Why are Thomann so good?

bingefeller

I'd never used them before until a few months ago.   Reading so much about them on here I decided to give them a try and was very impressed.  With them having such a good selection in their pedals I really can't see me buying pedals from UK dealers any more.  3 year warranty too and they give you vouchers when you write a decent review!  Cheaper than a lot of the UK dealers and you have that German efficiency and a straight foward, easy to understand stock level system.

Wunderbar!

littlethoughts

Harder to return items to, no VAT so you aren't doing the economy or small British stores any favours. But yes they are cheap and have a very good range of items and I have spent more there than I'm willing to admit

Brad

Wunderbar indeed! I've been going to them for a while now and have had nothing but good experiences with them.   

monquixote

You don't get to be the biggest in Europe without being good. 

They have economy of scale on their side over just about everyone else.

equalsql

littlethoughts said:

Harder to return items to, no VAT so you aren't doing the economy or small British stores any favours. But yes they are cheap and have a very good range of items and I have spent more there than I'm willing to admit

You most definitely pay VAT to someone when purchasing through Thomman.

crunchman

They are so big that they can squeeze suppliers to get really good prices.  They can then undercut everyone else.  If you like they are what Tesco is to the old fashioned local grocer.  I've been told by one or two shops that they would have to make a loss to match Thomann prices on some items.

For some brands, it probably doesn't help that there may be separate distribution deals for the UK and the continent.  It is probable that the UK distributors put a bigger mark up on than the German ones.

I've been looking at these recently:
http://www.thomann.de/gb/martin_guitars_d_18_retro.htm
http://www.andertons.co.uk/steel-string-acoustic-guitars/pid31471/cid677/martin-d18e-retro-series.asp

£1896 on Thomann.  £2149 everywhere in the UK.  Last week or the week before they were about £1790 on Thomann.  That is a huge difference.  Someone needs to ask questions of Westside who are Martin's UK distributor.

Normally I'd never buy a high end guitar, especially an acoustic, without trying first but with that price difference it is very tempting.  Working on the assumption that Westside are charging UK dealers significantly more than the German distributor charges, they are actually shooting themselves in the foot.  They will lose sales as people will buy them from the German dealers.

Rant over. Thomann do provide a really good service.  Apart from the normal shortcomings of buying online, like not being able to try something first, the drawbacks specific to Thomann are that it is more difficult to return items, and you generally have to wait a few days.  Most of the UK dealers will give you next day delivery.  Those aren't insurmountable.

Phil_aka_Pip

Service incl fast delivery times. Price. Ease of finding stuff on their website. No quibble returns, in fact sometimes they say "Keep the duff one and we'll send you another".

thomasross20

I'd rather pay more for a guitar I'd tried in a shop if it cost more than a couple grand!

underdog

littlethoughts;667306" said:

Harder to return items to, no VAT so you aren't doing the economy or small British stores any favours. But yes they are cheap and have a very good range of items and I have spent more there than I'm willing to admit

The 2 returns I've made to them were incredibly simple, information them I want to return, print shipping label, courier collected it, job done.

No VAT because it's inside the EU and already accounted for surely under EU VAT directive.

Not helping UK businesses? Maybe they should be better at what they do then

siremoon

Now the exception that proves the rule.  My last three orders with them all arrived damaged due to ridiculously inept packing.  It took me ages to sort the problems out and it was a constant battle against the rigid bureaucracy and lack of empowerment within their customer service organisation to achieve a resolution that was even remotely acceptable.   I may well be in a minority of one but I will never use them again

hotpot

I've been buying from Thomann for over 12 months now, I cant see me changing anytime soon. the UK stores cant even get close on price or efficiency. Is it a case of "rip off Britain" I don't know I'm not sure! but my hard earned goes a lot further in der fatherland than here in the UK.

UnclePsychosis

thomasross20;667362" said:

I'd rather pay more for a guitar I'd tried in a shop if it cost more than a couple grand!

£250+ more?

When they have a no quibble returns policy?

Next time you're throwing money away would you mind sending some my direction?

Whitecat

You do pay VAT at Thomann at time of purchase. It's charged at the local rate and I'm pretty sure it does go to the UK Treasury.

Thomann even have a subsidiary company in the UK. It's run by the former MD of Turnkey. Not sure how big it is but it is based in London.

A lot of the price advantage at the moment is coming from a declining Euro value... that may not last forever. MAP prices in Euros will vault upwards...

Remember that of the several price reductions 2015 Gibson guitars have already seen in the UK, one was in direct response to that. Obviously the reason is that since they are not selling there was no way they were going to be able to *increase* prices on the continent, so may as well just slash 'em a little here. With stronger brands you might see the opposite happening - upward price adjustments in euros to compensate for the currency plummet.

bingefeller

littlethoughts said:

Harder to return items to, no VAT so you aren't doing the economy or small British stores any favours. But yes they are cheap and have a very good range of items and I have spent more there than I'm willing to admit

Harder to return items?  I'm not sure what you mean....  I did buy a Fly Rig 5 from them and wanted to return it and had no problems.  They sent me the printouts and even had instructions for the post office with regards to what they should do on their computer to process it. 

When UK businesses can offer as good service and prices as Thomann then I will spend money there.  Of course, I still buy strings and picks from the UK as they are cheap items. 

crunchman

I looked at plane tickets.  It's probably cheaper to fly there in person and pay for a hotel if you want to try one than it is to buy in the UK.

paulk

Thomann or bax-shop.nl for me. Since I'm in The Netherlands I tend to use Bax - next day delivery

carlos

crunchman said:

They are so big that they can squeeze suppliers to get really good prices.  They can then undercut everyone else.  If you like they are what Tesco is to the old fashioned local grocer.  I've been told by one or two shops that they would have to make a loss to match Thomann prices on some items.

You make it sound like some of the UK shops are old fashioned local grocers, which they are not. I expect this has a lot to do with the deals Thomann can get from their distributors for Europe compared to the UK deals.

GuitarZero

georgenadaintl said:

crunchman said:

They are so big that they can squeeze suppliers to get really good prices.  They can then undercut everyone else.  If you like they are what Tesco is to the old fashioned local grocer.  I've been told by one or two shops that they would have to make a loss to match Thomann prices on some items.

You make it sound like some of the UK shops are old fashioned local grocers, which they are not. I expect this has a lot to do with the deals Thomann can get from their distributors for Europe compared to the UK deals.

I think the difference is that the distributors in this country literally dictate everything, from how much you can sell am item for, to what items you can put on sale and when.  Getting in with these guys is a job in itself, so once you're in, the retailers are afraid to upset them or they are out.  It's obvious that the big money in this industry is with the big brands, so nobody is going to bite the hand that feeds them.  There's a lot of shady practice in this industry.

Rocker

Hi-Fi shops, CD shops, bookstores, music shops, little corner shops. And so on. If we buy local, the local businesses will survive and be there if we need them. We didn't so most of the local shops are gone. It is important to distinguish between value and price. Thomann and others are good but if you give the business to your local shop instead of exporting your cash, everyone wins in the end. It is not worth saving £20 at the expense of the guy on High Street. Is it?

Grumpyrocker

I'm all for supporting local shops. But when the local shop is rubbish, run by someone who doesn't know their stuff, is unhelpful and doesn't offer good customer service or remotely competitive prices it's very hard to feel sympathetic. I'd happily pay a bit more for a local shop that offered good service - but so often I've been put off using local shops by the indifference and rudeness of staff, and that's not just music shop.

What local shops have over faceless internet companies is people - but if those people can't be arsed - then I'll go online.

I bought a guitar this week from Thomann that was 1/6th cheaper than even online places in the UK. I saved over £50. That's a big chunk of money

Far too many places in the UK are still like this..

underdog

Rocker;667575" said:

Hi-Fi shops, CD shops, bookstores, music shops, little corner shops. And so on. If we buy local, the local businesses will survive and be there if we need them. We didn't so most of the local shops are gone. It is important to distinguish between value and price. Thomann and others are good but if you give the business to your local shop instead of exporting your cash, everyone wins in the end. It is not worth saving £20 at the expense of the guy on High Street. Is it?

Trouble is it isn't £20 it's often £200+ on big items, 30% on small items or even items only they have in stock.