A warning about Thomann

  • Thread starter Thread starter chamelious
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chamelious

www.thesunexplodes.com
I recommend no one ever use them.

I bought a cab which was delivered damaged before xmas. The returns emails took days to come through, at which point they insisted on not sending anything out until they had the original back, they said they were sending ups. The UPS email didn't come for a week, so i emailed them back, then they got it sorted in 2 days. 4 days after that ups were sorted and the cab was gone. Then i get an email thanking me for it and my cab will be on its way. A week later i check back on the website and my item is "out of stock" for 2 weeks. They weren't even going to tell me. More angry emails, this time with the manager of customer services, again taking between a day and FIVE days for reply s. I try to get them to send me the next most expensive cab. All i get back is "sorry, no, you can wait for your cab or take a refund and a 35 euro discount" I negotiate paying for the difference for the next cab up, and they sent it on Wednesday. Hopefully it will arrive today, 2 and a bit months after i sent the original returns request.

On numerous occasions i mentioned the fact that i'm in a band, and i post on forums, etc. They obviously don't give a flying sideways arse about customer service. I strongly recommend you guys ignore the prices and buy from somewhere that actually cares.

On a plus side, i dealt with someone at dv247 recently as well, unbelievably helpful.
 
I've not dealt with Thomann personally but I know people that use them and have had similar issue with returns and customer service.

I on the other hand have always got my gear from DV247 and recommend them completely. If they don't have what you want, they will have it ordered for you that day and shipped the day the receive it. Always willing to help and even advise on stuff when you have question.

Good bunch of people working there. ;)
 
Is it fair to recommend that a whole group of people all over the world never use a company because one had a bad experience with them ? What do you then do if someone comes along and says "Well, my experiences with them have always been good" ?
 
grimtraveller said:
Is it fair to recommend that a whole group of people all over the world never use a company because one had a bad experience with them ? What do you then do if someone comes along and says "Well, my experiences with them have always been good" ?
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+1 in this guy.

I've used Thomann for many years, and they've improved greatly over the years. They used to be slow to ship out orders, but recently it only took 6 days from them to my door in Norway. Gotta love that!

I returned a mixer once, though it wasn't new (i assume your speaker cab was damaged upon arrival). It did take some emails and some weeks, but that's what you get for not buying gear in a store downtown. Returns take time anyway..

With that said, being that the cab arrived damaged, they should have asked you to take pictures of the damages, and then make ups ship it for you. Then when they get the shipment confirmation, instantly ship a new one to you.
 
grimtraveller said:
Is it fair to recommend that a whole group of people all over the world never use a company because one had a bad experience with them ? What do you then do if someone comes along and says "Well, my experiences with them have always been good" ?
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Yes i think it is. This wasn't a bad experience it was disgraceful. A disgraceful experience like this exposes the ethos of the company and personally would discourage me from ever using the company even if i'd had good experiences with them. I don't want purchases i make to be a gamble.
 
mnordbye said:
I returned a mixer once, though it wasn't new (i assume your speaker cab was damaged upon arrival). It did take some emails and some weeks, but that's what you get for not buying gear in a store downtown. Returns take time anyway..

With that said, being that the cab arrived damaged, they should have asked you to take pictures of the damages, and then make ups ship it for you. Then when they get the shipment confirmation, instantly ship a new one to you.
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It was damaged upon arrival yeah, i did say. And as you say, they should have shipped the item as soon as they got shipping conf, which they said they'd do. But didn't. And then the item went out of stock, and the didn't even bother to say.
 
As a business owner, I agree with their policies. I cannot support their customer service methods though. Taking 5 minutes to communicate with the customer could have saved them tons of time on the back-end. I'd have probably fired every person involved for wasting "my" time and the customer's time as well.

Damaged during shipping = my problem. Replace the customer's product, handle the damaged item with the shipper, that's what insurance is for. The customer should not be involved in the matter, other than to return the damaged item.

Solution: A phone call to explain the situation and a follow up phone call once it was all in motion. Ten minutes, tops. I bet wading through pissed off customer emails and responding took hours, when all said and done.

...of course that's just my $ .02
 
I have ordered many times from thomann over the past years and I have had no issues so far. As I am in Germany it usually take 1 to 3 days until the shipment arrives. I had to deal with customer service once, when an amp stand arrived that was missing one locking screw. I phoned them and they got in contact with the manufacturer who in turn sent a replacement screw right away. They even got back to me telling me about the success with the manufacturer. I had the missing screw the next day. I have to say though, at first they wanted me to return the stand (on their expense). But I was on a tight schedule and needed the stand so I convinced them it was better this way. Maybe it has paid off to be a long time customer, who knows.

Cheers
Tim
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by grimtraveller;
Is it fair to recommend that a whole group of people all over the world never use a company because one had a bad experience with them ? What do you then do if someone comes along and says "Well, my experiences with them have always been good" ?
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Yes i think it is. This wasn't a bad experience it was disgraceful. A disgraceful experience like this exposes the ethos of the company and personally would discourage me from ever using the company even if i'd had good experiences with them. I don't want purchases i make to be a gamble.
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I'm not disputing that it may have been disgraceful. It just seems to me that recommending that an entire worldwide entity of home recorders {which in effect this is} boycott a company because of one lame incident is kind of disproportionate to the said incident, especially when others have had good experiences. Could you not instead have said something along the lines of "um, people, be aware of this...." or better still, personally boycott them yourself ? I'm not having a pop and I don't want to get into some cyberspace fracas. I just kind of feel that if you really want to take issue with them, withdraw your business from them and be sure to tell them why. It's damn frustrating when customer services taken aeons to return e-mails and get back, I know. But resolution should be {in my estimation} the preferred option - even if you have to use 'strong arm' tactics {:D} to bring the company to, uh, it's "senses".
 
grimtraveller said:
I'm not disputing that it may have been disgraceful. It just seems to me that recommending that an entire worldwide entity of home recorders {which in effect this is} boycott a company because of one lame incident is kind of disproportionate to the said incident, especially when others have had good experiences. Could you not instead have said something along the lines of "um, people, be aware of this...." or better still, personally boycott them yourself ? I'm not having a pop and I don't want to get into some cyberspace fracas. I just kind of feel that if you really want to take issue with them, withdraw your business from them and be sure to tell them why. It's damn frustrating when customer services taken aeons to return e-mails and get back, I know. But resolution should be {in my estimation} the preferred option - even if you have to use 'strong arm' tactics {:D} to bring the company to, uh, it's "senses".
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FWIW (and no offense intended to the OP), I always take online forum rants about bad customer service and such with a large grain of salt. We only get to hear one side of the story and the other party is not around to defend himself.
 
I've never bought gear on-line. I have to see it in person before I buy.
 
Apolgies if i offended or seemed heavy handed, and rest assured and made my intentions to boycott(and my entire band) the company, they simply didn't care, or didn't appear to. My main reason for taking it further and bringing the matter here was the fact that one of the people (one of the MOST unhelpful actually) was the customer services manager, Steffi Bischoff.

ggunn said:
FWIW (and no offense intended to the OP), I always take online forum rants about bad customer service and such with a large grain of salt. We only get to hear one side of the story and the other party is not around to defend himself.
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I understand this and i'm not really trying to convince anyone of anything, as the title of the post says, its just warning, a description of what happened to me.
 
mnordbye said:
It did take some emails and some weeks, but that's what you get for not buying gear in a store downtown. Returns take time anyway...
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I disagree, a few weeks is a disgustingly terrible length of time, even for a distance sale. In a world of instant communication and next-day delivery I'd say a week should be the very maximum to process a return. Maybe its because I've grown up expecting this kind of service, but it really isn't anything unreasonable to ask of a big retailer.

I had one of my monitors replaced under warranty this week. Phoned Inta Audio on Monday afternoon and they offered to ship a replacement out the next day. Less than 48 hours later and I had a direct courier swap with the faulty monitor and had my brand new replacement. That is the kind of service I would expect and appreciate when it happens :)
 
I've never had real problems with them; just the sort of niggly things that happen when you deal with a large company for which you are only a customer number. They've always honoured the letter of their contractual obligations to me, which is about all you can ask of an outfit that size.

That being said, they have room for improvement on turn-around times, especially for warranty repairs.
 
Never had an issue with them. Took back my Alesis IO26, no questions asked, organised pick-up of the old one and had a new one a week later. Deliveries are generally prompt and the stock is off high quality.
 
I've been using Thomann for years and have had nothing but great service from them. Only one time did I order a B stock item that came without a cable. If you've used Thomann you'll know that every order is handled by a certain person in the department who's phone number is included on your order verification email. That one time I called the number and the cable was dispatched the same day.

They have always offered me some of the best prices on the net. I'm in the UK and the postage on their stuff is cheaper coming from Germany than Digital Village in the UK. Well packaged and fast delivery times and when I've needed it customer support has been great in my experience.

You mention "angry" emails. Maybe that is the route of your problem. Like I said, every order comes with a number you can call and sort things out right away. I feel for you but perhaps you just went about things the wrong way and I don't think that calls for a boycott on Thomann.
 
mattr said:
I disagree, a few weeks is a disgustingly terrible length of time, even for a distance sale. In a world of instant communication and next-day delivery I'd say a week should be the very maximum to process a return. Maybe its because I've grown up expecting this kind of service, but it really isn't anything unreasonable to ask of a big retailer.

I had one of my monitors replaced under warranty this week. Phoned Inta Audio on Monday afternoon and they offered to ship a replacement out the next day. Less than 48 hours later and I had a direct courier swap with the faulty monitor and had my brand new replacement. That is the kind of service I would expect and appreciate when it happens :)
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Please please don't take what I'm going to say the wrong way, but saying "I've grown up expecting this kind of service", while not wrong, does set you up for upset at some point along the way if you're not prepared to give some leeway and allow for mistakes and shitheadedness. Life is rarely black or white, either/or. There's lots of variables and if one employee doesn't give you what you expect or demand, that's not the end of the story - unless you choose it to be. Sometimes there are good reasons why things turn out the way they do, but even if a company appears to be screwing up, I always ask myself what outcome I actually want. It's only at the end of a process in which I've tried to bring some resolution to my problem and there is evidently no solution or acknowledgement









































that I send round the heavy mob ! :D
 
grimtraveller said:
Please please don't take what I'm going to say the wrong way, but saying "I've grown up expecting this kind of service", while not wrong, does set you up for upset at some point along the way if you're not prepared to give some leeway and allow for mistakes and shitheadedness. Life is rarely black or white, either/or. There's lots of variables and if one employee doesn't give you what you expect or demand, that's not the end of the story - unless you choose it to be. Sometimes there are good reasons why things turn out the way they do, but even if a company appears to be screwing up, I always ask myself what outcome I actually want. It's only at the end of a process in which I've tried to bring some resolution to my problem and there is evidently no solution or acknowledgement...
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I know I know, and I'm not alien to these situations. I've had many friendly dealings with companies over misunderstandings, genuine mistakes, etc, as well as the times when the proverbial **** has to hit the hypothetical fan in order to get things sorted. I may or may not have reduced a mail courier customer services rep to tears before she would admit that the company was at fault and that they should compensate me in the form of free Saturday 9am priority delivery...
 
Leave the guy alone. Us brits are famous for not complaining and when of us does a good job of it you all jump on him.

We will have satisfaction I tell you..:laughings:
 
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