I confirm that it appears as stock B, as soon as I received the notification of the replacement module shipping…
They’ve shaped up a bit since then.
doesnt matter…they lost me. theres far better out there. not going back.
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Now that i received the replacement and using it, that makes me understand that the first one was defective… thanks to the Stock B appearence, i’ve been saved from keeping a defective module.
I had a doubt about it’s sound when i tested it the first time. I wrote to TouellSkouarn that told me the behaviour was not normal. But now, with change, it’s obvious, i’m so happy now.
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%100 concur!
I’ve spent a lot of money here online and I’ve not run into issues. YMMV though.
I would add Long & McQuade to this list in Canada as ‘mostly good’. I’ve purchased two items before that were clearly B-Stock items when I got them home. They didn’t do anything about it though. Now, as I usually have to have stuff transferred to Winnipeg, I make sure the call the far end store and ensure that it is in a factory sealed box.
L&M gets a shit ton of leeway from me though as they have a ‘no credit check’ financing that’s just amazing. If you have a bank account and a pulse they’ll set you up. I’ve had a rolling account with gear for a long time. <3
resurrecting this thread rather than polluting the “latest purchase” thread with this saga -
my story: bought a new Syntakt from Andertons UK. item that arrived was obviously used (box seal broken, no screen protector, no stickers, factory patterns overwritten with someone’s random stuff).
the difference in price on their site between b-stock Syntakts and new ones is £130. they’ve offered me £20. i declined. they’ve offered me £40. i’ve told them to take the unit back and give me a refund so i can buy one elsewhere. absolutely pathetic behaviour. i don’t want to return it, i like it, i just don’t want to be fobbed off and charged full whack for a second hand unit. cannot believe the cheek of them
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fkn right, pain in the arse but you’ve done the right thing imo. 40 quid me hole
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Not exactly music gear, but I bought a “new” Magic Trackpad from an eBay seller a few weeks ago. It was shrink-wrapped, but the box underneath was curiously scuffed, the packing materials inside oddly wrinkled, and when I plugged it in, its identifier had been renamed with someone’s name… clearly the package had been re-shrink-wrapped with the intention of passing it off as new!
Fortunately the seller was apologetic (claimed it was their supplier) and took it back, but it just goes to show that people will go to surprising effort to pass off B-stock as new. I wonder if anyone is making counterfeit Elektron seals…
@swanage_fan’s experience now has me thinking the latter is much more likely than I initially expected. 
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I’ve defended Thomann (.de) on here before, but had a couple of b-stock-as-new shenanigans in the past few months. Called them out on it politely both times, and they didn’t even deny it / apologise / anything, just offered the refund to match b-stock price. Very much seems like standard industry practice at this point
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grim, but at least when caught out they are matching the price. this is straight up grifting
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not a b-stock story but I’ve ordered EC4 from Thomann EU last year and the package arrived pretty much destroyed, the unit clearly was wet from damp storage or lying in a puddle somewhere, the box was all wet and mushy, I’ve emailed them and they straight up offered a full refund or a new unit, no bullshit and no playing around, I was really satisfied with how they handled it, I mean they could tell me to send it back or partial refund but they were great in this case.
btw there was also a decksaver for rytm and jacks for my headphones, they offered full refund or new for everything
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Had this issue with Gear4music recently. Spent £600, item received was open box. I told them I could do without the hassle of returning it and I’d accept an apology and a refund for the difference between the retail price and B-stock price. They first tried to blame shipping, then gave me some bullshit about opening boxes to check cables are included, then offered me £30. No apology. So it’s now gone straight back for a full refund and I’ve bought a replacement from an independent shop in Scotland.
Rather than do the decent thing, they’ve given themselves the expense of shipping it three times on top of restocking it, wasted a week of my time and lost my business for good. Tossers.
Never had an issue with Andertons, but if they’re up to the same trick I won’t be using them anymore either. As if that guitar wolly on YouTube wasn’t bad enough.
/rant
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I ordered a Zen delay from Juno Records Store (also UK based) and had a very similar experience.
Turned up with cracked knobs, loose in the box and with marks on the casing. I asked for partial refund for B stock price and they offered £15 quid and said I could buy the knobs myself and change them if I wanted. I went back with how about £25 because that would actually cover the cost for replacing, and they said “no I don’t think the damage warrants that amount”.
Returned it immediately and ordered from somewhere else and I’ve not been on their website since! Which is a bit of a shame as I used to buy CDs from them when I was younger. But I just found it too disrespectful to spend any money there again.
I’ve recently had good experiences with Signal Sounds and Elevator Sound in the UK. Super quick dispatch, use DPD which in my area is good, and seem friendly.
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I’ve always received new items from Andertons, but maybe I’ve been lucky.
Returned/demo items should definitely be sold as open-box (perfect condition, small discount) or b-stock (clearly opened/trialled and returned, but in otherwise excellent condition - at a decent discount) rather than sold as new.
I can see how this might happen unintentionally, but what’s really telling is how the store handles it.
If anything, you’d think they would want to offer it to you at the b-stock price to avoid further shipping costs, etc - unless they plan on selling it as “new” again.
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yeah i’m totally open to the fact that they probably sent a used item by mistake, but what i can’t get my head around is them not simply refunding the price difference without fuss. deeply odd behaviour, and a shame, as they’ve always been decent in the past (good prices, reliable shipping, decent loyalty points programme)
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I really don’t understand this behavior from a retail shop, I mean, what do they gain from such interaction? sure, they sold b-stock as new and made some small profit, but they loose a customer for life and gained bad reputation, why would they want that especially that successful retail business is based on quantities and returning customers much more then a single sale…
go figure…
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Like some have mentioned before, Bax seems to be the doing it a lot, hence some of their low prices.
A good friend of mine had such an issue with Thomann, and that surprised me a lot, I never thought they would do that.
I’ve had a terrible case with a shop called Woodbrass, where I purchased a H9 Max. Went to their warehouse collect my parcel (1h+ away from home), inspected the parcel very carefully. The original box was sealed.
I came back home satisfied after a 2h30 trip to collect it, only to break the seal and realise that the H9 already had user presets in, plastic off the screen, and couldn’t be register in Eventide website as it already was registered…
To this day I don’t even know how its possible.
Isn’t this just the ugly flipside of people ordering synths for trying them out, knowing that they can benefit from retailers’ return policies?
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