So this month is my birthday. I usually buy some expensive electronic, but this time I am being thrifty because I am saving for an MBA next year. And being as though I always wanted to learn to play it, I decided to get a guitar.
I had seen a model at “Instrument Garage” a couple of years ago that costs 150 dollars. Now I don't know much about guitars, but I know that metal strings are better than nylon strings. And that guitar from “Instrument Garage” had metal strings. Anyway, I was at virgin in ABC and found a guitar there that was black and with metal strings.
I asked a salesman how much it costs. He said that it costs 44$. I was surprised. Next to it was a yellow guitar with nylon strings. I asked him how much does the yellow guitar costs. He said 65$. I asked him “How come?”. He said that it had nylon strings. I explained to him that a nylon strings should cost less. He said he didn’t know and that I couldn’t ask him this question. So seeing a good deal, I decided to buy the black guitar. I mean I am a beginner. I don’t know if I will ever actually learn to play it. So I said to hell with it.
Carrying the guitar case in the Service I took home, I started thinking how usually I get ripped off when I buy stuff from Virgin. I thought that here for once I got a bargain. When I got home, I opened the guitar to play it. It had nylon Strings. I was upset, but then thought that this was the standard I have come to expect from Virgin. (One day I will tell the story of the Samsung phone I bought from these guys).
Never mind I thought, if they put metal strings on the display guitar, I can get some other place to put the metal strings. Now I didn’t want to go to instrument guitar. I had asked them a lot about that other guitar and I wasn’t going to go there with my new guitar to put the strings. I wasn’t going to ask Virgin for a refund as I gathered they would tell me that these guitars come with nylon strings and that the display guitar was just for display.
Instead, I decided to go to shop X (whose name I will not mention). I had asked a cousin of mine who is a musician about the procedure to confirm and he said “Go to shop X, the guy will change the strings while you are there and will charge you a few buck, shi 30 thousand ya3ne for everything”. It seemed like a good deal.
I went to shop X and told him I wanted metal strings on the guitar.
“How much it will cost?”.
“Oh, these strings need changing”, the guy said “it should be 28,000 liras, but you will have to leave it here”.
“Cool, I said. I guess while I am here I will get a few other items, I want a bag for the guitar and a few picks”.
The guy showed me. In the end I agreed to pay him 20,000 in advance. He will keep the bag and picks aside for me for the next day when I will get the guitar.
Next day comes.
I go to the guitar place. The guy is there.
“Hi, I came yesterday. Where is the guitar”.
“Oh here it is” the guy says pointing to a guitar that is set up on a guitar mount.
I take a look and what do you know, the guitar has nylon strings. There is a paper bag under the strings. I would learn from the salesman of Shop X that is says “Nylon Strings”.
I ask him “What did you do? These are nylon strings? I asked for metal strings.”
The guy says “Well this is a classical guitar, I can’t put metal strings on it”.
“So what did you do? These strings look the same?”
The guy picks up the paper bag and shows me that it says “Nylon Strings”.
“Ok what did you do with the original nylon strings?”
“I threw them out”.
The guy getting upset. So was I.
“Ok fine, I will just pay what I owe you for the strings and I want to buy a pick. I don’t want the bag anymore”.
“Take a pick” the guy shows me a box of pick for me to take a pick.
“I want the bigger picks”.
“The guys looks at me like he wants to punch me”.
“I want the bigger picks”.
“The guys looks at me like he wants to punch me”.
I take a pick, my guitar and get out.
All the way home I kept thinking that he didn’t change the strings, he only tightened them.
Back home, I am playing with my guitar. (Playing with and not really Playing it). I notice that the first three strings which look like springs seem to be cut differently at the end. It also seems that they have a slightly different color. When I got the guitar they looked golden. These spring strings look more sliver.
I think that if he were to bother to cut strings, he might as well change them. But what I don’t understand is since I explicitly asked him for metal strings and since he could have tightened the old strings, then why would he even bother to change them. Why not tell me “I couldn’t put metal strings and so I tightened them for you, here’s your money”.
Now my conscious felt bad, but I also offered him to pay for the strings. Indeed I already paid 20,000, he wanted another 9,000 which I would have paid hadn’t he refused. And most importantly, I asked for metal strings. He should have told me back then that it wasn’t possible.
Anyway, as I shared this story with a religious person I knew, she told me that if I felt bad maybe I should put 9,000 in the church basket. She also said that I was clearly in the right here. But somehow it all doesn’t feel right.
Update:
So I went to virgin today and I looked again at the black guitar with metal strings. Indeed, it did have metal strings, except when I looked at the top handle of the guitar, its string holders were actually made of metal. This was a different guitar then the model I bought. Yet it was this guitar which was advertised at 44$. This is a new low for virgin: displaying merchandise while selling something else.
