Here’s the thread to discuss what you experienced shopping for various electronic music products. Were you done dirt, or were you given great service and a great deal. Let us all know.
Please try to be fair, and keep the stories recent. No personal names please, but it’s OK to call out a particular store, or store location. On-line shopping experiences are especially relevant right now with Covid.
Thanks, Jukka.
Regarding the Deals thread, I felt in the case of that store that if I share the link to their deals, I should include a disclaimer of some sort, based on what other forum members have reported this year in their dealings with that store.
I saw that and i would have done the same. In fact as I posted elsewhere that very store completely botched my order (for a Subharmonicon) to such an extent that I won’t shop them until they receive a “vaccination”. I’m sure their failure is due to the pandemic.
Your Subharmonicon order was one of the cases I was thinking of regarding that store.
I struggled a bit between risking derailing the Deals thread and worrying about posting a deal being perceived as an unconditional endorsement of that store.
Starting this separate thread is a good resolution in my mind.
I will say this too. I don’t expect perfection from any store, in fact I’m pretty tolerant, and perfectly willing to pay some extra for service. But when a store slips, and that can happen to the best, they better be prepared to try to make it better, and at the very least be able to recognize that something has happened.
In the category of great shopping experiences. I bought an electric guitar from Eastwood Guitars.
They delivered the custom guitar very quickly, and rather than have me wait they upgraded my order to the next model up, which came with a top of the line Bigsby vibrato tailpiece, free of charge. I bought the guitar on sale, so this was hundreds off, and I had instant equity. On top of that the guitar is beautifully finished and setup to perfection and the case wasn’t just a bag, but deluxe too.
I’ve read a couple other posts recently complimenting them too.
Chuck’s was my most recent purchase. Super friendly customer service, had a shipping label and notice to ups within an hour of checkout so my order could get on the outgoing mail truck that day… an especially appreciated point to make as a supplier trying to circumnavigate covid shipping delays (I’ve had other shops drag their feet for several days with reverb orders in the past).
They also have a really strong selection of great stuff in their shop, including some harder to find pieces (I was able to nab a Polyend Tracker from them a few days ago when nobody else seems to have one and today I noticed they have a korg nts1 which unless korg sent out more units, is a rare find.)
Link to the online store. Sounds like a great store to visit — “Hell Yeah we’re open !”
The bio on the store and the guy on Reverb is a great story. Good find TheGhostCat !
i had few issues over the last month but i guess it’s covid-19 related issue but i may be wrong. There’s a lot of music shop online especially in France who show in stocks on a lot of products. They give the ability to buy premium delivery usually 24hours the next day after prepared and sent. (so max 48hours) it’s a premium delivery (usually Chronopost, UPS, GLS etc…) feature who cost a lot more than usual delivery.
And you realize fast they didn’t sent. in Fact they play on times, order at their distributors… and when received they dispatched to you (or the distributor dispatch to you - that’s why you don’t receive any tracking number at least fast enough). I really dislikes when an online shop put “in stocks” when as a matter of facts they don’t have it “in stock”
I would prefer they claim in act of transparency, that due to the covid they haven’t got a lot of products in stock, but they order at their distributors and get rid of the special 24h delivery option.
Then i would be ok to give my support and wait for my orders, patient…
I ended up because of the situation and because no-body was able to send in time my Argon 8m, to order it in a shop of my town. He get it 3 days later at the same price of the big online shop.
So usually try your town or closest town to support your local store, especially in these troubled times
Uk based.
Bought from Juno often with a small discount and very quick delivery
Bought from thomann , they often seem to get things quickly and delivery is quick. Often with Eu plug adapter 
Mostly buy off gumtree and here
I always bought my gear at the same place since 1996 except for the NDLR. It’s called Moog Audio and it’s based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. I always had a great service before and after my purchases. I always had great deals too. I loved the fact that you could try the gear before purchasing. And if it wasn’t already connected, they did what’s necessary to connect it and please you (headphones or speakers). But now, with Covid-19, the store is heading in another direction : Online business. 
Edit : Just want to add that without the staff, this wouldn’t be the same experience. Over the years, great people were added into the equation.
Also UK based.
Have been using Anderson’s for 20ish years. Never had a problem.
Juno have been good. Site is hit and miss search-wise but always have delivered in good time and prices are often good.
Thomann are also in my go-to list. Never had a problem with UK plugs. Prices less competitive since sterling fell.
All 3 seem to indicate stock levels accurately in my experience.
Straying into things (often used) with strings, frets and foot switches, Wunjo’s in Denmark Street often have some interesting kit but have to go in person, obviously.
Rocket Music in Ipswich is my local - guitar and bass focussed, often a few nice bits and pieces and have spent hours in there having a natter.
I’ve not had any issues with the above suppliers - unfortunately that also means I don’t know what their after sales is like!
Can second Juno. Unbelievably quick delivery (recently bought one evening and for the item the next day) and always a little discount from the listed price if you email or call to ask.
Also PMT for the extremely dangerous 0% finance options.
I work as e-commerce developer in a digital agency. Most stores use dropshipping as business model, specially regarding this market niche, for the biggest part of their catalog. So, they show they have stock & that’s true but that’s very relative, specially in this Covid times
As a customer, one should consider that & always ask & ask & ask & get a valid shipping estimation before buying, so they can claim after if delivery date is far from promised
Uk/North West/Manchester
Dawson’s was okay in terms of having stuff in stock and they used to have some keen prices on ex demo stuff too but I found some of the staff weren’t that helpful or enthused when discussing electronic gear. Too many occasions when they’ve got fairly basic stuff wrong.
PMT is okay for synth stuff. There’s an American guy in the Salford branch who knows his stuff and is helpful and always happy to chat and demo stuff. He’s been working in music shops around here for years in the keys departments.
BopDJ is cool. They guys are helpful and generally know their stuff. Refreshing on one occasion when a guy admitted he wasn’t sure of some feature or other so went and got someone who did. No flannel, sales pitch etc.
Slightly further afield I use The Disc in Bradford. Started out with a few bits via mail order. Had an issue with the OT and missing CF card and manual and they couldn’t have been more helpful even tho it was an Elektron issue. Been over a few times to the shop and again, helpful knowledgable staff.
Generally I’ve had good experiences buying gear but I always preferred using bricks and mortar outlets where possible.
Based in London.
Since Turnkey closed down i’ve pretty much only bought from Andertons & Juno. Never had any real issue, except for occasional late/missed shipping. On a handful of occasions i’ve also bought (synth, pedals) from Guitar Guitar. Great service from them also. I think PMT once (No issues there)
If things are out of stock at these retailer i tend to wait for restock.
I avoid DV247 like the plague. Had multiple issues receiving Bstock items sold as new. That resulted in such a fierce argument with them that i blacked out.
I noticed recently that both Andertons and PMT have scrapped their buy now pay later options which I have utilised before. Only Guitar Guitar and KMR offer this now.
It is a fantastic store to visit. I once shlepped an Alesis Ion from there to my apartment on the metro, though. The station has one of the tallest escalators on the system and the elevator was out. 
ALTO MUSIC I ordered a used Korg Monologue off their website and they shipped me a NEW one. I called them about it and the guy said “well, we sold the used one so I hope you’re happy with this instead”. Uh yeah, sure am! What a cool dude and an awesome thing to happen.
EMPIRE MUSIC Located in Pennsylvania. I ordered a new guitar that was just released and they were one of 3 stores that had it in stock. It was my first time ordering a guitar online so I was kind of worried. A few days later the instrument arrived not just in mint condition, but it was Perfectly In Tune. Guitar was completely set-up and ready to play out of the box. Shipping was free and super fast. When it comes to guitars this will be the place I recommend now.
I just got a call from Detroit Modular regarding my order. They wanted to let me know the shipping will be delayed because they’re taking tomorrow off for Thanksgiving. They also explained that to earn points I need to open account, but go ahead take my time because they’re easygoing.