ccravens - Posted - 11/08/2011:  06:35:53

I had no idea about this until today, and if you didn’t either, then I’ll just send out a general FYI. I was on the phone ordering some strings from JustStrings.com, and the person informed me that if I ordered from them over the phone, they would charge me $5 extra. I had ordered from them before by phone and never heard that. I am like many people, I presume, in that I feel more comfortable ordering by phone so I can talk to someone, ask a question or two if needed, and then give my order and credit card number. I politely asked about the policy and “we’ve just done it for years” is the best I could get.

My question to you is: is this becoming industry standard? I told JustStrings.com “no thanks” (the guy on their end was extremely polite about it all) and called in an order from Elderly Instruments instead. The customer service guy at Elderly said he had never heard of such a thing, and thought it was as crazy as I did. So again, does anyone out there know any other website instrument and accessory providers that charge for ordering over the phone? Is it becoming a standard in the industry? 

Ben Venuti - Posted - 11/08/2011:  07:38:55

Probably took their clue from the banks trying to charge you to use your debit card. People hate that stuff and it hurt the banks and they have backed off (600,000 people switched to credit unions and more just went to banks that said that they wouldn't charge ). I suppose that JustStrings will find that their sales suffer from this policy. If I have a question from a retailer I want an answer and I don't expect to have to pay for that,once the question is answered since I'm there with a rep I might as well order right then and I'm not paying for that either. Tick me off and I'll never come back! I order a fair amount of stuff on line or by phone I have never been charged a fee. I personally like to buy my strings from a music store. I can come in play all their instruments and then buy some strings so that I'm not a complete dead beat.

Mandolin Ant - Posted - 11/14/2011:  09:46:33

I've noticed more and more businesses, especially in Industrial Supply, are "sneaking" in charges that they wouldn't have a few years back. These are billed as handling charges, or surcharges for fuel or whatever kind of b s charge they want to call it.