Guitar Shop Rant (Online/Offline issue)

[Jonny]

In a nutshell.

Price: ASK/CALL

WHY!? WHY MUST I ASK FOR THE PRICE!? I know it may slightly mean I am interested, but I instantly LOSE interest when I don't see a $%&#ing price. WHY must you hide it from me, is it some kind of $%&#ing secret!? NO! You're selling the damn thing. The damn thing has a price.

If it's expensive beyond what I can pay. I won't buy it.
If it's reasonably close or just a little out, I will possibly go to the shop to see if I can try it. Or include that in a possible hunt for a specific guitar taking that guitar into consideration.

No price? $%&# that. What kind of moron thought to write CALL, or ASK all the time. It's like you could not be arsed with putting prices up. I rather read a price than have people block up the phone line asking for a price of a guitar. It would go thusly:

Me: Hi, how much is the <guitar brand and model> on your website?
Shop: It's <price>
Me: Ah, OK, bye.

Excluding the usual chit chat. If it is too expensive it is the most wasteful time I've had on a phone ever. If it isn't expensive then I'd like to try it obviously and that generally happens VERY VERY VERY VERY unlikely for me.

I want a website or a shop. I want a price. I will buy. I won't buy. Not this phone up or ask shite.

</rant>

PS. The above rant is explosive and my opinion may ultimately change over time, please consider this.

Also, this isn't for special one offs, like a PRS Private Stock or some really obvious Limited Edition guitar that most of the time even shows the price but it does happen for them. This is for more £1000-2000 or even lower or what not.

They are retards, imo.

----------------
Listening to: All That Remains - Do Not Obey
via FoxyTunes

[dave_mc]

i agree, that's annoying.

it might not be their fault, though, they may have some agreement with the manufacturer.

[Jonny]

i agree, that's annoying.

it might not be their fault, though, they may have some agreement with the manufacturer.

Why would such an agreement exist!?

[dave_mc]

i dunno, price fixing mainly? :lol:

probably trying to stop dealers from undercutting each other. which is kinda illegal (cartels), but they've probably found some loophole.

[ToneMonkey]

Got to admit that if I see I a POA, I've never once asked, even if I wanted to buy one.

Does my tit's in too.

[Philly Q]

I agree, it is off-putting.  Partly because I'm usually looking in the evenings, so I can't "Call Now"... and the moment passes.

There are probably all sorts of reasons:

- not wanting to spend time updating their site when the prices change
- giving leeway to negotiate a price with savvy buyers (and to bump up the price for less-savvy buyers)
- getting you to call even though they don't actually have the item ("We just sold out of that Les Paul model, but you might be interested in this really nice Marlin Strat copy...")

[dave_mc]

yeah, i'm always really wary of shops which don't have their actual prices on things, because I think they charge what they think they can get the punter to part with.

[HTH AMPS]

I find that shops unwilling to advertise their prices are rarely the cheapest when you ring round.

[FELINEGUITARS]

There are a number of reasons for this practice

1) the shop wants to show a cheap competitive price undercutting everyone else, except the manufacturer would withdraw their dealership if they did that.
BKP for example don't want to see the "street price" of their pickups lowered to £65 just because some shop is willing to take a loss or make bugger all, as then no other shop will get away with selling them for a workable price and decide its not worth stocking that brand as you cant earn a living and BKP has no stockists.

I was once 100% sure that there was a large store that didn't actually bother to stock a particular line that I was selling , but they advertised it at a rock bottom price which ensured that I couldn't shift a single item at the sensible price I had them at.
They didn't care as they didn't have any to make a loss on anyway IMO, but they spoilt it for anyone else.
The Uk distributor confirmed that they hadn't been buying any and in the end got some lawyers to send a cease and desist letter to them over it as it almost caused sales of that line to dry up in the UK as every punter expected it for half the real price and chose to buy something else instead.

2) Sometimes it takes a long time to go from giving the advert ideas to your artwork guy to it finally appearing in print in a magazine, and exchange rates  or item prices can change quite a bit - either up or down and you either make a loss or are uncompetitive as a result.

3) A lot of companies would hate to print a price like New Les Paul £1599 (which might be a very reasonable price) and have Jonny ring around to see who will beat it, and end up losing the sale to another store who went to £1575 to get the sale.

4) Most shops want to sell to you on a mix of price and customer service rather than just low price alone.
So they may list the price as £15xx or £ring for best price in town.
Then it would be up to highly motivated and friendly sales staff to close the sale , maybe offering a good price with a setup and some extra strings type of deal which would be a really good deal for the customer, but isn't entirely about price.

5) it is true that sometimes the shop may try to "switch sell"  the customer onto another similar product (having established that it may be even more what the customer was after. Or tell them about a newer version of the model thay were asking about which has only just come in.

I have to confess that I have been deeply offended when a customer has come in to talk pickups with me , spend an hour of my precious time discussing their needs , played every guitar in my shop to explore what will be right for them, and having worked out a perfect setup for them, they say thanks - I'm just off home to get it £10 cheaper on the web (from a shop that wouldn't have my experience or give them the opportunity to try stuff out.)

So sometimes the discussion of the price needs to be held back till more discussion is had - not because you want to take advantage of the customer, but rather that the customer doesn't take advantage out of you. You want to be fair,  but a mix of service and price is usually the best mix for everyone

[nfe]

I have to confess that I have been deeply offended when a customer has come in to talk pickups with me , spend an hour of my precious time discussing their needs , played every guitar in my shop to explore what will be right for them, and having worked out a perfect setup for them, they say thanks - I'm just off home to get it £10 cheaper on the web (from a shop that wouldn't have my experience or give them the opportunity to try stuff out.)

This is infuriating, and progressively more and more common. I actually blame mags and forums in part, for encouraging punters to basically make a fool of shops by going in as often as possible, trying out as much gear as they can gear for as long as possible and taking up as much of the staff's time as possible, then after five months of doing so turning up with a print out from Thomann and a "Match that" and thinking that the chap in the shop (who's probably on minimum wage and gets a pittence of a bonus every quarter for fairly unachievable targets in this climate) shouldn't be in the slightest bothered.

Also, as Feline mentioned, if your advertised price is £5 more than the next guy on the net, people simply wont phone you unless they're already a dedicated customer, so just by their ad going to press or going online a day later, they steal ALL the enquiries for said product. It's all fine and well if you have a dedicated internet department who can update everything on the spot, but if you're a smaller shop or a store that needs third party help for web stuff, then that's you losing sales for days/weeks.

[hunter]

There are countries where you are forced by law to add a price to any advertised good in a shop. I don't think that's so bad.

But hey, it's a (relatively) free market, so there are alternatives, the next shop is just a mouse click away, and the one who doesn't show price will sit in front of the phone and wonder why it's not ringing, whereas the other one, who shows price, will be busy fullfilling orders.

Regarding the price dictates (or minimum prices) of manufacturers, this is illegal. If a manufacturer is telling retail how to set a price, a call to the competition law administration of the EU can make this a very inconvenient and expensive experience for that manufacturer. Many big companies have made that experience.

[hamfist]

Interesting thread.

I can understand all the arguments given by those in retail, condoning not giving a price in an advert.

However, at the end of the day, just like others, it really gets on my tits !!  and I will not phone them if they do that.

It feels too much like being manipulated somehow when there is no price offered.

[Twinfan]

I can appreciate the reasons for not advertising prices, but I think I've only ever rung somewhere about a guitar with no price once.  Can't even remember what it was!  It certainly puts me off, and several others too by the sound of it.

What I do, if I see something I like, is to Google around a bit and find the going rate and look at other examples.  Then if there's a particular guitar I'm interested in, I see if they can get close to the cheapest price I've found.  If they're reasonably close, they'll get the sale.  I won't pay huge amounts extra, but I will pay a bit more to support a local or small shop etc.

[Philly Q]

Slightly off-topic, but still on the subject of websites:  all sites should have PICTURES OF THE ACTUAL GUITARS! 

It makes such a big difference to see that the thing is actually in stock!  And also if there's anything obvious about it which is going to put you off, before you buy online or travel a few hours to take a look at it. 

So three cheers for places like Guitar Village and Guitars4you!

[Twinfan]

I agree Phil!

Add Peach to that list of the good guys too  ;)