Klarinet Archive - Posting 000553.txt from 2000/06

From: Daniel Leeson <leeson0@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] ebay bassethorn
Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2000 09:20:29 -0400

With respect to basset horns, Bob Howe wrote:

> Woodwind and Brasswind presently sells bassetti by all three big makers,
> they go discounted for 7 kilobucks and up.

Bob's satement about Woodwind and Brasswind needs a little adendum. I
recently contacted them and asked about purchasing a cocobolo wood
basset horn made to order with very specific conditions from a certain
manufacturer whose products they sell. It is as if I were speaking
choctaw and they were speaking serbo-croation.

What I got back was a statement about which basset horns they sell and,
in any case, none were in stock, so there was nothing that they could
sell to me.

I went right back to them and said, "I don't want what you normally sell
and don't have in stock in any case. I want a basset horn made by ...,
I want it out of cocobolo wood, I want a narrow bore, and I want a
wooden bell. Will you please ask that manufacturer if he will make one
for me?"

Never got an answer to that one. It is as if once they told me what
they had (or in this case did not have), they had used up whatever
marketing savvy and interest they had in available.

Now is it my imagination or has Woodwind and Brasswind gotten to the
point of dealing with customers on the basis of "this is what we have -
what you want is not my problem"? I had just driven across the US on
I80 and passed their place without stopping. If I were doing the trip
again, I would stop this time and that salesperson and I would have a
little discussion on the matter of how to sell things.

It is not that I don't know a little bit about basset horns but I got
the reaction that my correspondent had an overblown sense of
self-importance with respect to her knowledge of basset horndom as
contrasted with mine. I would think that they would want to make an
effort to get me what it is I want.

In effect what I wanted to buy was not what they wanted to sell so I got
ignored. That is a lot different from the time I bought a bass clarinet
in A from them and got a receptive, responsible reaction to my request.

Am I being unfair in my changed opinion of them because of this single
and unpleasant incident. (Incidentally, my a cocobolo wood basset horn
with a wooden bell, narrow bore, and gold plated keys is now being made
by someone else and W&B blew the sale. I'll tell you about the horn
when I get it in January.)
--
***************************
** Dan Leeson **
** leeson0@-----.net **
***************************

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