Thomann Alternatives

[Blackhole33]

Does anyone know of any alternatives to Thomann in the EU, I live in Malta. I have noticed that although Thomann can sometimes have the best prices, it usually isn't. They put this 'saled' price on an item and show you it's original price (crossed) which usually is way higher and tell you you'll save up x%. however when doing the math and sums you'll sometimes find that shipping from a music shop in the US and add your country's customs you'll end up yes higher then thomann's sale price but lower then the original price by very much. So are thomann doing the sale/saving x% thingy on purpose to make a show off and the sale price is actually the retail price or can someone shed some light on how a $1000 item becomes €2000 (original crossed price) when the exchange rate is $1 = €0.88?

 

[13la13la]

What stores like Thomann do is use the MSRP (manufacturers suggested retail price) as the crossed out price, using this figure they can give you the impression that you are getting a really good deal.

Example: MSRP of a gibson LP std. $ 2,799 they sell it for € 2,298.
Using your exchange rate this comes to approximately: € 2,298/0.88 = $ 2,611
The difference between the MSRP and actual retail price is only 2,799 - 2,611 = $ 188
That $ 188 equates to roughly 6.7% that is not necessarily the best deal out there, but this is strictly an example.

Import taxes usually outweigh currency benefits making it not a desireable purchase option.
In all honesty Thomann isn't too bad in terms of pricing.

TL;DR

Thomann uses MSRP(crossed out price) pricing to trick you into thinking you are getting the most awesome deal out there.



As for alternatives: be sure to update me as well when you find out my friend!

 

[Sumsar]

So the crossed prices on Thomann (and many other music shops) are as far as I know what is called "list prices" which is the suggested price from the producer of the product. However things are usually never sold at this price, so when you buy from Thomann it is pretty much the same price as everywhere else in EU +/- a few percent. So the saving thing is bs, but a lot of shops show it.

For alternatives to thomann there is andertons.co.uk which has a pretty shïtty website, and does not have the biggest stock of items, but they sometimes have things cheaper than thomann. In scandinavia there is also 4sound, but I only think they ship to Denmark, Norway and Sweden. There are other webshops around EU, but usually the language is in french or italien or similar, so I don't use those.

Things are in general cheaper in the US. Both because the dollar is simply worth less than the euro and has been for years, but they were originally made to be about 1 dollar = 1 euro (as far as I know). In EU we also have VAT on everything which also adds like 10 - 25% on items and also there is better customer security (laws) I think, which also makes items a bit more expensive.

Yes you can buy from the US and have import taxes added, but I don't recommend it as it will cost a fortune to return the item if something is awry with it and you will not get the import tax returned, so you are taking a fairly big chance by purchasing from outside EU.

Following this thread just to see if anyone else post some usefull webshops in EU

 

[Edika]

An addition to the above, in the UK you do get the import taxes back if return an item from countries outside the EU. You just need to send the post office proof of returning the item to the seller. What you don't get back is any handling charges that the post office or shipping company has charged to import it in originally.
It should be the same in Denmark.

 

[schantist]

Custom duties, overseas shipping costs, upcharge by the European distributors, higher VAT, and first and foremost Thomann isn't a welfare organisation to sell it to some Maltese without making a good profit (retailer margin is usually ~30%).
All in all lots of reasons why 1000USD will never be 880€...

 

[Blackhole33]

Just to be clear, I'm not saying that Thomann is bad or good, I 'm just stating the fact that I find it a bit disappointing making people believe they are getting a really good deal when it's certainly not the case. I buy from Thomann any other day cause they do most of the time have cheapest price and their shipping cost is next to none. However on the other hand I would like to know other ways and means of getting equipment at same rates from different sources. Thank you Sumsar for your suggestions.

 

[theFraz]

Does anyone know of any alternatives to Thomann in the EU, I live in Malta.

musicstore.de, sometimes is cheaper than Thomann

 

[EmaDaCuz]

I love DV247, not as vast a choice as Thomann but quite good anyway. They have some amazing deals on Gibson and Epiphone guitars more often than not, and some of them are real bargains.
Shipping may screw you up, though. Especially to Malta. I'm in the UK, so no problem.

 

[hvdh]

Another vote for musicstore.de
Bought the EVH-LBX with case here and was significant cheaper then Thomann

And Baxshop.nl
Do not know shipping and stuff to Malta.

 

[cip 123]

If you email Thomann they will price match or beat prices.

They quoted me about £1100 for a new Schecter after showing it for £999 on Andertons they said they would stock them for £992.

 

[Tisca]

dv247 has better prices on at least amps and cabs. Free-shipping limit is higher the further away from the UK.

 

[MajorTom]

I can not put into words how much I hate Thomann, to me they are the sloppy seconds of music stores, I only buy from them if I have no other option, which is thankfully rare, I would honestly rather buy from America, pay the shipping and get raped with the import taxes than shop at Thomann. God knows what schedule they keep, it can take them up to a week and longer to dispatch an item from their warehouse that you know they have plenty of in stock, they give you no shipping options, they just have the one option, and you basically have to take it or leave it.

For me these are the three shops that I avoid shopping with at all costs, in order of worst to best, as in the one I won't do business with under any circumstances, to ones I will do business with if I have no other choice and under very specific circumstances:

1, Guitar Guitar, these people have screwed me over so many times it's not funny, they sent me out ex display guitars that have massive chips, lots of signs of wear and tear, missing tools, truss rod covers - this is just one guitar I'm describing, they have sent me out R9's that are missing all their paperwork, and tried to tell me that Gibson don't provide C.O.A.'s, only for them to suddenly find the paperwork after I have contacted Gibson about the missing tools, paperwork, C.O.A. and other bits and pieces, they have sent me out guitars and other equipment as brand new, that other people have returned for being faulty.

2, DV247, these guys ruined Christmas 2015 for my nephews, I ordered each of the a Gibson 2013 50's Tribute Les Paul when their website said that they had over ten in stock at the beginning of December, the guitars didn't show up until the end of January 2016. I actually ordered each of my nephews a Les Paul each, a pedalboard each, a pedalboard power supply each, a few jump leads each and a couple of BOSS pedals each. Everything arrived the next day, as I paid the extra for nest day before 12 noon delivery, except the guitars, and I had to call them up to find out that they had forgotten to pack the guitars with my order, and by the time I managed to get somebody on the phone they had none left in stock - they where selling them for something ridiculous like £349.00 for the models with the Min E Tune system so they sold out really quick, still I had to call them and chase them to find out why my order was missing guitars.

Not to mention there is the whole episode of Digital Village declaring itself bankrupt right after receiving a massive restocking from every manufacturer they sell, closing all their stores but their Romford store, and not telling any of their staff about it, and then laying off 90% of their staff, and screwing over their suppliers out of the money they owe them for the recently delivered inventory, only to reopen a few hours later under the name DV247, all in the space of a few hours - you should seriously look into this for an example of German efficiency at screwing people and companies over they are after all owned by musicstore.de it is simply shocking what Digital Village got away with, basically mass scale theft and fraud to both their suppliers and staff for wages that they owed their staff but never paid them.

3, Thomann, with these guys you never know when you are going to receive your order, it seems like it is down to their warehouse staff mood on when your order gets shipped out, and there is no shipping options, not to mention the price you see advertised is not the price you pay, for example the last guitar I ordered from them was advertised to be £346.10 in total including shipping, now I have a credit and bank account that don't charge me for paying for things in Euros or an fee for changing £ into Euros, however when I get to the check out, Thomann has suddenly changed the price of the guitar from £346.10 to £362.70, even if they where to change £ into Euros at the time that was a far better interest rate than banks get for themselves, Thomann basically screwed or robbed me with the exchange rate, even though I was paying with a card that doesn't charge you for paying for something that is priced in Euros.

There are three alternatives to the above that I highly recommend, I can name two of them, the third I can't as I own shares in it, the two that I recommend instead of the above mentioned three, well four if you include musicstore.de

1, Andertons, they will price match if they can and usually throw in a few freebies like packs of strings and even pedals if they can't.

2, CODA Music, again they will price match if they can and usually throw in a few freebies like packs of strings, t-shirts, hoodies and even pedals if they can't, the amount of clothing I have received from these guys as freebies is beyond amazing, I honestly think I own t-shirts, hoodies, beanies, hats, shirts, mechanic shirts and even ties from every music manufacturer that does some form of merchandise because of CODA Music.

Those are two of my three favorite music stores to shop with in the U.K.

 

[13la13la]

Hmmm in regards to what I read above posted by MajorTom, I'd say that it is really dependent on the warehousing staff and not necessarily the chain attached to it.
There was a similar chain in The Netherlands called "Feedback" where the quality of products and service in one store was much better than in the other.

I see people have complaints with: the websites, customer service and overall service.
I believe that these "warehouse stores" (i.e. Thomann, DV247 and bax-shop) all suffer from one problem and that is consistency. They are decent at price-matching, but we all know that price is not everything. They might not be as bad as other music centres out there, but they are larger and generate more traffic and most likely they also make more mistakes.
If a regular store would have 10 orders a day, they might have 50 (just trying to paint a picture). People will complain and since they have more orders it simply becomes more noticeable.

A lot of people have slashed on Musicstore.de, but I surprisingly have had not one problem with them. Except a problem where the website annoyingly asks me to renew my old account to a new e-mail username account when I use my laptop. If anything the actions of Musicstore.de could be considered unethical, but it gave them a good foothold in the UK so not a bad move per se.

 

[Tisca]

@MajorTom

Sry to hear about all that ....ty experience but I feel like I need to balance this out.
Never had a problem with Thomann except once when I had to remind them of my refund. Easy fix. I know exactly when I'm getting my orders because I understand logistics. I know that if I have my order on Monday when they come back to work, I'm getting my delivery by Friday. If you order towards the end of the week they might not get a trailer filled and if you're not paying for shipping they surely will not ship a half empty load. But I pay in € and live in a different location so might not be comparable.

Ordered only once from dv247 and the service and response times were excellent. 10/10, will order again.

Anderton's never answered my email so I bought from dv247.

The rest of the shenanigans is new to me.

 

[Andromalia]

With the site design I always thought bax was a chinese site hosted somewhere else to look legit. XD

 

[Chiba666]

Never had an issue with Thoman or Guitar Guitar so I must be lucky.

Andertons are great to deal, nothing bad to say.

 

[Sumsar]

Only brouhgt once from Andertons, and that went down fine.

I have ordered from Thomann many many times at this point and I have never had a problem. Stuff is always packed very nicely, and they seem good at telling me if they don't have an item in stock. I have had some email correspondances about whether they should ship some of the order and then wait for the rest of just wait and send it all and so forth, and that has worked out fine.
Agreed that it sometimes take a while to actually get my orders, but I blame that equally on the ....ty german and danish postal services which for example seems to spend a day getting the package from one side of the border to the other, even though we are in the EU and have all sorts of free movement of shït agreements so it makes no sense for it to take so long.

 

[MajorTom]

Hmmm in regards to what I read above posted by MajorTom, I'd say that it is really dependent on the warehousing staff and not necessarily the chain attached to it.
There was a similar chain in The Netherlands called "Feedback" where the quality of products and service in one store was much better than in the other.

I see people have complaints with: the websites, customer service and overall service.
I believe that these "warehouse stores" (i.e. Thomann, DV247 and bax-shop) all suffer from one problem and that is consistency. They are decent at price-matching, but we all know that price is not everything. They might not be as bad as other music centres out there, but they are larger and generate more traffic and most likely they also make more mistakes.
If a regular store would have 10 orders a day, they might have 50 (just trying to paint a picture). People will complain and since they have more orders it simply becomes more noticeable.

A lot of people have slashed on Musicstore.de, but I surprisingly have had not one problem with them. Except a problem where the website annoyingly asks me to renew my old account to a new e-mail username account when I use my laptop. If anything the actions of Musicstore.de could be considered unethical, but it gave them a good foothold in the UK so not a bad move per se.

My problem with Thomann is not with the quality of the products that I have received with them, but in the way that they deal with the order process and lie about the true cost of products for customers outside of Germany, take for example the last guitar that I ordered from them.

Now I ordered this guitar at about 2am on a Sunday morning, when Thomann where closed, as I mention it was advertised for sale at £346.10 in total including shipping, yet I was charged over £360.00 for it, and I was paying for the order with a method of payment that doesn't charge me for exchanging £ to Euros, so there was no need for Thomann to add £20.00 to the cost of my order since my credit card company was paying Thomann in their currency of choice, and you don't find out about the extra charge Thomann are adding to your order until it is too late for you to cancel your order, it happens that far into your order process, as in they don't tell you it's costing you £20.00 more than you are expecting until after you have paid for your order, as in when the receipt for your order pops up after you have placed your order the price you paid and have been invoived for is different from the price that is shown on the products page.

Now I didn't expect them to get around to dealing with my order until Monday when they opened for business, and sure enough before 10am on Monday morning I get an email from them confirming my order, so far all is good and going as expected, in the email confirming my order they mention that they will email me with tracking details for my order when it is dispatched from their warehouse, so you would normally expect that to happen towards then end of the business day on the Monday that they confirmed my order when they dispatch the rest of the orders they are sending out that Monday.

This is where Thomann has routinely dropped the ball, in the above mentioned order it took Thomann over two weeks to get round to dispatch my order, in fact it took them seventeen days to get round to dispatching my order from the date that they sent me my order confirmation email, and you can bet that I called them multiple times to check while I was waiting for them to dispatch my order whether or not they actually had it in stock, and they kept assuring me that they did, when they did finally dispatch my order and send me the parcel number and link to track it, it was almost useless, you get notified of your delivery date, on the morning of the day it is being delivered, not the night before so that you can organize to be in, or have somebody in to sign for it.

All it would take for Thomann to solve all of the problems that I have with them and start to shop with them again is for them to be upfront about the true cost of the product for those shopping with them from outside of Germany, for them to start to dispatch orders from their warehouse in a timely fashion everywhere else I order guitars from online have the ability to ship them out the same day if I order before 1pm why is it that Thomann doesn't? And they really need to offer more than just their current shipping method, I would honestly happily pay £20.00 per order to have accurate shipping and tracking information, and to get advised to expect the delivery of my order before the morning of the day that it is being delivered.

That's not much to ask for.

As to my problems with musicstore.de, these people pre planned with Digital Village to fully restock Digital Village, actually they they made \a far far larger order than Digital Village usually made with any of their suppliers - they still have some of the stuff from this order in stock to this date that hasn't been sold out yet, before Digital Village declared bankruptcy the next morning at the start of the trading day, they they didn't even bother to tell any of their staff about this plan, so staff where turning up to work no realizing that the branch was never going to open again, except for the Romford store, a few hours later DV247 opens using the exact same website as Digital Village, layout colour scheme, menu system, everything, but with a different logo, staff where never payed the wages they where owed, supplies where never paid for the products that they had delivered a day or two before, because between Digital Village closing and declaring bankruptcy and being bought over by musicstore.de and reopening under the brand name DV247, all happened in a matter of hours, less than half a day, from memory I think it all happened in about two hours, I'm not joking when I say that this is really interesting and really worth the effort of looking into, it makes for some shocking and really interesting reading, like I said it was a pre planned fraud and theft, on a massive scale from not just suppliers, but their former staff as well.

If Thomann get their act together and sort out the three issues that I have with them, and lets be honest they are minor issues, I'll happily start to use them again, but them.

But as for DV247, and musicstore.de, after what they did to my nephews Christmas in 2015, and the mass fraud and theft from both their suppliers and staff, I will never have anything to do with them again, or support them in any fashion under any circumstances.

 

[13la13la]

My problem with Thomann is not with the quality of the products that I have received with them, but in the way that they deal with the order process and lie about the true cost of products for customers outside of Germany, take for example the last guitar that I ordered from them.

Now I ordered this guitar at about 2am on a Sunday morning, when Thomann where closed, as I mention it was advertised for sale at £346.10 in total including shipping, yet I was charged over £360.00 for it, and I was paying for the order with a method of payment that doesn't charge me for exchanging £ to Euros, so there was no need for Thomann to add £20.00 to the cost of my order since my credit card company was paying Thomann in their currency of choice, and you don't find out about the extra charge Thomann are adding to your order until it is too late for you to cancel your order, it happens that far into your order process, as in they don't tell you it's costing you £20.00 more than you are expecting until after you have paid for your order, as in when the receipt for your order pops up after you have placed your order the price you paid and have been invoived for is different from the price that is shown on the products page.

Now I didn't expect them to get around to dealing with my order until Monday when they opened for business, and sure enough before 10am on Monday morning I get an email from them confirming my order, so far all is good and going as expected, in the email confirming my order they mention that they will email me with tracking details for my order when it is dispatched from their warehouse, so you would normally expect that to happen towards then end of the business day on the Monday that they confirmed my order when they dispatch the rest of the orders they are sending out that Monday.

This is where Thomann has routinely dropped the ball, in the above mentioned order it took Thomann over two weeks to get round to dispatch my order, in fact it took them seventeen days to get round to dispatching my order from the date that they sent me my order confirmation email, and you can bet that I called them multiple times to check while I was waiting for them to dispatch my order whether or not they actually had it in stock, and they kept assuring me that they did, when they did finally dispatch my order and send me the parcel number and link to track it, it was almost useless, you get notified of your delivery date, on the morning of the day it is being delivered, not the night before so that you can organize to be in, or have somebody in to sign for it.

All it would take for Thomann to solve all of the problems that I have with them and start to shop with them again is for them to be upfront about the true cost of the product for those shopping with them from outside of Germany, for them to start to dispatch orders from their warehouse in a timely fashion everywhere else I order guitars from online have the ability to ship them out the same day if I order before 1pm why is it that Thomann doesn't? And they really need to offer more than just their current shipping method, I would honestly happily pay £20.00 per order to have accurate shipping and tracking information, and to get advised to expect the delivery of my order before the morning of the day that it is being delivered.

That's not much to ask for.

As to my problems with musicstore.de, these people pre planned with Digital Village to fully restock Digital Village, actually they they made \a far far larger order than Digital Village usually made with any of their suppliers - they still have some of the stuff from this order in stock to this date that hasn't been sold out yet, before Digital Village declared bankruptcy the next morning at the start of the trading day, they they didn't even bother to tell any of their staff about this plan, so staff where turning up to work no realizing that the branch was never going to open again, except for the Romford store, a few hours later DV247 opens using the exact same website as Digital Village, layout colour scheme, menu system, everything, but with a different logo, staff where never payed the wages they where owed, supplies where never paid for the products that they had delivered a day or two before, because between Digital Village closing and declaring bankruptcy and being bought over by musicstore.de and reopening under the brand name DV247, all happened in a matter of hours, less than half a day, from memory I think it all happened in about two hours, I'm not joking when I say that this is really interesting and really worth the effort of looking into, it makes for some shocking and really interesting reading, like I said it was a pre planned fraud and theft, on a massive scale from not just suppliers, but their former staff as well.

If Thomann get their act together and sort out the three issues that I have with them, and lets be honest they are minor issues, I'll happily start to use them again, but them.

But as for DV247, and musicstore.de, after what they did to my nephews Christmas in 2015, and the mass fraud and theft from both their suppliers and staff, I will never have anything to do with them again, or support them in any fashion under any circumstances.

Personally, it seems to me that you were too passive in the buying process. Sure a lot of stuff is automated, but when people tell me that they will handle it today and that tracking code is not there. I will call you the next day just to be sure.

In terms of Musicstore.. Blame the system not the store, I looked into it and sure it is shady and unethical but not downright illegal.

 

[mnemonic]

I've had good experiences ordering from GuitarGuitar, though they never have shipped as fast as they said they would, for me.

I've emailed andertons and guitarguitar on a few occasions asking questions about stocking, and their customer service people don't seem that bright, they usually come back to me with blatantly wrong information.


edit - I've also been dicked around by GAK before so I probably wouldn't order from them again. Their web design sucks too, seriously out of 1995 or something.