Bass Direct

[Ashbass97]

Hi Martyn,

Ash here from Bass Direct. We appreciate your comments and honesty about your experience. We’re really sorry to hear you felt that way—it’s never our intention to send out an instrument in less-than-great shape, and we definitely wouldn’t set something up badly on purpose. We don’t remember hearing from you directly, but we’ll check first thing tomorrow to see if there’s anything in our system. If you ever have any concerns, reaching out to us directly is the best way to get things sorted quickly—we’re always happy to help!

Regarding the Dingwall, we provided the info we had at the time. Based on our stock flow, we’d assume it’s a 2024 model, but we can double-check if that’s important to you. Dingwalls are great for low action thanks to their even string tension. As for returns, we don’t see many, and we don’t recall ever having this model come back, but we can check if needed.

We understand that the £15 delivery charge might seem a bit off on a high-ticket item, but it’s there to ensure safe and secure shipping, and it’s only what it costs us to ship the item to you.

 

We’ll check the emails in the morning, but if there’s anything else we can help with in the meantime, just let us know!

Best,
Ash

2 hours ago, Martyn R said:

Last year I ordered an Ibanez that turned up virtually unplayable , like 4.5 - 5mm action and intonation out, only slightly but enough to bug me. I don't expect a 1 1/2 hour set up or plek or whatever on a thousand quid bass, but I'd at least fancy not having to wrestle with it. I got the feeling they were having a laugh and wound out the saddles to max height as a FU gesture for asking do they check the set up.

Turns out I got it sorted after a while setting up and the bass was otherwise immaculate. Ok, Sorted moved on.

 

 So back to this week; I've been thinking for a while let's see what all this Dingwall fuss is about so asked a few questions on a NG3 5 string in black (that appeared to have been in a while).

I asked what year it was, does it have a nice low action and is it definitely new and not a return.

The answers were: not sure what year it is, possibly a 2024, yes Dingwalls can achieve a low action and no mention of the new/return. I sort of got the impression they aren't that bothered about selling Dingwalls.

I thought mmm, OK we'll let things ride and go with the flow. Hit checkout then up pops the £15 delivery charge. On a 2300 quid item, really???

All the little snags I'd forgotten about suddenly came rushing back to me and I thought I'm out.

Don't know if I'm being a little too arsy or whether music shop staff are right and the customer is always wrong...

Edited Tuesday at 23:14 by Ashbass97

[Kev]

This thread is surreal today 😂

[Stub Mandrel]

If you sell 2,000 items a year, bug and small, thats £10,000 of income but probably far less than the cost of actually sending things out.

[Killerfridge]

I think there's just a weird sense of entitlement around free shipping. Places like Anderton's and GAK can offer free shipping because of the volume of stuff they shift allowing them to get better rates with DPD et al. The minimum order is to make sure they are still profitable; because of the volume of sales they just need to be a little bit profitable and rely on huge volume to stay afloat. Somewhere like BD (and I don't pretend to know their numbers) I imagine it doesn't make sense to offer free shipping as it would just eat into their (again, not claiming to know, just a guess) fairly small profits

[petecarlton]

Belated recognition of some superb customer service by Mark, Ash and Marcus (they were all involved at one point or another):
 

I bought an NS Design WAV4 Radius headless bass from them before Christmas, only for the preamp board to blow the first time I connected to my amp. BD not only arranged speedy delivery of a replacement board and paid for its fitting, but Mark also offered half price on a set of LaBella flats as a compensation for the faffing about. So far, so good, but I asked for a set of medium scale TIs instead (for another bass). The next day, a package arrived containing both the TIs and a set of long scale LaBella. My contribution was just £24.50 for two sets of premium quality flats. Now that's customer service!
 

And, by the way, their prices consistently and significantly undercut those of Strings Direct!

[Bass Direct]

1 hour ago, petecarlton said:

Belated recognition of some superb customer service by Mark, Ash and Marcus (they were all involved at one point or another):
 

I bought an NS Design WAV4 Radius headless bass from them before Christmas, only for the preamp board to blow the first time I connected to my amp. BD not only arranged speedy delivery of a replacement board and paid for its fitting, but Mark also offered half price on a set of LaBella flats as a compensation for the faffing about. So far, so good, but I asked for a set of medium scale TIs instead (for another bass). The next day, a package arrived containing both the TIs and a set of long scale LaBella. My contribution was just £24.50 for two sets of premium quality flats. Now that's customer service!
 

And, by the way, their prices consistently and significantly undercut those of Strings Direct!

Thanks Pete, we always try our best for everyone

[IanA]

Having been dealing with Bass Direct for many years I have to say that I have complete confidence in them. Even with items that I have returned the experience has been extremely pleasant professional and civil.

Equally in terms of packaging costs, all items that have been sent to me have been extremely well packed and basses have been in very sturdy bass specific boxes with lots of packaging. They have also been delivered on a next day service.

So, no complaints from me

 

[Bass Direct]

2 hours ago, IanA said:

Having been dealing with Bass Direct for many years I have to say that I have complete confidence in them. Even with items that I have returned the experience has been extremely pleasant professional and civil.

Equally in terms of packaging costs, all items that have been sent to me have been extremely well packed and basses have been in very sturdy bass specific boxes with lots of packaging. They have also been delivered on a next day service.

So, no complaints from me

 

Thank you Ian, it's always a pleasure to see you!

[Martyn R]

13 hours ago, Ashbass97 said:

Hi Martyn,

Ash here from Bass Direct. We appreciate your comments and honesty about your experience. We’re really sorry to hear you felt that way—it’s never our intention to send out an instrument in less-than-great shape, and we definitely wouldn’t set something up badly on purpose. We don’t remember hearing from you directly, but we’ll check first thing tomorrow to see if there’s anything in our system. If you ever have any concerns, reaching out to us directly is the best way to get things sorted quickly—we’re always happy to help!

Regarding the Dingwall, we provided the info we had at the time. Based on our stock flow, we’d assume it’s a 2024 model, but we can double-check if that’s important to you. Dingwalls are great for low action thanks to their even string tension. As for returns, we don’t see many, and we don’t recall ever having this model come back, but we can check if needed.

We understand that the £15 delivery charge might seem a bit off on a high-ticket item, but it’s there to ensure safe and secure shipping, and it’s only what it costs us to ship the item to you.

 

We’ll check the emails in the morning, but if there’s anything else we can help with in the meantime, just let us know!

Best,
Ash

Hi Ash no probs at all, maybe next time!

[Sean]

What I ordered yesterday, turned up today. Perfect.

 

The first patient will be on the bench in the next few days and I'll document it in the Repairs forum.

[Bass Direct]

39 minutes ago, Sean said:

What I ordered yesterday, turned up today. Perfect.

 

The first patient will be on the bench in the next few days and I'll document it in the Repairs forum.

Awesome stuff Sean, glad to hear it!

 

[robiredale]

I've bought and sold a number of basses with Bassdirect over the years (including a dingwall).

 

They are brilliant to deal with in my experience.

[Bass Direct]

12 hours ago, robiredale said:

I've bought and sold a number of basses with Bassdirect over the years (including a dingwall).

 

They are brilliant to deal with in my experience.

Legend, thank you for the comment

 

[spencer.b]

On 04/03/2025 at 21:01, Martyn R said:

Last year I ordered an Ibanez that turned up virtually unplayable , like 4.5 - 5mm action and intonation out, only slightly but enough to bug me. I don't expect a 1 1/2 hour set up or plek or whatever on a thousand quid bass, but I'd at least fancy not having to wrestle with it. I got the feeling they were having a laugh and wound out the saddles to max height as a FU gesture for asking do they check the set up.

Turns out I got it sorted after a while setting up and the bass was otherwise immaculate. Ok, Sorted moved on.

 

 So back to this week; I've been thinking for a while let's see what all this Dingwall fuss is about so asked a few questions on a NG3 5 string in black (that appeared to have been in a while).

I asked what year it was, does it have a nice low action and is it definitely new and not a return.

The answers were: not sure what year it is, possibly a 2024, yes Dingwalls can achieve a low action and no mention of the new/return. I sort of got the impression they aren't that bothered about selling Dingwalls.

I thought mmm, OK we'll let things ride and go with the flow. Hit checkout then up pops the £15 delivery charge. On a 2300 quid item, really???

All the little snags I'd forgotten about suddenly came rushing back to me and I thought I'm out.

Don't know if I'm being a little too arsy or whether music shop staff are right and the customer is always wrong...

 

A bad setup on a new bass is rubbish but I don't see the link to postage costs , I'd imagine the big companies that offer it "free" must be building in that cost to the price , £15 to send a bass sounds cheap to me 

I've always had great customer service (except once when Mark was on holiday) and they've really gone above and beyond a few times for me and Mark has given me great advice, he has opinions and I don't always agree but I like that and I'm pleased there making it work , I would say I'd be willing to pay a bit more to support an independent but TBF I find their prices really good

[Bass Direct]

19 minutes ago, spencer.b said:

A bad setup on a new bass is rubbish but I don't see the link to postage costs , I'd imagine the big companies that offer it "free" must be building in that cost to the price , £15 to send a bass sounds cheap to me 

I've always had great customer service (except once when Mark was on holiday) and they've really gone above and beyond a few times for me and Mark has given me great advice, he has opinions and I don't always agree but I like that and I'm pleased there making it work , I would say I'd be willing to pay a bit more to support an independent but TBF I find their prices really good

The issue with the setup was sorted at the time, and we had good communication with the customer.

 

There is a link to the shipping information on our website, costs are hard to declare as it varies a lot for different territories.

 

We can all give good advice, and we all have our different ways of working, thats just human nature  

 

We try to be as competitive as we can on our prices, we really do.

 

I think its worth mentioning again that we are just 3 people running a shop, including the social media, photography, videography, all communication etc, it is a very busy atmosphere, and we are actually debating whether to start opening the showroom with appointments to help with 1 on 1 customer service (which raises the level we can provide, especially when we are a 'man down').

 

Thank you again for your comments, they all help for us to grow and constant improve the shopping experience.

[Royaly T]

Nice to see some positive comments. I made some a while ago and was accused of working for them 😂

I live 180 miles away so a bit of a commute.  I've always had a fair deal with purchases and selling gear and on the odd occasion something went wrong it was dealt with immediately. 

[J_Bass]

I have mixed feelings about this store. I did business with them a few times. Before Brexit. Trade basses and bought another ones. The last purchase I did didn’t go well. 
 

The bass I bought had frets almost down to the fretboard, had to change them. Electronics were buzzing, had to re-solder. And the neck pocket had a huge gap that wasn’t visible in the photos. Also the bridge was misaligned. Had to buy new bridge rails to make align a little better with the pickups.

 

I sent them an e-mail raising all these questions. 
 

The answer was, “a little fretwear is normal, but it’s still playable”. 
They ignored all the other issues. 
 

 

So yeah, you can get a good treatment, but you also can be left hanging. Beware. 

[spacecowboy]

1 hour ago, J_Bass said:

I have mixed feelings about this store. I did business with them a few times. Before Brexit. Trade basses and bought another ones. The last purchase I did didn’t go well. 
 

The bass I bought had frets almost down to the fretboard, had to change them. Electronics were buzzing, had to re-solder. And the neck pocket had a huge gap that wasn’t visible in the photos. Also the bridge was misaligned. Had to buy new bridge rails to make align a little better with the pickups.

 

I sent them an e-mail raising all these questions. 
 

The answer was, “a little fretwear is normal, but it’s still playable”. 
They ignored all the other issues. 
 

 

So yeah, you can get a good treatment, but you also can be left hanging. Beware. 

Did you let them know before you did all that work? 

[Ashbass97]

@J_Bass Hey it’s Ash here from Bass Direct. As it’s out of hours here I don’t have access to our account so I’ll reply from my own

I notice you purchased the bass and sent the emails over 4 years ago and things have changed dramatically since then - a new website, a new shop and better customer service. Drop me an email at the shop or send us a WhatsApp and we will see what we can do to help.

 

all the best

Ash from Bass Direct

Edited Friday at 18:25 by Ashbass97

[Beedster]

There will always be unhappy customers. I try to be a good forum member when I deal with people, but I've had several negative responses following a sale, the best being the guy who bought a stunning Yamaha BB2024x a few years back. It was immaculate, but he kicked of a pretty massive fuss about it being in his words 'totally unplayable'. This was odd, as firstly it was a high-end Yamaha, so unplayable doesn't compute, and secondly I'd spent a lot of time setting it up; I play light and with rounds have very low action, something the beautifully engineered Yammie neck allowed me to do. But when his problem became clear - fret buzz due to the action being too low for his playing style - and I suggested that he simply raise the action, over and above calling me several names and accusing me of deception, he replied along the lines "When I buy a bass I don't expect to have to set it up, I'm returning it as faulty". I took it back, and reported him as 'difficult' to the mods 🤔

 

We all have different expectations, while there are always good days and bad days for businesses, I'm not sure that all the feedback in this thread relates to poor service and/or instruments on the part of the shop, or to the at times excessive expectations of used instruments on the part of the buyer 👍

[J_Bass]

3 minutes ago, Beedster said:

There will always be unhappy customers. I try to be a good forum member when I deal with people, but I've had several negative responses following a sale, the best being the guy who bought a stunning Yamaha BB2024x a few years back. It was immaculate, but he kicked of a pretty massive fuss about it being in his words 'totally unplayable'. This was odd, as firstly it was a high-end Yamaha, so unplayable doesn't compute, and secondly I'd spent a lot of time setting it up; I play light and with rounds have very low action, something the beautifully engineered Yammie neck allowed me to do. But when his problem became clear - fret buzz due to the action being too low for his playing style - and I suggested that he simply raise the action, over and above calling me several names and accusing me of deception, he replied along the lines "When I buy a bass I don't expect to have to set it up, I'm returning it as faulty". I took it back, and reported him as 'difficult' to the mods 🤔

 

We all have different expectations, while there are always good days and bad days for businesses, I'm not sure that all the feedback in this thread relates to poor service and/or instruments on the part of the shop, or to the at times excessive expectations of used instruments on the part of the buyer 👍

Not the case. 
 

I am a polite and honest person. I am so polite that I laughed it off and ate the cost. Even did the soldering with a friend and we had a good time doing that over a few beers. 
 

I like the bass. I still have it. I can’t sell it without telling about the Mariana Trench in the neck pocket and that scares the buyers away. Because I wouldn’t in good conscience do that to anyone. 
 

 

[J_Bass]

16 minutes ago, Ashbass97 said:

@J_Bass Hey it’s Ash here from Bass Direct. As it’s out of hours here I don’t have access to our account so I’ll reply from my own

I notice you purchased the bass and sent the emails over 4 years ago and things have changed dramatically since then - a new website, a new shop and better customer service. Drop me an email at the shop or send us a WhatsApp and we will see what we can do to help.

 

all the best

Ash from Bass Direct

Thank you. Maybe I will. Please send me your e-mail in private message, I prefer to deal with you. 

[neepheid]

7 minutes ago, Beedster said:

"When I buy a bass I don't expect to have to set it up, I'm returning it as faulty"🤔

 

LOL!  That is one of the most ridiculous things I have ever read.  Genuine WTF.  So they expect every bass they buy to be set up perfectly for them?  They're going to be returning a lot of basses then.

[Beedster]

1 minute ago, neepheid said:

 

LOL!  That is one of the most ridiculous things I have ever read.  Genuine WTF.  So they expect every bass they buy to be set up perfectly for them?  They're going to be returning a lot of basses then.

He expected a used bass to be perfect, even new basses aren’t perfect….

[Ashbass97]

3 minutes ago, J_Bass said:

Thank you. Maybe I will. Please send me your e-mail in private message, I prefer to deal with you. 

We don’t have personal emails at the shop just a generic shop email. If you wanted me or Marcus to see your message I would suggest sending a message via WhatsApp   I won’t be able to respond until Monday when I’m back in the office.