Music Shop Discounts

[edstraker123]

Living in Liverpool I am quite fortunate in that there are 3 decent enough music shops in the city centre within spitting distance of each other so I suppose the environment is quite competitive,
however of late I having been stocking up on bass related items and I've been quite amazed on the amount of discount you can get if you just ask. In the past I wouldn't have even considered it however having chanced my luck once and been given a hefty discount, I now try it with every item I buy. I was recently in the market for a new amp and spotted the Ampeg B100R on Dolphin's website for £465 a little bit dearer than on a few other websites. I phoned the shop to see what the instore price would be and they told me £469 which I didn't think was too bad. Having been in and tried it, I simply asked how much they could do it for and I got it for £429 without any haggling, which was cheaper than anywhere else I'd seen it even on the web. I'd had a discount on effects pedals in Dolphin the week before and Curly music also knocked £20 off the total cost of 2 Digitech pedals. I appreciate that in most cases the discount only brings the price within the cost of buying the goods on the web, however in doing this, the shops do make you feel like they value your custom, you can see the item before purchase and you do get immediate gratification which you don't get waiting for the delivery from Parcelfarce.

This was in complete contrast to the experience I'd had buying a tweeter box for my Micromark from Bass Centre over the web. The item looked like it was in stock on the website but it wasn't, I was told it would be in in a few days - it actually took 3 weeks, the staff told me they would check on the progress of the item and ring me back - only once did this happen out of about 10 calls and they charged me £10 postage when the actual cost was £2.66 (needless to say I won't be buying from them again)

Just wondering what other basschatters experiences are of obtaining discounts and web v. music shop purchases.

PS. The Ampeg has died (R.I.P.) so will see what kind of customer support Dolphin offer !

[Machines]

I would never pay full price on expensive items (basses / amps) unless I thought it was already a bargain. Ticket prices do generally invite a bit of leeway for bartering, just how the industry seems to be.

[paul, the]

I'll be interested to hear shop assistants' responses to this.

Often you get better discounts if you're buying multiple items. Or, ask for a nice lead or two to be thrown in when you buy an amp... Strings when you buy a bass etc.


To be honest, though, I do love unwrapping parcels. It's regression for me; childhood at Christmas.

[john_the_bass]

I always ask for a discount, even if I don't get. 9 times out of ten I'll walk away unless I think it's a good price anyway. 10% of the time I'm just being cheeky and opportunist.