GAK madness

GuitarZero

bingefeller said:

GuitarZero said:

Why?  

Let's take a hypothetical situation.  My Company (which doesn't exist obviously) offers great customer service, competitive pricing and excellent returns policy, yet navigates it's way around the Google Shopping restraints to maximise the number of visits sites in the hope of those visits turning into sales.

I don't see the issue.

I think the biggest issue GAK have in this area is that people are complaining that their wording can be misinterpreted and so people are pressing buy without realising that the item isn't in stock.  They should make it clearer for buyers, and hopefully after reading the last thread, they will, but I don't see why they should change the way they use Google Shopping, particularly when all their major competitors are doing the same thing.

It would be annoying if stuff was advertised as being available, and you ordered it, only to get a call saying it wasn't available.  

I agree, that's no good, and it shouldn't happen often, but it will happen unfortunately.  Anyone with any experience of stock systems will tell you.

bingefeller

GuitarZero said:

bingefeller said:

GuitarZero said:

Why?  

Let's take a hypothetical situation.  My Company (which doesn't exist obviously) offers great customer service, competitive pricing and excellent returns policy, yet navigates it's way around the Google Shopping restraints to maximise the number of visits sites in the hope of those visits turning into sales.

I don't see the issue.

I think the biggest issue GAK have in this area is that people are complaining that their wording can be misinterpreted and so people are pressing buy without realising that the item isn't in stock.  They should make it clearer for buyers, and hopefully after reading the last thread, they will, but I don't see why they should change the way they use Google Shopping, particularly when all their major competitors are doing the same thing.

It would be annoying if stuff was advertised as being available, and you ordered it, only to get a call saying it wasn't available.  

I agree, that's no good, and it shouldn't happen often, but it will happen unfortunately.  Anyone with any experience of stock systems will tell you.

It's never happened to me when I've ordered on Thomann, Amazon, Strings Direct, Soundsgreatmusic, Absolute Music Solutions, Guitar Guitar or Andertons.  Not sure what anyone else's experiences with these companies have been but those are where I get most of my gear and I've never had that problem with them in the years I have been ordering pedals through the internet.

capo4th

In stock

Out of stock call for availability

Available to order call for details

Discontinued

Quite simple if you ask me 

bingefeller

capo4th said:

In stock

Out of stock call for availability

Available to order call for details

Discontinued

Quite simple if you ask me 

Is that what GAK's site says?

rlw

WTF does all this Google bollocks have to do with my original post.

Ex dem guitar gets sold, gets returned - so now secondhand and ex dem - and is back in the shop, admittedly marked as ex dem but not secondhand, at a higher price than I paid for it new.

WTF?

bingefeller

rlw said:

WTF does all this Google bollocks have to do with my original post.

Ex dem guitar gets sold, gets returned - so now secondhand and ex dem - and is back in the shop, admittedly marked as ex dem but not secondhand, at a higher price than I paid for it new.

WTF?

The "Google bollocks" also relates to GAK's business practices.  

rlw

bingefeller said:

rlw said:

WTF does all this Google bollocks have to do with my original post.

Ex dem guitar gets sold, gets returned - so now secondhand and ex dem - and is back in the shop, admittedly marked as ex dem but not secondhand, at a higher price than I paid for it new.

WTF?

The "Google bollocks" also relates to GAK's business practices.  

I figured that out but .....................

crunchman

rlw said:

WTF does all this Google bollocks have to do with my original post.

Ex dem guitar gets sold, gets returned - so now secondhand and ex dem - and is back in the shop, admittedly marked as ex dem but not secondhand, at a higher price than I paid for it new.

WTF?

People are carrying on the discussion from the other GAK thread that got closed.

bingefeller said:

It's never happened to me when I've ordered on Thomann, Amazon, Strings Direct, Soundsgreatmusic, Absolute Music Solutions, Guitar Guitar or Andertons.  Not sure what anyone else's experiences with these companies have been but those are where I get most of my gear and I've never had that problem with them in the years I have been ordering pedals through the internet.

I've had it happen to me at GuitarGuitar as well as at GAK.  I've ordered from StringsDirect and Andertons without any problems. 

GuitarZero

bingefeller said:

GuitarZero said:

bingefeller said:

GuitarZero said:

Why?  

Let's take a hypothetical situation.  My Company (which doesn't exist obviously) offers great customer service, competitive pricing and excellent returns policy, yet navigates it's way around the Google Shopping restraints to maximise the number of visits sites in the hope of those visits turning into sales.

I don't see the issue.

I think the biggest issue GAK have in this area is that people are complaining that their wording can be misinterpreted and so people are pressing buy without realising that the item isn't in stock.  They should make it clearer for buyers, and hopefully after reading the last thread, they will, but I don't see why they should change the way they use Google Shopping, particularly when all their major competitors are doing the same thing.

It would be annoying if stuff was advertised as being available, and you ordered it, only to get a call saying it wasn't available.  

I agree, that's no good, and it shouldn't happen often, but it will happen unfortunately.  Anyone with any experience of stock systems will tell you.

It's never happened to me when I've ordered on Thomann, Amazon, Strings Direct, Soundsgreatmusic, Absolute Music Solutions, Guitar Guitar or Andertons.  Not sure what anyone else's experiences with these companies have been but those are where I get most of my gear and I've never had that problem with them in the years I have been ordering pedals through the internet.

It's happened to me on Strings Direct, I ordered some PRS strings and Paul (I think) e-mailed me apologetically afterwards and said they didn't have the right ones and offered me alternatives.  I opted to wait, I wasn't in a rush.  It was a blip, I've had dozens of orders from Strings Direct with no issues, just that one, but still, it's an example of how it can happen.

I've read reports where it's happened on Thomann, Andertons AND GuitarGuitar, though I personally haven't had a problem.  Amazon it's happened to me when using a re-seller rather than when shipping themselves.  It's not a GAK problem, it's an industry problem, but obviously I have no idea if certain retailers are more susceptible to it than others. 

guitarfishbay

bingefeller said:

GuitarZero said:

bingefeller said:

GuitarZero said:

Why?  

Let's take a hypothetical situation.  My Company (which doesn't exist obviously) offers great customer service, competitive pricing and excellent returns policy, yet navigates it's way around the Google Shopping restraints to maximise the number of visits sites in the hope of those visits turning into sales.

I don't see the issue.

I think the biggest issue GAK have in this area is that people are complaining that their wording can be misinterpreted and so people are pressing buy without realising that the item isn't in stock.  They should make it clearer for buyers, and hopefully after reading the last thread, they will, but I don't see why they should change the way they use Google Shopping, particularly when all their major competitors are doing the same thing.

It would be annoying if stuff was advertised as being available, and you ordered it, only to get a call saying it wasn't available.  

I agree, that's no good, and it shouldn't happen often, but it will happen unfortunately.  Anyone with any experience of stock systems will tell you.

It's never happened to me when I've ordered on Thomann, Amazon, Strings Direct, Soundsgreatmusic, Absolute Music Solutions, Guitar Guitar or Andertons.  Not sure what anyone else's experiences with these companies have been but those are where I get most of my gear and I've never had that problem with them in the years I have been ordering pedals through the internet.

Honestly that is just your luck.  Issues of all sorts happen everywhere - what really matters is how the companies deal with them.

In the past 6 months alone I've had it happen four times, the only one on your list there would be Strings Direct but they sorted it pronto.

But issues from that list:

Thomann sent me an opened and used guitar part, claimed it was used for testing (which would've been unnecessary), then offered me a discount that didn't cover replacing the worn part, but eventually did swap the item for a new one.  I did not find their email response time to be very fast.  I've had issues resolved much much faster via email by UK companies (in the past year alone - Strings Direct, KMR Audio, Coda Music, all super fast very professional after sales). 

Andertons I did have a few issues with (mostly slow contact, slow refund) but this happened over 2 years ago so I don't think it would be relevant feedback right now.

Guitar Guitar I haven't used as far as I remember, Absolute Music I've used once and they were fine, Sounds Great is fairly local to me so I'd usually drop in rather than order online.

But yeah the whole point is sometimes it is down to luck, sometimes it is down to a failing at their end, sometimes it is the courier's fault, but whatever happens to me it is how the shops deal with it that makes all the difference.

GuitarZero

bingefeller said:

rlw said:

WTF does all this Google bollocks have to do with my original post.

Ex dem guitar gets sold, gets returned - so now secondhand and ex dem - and is back in the shop, admittedly marked as ex dem but not secondhand, at a higher price than I paid for it new.

WTF?

The "Google bollocks" also relates to GAK's business practices.  

And the vast majority of other retailers that use Google Shopping...

Paul_C

I had a huge row at Xmas with John Lewis over an iPad that never reached me (the primary suspect was the courier) which ended with a full refund plus £40 by way of apology.

It wasn't the missing iPad so much as the conflicting stories they gave me (by the sound of things it was chaos their end so I'm not surprised, but I struggled to get a straight answer out of them) and I was hugely pissed off by the way they dealt with me.

I don't mind things going wrong, though of course I'd always prefer them not to, but I don't like to be messed around when they do.

slacker

rlw said:

I bought an LP Special - yellow/DC/2015 - from GAK when it was reduced to £569 as it was ex-demonstration.  I sent it back as we didn't get on and it seems to be back on sale at £699 - ie. normal price - but described as reduced as an ex-demonstration.

Excuse me?

Can you play my SG? I'll put the price up by £130?

rlw

slacker;658051" said:

rlw said:

I bought an LP Special - yellow/DC/2015 - from GAK when it was reduced to £569 as it was ex-demonstration.  I sent it back as we didn't get on and it seems to be back on sale at £699 - ie. normal price - but described as reduced as an ex-demonstration.



Excuse me?










Can you play my SG? I'll put the price up by £130?

Only if it's a 2015

slacker

It's a 2008. D'oh

WezV

rlw said:

WTF does all this Google bollocks have to do with my original post.

Ex dem guitar gets sold, gets returned - so now secondhand and ex dem - and is back in the shop, admittedly marked as ex dem but not secondhand, at a higher price than I paid for it new.

WTF?

back to the original point then.

 

they are free to charge what they want.  If they percieve the value to now be £699  for whatever reason then why shouldn't they list it as such.      You also had the option of seling it on yourself and you would have been free to charge whatever you wanted

 

However,  I do agree its an odd move.   Who is going to purchase an ex-demo item at full RRP??  But I don't see GAK as ripping off a customer, Its GAK restricting a potential sale by overpricing an item. I believe its down to the buyer to establish if they are getting something for a good price, or if they are getting it for a price they are happy to pay.  

 

As for listing it as "ex-demo" and not "second hand".... it makes me wonder which term shops should use for returned Items.     You never see them list it as a "returned item", thomann seem to go for "B-stock" for returns and "deko" for returns with flaws, but is it fair to class a perfectly good guitar with minimal playing wear as B-stock?   "ex-demo" is probably the most accurate way of describing a guitar which is still in good condition with minimal playing wear that has been tried out by a few customers.  the only difference between the traditoonal ex-demo category and a customer return is that the customer tried it out in in the comfort of their own home rather than the shop.    

 

 It seems to me GAK are just making a rod for their own back, someone would have accepted a bit of ex demo wear if it was discounted but will be less likely to at the higher price... is this guitar still going to be "ex-demo" when its been sent out to 5 different customers?#

 

Either way, if they refunded you the price you paid then I wouldn't worry about it

Chalky

I think the law stipulates it cannot be sold as new but doesn't specify the alternative terminology.