Bass Direct

[dmccombe7]

Bargain !!!  

Dave

[Royaly T]

On 30/05/2024 at 22:30, Sparky Mark said:

This made me laugh; less than 1% discount is considered a sale!

Maybe keeping the price below their competitors.

[Royaly T]

I'm being serious,  it seems obvious to keep their price below any competitors. 

[Royaly T]

I've only had good experiences dealing with Bass Direct over the last 15 years or so. If you want a nice chat go to PMT or Guitar Guitar and get a shite deal,  if you want a good deal go to Bass Direct. 

[Bunion]

2 minutes ago, Royaly T said:

if you want a good deal go to Bass Bros

There fixed it for you, your welcome 

[dmccombe7]

35 minutes ago, Bunion said:

There fixed it for you, your welcome 

Never used Bass Bros. Site looks good with some very tasty basses plus some nice T-shirts too.

Dave

[peteb]

12 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

Never used Bass Bros. Site looks good with some very tasty basses plus some nice T-shirts too.

Dave

 

I've bought a Fender Am Std Jazz from Bass Bros and part-ex'd a 5 string Spector . Will was great, very helpful and did a reasonable deal. He used to work at Bass Direct down the road and they still seem to be mates. 

 

[bartelby]

10 hours ago, Bunion said:

There fixed it for you, your welcome 

 

They have their issues too. I emailed them that I was interested in a bass and got a part-ex value agreed for one of my basses. As soon as I got the part ex offer I emailed to say I'd be up a few days later and to see if they would be around that day. I didn't hear back for a couple of days and then that was to tell me they'd sold the bass the previous day.

[Sparky Mark]

Whenever I've bought anything from music retailers (Andy Baxter, Bass Direct, The Gallery, PMT, etc., etc.) I've always phoned them to confirm the deal, availability and offer a deposit to secure the item(s). I'd never leave it to email.

[neepheid]

13 hours ago, Royaly T said:

I've only had good experiences dealing with Bass Direct over the last 15 years or so. If you want a nice chat go to PMT or Guitar Guitar and get a shite deal,  if you want a good deal go to Bass Direct. 

 

Do you work for Bass Direct?

 

[MungoBass]

3 hours ago, neepheid said:

 

Do you work for Bass Direct?

 

Ah, well done, back on topic! 😁

[Kev]

6 hours ago, Sparky Mark said:

Whenever I've bought anything from music retailers (Andy Baxter, Bass Direct, The Gallery, PMT, etc., etc.) I've always phoned them to confirm the deal, availability and offer a deposit to secure the item(s). I'd never leave it to email.

Whilst good advice often given for this kind of thing, its no excuse to just ignore emails.  

 

If a shop chooses to trade online but don't actively respond to emails, they're doing it wrong.  As a working full time 9-5 fella, I don't really want to spend my lunch hour on the phone and shops are closed either side of my working day, so I will almost always choose to email.

[Royaly T]

6 hours ago, neepheid said:

 

Do you work for Bass Direct?

 

No but maybe I should. 

[acidbass]

Highly recommend Mark and team at Bass Direct. Had an issue with Backbeat G2 not charging properly, and Mark arranged a new unit to be sent along with a paid returns label for the faulty unit - no questions asked. Top customer service. Well impressed!

[Sparky Mark]

4 hours ago, Kev said:

Whilst good advice often given for this kind of thing, its no excuse to just ignore emails.  

 

If a shop chooses to trade online but don't actively respond to emails, they're doing it wrong.  As a working full time 9-5 fella, I don't really want to spend my lunch hour on the phone and shops are closed either side of my working day, so I will almost always choose to email.

Agreed and I totally understand and respect that we all have our own preferences as to how we do business. Apparently BD didn’t ignore the email but was slow to respond for some reason? It may simply have preferred to close an immediate straight sale vs a less certain P/X delayed for a couple of days. I understand that too.

When a deal worth several hundreds or thousands of pounds is important to me, I'll definitely want to speak with the dealer. I've dealt this way with Mark on many occasions with no problems ever since he opened BD. 

 

Edited June 6 by Sparky Mark

[Beedster]

I can't escape the sense that when we discuss online retailers we want them to be more like high street music shops, and when we discuss high street shops we want them to be more like online retailers. I've had probably 18 really good experiences with Bass Direct and two bad ones, and reflecting on this thread it's the two bad ones that probably stick in people's mind. 

[Royaly T]

No I don't work for BD or have any affiliation to them but have bought and sold with them for many years and I've always been more than happy with the deals struck. Emails have always been answered quickly sometimes straight away, any problems I've had, and there have only been a couple, not down to BD themselves and they have been dealt with immediately. I think it's great to have a bass specific shop.

[neepheid]

29 minutes ago, Royaly T said:

No I don't work for BD or have any affiliation to them but have bought and sold with them for many years and I've always been more than happy with the deals struck. Emails have always been answered quickly sometimes straight away, any problems I've had, and there have only been a couple, not down to BD themselves and they have been dealt with immediately. I think it's great to have a bass specific shop.

 

I don't think that gives you a valid basis to denigrate other vendors though, does it?

[Royaly T]

14 hours ago, neepheid said:

 

I don't think that gives you a valid basis to denigrate other vendors though, does it?

Where have I done that,  if you mean I said getting a shite deal then those in my experience are facts. I found staff at PMT and Guitar Guitar great but I've always been offered a crap deal if trying to p ex anything. 

People on here have slagged off BD they are entitled to if that's how they felt, I'm doing the same, it's called free speech.

Edited June 8 by Royaly T

[Munurmunuh]

25 minutes ago, Royaly T said:

Where have I done that,  if you mean I said getting a shite deal then those in my experience are facts. I found staff at PMT and Guitar Guitar great but I've always been offered a crap deal if trying to p ex anything. 

People on here have slagged off BD they are entitled to if that's how they felt, I'm doing the same, it's called free speech.

 

Don't worry, neepheid automatically stamps on anyone daring to query the experience of shopping with guitarguitar, it's like a quirk of the forum software

[ezbass]

Good service service should be the norm from any vendor. If there has been any variance below or way above that, sharing that experience is useful to future users of that service, forewarned is forearmed, etc. My last purchase from GG in Edinburgh, for instance, was a very good experience, where I received a much higher trade in value than I had anticipated and I shall use them again (they’re not my nearest retailer) when a certain item comes into stock.

[Royaly T]

27 minutes ago, ezbass said:

Good service service should be the norm from any vendor. If there has been any variance below or way above that, sharing that experience is useful to future users of that service, forewarned is forearmed, etc. My last purchase from GG in Edinburgh, for instance, was a very good experience, where I received a much higher trade in value than I had anticipated and I shall use them again (they’re not my nearest retailer) when a certain item comes into stock.

As you said we can only go on our own personal experience. I'm happy with what I get and have got over the last 10 years or so dealing with BD.  We all have choices thankfully. 

[BillyBass]

I think that Guitarguitar ad PMT structure/arrange their 2nd hand deals differently to Bass Direct.  GG and PMT will offer you a cut in part exchange for one of their new basses.  This difference in price then has to have VAT added to it when they sell it.  So it rarely ends up being a good deal for the individual wanting to part ex one of their basses for something shiny in GG or PMT.

 

How the Bass Gallery do it is to act as an intermediary; they sell your bass for you and take a cut (15% in the case of the Bass Gallery).  This keeps things cheaper and I guess the only VAT being paid is the 20% they have to pay on the fee they get for selling the bass.  I'm guessing Bass Direct do something like this too.

 

I once spoke to someone working in a Guitarguitar branch who told me up front I would be better off selling my old bass on eBay, rather than part exing it with them.

 

I've not bought much with Bass Direct but these few transactions have all gone smoothly.  I've bought a fair bit more from Guitarguitar, again all good.  PMT I'm wary of.  They seem to be box shifters and little more.  I have had problems with several orders, which, they have always dealt with well, but it doesn't encourage me to use them if an alternative is available.

[neepheid]

5 hours ago, Royaly T said:

Where have I done that,  if you mean I said getting a shite deal then those in my experience are facts. I found staff at PMT and Guitar Guitar great but I've always been offered a crap deal if trying to p ex anything. 

People on here have slagged off BD they are entitled to if that's how they felt, I'm doing the same, it's called free speech.

 

Do you understand why I initially wrote "Do you work for Bass Direct?" and why 5 folk responded with Haha?  It's because you came across like a shill.  You've barely posted here, and here you are, lauding a particular vendor and slagging off competitors in the same breath.  The paucity of details is the problem - you presented the "fact" that you get a "shite" deal from PMT or GuitarGuitar as a bald fact that happens universally.  Your post was poorly written and ambiguous, it is only now with the addition of a modicum of detail that it becomes clear to me that you are specifically referring to PXing gear.  That, I have zero experience with (I always sell privately) and will happily bow to your superior knowledge on the subject.

 

 

Thank you for educating me about what "free speech" is, I had no idea!

 

[Royaly T]

21 minutes ago, neepheid said:

 

Do you understand why I initially wrote "Do you work for Bass Direct?" and why 5 folk responded with Haha?  It's because you came across like a shill.  You've barely posted here, and here you are, lauding a particular vendor and slagging off competitors in the same breath.  The paucity of details is the problem - you presented the "fact" that you get a "shite" deal from PMT or GuitarGuitar as a bald fact that happens universally.  Your post was poorly written and ambiguous, it is only now with the addition of a modicum of detail that it becomes clear to me that you are specifically referring to PXing gear.  That, I have zero experience with (I always sell privately) and will happily bow to your superior knowledge on the subject.

 

 

Thank you for educating me about what "free speech" is, I had no idea!

 

Glad I could be of help