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Sweetwater and Guitar Center Calling

#81
It's amazing that ppl on here would stop shopping somewhere because they called to follow up. As other have said, you can just tell them to stop. As for me, at least I know they (SW) are there when I have an issue, which has been more than once.
 
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#83
This thread clearly illustrates how different people react to the same things. It's kinda spooky in a way.

I've made two purchases from Sweetwater, the last being a pretty expensive bass. Both times I worked with sales rep Mark Bruhn. Both times he called me back to see how everything was going with my purchase. Personally, I really appreciate this! Whether it's because he has to as part of his job, or whether he does it because he's just a good salesman, I appreciate the attention and his willingness to make me happy with things. On top of that, on that bass purchase I mentioned he really went the extra mile to find one with a wood grain pattern that was to my liking, going so far as to locate three of this model that were not yet posted on their website when I first started shopping.

I'm a fan of Sweetwater, or at least ONE of their sales staff.
 
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#84
[skyraider] said:
Actually your "Um.... Just don't answer?" struck me as rather insulting.
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yeah, common sense sure has some serious interpersonal limitations! :laugh:

[skyraider] said:
I reserve the right to publicly complain about it.
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:roflmao:

a complaint is something you might address with the 'offender', but when you do it here: it's more like whining.

no matter, whatever we call it = you're doing it really well! :D good luck getting great service at the places you shop! :thumbsup:

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#86
When Sweetwater calls I just talk their ear off. I tell them everything I ever did, am doing, want to do, might do, will never do, etc., etc. They have to listen to it all. :roflmao:

Finally, they will say something like, "Ah, I've got some more calls to make, so I have to go". They don't call back unless I call them, or send them an email. :D Great fun!

Edit: They do take care of me when something is wrong with the gear I purchased. So I do appreciate that about them!
 
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#87
I've purchased from Sweetwater regularly since 2008. Had the same sales engineer that entire time, he's been really helpful on numerous occasions, even so far as to go to have basses brought to him to play for me while I'm on the phone so I can get some idea whether to purchase them. No one in the industry has this level of service.
 
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#89
[skyraider] said:
I've recently bought some fairly expensive gear from both Sweetwater and Guitar Center. Both of which have decided to start calling customers after purchases, which I am finding very annoying.

So far Sweetwater is easily the worst offender, basically calling me every day for weeks after I bought an American Jazz from them. It was bad enough to where I ended up blocking the number. They had sent an email to me asking me to take a survey and I just told them straight up that if they didn't stop with the calling I'd be blocking them and never buy from Sweetwater again. I also sent an email to a bunch of email addresses they had included with the survey asking them to stop. I got three or four more calls from them and blocked.

That was a little while back. Flash forward to yesterday I made another big-ticket purchase from Guitar Center day before yesterday. I get an email from some "Gear Advisor" at GC telling me they would be calling me and emailing me. I had gone to GC because I wanted to support my local GC, but also because they hadn't been calling me, like SW. I replied to the email saying simply "Please do no contact me unless I request assistance."

What is up with this new stupidness?? I know they are hoping to sell me more gear and hoping that I'll be thinking highly of their after the sale support I guess, but really?
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They are telling themselves that fawning after you for info somehow makes up for having some pretty poor sales people.

Not all are poor, but most are useless, either due to their own training or not being given the tools/info to be better.
 
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#90
OldPlucker said:
Now you are supposed to ask yourself these questions as you self-checkout at Walmart. I even ask myself if I want the merchandise bagged. My W2 from Walmart should be here soon.
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Without getting wordy, I despise self check-out and most forms of kiosk ordering. Call me Boomer or whatever other demeaning terminology you have but I simply prefer face to face communication.

I was getting those calls from Sweetwater the last time I bought from them about 5 years ago. The first, "Everything OK?" call was fine. When the 2nd, "just seeing if there's anything you need?" call came in, I asked them to stop and they did.

Mugre
 
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#91
If it hasn't already been pointed out, which I'll assume it has since SW is highly recommended here...
The phone calls may (and sometimes are) seem like sales calls but the guys are actually looking for feedback. They wanna know how your gear is and is it up to scratch. Does it work as expected? You're complaining about good after care.

retailers can't win.
 
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#92
Microbass said:
If it hasn't already been pointed out, which I'll assume it has since SW is highly recommended here...
The phone calls may (and sometimes are) seem like sales calls but the guys are actually looking for feedback. They wanna know how your gear is and is it up to scratch. Does it work as expected? You're complaining about good after care.

retailers can't win.
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Nope. They are not performing good after care. Good after care would, IMO, include not calling me when I tell them to not call me. And especially not bombarding me with calls. I'm surprised this keeps coming up in this thread.
 
#93
lermgalieu said:
It's amazing that ppl on here would stop shopping somewhere because they called to follow up. As other have said, you can just tell them to stop. As for me, at least I know they (SW) are there when I have an issue, which has been more than once.
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Apparently I can't just tell them to stop. Well, I CAN tell them to stop, but they obviously didn't want to stop.
 
#98
Microbass said:
Not going to lie. I did skim the entire thread as this subject has come up before and was resolved by saying "stop", so I apologise.

Thing is, this run retail still get a rough ride.
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I agree, which is why it is even more important that they fix the problem.

I actually liked Sweetwater up until this problem, so I'm hoping they can figure it out. I doubt I'll be a customer again, but maybe. If I do I know I'll be using a Burner number.
 
#99
My SW guy, Nich Magnini, pretty clearly keeps notes on our interactions. Either that or he has an astounding memory. He only calls when I buy stuff, which can go many months between, but he somehow remembers little details about the things I share about school, the bands, the gear, and asks about them. I think that's pretty cool.

Another time he spent a couple days trying to lock down for whether any of their replacement tuners would directly drop into a bass of mine. They wouldn't. But he gave me the name and number of a guy at Hipshot to call.

If I have a complaint about SW it's their occasionally limited selection of brands.
 

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