Last night I ordered a few bits and bobs from Thomann (a chopper T for the Rossi tele) and some strings around 10pm.
I woke up this morning and thought "damn need a superswitch", checked the thomann website and to be fair, the website says "Did you forget to order something? No problem - just make a new order,
and as long as your original order hasn't yet been dispatched, there
will be no extra delivery charges. "
I had an email at 7.14am this morning from them saying "your order has left our warehouse".
It's actually made me laugh, I know they are good but come on!
I would love to change my username, but I fully understand the T&C's (it was an old band nickname). So please feel free to call me Dave.
Comments
I'm now hoping the UK market will matter enough that Thomann will set up a full UK operation in the event of a no deal Brexit - they certainly have taken some steps towards this as recent special orders were made with a bank transfer to a UK bank account in the name of Thomann.
I wish we had an equivalent dealer in the UK, and I don't quite know why we don't - a large dealer with really extensive stock and good customer service. Our largest dealers don't have the same stock coverage, even if they can manage similar levels of customer service (and not all of them do!).
I can't help but feel that the UK failed to capitalise on what was a significant opportunity that just won't be there once tariff barriers and removal of consumer rights across geographic boundaries appear.
Of course, without the single market, it won't be worth the hassle for EU based retailers to sell to UK consumers so perhaps we'll end up with stronger UK based offerings.
Also, dealers aren't looking to please as much as make profits. If Thomann think they can do well with a UK warehouse/online business, then they may do it - but not to please us.
Having less competition doesn't usually result in a better experience for consumers.
I don't think it'll be more hassle than selling to the States, and European dealers certainly do this at the moment. The hassle is mostly going to be for us, the UK consumers who'll have to work out whether it's worth paying the VAT on goods+shipping, dealing with paying the duty, etc. Many won't bother, so again, less competition for UK dealers, and probably not great news for us consumers.
Latest episode: last Thursday received a beautiful, faultless Chinese-built ES 330 style. Disappointingly, my amp couldn't bring out the best I knew it was capable of.
I emailed Thomann, explaining why I would like a refund. They emailed me a returns label. I took it to local UPS pickup point the following day, Friday. It was delivered to them on Monday.
Full refund into my account yesterday (Tuesday).
Exemplary.
Nothing but great experiences with their online sales and support.