Just add it to your cart......and don't ask questions!!!!!

[po56okie]

.....yes, have you ever noticed how things are these days..... Add to your cart...Add to your cart......everything including mandolins is "add to your cart !!" nevermind if you have questions. , just look at the photo and buy it !......PUT IT IN THE CART !!!!!

[Jess L.]

.....yes, have you ever noticed how things are these days..... Add to your cart...Add to your cart......everything including mandolins is "add to your cart !!" nevermind if you have questions. , just look at the photo and buy it !......PUT IT IN THE CART !!!!!

If you think that's bad, Amazon somehow automatically turned on "1-click order" for my account, which I only noticed after inadvertently buying a $1 music track that I *thought* I was "adding to cart" but turns out it went straight to "purchase" without any further action on my part, it didn't even give me the opportunity to select which purchase method I wanted to use. (At that time I still allowed Amazon to store purchase methods, i.e. credit card numbers.)

Lesson learned! I went into my account settings and, among other things, turned off "1-click order" *everywhere* on Amazon. Dangerous thing.

But, generally speaking, the "add to cart" thing doesn't bother me, I like it a lot better than the old days of having to piddle around making orders via the telephone while talking with someone who didn't know anything about the product anyway, or having to mail in a check and an order page from a printed catalog and then waiting a couple weeks for the item(s) to finally materialize.

I guess the idea nowadays, for a lot of the websites, they probably figure that the prospective buyer already knows what they want to buy - because of doing research at *other* websites and/or watching a bunch of reviews on YouTube etc.

I look at it this way: the internet is the modern equivalent of the old Sears mail-order catalogs (where we got most of our stuff including some musical instruments as well as farm equipment etc when I was kid), except the internet has a whole lot more choices as to brand, color, style, model, etc. It's a convenience. I don't mind the impersonal aspects of online purchases, as long as I get the product I want at a reasonable price.

What *does* bother me is when I've carefully selected the items I want, put them in the 'cart', then find that the website's probably-outsourced 3rd-party payment website is down for maintenance and they expect me to repeat the whole process later. No I don't think so! If an online store is too inept to have a properly functioning website with a reliable payment processor (it *is* a business, after all), then I don't know as I'd trust them with other aspects of business either. Usually plenty of other places to buy stuff. (Gotta love competition, at least as viewed from the customers' viewpoint.)

[Mando Mort]

Good reason to purchase your musical instruments live and in person.

[Bertram Henze]

Apart from Amazon's OneClick option, there are these physical button thingies tied to certain products - just press and the next batch of, say, washing agent is on it's way. Could be a true MAS machine.

[MikeZito]

I this a sign?

I didn't get much sleep last night because I kept debating with myself as to whether or not I should pull the trigger on a new Kentucky KM-806 . . . and then I turn on my computer, and one of the first things I see is: 'Just add it to your cart......and don't ask questions!!!!!'

Flip Wilson used to say, 'The Devil made me do it!' . . . but in this case I may have to say, 'Mandolin Cafe made me do it!'

[bratsche]

With Amazon, if there's anything I look at that I might remotely want to buy in the future, I put it in my cart, immediately go to the cart and tick the "save for later" box. Amazon alerts you on the top of that page if any of the prices of items on your list have changed. And I've been pleasantly surprised on occasion, being able to buy items on my list when the price has dropped significantly.

Good reason to purchase your musical instruments live and in person.

While I've not bought an instrument on Amazon, I have bought all but one of my currently owned 14 instruments online. If I hadn't, I'd only own... well, just one instrument. Some of us have noplace within 5 or more hours' distance to try things out "live and in person" - and I personally prefer to buy them pre-owned, anyway.

bratsche

[Frost]

You can ask questions, some places just want you to buy it first.

Also, you might have to ask somewhere other than where you buy it if you want to get an answer. Also, if the answer isn't what you expected or want to hear, you might be stuck with it anyway.

But you can still ask

Thankfully, not all places operate this way. I have had nothing but helpful and prompt answers to my questions prior to my two (so far) instrument purchases from two different cafe sponsors.

[dhergert]

I want to add this to my cart:

Gibson F-5 1923 Lloyd Loar Signed

Or maybe more realistically, this:

Gibson F-2

[mandolin tony]

Mike, KM-806. do you mean a 805, or is this a new model. no need to click to the left.

[DHopkins]

Solution: Don't click on it!

[LadysSolo]

What I hate is when you go to a site and get your choices in your cart and go to check out, and they won't let you check out as a guest, to check out you have to set up an account, answering page after page of questions. I won't do it, I empty my cart and go elsewhere. I don't want multiple accounts with multiple vendors, if I want to use your "store" again, I will come back and check out as a guest again.

[chuxster]

With Amazon, if there's anything I look at that I might remotely want to buy in the future, I put it in my cart, immediately go to the cart and tick the "save for later" box. Amazon alerts you on the top of that page if any of the prices of items on your list have changed. And I've been pleasantly surprised on occasion, being able to buy items on my list when the price has dropped significantly.

bratsche

I do the same. Then I use an app called camelcamelcamel to research the price history. Some items NEVER seem to change, but others change ALL the time.

[LostVenture]

Sorry to "name drop" here, but this is the reason that I enjoy working with Mr. Fear.
I get to ask all the stupid questions that a beginner is going to ask, and I get sensible answers.
And a couple of incredible mandolins.
Don

[MikeZito]

Hey Tony:

It's an 806 - I am assuming there is a number variation for color . . . it's a gold top.

https://themandolinstore.com/product...ard-case-copy/

Still contemplating pulling the trigger, but my short-term disability pay is leaving me with a short-changed bank account right now, so if I do pull the trigger, it may be a few weeks.

[Bertram Henze]

Still contemplating pulling the trigger, but my short-term disability pay is leaving me with a short-changed bank account right now, so if I do pull the trigger, it may be a few weeks.

Everybody listen: this man has the cure for MAS. Sit quietly in a corner and contemplate. Question your own motivation and wait for what remains after all your superficial worldly wishes have dissolved.

[Roger Moss]

Hey Tony:

It's an 806 - I am assuming there is a number variation for color . . . it's a gold top.

https://themandolinstore.com/product...ard-case-copy/

Still contemplating pulling the trigger, but my short-term disability pay is leaving me with a short-changed bank account right now, so if I do pull the trigger, it may be a few weeks.

A clearance sale on a brand new model? I admit I'm not particularly savvy about sales techniques, but isn't that how you clear out hard to get rid of stock?

[Tobin]

A clearance sale on a brand new model? I admit I'm not particularly savvy about sales techniques, but isn't that how you clear out hard to get rid of stock?

Dude, you're not following directions. Just put it in your cart and don't ask questions. You won't be told again.

[Bunnyf]

You know, I don't have "one click" set up either and often put stuff in my cart and do the save for later thing. Sometimes I'm going to go ahead and buy but I might want to check on shipping charges, or see if tax was charged, or maybe just check to see if a coupon or discount code was applied. Recently, though, I put an item in my cart and voila..."Thank you for your purchase!". I don't recall but I don't think it was a big item and I did want it anyway but it took me by surprise and I did immediate go to settings to see what was up. I will definitely double check settings before I hit that "add to my cart" button again.

[Tim N]

Just turned off my default one-click function...But I did read that you get a short period of mercy to change your mind - 15 mins. So you could order your dream instrument, dream for 14 minutes, then quickly cancel. Or not...

[peterleyenaar]

Although I order via the internet at times due to living in a smaller community, I prefer to shop in a music store, when I visit a larger city like Calgary or Vancouver.

In a music store, the salesperson is likely to be a mucisian who can give you advise or altenatives, if they dont have the item you are looking for, they can order it, or tell you where to get it.

It is also a nicer experience to converse with a fellow mucisian, I always remember the person I bought from , the internet , not so.

[Canoedad]

Back in 2011 when I first started looking at mandolins I was on The Mandolin Shop’s website. I accidentally put a mandolin “in my cart.” I didn’t know how to get it back out and ont the sales floor. I woorid about it for about an hour then called the store and explained my situation. Dennis told me not to worry about it. I bought a Pava from him a year later and didn’t use a “cart.”