Music store etiquette

Hey r69. Got people complain about you ah? If you are not a nice guy, then I dont know who is.

I sympathise with your dilemma and agree that store owners are not obligated to treat customers as kings. But like it or not, when store owners maintain the "customer is king" attitude, it really enhances the customer's shopping experience, and may even encourage repeated patronisation and promote word-of-mouth publicity. So it appears that those stores with so-called better service will compete and perform better.

However if the customer damage the products, in spite of receiving good service and a well-mannered reminder to handle products with care, then the customer should be liable to the damages. I think from a moral standpoint, it is not too demanding for an individual to expect good services, but it is absurd if the individual expects him/herself to be immune to the damages he/she has inflicted on the product.
 
1mband said:
Which shop you work for? Just wondering. Perhaps if you share, you can give us a better idea where you're coming from. Of course, you represent your own personal opinion, and not your shop's.
Click to expand...

For a start, I would prefer not to reveal the store's name as I don't think it would serve much of a purpose and might cause irrelevant conflict. As mentioned previously if there are any points that might sound biased (because it is after all, my observation as a bystander and as a worker), please go ahead and point them out to me & I'd be willing to discuss.

1mband said:
Needless to say, when a customer spoils the gear while testing it, he should bare the main responsibility. However, this can be controlled and managed, by getting the staff to serve and ensure that the gear is handled properly.
Click to expand...

You could say that it's a worker's responsibility to watch over a customer while test a piece of gear. Yes we do that but at the same time, try to give him/her more privacy when it comes to guitar/bass/pedal playing whatsoever. We tend to watch from the side lines.

I wouldn't want someone to be staring at me while I'm testing a piece of gear. It'd make me feel extremely uncomfortable. Though the customer might buy the gear in such a circumstance, it might only be out of courtesy because it's just so hard to say no after so much pressure has been applied from the store owner/worker's darting stare.

If in a case where a customer damages a piece of gear under our supervision, I would say yes, it's partially our fault for not being attentive but it's also your fault for being careless. Hence the blame is equally dealt between both the store attendant and the customer. In such a case yes, the store owner SHOULD be more understanding.

However in a case where a customer takes the initiative to take up a piece of gear just to try, it is entirely his fault because A) He did not ask for permission B) He has no one to supervise hence if anything happens, he should be fully responsible for his actions.

1mband said:
Next question is: what is the purpose of display gears?
e.g. those $0 to $1000 ones, just for example.
Isn't it meant to be played and tested?
How does the shop view it?
How does the shop plan to handle display gears eventually?
Is display gear treated like an investment, a demo set for potential customers to try out and confirm their interest?

Of course, for high end gears, and those "only 50 pieces made world-wide", there can't be display sets, and I'm not referring to these.
Click to expand...

There really is no such thing as a customer buying a guitar without testing it, really. The guitars are easily assessable for the staff so that they can assist the customers in taking the guitars for them. At least in such a case, the staff assumes all forms of responsibility in terms of guitar handling. It's like the owner of a shoe store finding the right pair of shoes for you. They don't hand you a ladder and expect you to search for it yourself, it just doesn't work that way. At the end of the day after trying it out, you decide whether you want it or not.

Everything in a store is for sale unless it's being reserved or awaiting storage if it's something that is for investment purposes. High end gears have their buyers but they are extremely limited in numbers. Hence a certain gear might look like it's for display but really, it is for sale. Just that not many people can afford such gears.

Hope that clears a few things up. I mean I'm looking at it from my POV as a working staff. Other music stores might function in other ways though so don't quote me entirely.
 
ymmak said:
Hey r69. Got people complain about you ah? If you are not a nice guy, then I dont know who is.

I sympathise with your dilemma and agree that store owners are not obligated to treat customers as kings. But like it or not, when store owners maintain the "customer is king" attitude, it really enhances the customer's shopping experience, and may even encourage repeated patronisation and promote word-of-mouth publicity. So it appears that those stores with so-called better service will compete and perform better.

However if the customer damage the products, in spite of receiving good service and a well-mannered reminder to handle products with care, then the customer should be liable to the damages. I think from a moral standpoint, it is not too demanding for an individual to expect good services, but it is absurd if the individual expects him/herself to be immune to the damages he/she has inflicted on the product.
Click to expand...

Hey Mak, thanks for the kind words. I really appreciate the fact that others could understand from my point of view. I know I might sound biased at some points but I really want to find some even ground between all the comments whether they are good or malicious. There is no such thing as an angelic music store or any other store to be precise.

Seriously, not many people would want to be forced to buy a flawed product. If can run faster run is probably the only thought that flows through the mind of a person who has succumbed to desperation haha!

That being said, I apologise for not being to reply all the messages at this point of time. Still studying for an exam haha!
 
I do have a personal experience at Swee lee bras basah many yrs back. I was viewing some guitars with a couple of my friends, We were viewing this particular guitar when the guitar 2 guitars apart, dropped. It had a headstock like those Ibanez Rg and i guess in those days the guitar holder weren't so strong to hold and.

And there and there my friends and i were stunned. The usual lady in specs came over and insisted it was our fault w/o even asking what happen. We were like still students then and she was like asking us to buy this $400 over epiphone. Gosh.. Students where got $$?

Thank God there was another stuff, an uncle. Dunno his name, but he's still working at SL but now at Sims drive. He came over and talk to us nicely, we explained the situation and then he said we have to buy the guitar, no choice, but he'll give us 50% discount. I was like Wow! The lady just insisted us to buy at retail price when u know Swee lee has an unspoken 20% discount. (Which i found out yrs later. I was still a noob then)

And then we contacted another of our friends to come and lend us the $$ to buy. The uncle was superb in customer svc. Even though the guitar was sold at a mere $200 but he still treated us like we were brand new cust. He set up the guitar for us, checked its electronics, gave us a free bag, strap, strings, cloth, and many picks. Totally changed the whole situation ard.

But i guess such situation might be hard to come by these days.
Well, i guess its always situation based.
But such a kind gesture from the uncle totally changed my experience from that day on.
 
r69,

There were some good pointers raised so far, from us, and by you. Perhaps to make this thread more useful, show it to your shop's management, and let them learn from it.

End of the day, let's always create a win-win for both consumers and shops. :)
 
to all.....just my 3 cents worth...
its the 21st century now, before internet, we will go to the shop to lodge a complain...now everyone complain here, let our frustration out and let the whole world knows....but we still need the 80s style...which is, we need two pairs of hand to clap...to play set3 mi3...also need two pairs of hands.

It is true some store owner or workers can be so hard on us...cause if something happened ie product spoilt and no culprit owns up...they have to pay for the damages.
same too for the customer...they wants service even if they are not buying anything...but most of the time the phrase "customers are always right" are being intrepreted wrongly..
so why don't we clap each other hands and everyone can have a happy experience in every music store that we went to...after all that wat we want rite....
I do get those cold feeling when I go to some stores but there are stores when you went in...a warm feeling touches you and you feel right at home.
in conclusion...SOME store owners or workers just don't have that right mindset in customer service while majority of customers think they are always right. so lets get those tuners and tune ourselves to the right frequency...and get insync....than all will be happy.

Cheers!!!
 
its pretty straight forward. if guitar stores are so worried abt folks dropping guitar, smashing them, scratching them, etc.. take pre-emptive measures and stop whinning abt educating them in soft. i think mostly folks in soft are well verse in the their respective instruments, etc..

why let them touch and fondle expensive guitar where u can lock them behind glass panel and only a store staff can allow folks to test? and ensure testing area got sufficient space for mobility and a blardy guitar stand for a few guitars so can test all of it and compare?

sure can hang, but i believe there are ways to lock or prevent folks for taking off the hangers right? i think i saw those before in yamaha?

scenario:
guitards comes in wanna test guitars not sure which one he wants, picks a few. sit down and wait for staff to come by and put them on a GUITAR STAND. STRAP IT and plug it in and pass to guitard, switch off standby power on amp and increase volume and rinse and repeat. (some guitards still dunno how to turn down master volume, when plugging in and out guitars)

dun leave the poor guy there alone, chat with him, what style, what tone, what band, he got a dog or not, his gf pretty or not, can share or not, u dun need to stare him in the face and yawn?

do some sales pitch, wood of guitar, finishing, history of the brand, etc..etc..

if he still dun buy than too bad right? maybe he is just cheap, or just wanna compare to his 8 string ibby prestige at home?

moral of the story, whining abt store etiquette is like contracting STD. u own a store, u work on a store. u set yer rules. who u allow to touch or who u want to bend over for.

but if a customer drop a guitar eh.. fun times.

to all the students that drop guitars in guitar shop, dun need to run, save your energy. just walk away. coz the store need to make police report, police. just say the guitar drop by itself u touch a bit and it drop, its going to be his words vs yours. police will investigate and than advice store to do a civil court. unless the guitar cost more than $10k. than eh..

if store owner wanan hantam u. let them do it. call police, let police deal with it best if the store owner already call police.
 
that really happen before? army colonel walk in to a guitar store in full uniform? indeed ,must be an idiot.

i can imagine. the staff will shout, "SHOP! Keep still there!", "good morning sir!"
 
Any lawyers can advise us on this?

I heard that i the event we accidently break something in a shop - the shop cannot legally insist for us to purchase it ...

I either heard or read about this law somewhere ...

Enlightenment needed ........
 
fgl said:
Any lawyers can advise us on this?

I heard that i the event we accidently break something in a shop - the shop cannot legally insist for us to purchase it ...

I either heard or read about this law somewhere ...

Enlightenment needed ........
Click to expand...

I would be very interested to know as well...
 
Ok. If you break something in a shop, the shop is liable to ask for you to pay for it. The sign saying ' Once broke considered sold ' is a contract itself. - I asked my friend who studied law.

I guess if you break something, remove the signage? HAHA kidding.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

M
STOLEN GUITARS ALERT Mayones Regius Core 7 and Sugi DH496C
Replies
0
Views
219
mechanevil
M
M
STOLEN GUITAR ALERT Mayones Regius Core 7 and Sugi DH496C
Replies
3
Views
394
mechanevil
M
Daniel Purnomo
Duo Guitar is the New Solo Guitar - Music Showcase
Replies
0
Views
180
Daniel Purnomo
Daniel Purnomo
zeppelinstudios
Singaporean Record Label is doing well. Thank YOU! 6000+ Subscribers & 50,000+ views on YouTube. 50,000 streams on SPOTIFY!
Replies
0
Views
130
zeppelinstudios
zeppelinstudios
B
Looking for Viola and Cello Players for VGM string quartet
Replies
0
Views
88
bloobamboo
B

Latest posts

Share this page

Back
Top