The NON-knowledge of musicstore salesmen (not all of them)

[CJ4ever]

I got surprised today. Again I realized how NON-interested musicinstruments-salesmen can be in their products.

I went to a local music store today, wanted to try out the Korg M3.

So I went to the keys-department and asked: 'Don't you have the Korg M3 play-ready so I can try it ? '

He answered:'What ? THe Korg M- what ? 3 ? Are you sure ? '

So he checked their inventory-system and found it, he said:'Ooooh you mean that one ' Well, it was not in stock anymore, but if I wanted to, he could order it for me...........

I thanked him friendly and went away.


Do you guys also experience often that sales-guys in music-stores do not care/ interest for knowledge about the things they sell ?

[X-Trade]

Well I had a somewhat similar experience recently (september).

I wanted to buy an AX3000B. They had a couple on the shelf (and the G model). But I wanted to check that it was as good as I thought it would be compared to my old Boss GT6-B. So I asked the bass guy if I could try it out.
He didn't know what I was talking about at first but went up to the till and asked about it and they produced it and we set it up.
He was very nice and chatty and he found a really great bass for me which had a similar pickup configuration to my steinberger.

BUT he absolutely had no idea about the product. In fact he spent the whole time trying to tell me that I should forget using effects because it wasn't in keeping with what a bassist should do. And telling me about an Orange bass tube amp that was several times my budget.

Admittedly he was a really nice guy and I enjoyed the experience. It did partly convince me to buy the product just because we'd spent about 45 minutes there with him. But he didn't really sell it to me at all and didn't really have a clue about what it did at all.

[mikemolloyuk]

This is an interesting thread. As a previous music shop employee (2 shops) I have a lot of experience in this area. Firstly I’d like to say that I don't speak for all employees of music shops. These are just my opinions.

When I worked in retail, there wasn't much motivation other than a commission based pay scheme. The targets were bordering on unrealistic if you wanted a good pay packet that month so I can understand why some employees who possibly don’t have this are reluctant to seem motivated by products.

A lot of people work at music shops because they are a musician. The popular misconception is that it must be cool to work in a music shop so you can get to play on the gear all day. Only a small percentage of that statement is true. The reality is if you work in a busy shop, it's very hard work.

The reality is - the gear needs to be sold.

Another demotivator which was emerging when I was in retail was the internet. You would often get customers in several times to go through a product with you only to find out that they had bought the item cheaper online. I'm sure this is still happening and there is very little you can do to prevent it. It would be interesting to see another thread on how high st retailers can get people to buy from them. Paying for a demo from the shop? Would this encourage us to buy from the retailer and conversely would it encourage the retailer to learn more about the product to give a value for money demonstration?

When I worked for the distributor in a technical capacity I was also amazed at how very little retailers were willing to help customers with what could be considered after sales.

Believe it or not and this is 100% genuine. I took a call from a woman on a Monday morning once who had bought a keyboard. She went in to the retailer to ask how do I turn it on.... they told her to call tech support... which she did. Now it's no fault of the lady I guess and that is an extreme example but I was often contacted by customer who had been told the retailer didn’t know the answer and ring support... basic stuff.

So as there are poor wages, internet competition, lack of technical knowledge and not a lot of motivation in the industry, this is why you have lethargic sales people in some shops.

My 2 cents!

[Kontrol49]

So as there are poor wages, internet competition, lack of technical knowledge and not a lot of motivation in the industry, this is why you have lethargic sales people in some shops.

Most of the Sales people I ever dealt with were either part time musicians who ran there own project studio which seemed to be mostly software based and worked part time in a shop to earn a little extra cash with minimal knowledge of hardware or were simply students with no real experience of the gear they were selling other than to earn commision,the latter the more of a pain in the ass,due to simply wanting to box shift to meet targets,Infact I saw once on the desk of a shop I was buying from a monthly sales target figure for the staff which exceeded 40 grand per person,which is a lot of gear to sell in a month if you ask me so certainly theres a pressure So the Thrill of being surrounded by all that lovely gear soon wears off I suspect

most if not all never had real hands on experience of the synths I wished to purchase,Certainly some of the retailers have their own hands on manufacturer trained specialists in store now like some of the Roland Planet centres,for me when I purchased the Oasys it was if like I asked them to tell me how to demo the cockpit of a space shuttle noone could really give me any real convincing info or know much about it. it was like.."Huh s**t help someone wants us to sell them an Oasys what do we do" infact the guy I dealt with actually had to ask the manager if it was ok for me to play on the in store model because of the "Do not touch" sign on top of the keys??? two of the sales guy were debating over who was going to get the commision off the sale because I originally got moved to another keyboard guy !!!Something that I found rather unprofessional

Suits me to order over the phone or the net,simply because I'm hands on with most hardware and know what I want to purchase before buying and I don't get fed a load of bull about needing something else by some commision hungry student.Plus the cost of having something posted is far less than the cost of fuel to get to the nearest shop and find they don't actually have it in stock even though they tell you it was over the phone!

its sad that the shopping experience of music shops is gone,I met a few decent guys along the way who were happy to talk gear without pressure to buy,but sad to say the internet has revolutionised the need to demo something and remove the need to go to a shop and much of that is the way in which many retailers treated customers,but even so some internet retailers still treat customers with content,As I have found out after purchasing a synth advertised as new sealed in the box that clearly wasn't,but still played full price and slagging off other reatilers for their shoddy service and it took some 3 weeks to resolve but only after I got my credit card company involved did they issue me with a brand new replacement and then even tried to Charge a restocking fee for the model I returned

So don't think that because your cutting out the middle man your getting a better level of service.At one time you probably had limited avenues to buy but now its a free for all,that only the best will survive in the internet age and i am more than happy to shop online for the best deal there are only two online retailers in the UK I will ever buy from.

[neotechtonics]

I once got a blank stare at a music store when I asked if they have any MIDI cables!! (after looking on their wall of cables and jacks and finding none) and this being a shop that sells MOSTLY keyboards. They did produce one from a storage room after asking the manager (who I know is a synth and keyboard head and very knowledgeable.. unlike his staff)
speaking of which I want to talk more to him, gain some knowledge. He's been into synth and keys since long before I was born... I'm interested to learn from him.. and he's keen to have a look at my micro-korg and EMX as he doesnt have experience with either.