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*Sigh* lighthearted Sweetwater rant...

organworthyplayer337

organworthyplayer337

Professional Hack
Oct 28, 2014
3,069
3,243
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Charlotte, NC
#1
I've been saving for a while to buy some new gear for my home studio. I invested in a preamp that I've wanted for some time. The next thing on my list was a new microphone. Once I decided which mic I wanted for sure, I contacted Sweetwater (my go to store). Since I'm a college student and whatever I saved is exactly what I can afford, the new tax stuff made it difficult to go through Sweetwater. SO, I asked my sales engineer if I could possibly get a slight discount, I didn't even specify an amount, on the mic. Anything would be helpful cause I really wanted to go through my sales engineer. He told me that there was nothing he could do because that brand has set prices and do not allow any discounts. So I found another retailer and completed my order..... just a week later, the same mic I inquired about is ON SALE for $300 off :bored:.

I would find it difficult to believe that, as a sales engineer, that you were not aware of a huge sale that was happening just a week in advance.

Please please please don't read this a diss on SW. I love Sweetwater and my sales engineer has always done a great job. But this just has me super disappointed.

Rant over, thanks for listening. I'll get off your lawn now.
 
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#4
organworthyplayer337 said:
Rant over, thanks for listening. I'll get off your lawn now.
Click to expand...
:laugh:

i'm with you on your disappointment. i'm going to guess that the rep had no clue! most/all sales reps (IME) would gladly tell/warn a customer to wait a week for the 'big sale' in order for the customer to take advantage and thus cement the loyalty. so i'm guessing he/she just didn't know! sorry about your mic deal. good luck on your recordings and your home studio! :thumbsup:
 
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#6
That's unfortunate - does SW offer any 30 day price protection? A lot of stores do and will honor the sale price within 30 days. I would find out for sure.
Sales and discounts are often because a new model is coming out or the current model is being discontinued. This is determined entirely by the manufacturer or distributor - the store isn't taking any losses and in the case of Sweetwater the reps probably get a notice the morning of the change if they get anything at all.
There's no chance a sales rep will have any knowledge of what gear company X is planning for next week and gear company X isn't going to let on what their future marketing plans are to anyone except their distrubutor.
 
#10
organworthyplayer337 said:
I would find it difficult to believe that, as a sales engineer, that you were not aware of a huge sale that was happening just a week in advance.
Click to expand...

I can't comment on Sweetwater's practices, but where I work, sales staff are generally the last to find out about sales. Oftentimes, marketing will inform our customers before the information gets circulated to sales.
 
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#12
superblues said:
I can't comment on Sweetwater's practices, but where I work, sales staff are generally the last to find out about sales. Oftentimes, marketing will inform our customers before the information gets circulated to sales.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I guess I thought if he knew which specific microphone brands “never” allow discounts, he would also be aware of a huge mic-only sale (including said brand) coming up in less than a week. But I get that it might have been a misunderstanding, or lack of communication.
 
#13
Update: It happened again!!! I reached out to my sales rep about a specific bass drum pedal. He gave me a quote but I could do better from Musician's Friend (Got $50 off from MF plus $14 rebate!). 2 days later, sweetwater has the exact pedal I asked about on sale for $20 off. I don't know if he's messing with me or what lol. The mic and the pedal are two very specific models/items and Sweetwater rarely ever has straight up sales at all, so the fact that they just so happen to have a sale TWICE with very specific items is fishy to me :cautious:

Either way, saved a lot more with Musician's Friend plus I get $14 back in a month and a half to spend on anything I want on their site. I don't know what took me so long to come around to MF but I'm definitely glad I figured it out. The more this little shenanigan happens, the less I want to buy from Sweetwater :roflmao:
 
#14
Most retailers will honor a sale prices within a certain amount of time after a purchase. Usually two weeks.

In some places it's the law to do so.

Ask the retailer you bought from to give you the sale price since that should be across all retailers on that item. If they refuse, consider returning it and buying from Sweetwater if that's an option.

ALL products can be discounted. The manufacturer's prohibition is on *advertised* discounts. This keeps the playing field level between brick & mortar and online retailers, and different territories.
 
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#16
Killed_by_Death said:
sales engineer
always cracks me up
Click to expand...

Recently disused thread, but it looks like a good place to mention my latest Sweetwater experiences.

Some years back, I had a "Sales Engineer" that is a bass player and was knowledgeable about gear that I was interested in. I bought a couple of Ibanez basses and other pieces like cables and straps through him. He stopped responding to email completely later on, so I contacted Sweetwater to ask what was going on and was told he was promoted out of the SE position. (It would have been nice if he'd contacted his customers and told them and gave them a chance to pick someone else, but not a word.) The next time I logged in I saw that I'd been assigned a new SE. This new guy was not a bass player and was not a good source of information about the things I asked him about. I prefer using email vs. making a phone call because I can set down in writing what I want to know. This guy was one of those younger, non-email types that answers either the first question only, or picks one question to answer, and ignores all the rest. No attention span? So that had not been a good experience and I've not ordered anything from them through him.

Latest happening is this. I asked him a general question via email about pricing drums for a friend, and told him if he didn't know drums that well, to pass the question along to someone there who knows drums. I never heard back from him, but I heard from another SE who answered my question. The next time I logged in I saw that this guy was now my assigned SE. I wrote him back and said, if Sweetwater wants its customers to have personal service from an SE, should we not be able to pick someone we want to work with, vs. Sweetwater doing it. I asked him for a list of SEs who play bass so I could choose. He responded by telling me who my new SE was going to be and sure enough, that's who it is now.

If I buy anything else from Sweetwater, and at this point in my bass career I don't need to buy anything, I will probably buy it without logging in and dealing with an SE. I should get to deal with who I want to if I'm going to spend money with them. Why do I even need an SE to affirm what I already know from reading about a product on the internet and on Talkbass?

Music stores that we grew up with were all about being able to talk with a person and feel you knew them and they had an interest in us as musicians and people, and if Sweetwater is trying to replicate that with the SE structure, they aren't succeeding with it, at least not in my experience over the last ten or so years dealing with them.

I've written the drum SE but have not heard from him, probably won't, and don't plan on contacting this latest guy. I may or may not try to call them and find out who supervises these guys to share my experience, because I think it's just the way that Sweetwater rolls.

Yeah, @Killed_by_Death, "Sales Engineer" cracks me up too! :roflmao:
 
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#17
The S.E. I was working with doesn't understand at all as far as I can tell. I eMailed him about the issue with my new bass, just so it couldn't be misunderstood on the phone.
I'm not sure what the Hell happened, but the Customer Service people contacted me with a really wild idea that my inlays were falling out, which was NOT the issue.

What I can't figure out is why the S.E. didn't just forward my eMail to these people, or was it the C.S. people that wildly misunderstood my eMail?
I called the C.S. Manager & got action quickly, but it still left me going 'What the Hell?'.
 

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