Copied from Digital Village website.
Turnkey and Sound Control News: We are saddened to hear that many of our music industry colleagues at Sound Control Holdings, Sound Control Musical Instrument Stores and Turnkey (Music Technology Supplier) have been made redundant*.
Sound Control and Turnkey filed for administration on 30th April 2008. The Turnkey website currently states: “Whilst the Sound Control group remains in administration, no orders can be placed on this website”.
The Daily Telegraph comments: “Britain's largest musical instrument retailer Sound Control Holdings has fallen victim to competition from the internet, appointing Deloitte as administrator, which has made 163 staff redundant.”
*All CV’s are welcome, please e-mail jobs@digitalvillage.co.uk
Turnkey and Sound Control File for Administration
Maybe the Telegraph should have said sound control has fallen victim to taking it's customers for granted . I dont really know what they are like I just know that NOT going into MY local music shop to buy gear is such a frigging pleasure . A couple of the guys there are cool but having spent time mixing with people who thought they were pop stars and not enjoying it much even though they WERE pop stars..... having to go into a music shop and dealing with sales assistants who are convinced they are pop stars is really just too much to bear . You know .....I just want buy something not deal with attitude from nobodies just like me 
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irrelevance
I know that there will be more than a few who will not be sad to hear this news. I had some pretty bad experiences with Turnkey in past and have since used always gone to Digital village first. Thing is competition is a strong market driver without high street competition the consumer is pretty much screwed! I do use the internet but it's not always the best channel to purchase through.
I should've known turnkey were in trouble after I bought my krk vxt4's and got a copy of Absynth thrown in for £30!
I should've known turnkey were in trouble after I bought my krk vxt4's and got a copy of Absynth thrown in for £30!
Well they messed me about too many times over a month it took them to deliver some monitors that I paid full in advance after they assured me they had them in stock and ready to be despatched, same with a Korg Radias and other little things that I needed immediately like cables.
Too many times they assured me they will ring me back with details of deliveries within hours and more often than not they never got back to me until I rang them days later which nothing had been done and some of the sales people had the audacity to say to me its not their problem anymore as its not in their hands and cant do anything.
Too many times they assured me they will ring me back with details of deliveries within hours and more often than not they never got back to me until I rang them days later which nothing had been done and some of the sales people had the audacity to say to me its not their problem anymore as its not in their hands and cant do anything.
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sonicstrav
- Posts: 459
- Joined: Wed Jan 28, 2004 4:00 pm
I only ever dealt with Turnkey once & their service was fine. Sound Control is another matter. They employed people who don't know anything about anything in their supposed pro audio departments. Maybe their other departments were different, but in terms of pro audio sales staff & stock, they simply sucked.
Very harsh for the staff who lost their jobs. It's not easy doing that job anyway, and they are probably owed pay which they will never get (just like a lot of people probably paid for gear which they'll never get). I've done my time working for a music store - it wasn't fun, it seriously degraded my view of the music-gear-buying public, and a lot of the gear industry in general. Well at least I managed to get some cheap gear out of it, including my first Pulsar card 
Some of the other staff WERE pop-stars once :p ... some of the others were trying to achieve their 15 minutes, some of the guys on the phones used to work selling double glazing... Once I had to cold-call a dude back about a synth enquiry - turns out his dad had just died. Fun conversation that was...
A lot of these big chains mean that smaller local music shops are very rare nowadays. I can't count the number of smaller towns I've passed through with a boarded up music store. A shop like Turnkey/SC is no less a 'discounted box-shifter' than internet stores like Thomann/Dolphin etc.
Also with these big chains, the staff are usually paid on commission, so I'm not sure how much a customer should trust their advice. Staff turnover is very high and they simply don't have time to keep up with product knowledge. I think the same is true in the US with chains like Guitar Center. The only one of the bigger chains which isn't mind-bogglingly bad is Digital Village in my experience. It's all moot to me nowadays anyway... I'd rather spend my money on vintage/high-end gear that isn't made to fall apart or totally devalue after a year or 2.
Some of the other staff WERE pop-stars once :p ... some of the others were trying to achieve their 15 minutes, some of the guys on the phones used to work selling double glazing... Once I had to cold-call a dude back about a synth enquiry - turns out his dad had just died. Fun conversation that was...A lot of these big chains mean that smaller local music shops are very rare nowadays. I can't count the number of smaller towns I've passed through with a boarded up music store. A shop like Turnkey/SC is no less a 'discounted box-shifter' than internet stores like Thomann/Dolphin etc.
Also with these big chains, the staff are usually paid on commission, so I'm not sure how much a customer should trust their advice. Staff turnover is very high and they simply don't have time to keep up with product knowledge. I think the same is true in the US with chains like Guitar Center. The only one of the bigger chains which isn't mind-bogglingly bad is Digital Village in my experience. It's all moot to me nowadays anyway... I'd rather spend my money on vintage/high-end gear that isn't made to fall apart or totally devalue after a year or 2.
Hey 'Rezin
if you ever are unfortunate enough to go back to music shop let me know ...you might be one of the very few cool ones
Why hasn't anyone mentioned Good old UncleE . Great shop...great Guy and great support too ...all the way down to the bottom of the world . He's never ever let me down and the shipping speed is just unbelievable .
Paul
if you ever are unfortunate enough to go back to music shop let me know ...you might be one of the very few cool ones
Why hasn't anyone mentioned Good old UncleE . Great shop...great Guy and great support too ...all the way down to the bottom of the world . He's never ever let me down and the shipping speed is just unbelievable .
Paul
