I'm not one to use this forum to review an establishment, but after the service I received…read moreyesterday, I have decided that I'm through giving them my business.
I recently received a Yamaha Venova plastic saxophone for Christmas this year. It's a beautiful little instrument, and has a sound like a soprano saxophone. However, it comes with a plastic reed. After doing a small amount of research, I read that you could use soprano sax reeds on it. For me, that would be ideal. So, I stopped in Music & Arts to see if they sold any. They did, although the only package cost over forty dollars.
When the young man at the counter asked me if I needed assistance, I told him of my predicament, and was wondering if he had a soprano reed behind the counter that I could match the plastic reed to. I felt that I'd like to make sure they were a good fit before I laid down almost fifty dollars on something I couldn't use or return.
He says, "Definitely. I'll be right with you, after I finish with this customer I'm checking out." So I step off to the side and wait patiently at the counter for him to free himself up.
As I'm waiting, the man who is obviously the manager, removes himself from a "kids these days..." conversation he was having with another customer, comes up from behind me , picks up the box of reeds and proceeds to start ringing them in. I stop him by saying, "Actually, before I purchase, I was wondering if I could match a reed I have with a soprano reed you might have on hand." I then proceed to explain my predicament to him.
Mid-explanation this man cuts me off, telling me there's no way he's going to open this box up for me just to check a match. He proceeds to tell me that he does most of his business with students, and they rarely buy soprano reeds, so he can't sell them individually. So I;ll just have to buy the whole box.
I tell him I had no intention of him opening the box, I just wasn't sure if they were the same match as my reed. He then cuts me off again, to tell me I need to do more research before coming into his store.
I try to tell him, that I was just waiting there because his employee said that he could help me, and it seemed that he might have a reed lying around already that I could match. He dismissively says, "No! No we don't!' I then look over to his employee, who has his eyes looking down at the counter, in no position to counter his bosses statement.
Knowing that I'm in no position to receive any satisfaction. I say, "Ok, I'll do more research. I know that you sell them here if I want them," and return the box to the shelf, and walk out the door.
I know that it's hard these days for small stores to do good business with online sales being what they are. However, he was so concerned about losing money, and wasting his time, while I was ready to drop Forty-odd dollars right there, if it was a fit. He definitely lost that money, because I refuse to buy it from him now.
His attitude was so condescending and dismissive when all I was being was polite. If he was nicer and just said, "I'm sorry we don't have a reed back here to match," I would have understood, but right away he was aggressive and seemingly angered by me. It's people like him that ruin the experience of a small business.
