Buying from Thomann ?

[karlfer]

Advice please, if anybody knows.

 

Big ticket item (to me) around £1200.

 

It seems they now include the VAT in their prices, so that nasty surprise is removed.

 

Do our beloved HMRC add import duties of, or does the Post Office slap on handling/custom/random other charges?

 

I've not bought anything from them since the B word, but the attitude of a UK retailer has made me look elsewhere,

Cheers in advance wise ones.

[BreadBin]

I've never had any extra charges buying from Thomann. 

My last purchase was only £244, but that is all I paid.

Edit - this was May '22

Edited October 23, 2023 by BreadBin

[jrixn1]

I've bought a few things from Thomann post-2020, both above and below the £135 threshold.  The price paid at checkout is the final price you pay - nothing extra is added by anyone.  The outbound delivery process is as it used to be (i.e. takes about a week to arrive).  The issue now though is that the logistics of returns take a lot longer, with the courier (DHL) tracking unreliable.  So if you do need to send something back, it's 3-4 weeks of your items/money being in limbo, with no one on either side really knowing what's going on.

 

Edited October 23, 2023 by jrixn1

[BigRedX]

VAT and any other import taxes are included in the price.

 

However you should read through the couple of threads about returns problems before committing to an expensive purchase from Thomann. Currently this is the (very) weak link in the process with the UK carrier DHL being very unreliable especially when it comes to picking up large and/or heavy items. Until that gets sorted I wouldn't buy anything large or expensive from them.

[neepheid]

D!ck Heads Limited.

[Chienmortbb]

DHL are awful Tracking next to useless and drivers just don't turn up if they feel like it.

 

Thomann are registered with HMRC. That means they take the VAT and pay it to HMRC like any UK business.

 

One other issue with Thomann, anything with a Wall Wart power supply comes with Shuko plug and Thomann provide an adaptor. Great except the adaptors are quite large  and you cannot always fit into mains extension leads with other plugs.

[neepheid]

FWIW, I've bought two basses from Thomann in the last year - the first one was a Sire D5 which DHL "lost" on its way to me.  Thomann were actually really cool about it, accepted it was lost pretty quickly and sent another one which got through.  Second bass was straight through, no bother.

 

To confirm - no extra hidden charges on the UK side when buying from Thomann - the price you see is the price you pay.

[jezzaboy]

D H L

 

Better know as Drop, Hide, Lose

[rwillett]

To be fair to DHL (I know, I know) all my last transactions for about 18 months have been spot on. 

 

Had a delivery from Thomann this morning and they dropped or placed the parcel in my safe place with no fuss. Well I think they have, I'm away in York so they could have drop kicked them over the fence. Find out tomorrow evening. I am exceptionally nice to delivery people including the postie. I make an effort to ask their name and always offer a dribk or use of the toilet. Nobody has ever taken me up but it's the thought that counts. 

 

I also live in a very, very rural area where everybody knows each other and watches out for each other. A few weeks ago I ended up with a tractor window as the farmer was out. That was a big piece of glass. Not been entrusted with sheep or cows yet but I'm still hoping. Training the dog (half border collie/half poodle) to round up sheep is pretty difficult from a YouTube video, the cats will not say still. 

 

Rob 

 

Trob

[Tony macker]

I bought a ibanez tmb100. In 2020. And I had to pay customs etc. But I think that's all gone now. ... Anyway the bass was the worst bass I've had. And on arrival the knobs were almost falling off... Fixed them myself. Played it didn't like it sold it 👍

[Thump]

A DHL delivery driver once told me it stood for Day and a Half Late

[tauzero]

2 hours ago, rwillett said:

Had a delivery from Thomann this morning and they dropped or placed the parcel in my safe place with no fuss. Well I think they have, I'm away in York so they could have drop kicked them over the fence. Find out tomorrow evening. I am exceptionally nice to delivery people including the postie. I make an effort to ask their name and always offer a dribk or use of the toilet. Nobody has ever taken me up but it's the thought that counts. 

 

It may be the way that you stand on the doorstep sharpening an axe that puts them off.

[uk_lefty]

17 hours ago, Chienmortbb said:

One other issue with Thomann, anything with a Wall Wart power supply comes with Shuko plug and Thomann provide an adaptor. Great except the adaptors are quite large  and you cannot always fit into mains extension leads with other plugs.

This is very, very annoying. It makes for a big, chunky and not very sturdy mains connection, perfect for kicking out of place by wandering singers. And although their after care is, IMO, excellent I bought a pedal power pack that turned out it had a dodgy UK adaptor. Took ages to work out what was the broken component because I stupidly wired in the power pack and all my pedals before powering it on to test it. Still, they sent me a new adaptor FOC very quickly.

[Newfoundfreedom]

Thankfully over here in the sunny side of Europe we get Thomann delivery via UPS. Never had a single problem either with delivery or returns, and I buy pretty much all my gear from Thomann. 

 

 

[The Saint]

Living in France is a bit different to being in the UK. As mentioned above, Thomann use UPS here and I've never had a problem with them.

 
I did return a faulty guitar a month or two ago and I had to use the French postal service. It got lost and Thomann made me wait a week or so in case it turned up (fair enough I thought) and then sent out a replacement. 

 

I've always found their customer service to be first class and buy quite a lot of gear from them. When I'm in the UK (rarely) I tend to use Andertons, who are equally good.

 

If Andertons have the item you want, I'd have no hesitation in recommending them

Edited October 24, 2023 by The Saint

[NancyJohnson]

On 23/10/2023 at 15:21, neepheid said:

D!ck Heads Limited.

 

Chortle. 

 

My mum knew a guy who was at DHL when it was a smallish operation here, just expanding into Europe, so mid-late 1970s. 

 

He was always on the lookout for 'smart, intelligent kids' to courier documents to New York/Boston and back; flight there, cab (or picked up from the airport) into Manhattan, wait for documents to be signed, overnight somewhere if necessary, cab back to airport, fly home.  It was cheaper to fly and pay a 14/15 year old rather than an adult and cheaper as you weren't on the payroll.

 

Foolishly I never took his offer up, but a friend of mine did it quite a few times; he'd just throw a Monday or Friday sickie from school (he'd fly out early Friday morning and be in Manhattan around lunchtime), 'grumbling appendix' was the main reason given, all with his parent's approval!  He'd take orders for records, so he'd come back with a rucksack of vinyl and always had loads of ready £££.  He claims to have popped his cherry on one trip.  What a life. 

 

I envy him to this day and he still has his appendix!

 

 

 

 

Edited October 28, 2023 by NancyJohnson

[Newfoundfreedom]

38 minutes ago, NancyJohnson said:

 

Chortle. 

 

My mum knew a guy who was at DHL when it was a smallish operation here, just expanding into Europe, so mid-late 1970s. 

 

He was always on the lookout for 'smart, intelligent kids' to courier documents to New York/Boston and back; flight there, cab (or picked up from the airport) into Manhattan, wait for documents to be signed, overnight somewhere if necessary, cab back to airport, fly home.  It was cheaper to fly and pay a 14/15 year old rather than an adult and cheaper as you weren't on the payroll.

 

Foolishly I never took his offer up, but a friend of mine did it quite a few times; he'd just throw a Monday or Friday sickie from school (he'd fly out early Friday morning and be in Manhattan around lunchtime), 'grumbling appendix' was the main reason given, all with his parent's approval!  He'd take orders for records, so he'd come back with a rucksack of vinyl and always had loads of ready £££.  He claims to have popped his cherry on one trip.  What a life. 

 

I envy him to this day and he still has his appendix!

 

 

 

 

 

That sounds so cool! I'd love to have done that! 

[maxr]

I've had no problems with Thomann themselves, either in buying or returns. But as posted above, their returns system via DHL is slow and can be lumpy. If you need to return something guitar-sized, you may come up against your local DHL agent being unwilling to take so large a parcel. Some of them are local grocery stores and fuel stations with groceries attached, and I've had counter staff tell me they just haven't got room. If you're in a big city or near a DHL depot this shouldn't be a problem. In both cases I hit this, it was enough to say " If you're a DHL depot you're supposed to take this" and they then asked their manager and said "OK", so that got sorted fairly quickly. Resist them suggesting you take it somewhere else, because in both cases the local agent first sent me somewhere that was no longer a DHL agent (or maybe had never been), with the words "....they'll take it"  - they didn't.

Edited October 28, 2023 by maxr

[uk_lefty]

It's annoying though trying to find the DHL depots. I went all over three towns to either be told "don't bother, the DHL guy hasn't been seen in ages" or "we have never been a DHL depot"/ "we send DHL stuff but can't do returns..." 

[Doctor J]

https://www.thomann.de/gb/helpdesk_shipping.html

 

"Duty

We take care of the custom declaration so you will not have to pay any customs fees. "

[StingRayBoy42]

As others have said, No there's no VAT, customs, import duty, window tax etc etc - the price you see is the price you pay.

I've always had good dealings with Thomann but I have no experience of returns, so can't comment on that - there are a few horror stories on here and elsewhere about DHL/corner shops not accepting stuff.

And yes, the UK adapter thing is a bit of a pain!

As someone above mentioned, Andertons are also really good, I'd definitely recommend them.

[maxr]

I've had good service from Andertons, and also bought from GAK (Brighton) successfully. They'll sometimes chuck some stuff in with the deal if you're buying a guitar or amp.

[SumOne]

It seems you need some patience when ordering from Thomann compared to UK companies like GAK who do next day delivery.

 

I ordered a Mooer Prime P2 from Thomann 6 days ago, it was processed and dispatched the same day but now seems to still be waiting to get through customs so could still take a while (which is annoying as I wanted it for a band practice tonight ahead of a gig on Saturday). It's not Thomann's fault but it is something to consider as a lot of the time their prices aren't that different to UK shops (for the P2 it did seem worth the wait though as it is £50 cheaper from Thomann than UK shops). Returns too I guess are more cost/time/faff so unless there is a decent saving by using Thonamm I'll use UK shops.

 

Update: It arrived today all well (and no customs fees), 8 days after ordering, but most of that time was waiting at customs, Thomann sent it the day it was ordered and DHL delivered to me the day after clearing customs. 

Edited January 12 by SumOne

[Huge Hands]

I made 2 orders at the end of last year.  The first one was for 2 Harley Benton guitars (a bass for me and acoustic 6 string for my son - all under £200).  That was made at the end of November, and if memory serves, turned up in 5 days.

 

About 4 days later, I stupidly remembered I wanted some other stuff, so made an order of strings, stands, cables etc.  That came to about £60.  I ordered that on 4th Dec, the day before the guitars arrived.  

 

That one did not come until the week in between Christmas and New Year.   If you believe Thomanns tracking system, it appears it was despatched quickly, but got stuck in Customs, so I presume each time you order you are at the mercy of how busy Customs are.  I assumed mine had been due to the Christmas rush.

 

Thomann eventually sent me an update a few working days before it arrived saying it had just been cleared by Customs and they were frustrated because it was making them look bad.    

[neepheid]

15 minutes ago, SumOne said:

It seems you need some patience when ordering from Thomann compared to UK companies like GAK who do next day delivery.

 

I ordered a Mooer Prime P2 from Thomann 6 days ago, it was processed and dispatched the same day but now seems to still be waiting to get through customs so could still take a while (which is annoying as I wanted it for a band practice tonight ahead of a gig on Saturday). It's not Thomann's fault but it is something to consider as a lot of the time their prices aren't that different to UK shops (for the P2 it did seem worth the wait though as it is £50 cheaper from Thomann than UK shops). Returns too I guess are more cost/time/faff so unless there is a decent saving by using Thonamm I'll use UK shops.

 

I wouldn't order anything time sensitive from Thomann (or anywhere non-UK come to think of it) - too many variables, too many opportunities for delay/points of failure - none of which are Thomann's fault.

Edited January 10 by neepheid