AcornHouse
Venerated Member
Dems fightin' words Tex!
That was the moment when he let his guard down to reveal the ugly Guildophobia he usually hides so well under a mask of equal contempt for all.I spoke with knowledge about Guild and their changes when he said "They didn't impress me.".
Anybody over 60 not sporting a ponytail and ripped tie-dye and denims can't possibly be a serious purchaser of a guitar, I don't care how well you talk the talk.I'm in my 60's and Don is early 70's. We dress casually, but nice.
Even if true, primary sales error at that point was in not telling you you couldn't afford an American built Breedlove.What really made me stop and think, was when he said they had some Breedloves in stock. I said, "Yes, they look very nice but I'm interested in one of the ones made in Bend, OR, rather than the Chinese built ones. Then he launched into some rhetoric about, "You know the trouble is proportionately I make less money off a $6,000 guitar than I do on a $600 guitar. The profit margin is much less than it is on the less expensive ones."
Right, this would have been the perfect strategic opportunity for disarming honesty for the sake of building trust..I thought, "Why are you telling me this? Am I, a potential customer, supposed to be worried about your profit margin? And, if all that is even true, why do you have so many $6,000 guitars on your wall? Also, using "proportionately" means you make some serious money on a high end guitar....."
To be fair, you failed in your obligation as a customer to ask for his business card so you could ask for him when you came back in a couple of months.It just didn't make any sense and rubbed me the wrong way. Of course, the whole experience rubbed me the wrong way.
It's Vegas.I'm serious about buying a guitar, this specific guitar. If they'd played it right, I probably would've slapped down my card and said, "Let's do it." In my experience so far, I guess everyone just wants to sell what they have on their wall. But I doubt they have many $2000 sales falling out of the sky in that place. Maybe I'm wrong.
Having the actual guitar would be best, but in desperation an actual ad ripped out of a magazine might suffice, failing that, a download of a pic from the internet printed on an inkjet printer, with which you should go back to the store, show it to him, and say "I bet you couldn't get me this guitar even if I paid you".What I've found so far, is that the key to this whole guitar I want to buy is, that it be a model "that they normally stock". GC used the same phrase. So I'll just find a dealer that has one and make sure they stock it, verify a return policy in the super rare chance that I won't like it, and buy online. Apparently, that's the only way to go.
So when are you planning to trade in your Toyota?So much for trying to support my local brick and mortar businesses. So far, it's a big, huge FAIL.
Dems fightin' words Tex!
Or, as Linus said, "I love mankind, it's people I can't stand."There's a saying in sales: "People buy from people." Tom, your story just proves the point.
As much as I try to give people the benefit of a doubt, some people just suck.
As much as I try to give people the benefit of a doubt, some people just suck.
That's a pretty common syndrome in retail.
It's called "Eyeballing" and in fact you're supposed to put all the visual stereotypes aside and go say "Hi" anyway.
The guy in the fancy suit is likely gonna be maxed out on his credit and "upside down" on his year-old Cadillac while the working class family with 1 or 2 kids and a pregnant wife who hop out of their compact 2-door and start to look at the row of used Caravans were just about a slam-dunk every time.
When selling cars it's almost inevitable that after a couple of years you start recognizing subtle body English that tells you that somebody's not really there to buy a car or even "get a price".
I can see that easily translating to similar retail models like guitars and other "big ticket" (over $1000.00) items.
Best cue was always when somebody looked through the driver's window to see what kind of mileage or accessories it had,
That was always best time to approach.
One day one of my "Teammates" came back to me after "upping" (meet and greet to start the sales process) a couple I'd told him he could "have" and expressed his surprise that I had almost a 100% accuracy rate at "eyeballing".
The other side of the coin is when you spot somebody telegraphing all the signals but you don't want to rush them (What everybody hates about car shopping and makes 'em defensive right off the bat), but there's always somebody else who will.
In any case, there's no reason to be rude except for that guy who somehow made it work for him, LOL!:
"HI WELCOME TO STEAL A DEAL! WHAT CAN I DO YA FER TODAY?"
"We're just looking, thanks"
"OH, CREDIT SUCKS, HUH? WELL YOU JUST LET US WORRY ABOUT THAT!"
"Oh if you could just give us your card we'll ask for you when we come back next week" (Number one buyer's lie of all time)
"HEY YOU DON'T HAVE TO LIE TO ME. I'LL STILL GET YOU THE BEST DEAL YOU CAN POSSIBLY GET TODAY BUT THIS THING'S PROBABLY WAY OUTSIDE YOUR BUDGET!"
"Well how much is it really?"
"WELL YOU KNOW, IF YOU HAVE TO ASK...HAHHAHAHHA!!"
"We're asking"
"TELL YA WHAT TAKE A LOOK AT THIS NICE LEASE RETURN, 2 YEAR OLD DODGE DYNASTY WITH ONLY 40,0000 MILES ON IT. YOU COULD GET IT TODAY FOR ONLY 30 CENTS A MILE!"
"Why do you have a used Dodge at a Plymouth dealer?"
"SEE!! I TOLD YOU THIS IS WHAT YOU NEED!!"
"We really have to go but we'll come back next week and if the Voyager's still here we'll ask for you"
Soooo.....in that scenario, who actually lied twice?
So burnout in retail sales does have some foundation in experience.
the guy is worth 50 million. Here is the kicker, he was mid 40s, looked like a slob that just got cutoff at the bar.
Hello LA,
You might remember that I told you I visited that same guy during one of my earlier visits to the U.S. I actually remember his last name, because it sounded like his family was originally from the Netherlands. It was more than 30 years ago and I don't remember him being drunk, but it was a weird experience, because it was not really clear to me if I was visiting a music store or a shed in the back of somebody's house. At the time I was looking for 'vintage' parts for guitar repairs, something I'm still doing to this day. It was the middle of the 'customizing craze' of the '80s and everybody was changing their original hardware and pickups and installing stuff from the various aftermarket businesses that were trying to convince people they could improve their guitars by using their product; in the end very few of these products actually did!
While I was going through his drawers and various parts boxes I found some neat stuff that I definitely could use. I clearly remember a complete set of gold plated Kluson Deluxe, single line, tuners, complete with bushings and to this day I wonder what guitar these tuners could have been removed from and what he would have replaced these tuners with! I do know that eventually I sold them to a guy who had an original Mary Kaye Strat with worn out tuners and he was really happy to give me a lot of money for the set.
Anyway, the owner of the place looked like he didn't have a clue why I was looking for that stuff, but he was happy to sell it to me. Apparently he's still in business in spite of his manners. I'm really happy he is, because most of the 'small time' music stores are no longer there, most of them pushed out by the big chain stores. I have lots of fond memories of going to all these 'mom and pop' stores, with hard working people who never became rich, but who were doing it because their hearts were in it! I like to think that your 'angry' neighbour at some point started the business for the right reasons, but I guess somewhere along the way things got bad!
Sincerely,
Hans Moust
www.guitarsgalore.nl
OH MY GOD!! I'm laughing my *** off, LA!!!. Honestly, I love sharing stuff here but then stuff like this comes up and I'm all like, "I was worried about an attitude problem??" It's so easy to avoid a place. I'll just go back to GC where they don't bother me and buy this guitar online......I'll leave it to this fine Yelp reviewer: "Threatened to pull out his gun after a simple discussion about guitar strings."
He's a violent menace and I've lost all sympathy for him and his business. The sooner he leaves the community, the safer we will all be.
Yep.So I agree, do not judge a book by it's cover. You will be the one to lose out.