Bass Direct

[Sean]

There's not many places on God's World of Bass where you can put £700 worth of stuff in your basket and still have to pay a £5 postage fee.

 

I don't want an explanation from anyone. It's just an observation and I've already placed my order. The last time I ordered on a Monday evening (after hours), 3rd Feb and it turned up on Friday 7th at lunchtime and that was 24 Tracked!

 

I only have to spend £50 with the string people to qualify for free shipping and that often arrives next day on a 48 Tracked!

 

It's just that BD is the only place that sells certain things.

 

[ezbass]

14 minutes ago, Sean said:

There's not many places on God's World of Bass where you can put £700 worth of stuff in your basket and still have to pay a £5 postage fee.

 

I don't want an explanation from anyone. It's just an observation and I've already placed my order. The last time I ordered on a Monday evening (after hours), 3rd Feb and it turned up on Friday 7th at lunchtime and that was 24 Tracked!

 

I only have to spend £50 with the string people to qualify for free shipping and that often arrives next day on a 48 Tracked!

 

It's just that BD is the only place that sells certain things.

 

I spent about £1k with another big bass vendor and had a £15 delivery charge. It’s all about margins and the size of the package I guess. Still stings a bit, however.

[Bass Direct]

Thank you for your comments, if you give us a call/email at the shop we are happy to discuss the shipping fees with you

[Sean]

3 minutes ago, Bass Direct said:

Thank you for your comments, if you give us a call/email at the shop we are happy to discuss the shipping fees with you

I’ll monitor the latest order and see what happens. I don’t mind a small premium for rapid delivery but I also like the choice to send it not so fast and get it “free”. 

[Kev]

£5 sounds a bargain for £700 worth of goods to be shipped to you, risk free

 

[ezbass]

2 minutes ago, Kev said:

£5 sounds a bargain for £700 worth of goods to be shipped to you, risk free

 

There is that.

[Sean]

13 minutes ago, Kev said:

£5 sounds a bargain for £700 worth of goods to be shipped to you, risk free

 

 

Compared to Andertons and GAK for similar tech, package size and scale of spend where next day shipping by DPD is also risk free without paying a fiver. I’ll respectfully disagree. 

 

 

 

[Kev]

1 minute ago, Sean said:

 

Compared to Andertons and GAK for similar tech, package size and scale of spend where next day shipping by DPD is also risk free without paying a fiver. I’ll respectfully disagree. 

 

 

 

 

Probably better to compare against other independents and stores that have comparable shipping volume?

 

Bassbros, for instance?  Vintage Bass Room?  

[Sean]

8 minutes ago, Kev said:

 

Probably better to compare against other independents and stores that have comparable shipping volume?

 

Bassbros, for instance?  Vintage Bass Room?  

 

VBR £7.50 for £500 worth (x2) of second hand pedals. BB £21.50 for a similar spend on second hand accessories. 

 

Well, we pays our money (as I did this morning) and in some cases we have a choice of where we shop and in others we don’t. I tend to stick to my favourite sales channel where possible, which is Basschat, I’ve never been ignored, patronised or had a bad experience in nearly 20 years and the prices are always excellent even if shipping is extra or it needs collection 😀. 

[jonnybass]

Personally I'd say if its a £700 bass cab £5 is cheap.  if its pickups then they are smaller but easier to pocket  by someone a bit naughty so £5 for guaranteed arrival feels ok to me too.  But its your money and your choice if you arent happy about it, can you shop for these products elsewhere and get free delivery.  I do hate the 24 hr g'teed delivery that takes 48 hrs, but in my experience that wasnt Bass Direct that was the delivery company.

 

jonny

[mcnach]

2 hours ago, Sean said:

There's not many places on God's World of Bass where you can put £700 worth of stuff in your basket and still have to pay a £5 postage fee.

 

I don't want an explanation from anyone. It's just an observation and I've already placed my order. The last time I ordered on a Monday evening (after hours), 3rd Feb and it turned up on Friday 7th at lunchtime and that was 24 Tracked!

 

I only have to spend £50 with the string people to qualify for free shipping and that often arrives next day on a 48 Tracked!

 

It's just that BD is the only place that sells certain things.

 

 

 

Would you feel better if what you bought added up to £705 with free delivery?

 

My point is: there's no free anything. 

 

 

[Sean]

1 minute ago, jonnybass said:

Personally I'd say if its a £700 bass cab £5 is cheap.  if its pickups then they are smaller but easier to pocket  by someone a bit naughty so £5 for guaranteed arrival feels ok to me too.  But its your money and your choice if you arent happy about it, can you shop for these products elsewhere and get free delivery.  I do hate the 24 hr g'teed delivery that takes 48 hrs, but in my experience that wasnt Bass Direct that was the delivery company.

 

jonny

 

No, I can’t get them elsewhere as Bass Direct is the only UK merchant, as stated earlier. You can see from the comparisons with other retailers that we’re not talking cabs here, it’s small stuff. I placed the order, paid the fiver. Poor experience last time and other times. I was just observing that some retailers charge £5 for £700 of small items whereas others have free delivery over £50, £149, £199 etc. Some folks think £5 is a cracking deal others don’t. Not a lot to see here, really, just some retail pricing analysis. 

[mcnach]

1 hour ago, Sean said:

 

Compared to Andertons and GAK for similar tech, package size and scale of spend where next day shipping by DPD is also risk free without paying a fiver. I’ll respectfully disagree. 

 

 

 

 

 

Newsflash: big stores can afford lower prices than small ones. :shrug:

 

There must have been a reason why you bought from BD and not onf othe other stores. Which is it, if you don't mind me asking?

 

[Sean]

1 minute ago, mcnach said:

 

 

Would you feel better if what you bought added up to £705 with free delivery?

 

My point is: there's no free anything. 

 

 

 

I get your point but I’ll challenge it. If I spend £148.99 with Andertons, I pay postage. If I spend £149, I don’t. There is logically and by definition a discount between those two. 

[mcnach]

3 minutes ago, Sean said:

 

No, I can’t get them elsewhere as Bass Direct is the only UK merchant, as stated earlier. 

 

Sorry, it seems you had already replied to my question.

 

So the reason is you couldn't get what you wanted elsewhere.   See where I'm going?

 

 

[Sean]

1 minute ago, mcnach said:

 

 

Newsflash: big stores can afford lower prices than small ones. :shrug:

 

There must have been a reason why you bought from BD and not onf othe other stores. Which is it, if you don't mind me asking?

 

I’ve already explained this twice. 

 

1. “It's just that BD is the only place that sells certain things."

2. "I can’t get them elsewhere as Bass Direct is the only UK merchant, as stated earlier."

 

[mcnach]

1 minute ago, Sean said:

 

I get your point but I’ll challenge it. If I spend £148.99 with Andertons, I pay postage. If I spend £149, I don’t. There is logically and by definition a discount between those two. 

 

 

Then buy what you want at Andertons... oh wait, you can't  

 

It costs me more than £5 to send someone an FX pedal I sell in the marketplace 🤷‍♀️

 

 

[Bass Direct]

We always try our best for customers, drop us an email/give us a call anytime to discuss anything. 

 

We are always happy to help where we can, we are just 3 guys running the business rather than a big organisation

[Martyn R]

I just bailed out on a £2300 Dingwall with Bass Direct.

At checkout they wanted to charge £15 delivery to South Yorks. Not a major problem in itself but it spooked me enough to instantly snap out of my little bubble, seeing as I was already a bit nervous about dealing with them. 

[spacecowboy]

11 minutes ago, Martyn R said:

I just bailed out on a £2300 Dingwall with Bass Direct.

At checkout they wanted to charge £15 delivery to South Yorks. Not a major problem in itself but it spooked me enough to instantly snap out of my little bubble, seeing as I was already a bit nervous about dealing with them. 

What? Why? 

[JohnH89]

For that sort of money I would take a drive down there as you are in South Yorks . You will find they are lovely folks to deal with . 

[snorkie635]

1 hour ago, spacecowboy said:

What? Why? 

^
This

[Martyn R]

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...

 

[Martyn R]

14 minutes ago, JohnH89 said:

For that sort of money I would take a drive down there as you are in South Yorks . You will find they are lovely folks to deal with . 

Yes that's what I'm going to do now but I was pressed for time this week. Maybe try Andertons in 3 weeks time when I have a bit of spare time.

[EBS_freak]

Jeesh. Arguing over a 5er on big ticket items.