Posted by OAFC on July 17, 2001 at 14:14:22:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Polite tuba testing. posted by Sean Chisham on July 16, 2001 at 13:47:55:
I am in complete agreement with you, Sean. As a potential customer, a person has to be able to try the products. That means a certain amount of effort on the part of the customer to get to the retailer, and being allowed to try the available instruments. The customer is simply trying to make an educated decision to find the instrument that's right for him/her. I have in the past tried instruments that I thought were quite good, mentioned its availability to someone else, and that person, or their student, went over and bought it. There have also been many times when other players have contacted me and told me, "I was just at xyz tuba shop, and tried a great horn, you've gotta check it out". Each person who walks in to try some instruments won't buy, neither do they necessarily intend to buy on a given trip. But they are learning what suits them, or someone else, best. On one occasion, I was asked by the retailer to "check out" a horn for a high school student, who happened to be there with his father, looking for his first tuba. I gladly played on it and gave to the student and his father my honest assessment, and they bought the tuba. Did I get a commission? No. Did I expect one? No. I just happened to be there, trying tubas, looking to see if there was anything new, to see if there was anything I had to have.