Very disappointing experiences at Claremont branch

I have had a few mildly disappointing experiences with Paul Bothner over the years, but have never left bad feedback. I can only imagine how tough it could be to run a musical supplies business, in a fragile economy and in this day and age - so I have been quite happy to give them some latitude.

But very recent experiences have motivated today's negative feedback.

My local branch is Claremont, Cape Town. Toms in the centre of Cape Town closed down (a superior destination in my opinion) and there are hardly any music shops left, so Claremont is where I go, if I really need to.

I called them recently about some strings that were displayed on their website, to see if they had them in the gauge that I use. I was told somebody would call me back, but he didn't. So I chased the following day and was told he was still waiting for a reply. He never got back to me with a conclusive answer - so I have to assume that either he gave up, or that the answer was no......and he got busy with something else. Nonetheless, please don't promise to call a customer back and fail to do so – it is definitely less than satisfactory service.

Then today I went into the shop to buy two single strings to replace strings that are broken on a couple of my guitars (nothing to do with the strings I was looking for in the previous episode). I was very clear in my request for a top 1st E string and a 5th 'A' string. Anybody who's ever played guitar for longer than a month, or who works in a music shop, knows (or should know) that the top E string only means one thing – it is the thin, highest pitched string. What I was presented with by this shop assistant was a bottom (thick) E string - and when I told him that this was the opposite of what I wanted, he tried to argue with me and gave me a less than customer-friendly look. Unbelievable. He then took ages to find the top 'E' string, but when he did, he couldn't find the product code and therefore it couldn't be priced. Bothners has a weird system whereby you can't pay for the product at the normal front desk, you have to go to a separate cashier, which is what he then did in the hope that she would have the product code.....but she didn't. Thus we were stuck.

Meanwhile, he had failed to find a single 5th 'A' string in the shop.

The staff were unwilling to break into a whole set of strings to find the item. By this stage, I had run out of time and realised in any case that I would have to visit another music shop in order to find both strings. So I aborted, realising that I was having my time wasted.

Before I left, I asked for pick that I have often bought in this shop in the past - an Ultex/Dunlop Jazz III. No stock - and no idea if any would be coming in.

The whole experience from top to bottom was really poor. None of the products I was asking for were in any way unusual or exotic. The fact that the shop assistant didn't even know what a top 1st 'E' string was is beyond a joke. A customer shouldn't have to correct you on something as basic as knowing the difference between the top and bottom strings on a guitar!!

If you want people to come to your shop and spend their money, at least sort yourselves out and act like professionals.