Well, I have shaken off enough flu... well, no. I still feel cruddy. But I did go down to Axe Music today, as they had a Casio WK-7200 on the floor for me to play with. And I wanted to hear for myself what the difference was.
I wound up comparing it to a $520-ish Yamaha, and an 88 key $1,100-ish Yamaha. My reason for selecting those two keyboards was simple; they were the keyboards on either side of the WK-7600. I wasn't getting real sophisticated today; it was a challenge just to walk and chew gum. Or even just walk. Forget the gum.
I played all three instruments. I played individual notes; some high, some low, some loud, some soft. And the conclusion that I came away with was, 1) they all sounded slightly different, but no one keyboard was consistently better than another; they were all just slightly different, and I felt they were all good. Secondly - Oh, I guess I mean 2)... none of them were indistinguishable from a real piano. They all had... boy, I don't know how to describe it. I mean, they were all very good. But none of them were a foolproof replacement for an acoustic piano. It was more like listening to a recording of a piano on a high end audio system. The feeling of presence was missing.
I wasn't looking at $5,000 high end digital pianos; maybe those really are indistinguishable from the real thing. But in my price bracket, or even considerably above it, I need to accept some compromises. And... I'm not performing in a sold out stadium. I think that, given my financial constraints and my relatively undeveloped musical skills, good enough will have to be good enough.
So, on the basis that none of them was stand out, breathtakingly more realistic than another, I chose the WK-7600, on the basis that it had more features, and those features would allow me to do more things. I can learn more with the WK-7600, because it does more. And truthfully, it didn't sound bad.
So I found my sales rep, and told him that I'd like to buy one. He said that he'd need a deposit, and they'd have to bring one in. That surprised me; he'd told me on Saturday that they had 4 in stock. But apparently he meant that the online sales arm of Axe music has 4 in stock, and they have to buy it from the online division, and have it delivered to the store. And this was going to take several days.
Well, OK. Can I just buy it now, bring the paid receipt over to the warehouse, and pick it up myself? Nope. They don't do that. Don't know why; they'd save themselves some courier fees. But, they just don't do that.
Okay. Well, if they're going to deliver it somewhere, can they just deliver it to my house? Yep, no problem. So I figured, what the hell, let's do that. It'll save me from having to drive around while I'm still coughing up green stuff, and truthfully, I probably wasn't going to play with it much even if I did get it today.
So I pulled out the magic plastic... and then my sales guy started trying to sell me delivery insurance. It's just 3% of the purchase price, and if the courier company drops it and breaks it or loses it, then Axe will step in and fix it. If I didn't buy it, in the event of a delivery problem I'd have to deal with the courier company myself. Axe wouldn't lift a finger.
Well, that's when I jammed my card back in my wallet and walked out.
"Geez, kid. Nice keyboard ya got there. Be a shame if something were to happen to it."
My position on delivery is that until the keyboard is physically in my hands, undamaged and pristine, anything bad that happens to it is the responsibility of the merchant. I was insulted. Either they're a much shadier company than I had hoped, or they singled me out because I looked like a dumb F**K they could scam.
25 years ago, I bought a Kurzweil K2000S from them. They wanted to sell me the instrument on the floor; but I made it VERY clear to my sales guy that I wanted a brand new, unopened keyboard. He faithfully promised me that I'd get exactly that. So I went down the next day, picked up my 'new' keyboard, got it home, opened the box... and discovered months of dirt and grit accumulation on the underside of the keys. This wasn't just a store demo; this keyboard had seen serious use, perhaps as a rental unit. And they tried to palm it off to me as new. I was massively pissed, drove it back, and told them that I either was going to be given a brand new keyboard, or they were going to give me my money back, or they were going to see me in court. I got the new keyboard... and I swore I'd never deal with them again.
For 25 years, I kept that vow. But ya know, people change. Stores change. And more to the point, they were the only damn brick and mortar store I could find that would even breathe the name Casio WK-7600. Truthfully, it's easier to buy Crack in Edmonton than a Casio WK-7600. So 25 years later, I tried them again... and they're still trying to screw and scam me.
So I drove home and bought it through Amazon. It was the same price; and I know that Amazon WILL guarantee delivery of an undamaged keyboard to my doorstep. No 3% surcharge required.
And the punchline? It's an Amazon marketplace merchant; and the merchant is Axe music in Edmonton. So they're still going to sell it to me, they're still going to deliver it to my doorstep, they're not going to get a 3% extortion fee... and the ARE going to have to pay Amazon a percentage of the sale.
I don't feel bad about that at all. That money would have been in their pocket, had they simply acknowledged their delivery responsibilities, and treated me respectfully. I was in the store, ready to buy, with my wallet out. Under those circumstances, most stores could have found a way to complete the transaction. It's difficult to screw it up. But they managed.
So I guess I'll give them another 25 years before I try them again. I'll be 87 years old. We'll see if we're both still around.
3% delivery insurance indeed. Take that extortion attempt and shove it on up. Sideways. I hope it hurts.
So, that's my tale of woe. Until Monday - or perhaps sooner, when Axe discovers that I'm just a hop, skip and jump away from their rental storage unit - oh, I'm sorry, I meant global delivery hub - I'm just looking at pictures.
Sigh. I have to go cough up green stuff now. Peace. >Charlie
