Music Direct has redeemed themselves

I tried to order a phono preamp today after seeing the Music Direct ad. In the ad they offered 10% off or three other options depending on the amount spent. At the end of the ad was an offer that was worded "also get free shipping". I just found out you can have the discount or free shipping but you can not have both. I felt this was misleading and cancelled my order. They are willing to lose a customer over $6.81 in shipping charges. As many of you may know I have purchased many of my Rega tweaks, Marantz SA8001, Mobile Fidelity Speakers and Krell S-300i from Music Direct. Today ends my purchases from Music Direct.



I changed the title after a call from Music Direct. What happened to me I was assured is not how they want to do business. They are going to take care of what I felt the ad was offering and admitted it was confusing. I will be getting the discount and free shipping. They did not want to lose a customer who has been shopping with them since 2002. Of course he said he did not want to lose even a first time customer. I feel much better about purchasing from Music Direct and I want to let others know they are still working to be customer focused.

man that's defiantly not a good sales move u could loose so many customers over that and it doesn't tell you till your checking out does it ?

You should express your recent experience with the powers that be there and see if/how he responds. Maybe they have outgrown their friendly cottage industry status?

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Originally Posted by ryanianmckinnon

man that's defiantly not a good sales move u could loose so many customers over that and it doesn't tell you till your checking out does it ?

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I did not find out until an e-mail several hours later asking me what I would like. Gee would I like to save 10% off the cost of a product or $6.81. Gee what is the choice saving $47.50 or $6.81. I was going to try the Graham Slee Fanfare which is for moving coil only. I guess they made up my mind. At checkout they said to leave the codes in the memo section. So I thought I was getting a nice deal. Of course about everything at MD is list price so I was not receiving this discount on a sale price but off of list.

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Originally Posted by markw

You should express your recent experience with the powers that be there and see if/how he responds. Maybe they have outgrown their friendly cottage industry status?

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I spoke with Angie in customer service and she said her manager would not budge. He needs to do the math with what he may lose with that attitude.

thats such bad advertising wouldnt the smart thing to do be just get the discount and free shipping and then have a customer return to buy future things but they obviously dont think that way

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Originally Posted by ryanianmckinnon

thats such bad advertising wouldnt the smart thing to do be just get the discount and free shipping and then have a customer return to buy future things but they obviously dont think that way

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Ryan sounds like you have a good head for business.

yeah or just common sense like if u think about it at a business perspective
would u rather loose 6 dollars on shipping and make another couple hundred when they come back to buy more stuff? or not loose any money and make them pick one or the other and possibly loose that customer and possibly many more which could result is thousands of dollars lost

maybe its just me but it seems like most peoples common sense would kick in here

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Originally Posted by JohnMichael

I tried to order a phono preamp today after seeing the Music Direct ad. In the ad they offered 10% off or three other options depending on the amount spent. At the end of the ad was an offer that was worded "also get free shipping". I just found out you can have the discount or free shipping but you can not have both. I felt this was misleading and cancelled my order. They are willing to lose a customer over $6.81 in shipping charges. As many of you may know I have purchased many of my Rega tweaks, Marantz SA8001, Mobile Fidelity Speakers and Krell S-300i from Music Direct. Today ends my purchases from Music Direct.

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Sounds like with that new commercial they have gotten to big for their britches. Though I've never purchased anything from them before, but sense they are dissing one of my online buddies, they will never get a future purchase now.

frenchmon

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Originally Posted by JohnMichael

I spoke with Angie in customer service and she said her manager would not budge. He needs to do the math with what he may lose with that attitude.

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Apparently the "guardians of the policy" style of service still is king in some organizations. Too bad. I had 2 poor customer service experiences on only 2 orders with Vanns. I don't do business with them anymore and now that I know how the guardians over at MD operate I wont even attempt to do business with them either.

Thanks for the heads up.

LeRoy

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Originally Posted by LeRoy

Apparently the "guardians of the policy" style of service still is king in some organizations. Too bad. I had 2 poor customer service experiences on only 2 orders with Vanns. I don't do business with them anymore and now that I know how the guardians over at MD operate I wont even attempt to do business with them either.

Thanks for the heads up.

LeRoy

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Yeah that add was a setup and they knew it. But this time they happend to get caught and called out. What ever happen to the customer is always right?


frenchmon

businesses don't care so much about the customers anymore they just care
about making money and that's it

Yes sir. I live in a suburb of St. Louis. Chrysler had 2 plants here. Lots of people where employed there. They took the bail out money, money that came from you and I. Once they got the money they pulled out of St. Louis, out of the USA and are building a plant in Mexico. Is that wrong or what.

frenchmon

yeah they take the money from the general public and then they decide oh hey lets start outsourcing our labor and save millions of dollars and not have to pay thousands of employees and go to Mexico or some foreign country and pay some poor man 5 cents a day to make it all major corporations care about is money and nothing else and its completely true if u don't have money they could care less about you

Customer Service at Music Direct did tell me that many people found the ad misleading and were unhappy. They were answering many e-mails. I hope their business is down this weekend and they realize that you can not mislead customers. I need to sigh in there and delete all my information so I do not receive their updates and catalogs. I was tired of seeing that one young woman who must be their only model or the owner's daughter.

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Originally Posted by JohnMichael

Customer Service at Music Direct did tell me that many people found the ad misleading and were unhappy. They were answering many e-mails. I hope their business is down this weekend and they realize that you can not mislead customers. I need to sigh in there and delete all my information so I do not receive their updates and catalogs. I was tired of seeing that one young woman who must be their only model or the owner's daughter.

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Buy from Audiogon John. That unit looks super nice. I looked at the guys feedback, it looks perfect. You can tell he's cared for it. The original box even looks cared for.

A guy like that cares for everything with the utmost, knowing that he'll sell eventually.

thats why you have to be cautious about buying online u have to do research on the sites and ask your friends if they are satisfied with buying there then u go and try it out

That truly sucks. Pennywise, pound foolish. I could understand that reasoning if and only IF they were selling right at the margin and to give you 7 bucks in free shipping would make it a net loss for them. However you said they sell at list sooooo seems pretty stupid way of doing business in my book.

Worf

Yes and I just e-mailed them the Needle Doctor ad that also offers 10% and is worded much better to avoid confusion. I wonder if they will get tired of me?

I just received another ad from Music Direct and the ad still says "Plus get Free UPS ground shipping on any order over $50". I tried to copy and paste the ad but I was unable. I would like to see if others thought what I did that you could choose one of four deals plus get free shipping..

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Originally Posted by JohnMichael

I just received another ad from Music Direct and the ad still says "Plus get Free UPS ground shipping on any order over $50". I tried to copy and paste the ad but I was unable. I would like to see if others thought what I did that you could choose one of four deals plus get free shipping..

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I went thru something similar with Amazon this past weekend. The item came with free super saver shipping but also had a choice when adding to cart for free 2 day shipping. When you got to the checkout page, they then wanted you to sign up for some trial bullcrap that you would then have to cancel in writing.

Not too much different, but always a catch.

Funny thing is, the actual cost to ship your item would have been about $3 and they have now spent at least $20 answering your emails.

These companies have **** for brains it would seem as they would rather spend $20 of time to tell you you can't have $7 in free shipping.

It's all in the bean counting, lost productivity is not measured, only the bottom line. My company is no better, we have offshore developers in the Ukrain getting about $10 and hour as opposed to paying a US worker $35. What is not captured is that it sometimes takes 10x longer to get the same work done, all they see is that they are cheaper per hour.

I just received an e-mail from Rocco the Music Direct manager. Still trying to argue the point of the ad. Why continue to argue when he has already lost my business.

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JohnMichael wrote: "I just received an e-mail from Rocco the Music Direct manager. Still trying to argue the point of the ad. Why continue to argue when he has already lost my business."

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Why don't you just email him the URL for this thread with the comment "Too late now..."

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Originally Posted by JohnMichael

I just received an e-mail from Rocco the Music Direct manager. Still trying to argue the point of the ad. Why continue to argue when he has already lost my business.

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I honestly don't think they realize this. This is such a cult hobby and they have obviously developed such a hard-core following I doubt they can grok somebody actually taking their business elsewhere.

But, if they continue with this sort of chicanery, I think they'll get used to it pretty soon.

I agree with the other poster. Send them a link to this thread.

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Originally Posted by markw

I honestly don't think they realize this. This is such a cult hobby and they have obviously developed such a hard-core following I doubt they can grok somebody actually taking their business elsewhere.

But, if they continue with this sort of chicanery, I think they'll get used to it pretty soon.

I agree with the other poster. Send them a link to this thread.

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Yes but I would like to get it to the owner and not the manager.