Just a bit of info - to save me phoning round! - I want to order some things from Thomann (for the first time!) - could someone who uses them tell me what company they usually use to deliver to the UK - is it Securicor or UPS or _ ? The reason I ask is that I can never guarantee when I'm in and with UPS - I can usually go & get it from the nearest depot if necessary. Do securicor have a similar facility?

thanks

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Nick

Hi Nick,

We ordered some plugs and stuff from thomann a while back and I seem to remember them using securicor. We weren't in either so picked up from the nearest depot.

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...rubbish at words 'n' stuff.

I've had no problem getting stuff delivered to my work address.

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need to get rid of this stupid sig...

Thomman prices look good, but, you pay in Euro's so if you pay with an English credit card you get a really bad exchange rate making the price less attractive. Moreover, if you need to return the product for a refund, the exchange rate is really bad in the other direction, so you end up gearless AND out of pocket! And your card issuer also charges for the international transaction in both directions. A friend of a friend was £90 down because of this.

reading that back it doesnt sound very clear, example:

when you buy goods you might get say 1.4 Euros/£, say goods are 140 euro's it'll cost £100. now say you have to send them back you might only get say 1.6 Euros/£, so they refund the 140 Euro's (cos thats all they took off your card), but that only equates to £87.50.

in the above example the actual exchange rate of that time as set by the bank of england would probably be about 1.5E/£, but visa/mastercard set their rates to favour them, naturally.

Edited by B.E.R.K. (21/09/04 02:41 PM)

Yes - Thomann prices in £ are (presumably) approximate at the exchange rate at the time of publication.

When you pay by credit card, you get the current exchange rate + card fee it works out more expensive - so don't be surprised to pay more than you think.

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John - Sound-Link ProAudio
President - Federation Internationale des Chasseurs de Sons

John, read my above i explained it a little more, its actually worse than just paying the exchange rate at the time, you pay visa / mastercards own exchange rate, which heavily favours them.

Edited by B.E.R.K. (21/09/04 02:37 PM)

Ah ha interesting. The reason want to use Thomann is because the item I want (the high K&M stand & boom ST212 - models 20811&21231) doesn't seem to be readily available in UK - except Studio Spares - who have none, didn't get last order & don't know when they will get anymore and Canford who seem to charge a premium price. Think I'll need to work out the cost in a little more detail as you suggest to see whether Canford makes much difference or not - unless of course someone knows another good UK supplier who may have or readily be able to get these.

Anyway thanks very much for the info - I don't like nasty surprises!

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Nick

I was in a similar situation as I wanted a Vermona drum machine at the beginning of August - there were only two known UK outlets, and also the UK prices had practically doubled as Vermona demanded it just after I started looking - typical!

So I tried Thomann - everything about the exchange rate is true, but it was still loads cheaper than the UK price. I think it was Securicor who delivered it, although I wasn't in. I had no trouble picking it up from the depot in London though...hope that helps!

Spud

I've only used Thomann once, and that was around 6 years ago. The ordering was smooth, the delivery was within 10 days which I gather is a tad longer than normal.. but the order was CORRECT... which is something that seems to happen less and less these days. I didn't notice the price being that different to what I had expected.. but of course it was a long time ago.

I haven't had anything go wrong to have to go through the returns routine... and I sigh with relief at that, it's probably a huge pain up the rear end.

-mark

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www.madfiddler.co.uk / www.gamesounds.com / www.codemasters.com

I have bought once from Thomann so far and the order was handled very well, delivered to my holiday address in France within just a few days (4 or 5 maybe). It was a small item and was simply delivered by post. Only little cause for dissatisfaction is that I asked it the item came with a USB cable, was told it didn't and therefore I added one to the order. Turned out there was already a USB cable included in the item's box and if the guy had checked properly he would have seen it. Considering the price of a USB cable and its general usefulness it does not matter. If it had been something expensive I would have returned it.

Their prices are very good. I regret I missed the Triton LE at £650 with extras (paid mine £750 a month earlier from a UK retailer and they charged for the MIDI cables!).

About the delivery company, you should ask them I think. The reason being that many companies use several couriers.

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There is a subtle difference between "having no form" and having "no form": the first is ignorance, the second, transcendance.

Last year Thomann took 5 months to get an order out to me. I was only buying monitor stands/rack stands/accessories, and it all came at different times. I've never dealt with them since.