers try to do this in the past, but I don't see it as a practice that's been sustainable over the majority of inventory a large seller would have. Again, once you take something out of the box it's no longer sellable as new.
 
#86
LBS-bass said:
There's often a very poor picture of used inventory on the Guitar Center site. If you compare those types of shots against, say, the detailed pictures we typically see in the classifieds here, it's clear that the stores aren't allocating much time or effort to this.

I have seen some smaller online retailers try to do this in the past, but I don't see it as a practice that's been sustainable over the majority of inventory a large seller would have. Again, once you take something out of the box it's no longer sellable as new.
Click to expand...
Yeah.
GC.
Low light and bad angle.
I don't know what their problem is.

Music Go Round sells used basses and always posts good pics of actual basses.
 
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#88
The tax part sucks. I just made my first online gear purchase since online retailers started collecting Washington sales tax last summer. Wasn't thrilled about that. They aren't either though. No tax was one of their big selling points.

No issue with the return shipping though. Don't see why they should cover people taking advantage of the "any reason" return policies. From my own experience with the customer service from the ones I use (musician's friend and Zzounds), if you actually have an issue with an order, I'm sure they'll take care of you.
 
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#90
In my experience EVERY store charges you back for the free shipping plus the return shipping if you are returning it because you simply decided you didn't like it. The only time any store has covered the return costs has been when the item was not acceptable (damaged, defective, not what you ordered etc.) .... it's always been a simple matter of whether the problem was the store's responsibility or not as far as who covers the shipping costs. Not sure why anyone would assume they can buy stuff and have it shipped out at the stores expense and then returned at the stores expense after you try it out for free.
 
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#91
I've had nothing but great experiences dealing with and buying from Sweetwater. Especially if you have an issue with an item you purchased, their support staff is great. Built a nice relationship with my Rep. Many hi end purchases with them

I have used MF and GC with the 15-20% coupons for less expensive items and no issues with them either.

Reverb is good and no tax charged.
Used on TB classifieds and no tax.
 
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#92
Watchootognbout said:
VSN is a small seller.Yes.
But not used gear.
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That and Reverb are good options if you want to see the inventory. Reverb has a lot of little mom & pop type stores selling new gear the way we used to do it back in the day- on the sales floor. I don't think we'll ever see a Sweetwater doing this with actual pics, but at least you have these other choices.
 
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#93
Tom Gallo said:
I was a regular customer of a small, locally owned chain, Daddy's Junky Music. I spent thousands there over the years. In the location I frequented, I knew all of the employees by name and more importantly, they knew me by name, knew what I was interested in and treated me like a valued customer. The rise of online retailing and a guitar center moving helped with the demise of the chain.
Click to expand...

/c:

I remember Daddy's Junky Music....
 
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#94
Where I live if i want to try something other than Fender or Ibanez I'm a basically just crap out of luck...I support my local Mom and Pop whenever I can and 99.9% of the time the match or beat internet prices on everything...

online I have used all the major outlets as well as a few not so major and have had basically good luck with all of them...Best customer service experiences have been with Sweetwater and Zzounds...

I also am very lucky to have one of the best drum shops in the country within driving distance...and they kill internet prices every time!!! and all they guys that work there play...and the selection is out of this world...basically every brand on the market (all but Ddrum as the owner hates them for some reason)...funny story I wanted a particular matched set of cymbals recently...one of the big chains had them on sale...I walked in and said, "hey can you sell me the same set for that price?"....the owner said sure, "but only if you want to pay more!"...he beat the sell price by 20% and threw in a Branded Cymbal bag to match!!! for Drum gear I go no place else ever...
 
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#96
LBS-bass said:
Do you really want to pay the costs associated with having a photographer take multiple pictures of every item in their inventory and putting all those pictures online?
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That's what Sweetwater does. One reason I prefer them, the other being that they post the weights, as someone already mentioned.

Joe Nerve said:
Other places only show you the bass past a certain price point. $700 I think?
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Sweetwater does it for all basses $299 and up.
 
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#100
The internet tax thing has been years in the making - I'm surprised the "no sales tax" has lasted as long as it has.

As noted above, there is no free lunch. Anything listed as "free" is being made up elsewhere, be it lower margins, lower wages, or (hopefully), increased efficiency.

Consumers always want stuff cheaper. But price and value are two different things, and sometimes short-term savings lead to long-term losses.
 
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