Bass Direct

[Reggaebass]

17 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 👍

If you sent me a bass with a low action I’d be over the moon, even if they wanted it higher all they needed to do is raise it a touch, sounds to me like they just wanted an excuse to return it 

[ezbass]

45 minutes ago, Beedster said:

there are 40-50 year old Fenders with space in the pocket for a small horse, and does it affect tone or stability? No. 

I had one of those. Played and sounded brilliant. There is bound to be some shrinkage over the decades, resulting in gaps.

[Martyn R]

25 minutes ago, Reggaebass said:

If you sent me a bass with a low action I’d be over the moon, even if they wanted it higher all they needed to do is raise it a touch, sounds to me like they just wanted an excuse to return it 

"If you sent me a bass with a low action I’d be over the moon" 

Me too, talk about living the dream...

[bigthumb]

I've bought a good number of basses and amps from BD over the years. When I lived in the Midlands I'd love to drive down there for a visit where Mark was always very welcoming and I would probably leave with a bigger credit card bill than I came in with. 

But a couple of times the description of the items sold has been a bit inaccurate regarding the condition. A cab described as in 'A1' condition was very much not. I needed the cab so I cleaned it up the best I could and it served me well. Another occasion a Markbass combo had the yellow Neo driver replaced with a ceramic Celestion one and not stated in the description. I did address this with them and the issue was resolved and again, it served me well. 

Overall I've been very happy with the service and I continue to buy from there.

[martthebass]

Another belated recognition of good service.

Middle of last year I bought a new Sandberg Lionel from BD. On first inspection it looked fine but later I checked the hang tag and noticed it stated there was some lacquer peel on the edge of the ebony fretboard. I contacted BD and it was collected and I said I’d be happy with a pro refin on the affected areas. Job was done but I requested pics before returning back to me. I wasn’t happy with the refin but BD were happy to send me an alternative Lionel around the same price point. I wouldn’t expect that from one of the big dealers.

This made me happy to part with cash on a new DarkRay with them a couple of months after that - good after sales service does pay off.

[Linus27]

I've bought a few basses and amps from Bass Direct and to date, everything has gone very well. I also buy all my strings from them as their prices have always been the most competitive and delivery has been very quick.

 

Interestingly, I've just dropped them an email asking a few questions about a certain bass so we'll see how they respond but I'm not expecting any dramas based on previous excellent service.

Edited Friday at 21:36 by Linus27