Recently A Friend & Customer Of Mine
Told Me This Story
He works in security at one of the
corporate mega stores which shall remain nameless to protect him.
His job ranges from watching people on camera, checking for employee
theft, & sometimes working the door checking bags against receipts.
He owns several of my guitars and he is a relatively knowledgeable
guitar geek...
He observed one of
the hotshot commissioned salespeople showing a customer a Brand
New Factory Fender Relic Guitar, it was a relatively expensive
one and it was sunburst with most of the paint missing.
Apparently the
customer (3 piece suit, tie & expensive sports car had asked for a
Vintage Guitar)
No one in
their right mind would walk into a big box department store looking
for a vintage guitar... The salesman must have immediately picked up
on the guy as being a know nothing with money to spend. The Know-Nothings are easily identifiable because they always ask semi
qualified questions. (They are usually afraid to tell anyone they
are amateurs because they assume they will get ripped off if they
do.)
The
salesman knew he had a Big Fish
on his line. These guys are always afraid to look dumb,
actually they are by far the dumbest of all customers. We get
at least 2 of these types daily in our store, even someone who has
been working here for less than 2 weeks can usually spot them
instantly.
OK Here's a basic overview of how the
sale went as explained to me...
Cstmr.
This looks pretty cool, what year is it ?
Slsmn.
I'm not sure, We don't do too many vintage guitars in here.
Cstmr.
Well there must be a way to tell the year? serial numbers
etc...
Slsmn.
I don't know the exact year, but I do know that rosewood fingerboard
means made in the sixties, and maple means made in the 50's
Cstmr.
How much is it?
Slsmn.
How would you be paying for it?
Cstmr.
Cash, and I'll do it today !!!
Slsmn.
Ok, Hold on let me go back to my manager and see what he will let me
do it for.
Cstmr.
Ok'
Slsmn.
Be back in a minute....
The
salesman left and about 30 seconds later another salesman walked
over and commented, Nice guitar !!!
He went on to
point out that the frets were in "great condition for such an old
guitar" and "the pickups sounded great!!! He told the customer he
had "played the guitar himself" and "wished he could afford to buy
it himself." He also lied to the customer about seeing the
guitar get traded in recently!!!! He said, (The guy who traded
it in didn't know what he had & the store management isn't really
aware of it either") INCREDIBLE BS
The
original sales guy came back on the scene & quoted the customer
$4,000.00 Which was actually
$59.00 above the list price.
The
customer hesitated for about 3 or 4 seconds and said OK... He had
probably been expecting to hear a much higher number because he
didn't blink an eye..
This
customer just paid at least $1,200.00 too much for a new guitar that
probably cost less than $500.00 to manufacture.
The
following is unbelievable by anyone's standards!!
The two
salesman were totally tag teaming this guy by this point.... They
went on to sell him a brand new really expensive case, because the
original case was so damaged that it fell apart.. Then they sold him
a 2 year extended warranty for $480.00 ouch.
They
told him "The warranty
would be a really smart thing to buy on such an old guitar."
The customer
actually walked out of the store thinking he got over on them,
because he had probably heard that an old Fender should sell for
about $12,000.00. Oy.
In
reality, this not so bright customer paid $1,200.00 too much for the
guitar, which comes including a case. He should not have had
to pay for the case. $480.00 for the warranty was ridiculous,
because it was a new instrument with a full warranty. Of course he
also paid $165.00 to much on the sales tax because the sale should
have been lower. It was just over $5,000.00
the
customer hadn't even got into his car. The two maggot salesmen high
fived each other and started laughing at the customer. they
were commenting, that they could have got even more for the guitar,
but it would have sent a red flag to corporate HQ.
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Ed Roman analyzes just
what these salesman did.
The salesman pretended
not to know much about vintage guitars...
This could be his out, if
the customer returns unhappy about his purchase.
The salesman never said
the guitar was made in the 50's or 60's...
What he did say was maple
fretboards came on 50's models & rosewood fretboards
came on the 60's models.
the salesman qualified
the customer as an immediate impulse buyer so he knew he
could make a score.
He probably pretended to go talk
to the manager... That's what the car salesmen all do,
when they supposedly go in to make the deal you offer!!!
The salesman knew he
could have probably gotten $6,000.00 from the customer..
But he also knew that if he got
caught selling that much above list price he could get
into trouble.
The salesman sent in
his buddy to help positively reinforce the deal while he
was supposedly talking to the manager.
The second salesman probably works
this and similar deals on a back & forth with each
other.
If the reader thinks
that this is too complicated or too long and
involved.... THINK AGAIN... this type of activity
goes on every single day in every single type of
business that pays by commission. You should NEVER
NEVER NEVER TRUST a commissioned salesperson even if
he's in your band or you have known him for years.
There are some
exceptions of course.... For example commissioned
account executives sometimes are on your side, because
they don't want to lose you. This applies to sales reps
that you work with repeatedly. This does not apply
to a one time car, camera, swimming pool, or guitar
sale.
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These Types Of Things Go On All The Time When
Salespeople Are Paid Minimum Wage
They Have To Rely On Commissions To Feed Their Families.
It Happens Even More Directly After Someone Just Gets Married,
They Immediately Realize, They Need More Money!! Much More Money!!!!
I related to my security guard
buddy the below story....
Back
when I owned East Coast Music Mall, we didn't pay commissions on
sales, but we did offer a $25.00 spiff on our $99.00 lifetime
warranty. We had one wiseass salesman adding in the cost of
the warranty to the price he was quoting. He would actually
raise the price of the item by $100.00 and then give the guy the
warranty at no charge.. We figured it out when we found he was
selling them on Martins & other items that already come with a
lifetime warranty.
Whereupon my friend told me that was common practice at his store,
he also told me. that if the customer didn't balk at the price, the
salesman would proceed to sell them yet another warranty on top of
the amplified price.
So
instead of telling the customer after the fact that there was a
lifetime warranty included. Like the guy who used to work for
me would do. These maggots would actually not say anything and not
even bother to write the warranty
(apparently the commission on the
warranty was less than on a sale with a high profit).
This left the salesman or
counterperson free to try to sell yet another warranty on top of the
first one that the customer never knew he had bought.
Ouch!!!! Ouch!!!
Ouch!!!!!!
Variations on that that theme abound, My friend told me that other
companies routinely stamp custom shop on guitars that are not custom
shop guitars at all... The big box chain stores have a lot of clout.
They can order 350 of one special model that is not available in
other stores. Usually this model will have a couple of very minor
differences. ( gold hardware or maybe a special color) These
are legally custom guitars.... So they can be stamped custom shop.
This means the customer will pay more and get the same.
350
guitars isn't many if you have 50 or more watered down white bread
stores. Some chains have well over 200
watered down stores. This is why all the guitars you see in
those stores are usually low end beginner brands. You'll never see
anything cool like Dingwall or JET.
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The story I related above
happened to be a Fender, My friend told me that
Gibson is by far the one that 3 piece suited sports car
driving know nothings ask about. and the salesman's
Hijinks are usually pretty much in line with the above
story.
I personally don't
believe these reissue guitars are good for the industry,
For example around 1964 the United States Post Office
printed some postage stamps with
Dag
Hammarskjold's image on them. There was a misprint and
some of the stamps got out. Collectors thought
they had struck gold, then the post office reissued the
original misprinted stamp by the millions and killed the
value.
These guitars all have
the perceived cache value frontloaded. This is precisely
so that the manufacturer and/or the dealer makes an
immediate ridiculous profit. The sad thing is that
a lot of people have bought into that philosophy. Well I
am here to tell them that those guitars will never
increase in value, because the collectibility has been
tainted by the fact that the companies all profited
greatly from the consumers ignorance. There are tons of
them out there and even if they did go up a little,
Inflation will kill the long term increase in value.
I explain this to many
customers and most of them look at me and say something
like "Uh Oh well it sounds really good" Or
something like "It plays better than my other Les Paul"
I submit to them that
the sound is largely psychological... Te same as a
washed car runs better than a dirty car and the
playability might be slightly better simply because the
factory may have allowed an additional 15 minutes in
setup time into the build schedule.
Ed Roman
4/15/04 |