Southern Ukulele Store
RatingsThe Southern Ukulele Store only began in earnest in mid-2009 but have quickly established themselves as the best place in the UK to buy a ukulele. I've bought my last two ukuleles from them and have been very happy with the service they provide. They're also very passionate and knowledgeable about ukes and are happy to offer advice. I highly recommend using them.
£200.00
4 Comments
I would thoroughly recomend the Southern Ukulele Store, its the only place i have bought new ukes from and will continue to do so in the future. If they start to deal with vintage stuff that would be the icing on the cake. Paul Tucker is an absolute gentleman, nothing is to much trouble for him. I’ve concidered trying Duke of Uke but they never seem to have anything i want in stock, which is a shame.
Don’t use an internet company for something as important as this, especially this company who’s customer service, although polite, is totally biased and cynical. I bought 2 ukuleles from this store recently. The first (£39) would not tune properly due to a faulty bridge. I explained this to the staff over the phone who told me to return it. They said that they had checked it before sending and that they found no problem with it. I asked them to send me a Lanikai instead for £80. It was for a Christmas present for my son so really wanted something that would work. I returned the first one and a week later received the Lanikai. I’d asked them to sheck this also but as with the first, it would not tune correctly. I informed them of this and they were very surprised saying that 4 of their staff had checked it and found no fault. I received a call 2 weeks later saying that they would not be refunding the full amount as they had found ‘buckle marks’ on the back of the instrument and that would mean that they could only sell it second hand. As far as I was concerned, having packed it myself, it was returned in exactly the same condition as when it was purchased. What can you do in this sort of situation? We hadn’t played this instrument other than to try and tune it. They had us over a barrel and they knew it. They offered to send it back to me but what’s the point in having a Uke that doesn’t work? I paid twice for the return postage myself and received no compensation for this even though by law if it is returned in a week then the supplier should pay.
A very unhappy experience and also very expensive for me (about £40 after postage and their kind deductions).
I would not recommend this company at all. If you want a good Uke then you must go to a shop and try it yourself as they can be very unreliable. Don’t use an internet company for something as important as this, especially this company who’s customer service, although polite, in my opinion is totally biased and cynical. I don’t think that they liked my criticism one little bit or my suggestion that their quality control was unsatisfactory. Let the buyer beware.
Roy: How come you haven’t left negative feedback on eBay? They haven’t had a single negative in the last six months and only one in a year (and that complaint doesn’t sound like yours).
Firstly as many of you are aware we are not solely an Internet company, we are a real shop with over 80 ukuleles displayed on our walls and over 1,000 in stock. We would prefer to do all our business face to face to ensure that the customer gets the best help and the most suitable ukulele for them. We trade online because we live in the modern world and we have to, but our thousands of satisfied customers all around the world go a long way to proving that we do try hard and get it right most of the time. There are circumstances when instruments without faults are returned to us either modified or damaged where we are not able to give full refunds, but this is in no way a cynical ploy to make extra revenue. We have given, and will continue to give full refunds, within our normal t&c’s, for reasons such as the customer did not like the colour, or because it is just not their thing.
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