Damn Thomann being all efficient and super organised!

DrJazzTap

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!

Wazmeister

They are excellent.

Henrytwang

Thomann  are super efficient. The goods seem to fly out of the door and across Europe with no problem. Unfortunately things are inclined to slow up a bit when they fall into the hands of Parcel force. I wonder what will happen in the event of a no deal Brexit, the customs delays and service changes might well make them less desirable.

Iamnobody

I had a similar efficient service using crazyparts.de - ordered Wednesday at 6pm delivered to me today. I was advised shipping was ~ 10-14 days. 

Whitecat

Henrytwang said:

Thomann  are super efficient. The goods seem to fly out of the door and across Europe with no problem. Unfortunately things are inclined to slow up a bit when they fall into the hands of Parcel force. I wonder what will happen in the event of a no deal Brexit, the customs delays and service changes might well make them less desirable.

I was talking about this with a mate the other day - deal or no deal things are going to vastly slow down. I wonder if they will continue to collect VAT at point of purchase (they have a UK entity already setup after all) to speed up logistics. Stuff may get pulled for customs inspection just to make sure no one's hiding contraband under the pickguard of your new Harley Benton Tele, but for the most part if the VAT, duty etc were all paid up front it would get to your door faster. Amazon does this already when you buy from overseas and it does mean stuff arrives quicker.

77ric

Harley Benton should do a smuggler tele variant just for that very purpose. 

Bigsby

Henrytwang said:

Thomann  are super efficient. The goods seem to fly out of the door and across Europe with no problem. Unfortunately things are inclined to slow up a bit when they fall into the hands of Parcel force. I wonder what will happen in the event of a no deal Brexit, the customs delays and service changes might well make them less desirable.

So far I've not had a Thomann order end up with Parcel Force - just DPD (very good) or UPS (crap tracking), both arrived promptly.

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!).

DrJazzTap

Bigsby said:

Henrytwang said:

Thomann  are super efficient. The goods seem to fly out of the door and across Europe with no problem. Unfortunately things are inclined to slow up a bit when they fall into the hands of Parcel force. I wonder what will happen in the event of a no deal Brexit, the customs delays and service changes might well make them less desirable.

So far I've not had a Thomann order end up with Parcel Force - just DPD (very good) or UPS (crap tracking), both arrived promptly.

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!).

Thing is I would support a UK based business in a heartbeat. The issue i had was, I wanted a Dimarzio Chopper T in white. The ones I found were about £20 more expensive.

I think we can have things like guitarguitar, andertons etc I just dont think the UK market is big enough to justify a Thomann sized operation on these shores. Especially in light of a no deal Brexit. I don't really want to get embroiled in all of that, but I can't see that Thomann would set up a UK operation to please us Brits.

exocet

Whilst I don't want to get all "Brexity" I can't help but notice how German companies appear to have (albeit rather late in the day) developed a really strong web based preference to take advantage of the single market that was also available to UK companies. I've noticed that in the past 2 years, that an increasing number of Amazon purchases have actually been fulfilled by a German company.

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. 

Bigsby

DrJazzTap said:

Thing is I would support a UK based business in a heartbeat. The issue i had was, I wanted a Dimarzio Chopper T in white. The ones I found were about £20 more expensive.

I think we can have things like guitarguitar, andertons etc I just dont think the UK market is big enough to justify a Thomann sized operation on these shores. Especially in light of a no deal Brexit. I don't really want to get embroiled in all of that, but I can't see that Thomann would set up a UK operation to please us Brits.

Well, first off I don't quite get this point: Since the advent of online sales, all EU based dealers have been dealing with the same potential market. And even if you look at country-based markets, a German or French dealer isn't looking at a significantly different guitar market than a UK dealer, are they? I'm not sure why Thomann seem to be bigger - do they have higher volume sales, or are they just stocking more items than the 'big guys' in the UK? They obviously have competitors over in Germany  -  I know DV247, but I don't know much about the market over there.

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.

Bigsby

exocet said:

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. 

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.

exocet

Bigsby said:

exocet said:

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. 

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.

The act of selling won’t be that different especially with an Internet model, the issue is more to do with consumer rights and “post sale” warranty issues that ultimately will result in the need to set up a presence in the target market or sell through distribution.   I was attempting to put a positive spin on my usual negative views of this situation....no, I don't believe it'll be better either;)

Nibulniblin

Thomannophile here. Have dealt with them quite a few times.

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.

stratology

I visited their shop last year. Immense, like a whole shopping centre just for musical instruments. A hall that is twice as large as any local guitar shop, just for marimbas and vibraphones. A small village of warehouses. A Thomann restaurant & cafe, in its own building. Quite impressive. 

Nothing but great experiences with their online sales and support.