Klarinet Archive - Posting 000592.txt from 2000/06

From: peter.stoll@-----.ca
Subj: [kl] Re: price of instruments/Weiner
Date: Sat, 17 Jun 2000 09:58:02 -0400

I'm continuing with this thread as someone requested more info. First to
Ed Lacy, thanks, that's a good analysis of the other side in this
situation. My problem was not with the price being offered by Muncy so
much as the attitude of the salesman, which became a bit hostile when I
explained how much I thought was a fair price. If you can't meet that--no
problem, just put me off politely. I'd never tried to sell an instrument
to one of these places before. One of the things that surprised me was the
insistence by the manager at Muncy that I not call on their 8OO number
("that's only for sales"), but use the toll line. Now having bought from
them before, that struck me as a bit unfair. You either provide an 8OO
number as a general service to your customers or not. And he was not
polite about it either.

As for Weiner, oh boy! What a mess. I wanted to try a particular bass
mouthpiece. I called up, and the order clerk said no problem, they had one
in stock and could ship it out right away. I asked about the shipping to
Canada, was told it was something like $1O or so. Fine. Having had
problems in the past, I called back in 2 days to confirm that it had been
shipped. Oh, not yet came the reply. I'll have to call shipping and
confirm that we actually have the item in stock, it might just be on our
computer system.

Well no confirmation call, one way or the other, ever came. Now Weiner's
8OO, like several other mail-order barns, doesn't work to Canada. So each
time I'm calling it's long distance. The third time the mouthpiece has
reappeared and should be sent out "the next day". You know what's coming.
Two more go-rounds, with the item being "lost" in their shipping
department.

What finally transpires after several more long-distance calls is that
yes, they have the mouthpiece, but don't want to ship to Canada, as
shipping would be prohibitively expensive (that's never been the case
before). I said fine, but I've made a lot of long distance calls, as a
public relations gesture and since it was the ever-conflicting stories of
the cust.service reps that kept me calling back, I'd like a refund of $1O
to cover my long-distance bill, so at least their mistakes didn't end up
costing me money.

Well this request got me transferred to some very high up gentleman, I
think it might have even been Mr.Weiner himself. He did actually laugh at
this request! Said it was too bad but they'd never have done a transaction
with Canada anyway (I guess he figured we were located next to Albania or
something) and that no way would he refund my long-distance expense, but
I'd have a credit for $1O the next time I bought something there!!!! He
was about to hang up when I said, "uh, do you want to write down my name
for this credit?" And was told, "No, I'll remember!"

I don't have a problem with any business setting it's own policy about
where they will do business or not, but after several of their customer
service reps told me Canada was no problem, you see my frustration.

The overall impression was one of chaos and a complete lack of concern
over any but their side of a transaction. I posted about this crazy
situation at the time and a number of listers responded with "Yep, no news
there" confirmations. Buyer be warned.

On the positive side I had a few problems with International Music
Suppliers a few years ago, as had others, but from all the positive
feedback on the list, it seems they've improved their customer care
since then. So a business can wake up to these issues.

Peter Stoll
Instructor, University of Toronto
Toronto Philharmonia
Continuum
ERGO ensemble

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