(yet another) Awful experience with DV247.

johnl

Recently ordered the Katana 50 from DV247 for what would have been a very good price (£163) - DV247 not only applied for the funds 3 times from my bank, they also turned out not to have the amp in stock. So far responses from their customer services team have been "I'll speak to Germany but it should turn up at some point" and "I'll email them to ask to cancel the order but if someone has already emailed them then they'll get annoyed". 

As you can imagine I'd very much hate to annoy someone in Germany over the trivial matter of £500+ being on hold in my account with nothing to show for it but hopefully DV247 will find it in their hearts to release my funds some point this week. 

chrisj1602

Doesn't surprise me, I ordered a Strymon pedal from them and got a European power supply. Not a massive deal but i'd expect better when spending £300 on a pedal. So they told me they'd send the UK power supply but sent me a really cheap, nasty looking conversion adapter. 

Funkfingers

My guess is that you have communicated with a different customer services staff member each time. Time, perhaps, to ask to speak to whoever is nominally in charge at the store and ask them to sort it. 

It matters not if some faceless clerical staff in a remote distribution centre *get annoyed*. That smacks of the DV customer services representative shirking his or her responsibility for the original cock up(s). 

If the store is unable to fulfil your original order, they should 'fess up and offer to refund you. I smart store manager might even try to placate you with a credit note. The fact that you are probably disinclined to spend any more money with them is neither here nor there.

Grumpyrocker

Once bought some music software from them and it didn't included the serial number. When I phoned "customer services"  number the bloke basically told me to get stuffed. Had to escalate it to management to get anywhere with it.

Haven't bought from them since. 

rossi

Should always pay by credit card .much safer .

crunchman

Haven't bought anything from them since their dodgy administration.  The way they treated their creditors and staff was appalling.

Acton shop is 5 minutes walk from where I work and is still empty now.

Sesh

That sucks. When i bought an amp from them it was supplied with a European cable and a German manual. They supplied a UK plug ok but not the manual. Good thing that was available online. It cheaper and delivered on time though.

SunDevil

I tried to by an R8 from them about a month back - first then couldn’t find the guitar, then they couldn’t ship the alternative for days (I’d paid a premium for next day)

When I lost confidence and asked for a refund (note they had settled from my account before they had actually lined up the guitar) it took near enough a week to get the funds back.

I found the UK team friendly and totally ineffective - they told me they have a new stock system and the UK team have no control over it, so all they do is pass on requests to Germany, who do FA with them.

I spent £46 on phone calls to Germany to get my money back - I firmly believe that was a result given the depth of the chaos.

My advice, speak to Germany, but be prepared for them hanging up on you and transferring back to the uk (a lot!) when you specifically asked them now too

..er, good luck! 

Modellista

rossi said:

Should always pay by credit card .much safer .

^ This!  Any purchase online or for any significant sum should be made with a credit card.  You've got a whole layer of legal protection if the retailer starts playing silly.  The idea of any Tom, Dick or Harold being able to put their hands into my current account makes me shudder.  If it's on a credit card you can just sit back for a month without worrying about going overdrawn, and if the issue is still not resolved when you get the bill, just don't pay that part of the bill and start a Section 75.

Credit all the way - if you use something like the John Lewis card you even get little bonus beer vouchers for buying guitars.  Win-win!

rossi

credit ....beer,,,,guitars ?..... sounds  good........

Teetonetal

Owned by musicstore.de who are shit. It's possible I've mentioned that before on here. But they are shitter than a shit thing wrapped in shit.

BTW you make much better headway with the musicstore team if you speak German to them.

johnl

Other than English I only speak Greek and as I understand it speaking Greek generally isn't a surefire way to get lenient treatment from the Germans these days

Legionreturns

johnl said:

Other than English I only speak Greek and as I understand it speaking Greek generally isn't a surefire way to get lenient treatment from the Germans these days

Get a Greek who takes no shit to sort it

Stuckfast

crunchman said:

Haven't bought anything from them since their dodgy administration.  The way they treated their creditors and staff was appalling.

This.

Actually I have bought one thing from them, because I couldn't find it anywhere else. It was a stereo bar for holding microphones, and it came in a cardboard box that would have happily held an 88-note keyboard. Ridiculous.

jeztone2

I had a set of Lollar Imperials from them and they were £100 cheaper than anywhere. Then they jacked up the price the day after mine arrived. 

martinw

My experience with German customer service is that it's excellent --- till something goes wrong i.e. when you need it.
Then you have a hard time persuading them that something is less than correct.

skunkwerx

I used to frequent the Romford store, being my hometown and all. 
Was always easier using their free parking than attempting to get a metered bay near pmt when it was next to the station. 

Anyway, I dont think I’ve ever had what would remotely amount to ‘service’ when I’m in there. Usually stand around for 20 minutes before anyone looks up at you or takes their attention away from the phone or pc. 

When they do its usually to say ‘you need the guitar guy, he should be up the back somewhere’.. which means he’s in the back with the dj staff somewhere, and I have to go find him.

Never mind, I’ll just peruse the guitars on display in the meantime.. of course not one ever has a price on, let alone any specs, which really pisses me off, and like I mentioned, theres no one interested to be able to ask. 

Now Pmt have moved to within a 60 second walk, its a no brainer.
I was in Pmt Romford last week and noticed they hardly had anything priced up either though, but atleast they have staff floor-walking and willing to help.

Its as though these places don’t know the basics of customer conversion and retention, service and sales. 
Therefore its as though they don’t actually want to make any money... 

 

Rabs

skunkwerx said:

I used to frequent the Romford store, being my hometown and all. 
Was always easier using their free parking than attempting to get a metered bay near pmt when it was next to the station. 

Anyway, I dont think I’ve ever had what would remotely amount to ‘service’ when I’m in there. Usually stand around for 20 minutes before anyone looks up at you or takes their attention away from the phone or pc. 

When they do its usually to say ‘you need the guitar guy, he should be up the back somewhere’.. which means he’s in the back with the dj staff somewhere, and I have to go find him.

Never mind, I’ll just peruse the guitars on display in the meantime.. of course not one ever has a price on, let alone any specs, which really pisses me off, and like I mentioned, theres no one interested to be able to ask. 

Now Pmt have moved to within a 60 second walk, its a no brainer.
I was in Pmt Romford last week and noticed they hardly had anything priced up either though, but atleast they have staff floor-walking and willing to help.

Its as though these places don’t know the basics of customer conversion and retention, service and sales. 
Therefore its as though they don’t actually want to make any money... 

 

Yeah im pretty local to Romford...  I used too LOVE that shop until it got taken over, I used to go often just to browse and chat to the then very friendly staff.. Went to total shit after that. I wont go there at all any more..  The new PMT store is huge..  I wasn't that impressed with them though.

I went in to buy like 12 sets of strings..  They wanted too charge me full price for each pack.. I then said well I can get them much cheaper on the net (we are talking a fairly significant difference here too).. So I then stood there for 20/30 mins while they tried to price match.. It took three of them and a manager to tell me that they could in the end match the internet price...  What a palaver...

Still currently WAY better than DV247 though.

skunkwerx

Rabs said:

skunkwerx said:

I used to frequent the Romford store, being my hometown and all. 
Was always easier using their free parking than attempting to get a metered bay near pmt when it was next to the station. 

Anyway, I dont think I’ve ever had what would remotely amount to ‘service’ when I’m in there. Usually stand around for 20 minutes before anyone looks up at you or takes their attention away from the phone or pc. 

When they do its usually to say ‘you need the guitar guy, he should be up the back somewhere’.. which means he’s in the back with the dj staff somewhere, and I have to go find him.

Never mind, I’ll just peruse the guitars on display in the meantime.. of course not one ever has a price on, let alone any specs, which really pisses me off, and like I mentioned, theres no one interested to be able to ask. 

Now Pmt have moved to within a 60 second walk, its a no brainer.
I was in Pmt Romford last week and noticed they hardly had anything priced up either though, but atleast they have staff floor-walking and willing to help.

Its as though these places don’t know the basics of customer conversion and retention, service and sales. 
Therefore its as though they don’t actually want to make any money... 

 

Yeah im pretty local to Romford...  I used too LOVE that shop until it got taken over, I used to go often just to browse and chat to the then very friendly staff.. Went to total shit after that. I wont go there at all any more..  The new PMT store is huge..  I wasn't that impressed with them though.

I went in to buy like 12 sets of strings..  They wanted too charge me full price for each pack.. I then said well I can get them much cheaper on the net (we are talking a fairly significant difference here too).. So I then stood there for 20/30 mins while they tried to price match.. It took three of them and a manager to tell me that they could in the end match the internet price...  What a palaver...

Still currently WAY better than DV247 though.

Same man. I dont know when dv247 got taken over but I do remember it being a lot better years ago, probably talking 5+ years when I used to frequent them! 

Since then I’ve only used them a handful of times but never been impressed. 

Haha yeah man, I get what you mean with pmt. I can’t say I’ve ever had a nightmare with them, but several times before they’ve had to get a manager over to authorise an exchange or price match, which always puts me on edge, like its not a normal thing for a customer to do! Lol. 

The latest one was funny. I asked if they could price match me a pedalboard. Only 2 suppliers it seems, pmt for £125 and absolute music online for £99. 

Yeah the guy says, no problem, as long as its a Uk company and the same product. 10 minutes later the fellas still looking for absolute musics origins lol. 

I was like, won’t the .co.uk part suffice? Haha. 

But aye, I can’t say anything bad about the pmt crew myself, they’ve always been helpful and friendly. 

joeyowen

I've used them before, but will think twice next time after reading this, or use ccard! 

paulmapp8306

Yeah the guy says, no problem, as long as its a Uk company and the same product. 10 minutes later the fellas still looking for absolute musics origins lol. 

I was like, won’t the .co.uk part suffice? Haha. 

But aye, I can’t say anything bad about the pmt crew myself, they’ve always been helpful and friendly. 

Unfortunately not.  Bax music for instance is a .co.uk website, AND they have a physical shop in the UK - however there a German company (ie wharehouse is in Germany and any warantees are held there) - consequently wont be priced matched.

That said, the staff at PMT should KNOW who they do and dont match.  Certainly the Nottingham and Birmingham stores are on the ball.  They dont match DV247, or BAX, or THomann (obviously) but will match dawsons, red dog, absolute music etc.

Really there is no excuse - apart from the fact they should have a master list (rather than having to go looking), they will also get lots of price match questions, and should know who will and wont be matched anyway (unless of course the employee is new - but even they should be able to read a list).