My Musicstop Experience

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My Musicstop Experience

Postby clinton » Wed May 14, 2008 8:53 am

So last weekend I rented a keyboard for some recording. I wasn't to play the keys, my friend Adam was and so consequently I told him to call and reserve whatever he wanted. So I went out to pick up the board which Adam told me was roughly 33 dollars. I was shockied when it was tallied up at $104. The friendly and helpful there told me that it included a $20 deposit that I would get back and that I would get a great chunk of it back if I returned the board on Monday (it was a five day rental). So....I get to the session and Adam tells me this isn't the right board. He reserved an FP4 and this was a full-size Roland RD700. Too late now though, we've got to get set up and record. So no biggie, Adam calls and explains to mix up and we're assured that'll be corrected BUT.....I take the board back on Monday and am refunded roughly $30. Now grant you I could have argued about the refund and put up a stink or maybe I should have confirmed with Adam initially exactly what kinda board I would be pickng up (I accept responsibility for that) but this experience has pretty much soured me on doing business there again.

Well that's my story...
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Postby Mathieu Benoit » Wed May 14, 2008 10:08 am

I'm really sorry to hear that.

Did you get the chance to discuss it with Steve yet? Usually he likes his customers leaving a little less perturbed than that, and will do anything in his power to make customers happy.

The price you mentioned sounds about right for a RD-700 rental of 5 days. However if it's not what you were supposed to get and Adam was quoted roughly $33, then yeah... I definitely get your point. Then to be told that they acknowledge the problem and it'll be fixed, only to find that it still wasn't solved to your satisfaction... I don't know, I'm not saying I'd be happy.

I'm a really demanding customer that expects a lot from the retailers I do business with. So my reaction to some things may sometimes be a little more sever than how others may react to them. But if those things ever happened to me, I'd lose my shit on site.

Just playing devil's advocate, but is it possible that Adam was mistaken? I'm sure you trust your friend as I'm sure he's trustworthy, I'm just wondering since you weren't privy to any of the misunderstandings, is it possible that the communication wasn't clear between Adam and the rental dept.? Maybe they didn't understand what he was asking for... I may be way off but I just want to make sure we examine both sides before assuming fault either way.
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Postby Malcolm Boyce » Wed May 14, 2008 12:26 pm

If Adam actually "reserved" a lesser expensive instrument, and Musicstop substituted a more expensive instrument for their reasons... you should pay the rate for what you actually wanted, not the substitution.

That being said, as Matt mentions, this all balances on exactly how specific the arrangements made by Adam and Musicstop were.

I understand what you are trying to do about the responsibility for the misunderstanding Clint, but if I had set up a rental for a specific piece of gear, I should be able to send a blind man who wouldn't know the difference between a keyboard and a car seat to pick it up and not have to worry about him coming back with a different thing for more money.

Do I have to make a sub-forum "Musicstop... What's Your Beef?" and get Steve in here to moderate it? :lol:
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Postby Mathieu Benoit » Wed May 14, 2008 12:50 pm

Malcolm Boyce wrote:
I understand what you are trying to do about the responsibility for the misunderstanding Clint, but if I had set up a rental for a specific piece of gear, I should be able to send a blind man who wouldn't know the difference between a keyboard and a car seat to pick it up and not have to worry about him coming back with a different thing for more money.

I couldn't agree more.

Malcolm Boyce wrote:
Do I have to make a sub-forum "Musicstop... What's Your Beef?" and get Steve in here to moderate it? :lol:

Interesting idea. But I'm sure one could also discuss it with Steve personally, unless subpar service started to become an epidemic at L&M. I'm not sure we're there yet.

Funny though Malcolm... ;-)
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Postby Malcolm Boyce » Wed May 14, 2008 12:56 pm

Drumwaiter wrote:...unless subpar service started to become an epidemic at L&M....
I myself have heard more than a couple of stories...

I know Steve would like to hear about this stuff, and I hope folks don't just walk away angry. Dealing with it will always lead to better things, as opposed to just cursing your experience, and not wanting to go back there.

We waited too long for a real music store in this burg to not work things into shape now that L&M/Musicstop is here.
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Postby clinton » Wed May 14, 2008 1:36 pm

yeah I agree with you Malcolm but I just wanted to acknowledge that I could have been more thorough as well. My only feeling was that since the confusion was acknowledged asd we were told it would be compensated, it just shoulda been. I shouldn't have to make an arguement or even ask for it, it just shoulda been handled.

With that said, the staff at Musictop is top notch and most of them are my friends. In no way what-so-ever am I claiming that the staff there is incompetent. I am not looking to bash Musicstop and am not looking to discourage others from gong there.

I am just sharing what was my experience, looking for a litle justification for how I felt about it and am moving on. Like I said though, it does sour the place for me and though I won't say that "I won't be back", I will most likely think twice about where I take my business based on this experience.

I dunno, maybe I am not high profile enough to get the good treatment. I do own 15 guitars and four drum sets though, so you can imagine that I am constantly buying strings and sticks. I know they're not big ticket items but my point is, I frequent music stores.
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Postby Mathieu Benoit » Wed May 14, 2008 2:37 pm

clinton wrote:I am not looking to bash Musicstop and am not looking to discourage others from going there.

I am just sharing what was my experience, looking for a little justification for how I felt about it


It's great that you are self-aware enough to catch that. That's all any of us ever rant on these forums for, but few of us acknowledge that we are just looking to justify our feelings.
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Postby zaat » Wed May 14, 2008 5:18 pm

Hey all
I had a look a this post and reviewed the transaction. I think Clinton and I can sort this out to his satisfaction. For the sake of clarity allow me to establish some things.

A) We presume all of our customers are well intentioned and honest so if a cusomer mistakenly rents the wrong item and for some reason is unable to exchange it for the correct one we would credit him with the difference so in this case he should have been issued the difference. Why he was not looks like a matter of execution.

B) Because we rent such a wide variety of products reservation would be nearly impossible so the L&M policy is that we don't reserve. That being said if we run out of FP4s in our rental department we have no trouble grabbing one from our new stock. I'm not sure why Clinton didn't get an FP4 in this case as we have three. Also if we're all out of a certain item that may reflect our lack of forsight about stock ample quantity. That happened to us once when we ran out of speaker stands to rent so we learn from these and go from there.

C) If there are some disenfranchised customers out there that I don't hear about It's difficult to address issues so I'm thankful to have been made aware of this post. The Musicstop Beef forum wouldn't be a way I would want to go with respect to the privacy of my staff. I would however welcome any concerns privately and my email is steve.z@musicstop.com

I'll keep an eye on this this thread to see what the responses are

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Postby Mathieu Benoit » Wed May 14, 2008 5:51 pm

Hey Steve!

I figured you'd catch wind of this sooner or later. I'm sure you boys can work this out. In the end a satisfactory result is the goal for everyone involved and I'm sure you can help achieve that.
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Postby Malcolm Boyce » Wed May 14, 2008 10:41 pm

zaat wrote:...The Musicstop Beef forum wouldn't be a way I would want to go with respect to the privacy of my staff. ...

I keeeeed..... I keeeeed....

I'm just glad you were able to respond to something of concern here where it was posted.

Thanks for stopping in. Hope all is well.
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It just fills Forum pages..." --compasspnt

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Postby clinton » Thu May 15, 2008 10:09 am

that's very kind and professional to address my post Steve. Thanks! I am not looking for anything from it though, I would feel like way too much of an opportunist. The fact that you care enough about your customer's to want to discuss it is good enough for me.

I'm sure I'll be in soon enough...

thanks again,
-clinton
"I came unarmed, they've all got knives, how can this song survive?" - Ron Sexsmith (Blue Boy)
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Postby Malcolm Boyce » Thu May 15, 2008 5:42 pm

clinton wrote:that's very kind and professional to address my post Steve. Thanks! I am not looking for anything from it though, I would feel like way too much of an opportunist. The fact that you care enough about your customer's to want to discuss it is good enough for me.

I'm sure I'll be in soon enough...

thanks again,
-clinton
Do we get stuff done around here or what?... ;-)
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It just fills Forum pages..." --compasspnt

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