What do you think about this? I am living in Ireland and there is company in Germany http://www.thomann.de/ that sell what I need for the price I like (it is significantly cheaper than the same thing from local dealer)...they even deliver for free. Everything sounds fine, but I am a little bit worried about warranty, repairs and things like that ( hope it will never happen, but..) They do promise a lot, but without any experience with ordering bulky technical stuff online from abroad, I do not know what to do- it may be difficult to solve such problems when you are not dealing with people personally -face to face.
Does anyone here have experience either with ordering piano online from this company? Or any company?
Thanks.

i ordered mine online (instrumentpro.com) and didn't have any problem with it. the piano was well packed in a huge box and had to be unpacked before i could put it into my car (since i had to pick it up at a UPS station).

usually a new DP/keyboard shipped directly from an online dealer wouldn't have any problem, except the used one which sometimes might not be packed well to avoid damage.

I recently asked Thomann about their 3 year Warranty and how it worked here's the text from the e-mail they sent back.

["Yes, the digitalpianos have warranty for three years.
If anything is faulty, we decide, if we have to arrange a pickup or send a technician or if we change the instrument.
If we can`t repair it in the UK, it has to be sent back to Germany. The customers won`t have to pay any delivery-charges !
Sometimes you would have to pay the technician first, but we will refund (transfer it back)it back, definitely."]

Sounds OK to me.

I'm from Ireland also, Omagh!
Recently I went to Glasgow to look at the latest digital pianos the manufacturers had to offer. Having spent all week touring the shops and trying out all the pianos I settled for the Roland FP-7 stage piano. However, none of the shops I visited could give me a decent offer. When I came home I managed to track down the Roland FP-7 which was retailing at £1200 and now selling for £799 on the internet, postage free. The box will be sent to me by an insured carrier. There is a 3 year warranty on all Roland stuff. If I were to buy the same piano locally it would cost me £1000 and our local music shop would be taking delivery of it anyway, so I've no worries that way. Good luck with your choice.

Read their return policy carefully, and as soon as you receive the piano, be sure to play every key and test the features to make sure they're working.

Repairs under warranty are typically covered by the manufacturer, and not by the retailer. Find out if there is an authorised repair shop local to you. (You could try ringing the manufacturer and asking).

I'm living in the States, and I found that local dealers where I live (for Kawai) deliver their stage pianos the same way online shops do. They only keep a demo model in stock, and they really offer nothing over what the online shops do.

For that reason, I bought my MP5 online and saved hundreds of dollars.

Just a thought. If you are shopping on-line in the UK beware merchants who put charges for returning defective pianos in the fine print on their warranty information pages, typically £9-99. Also watch the telephone numbers with 0870 or 0871 prefixes, they are usually very expensive to call.

In the UK the retailer is legally responsible for the warranty not the manufacturer. Also, all goods sold here should be "Fit for the purpose", to me that means a DP should be trouble free for at least two years if it isn't I'd expect a new DP or a refund, I may have to go to Trading Standards, or County Court, to get that implemented though.

Another thing to consider is eventually the DP will be outside of all Warranties and you will be responsible for getting it repaired...where and by whom?

Do not assume a manufacturer will honour warranty if dp is not bought from an authorised dealer. Also, some manufacturers do not honour warranty if item is bought from dealer in another country [even within EU]. They do this to enforce differential pricing policy. My experience : bought Kawai CA91 from Cherubini in Italy which developed noisy keys. Kawai UK refused warranty because imported from Italy. DP is being fixed by Cherubini, using UK tech. All materials for fix had to come from Italy because Kawai UK refused to supply, despite all EU Kawai dealers controlled from Kawai Germany! So be warned. Warranty support depends on the integrity of the supplying dealer. Only buy on-line, or across borders if you are sure of the supplier.
I can recommend Cherubini. I saved 30% off UK price, including delivery, and when a fault appeared they honoured their warranty.

Useful information: Within EU warranty is covered by Directive 1999/44/EC. Article 5 lays down 2 years as the minimum warranty period. [I don't know how you would enforce it in practice though!]

I'm presently drawing up a short list of DP's in advance of upgrading, perhaps the above is good enough reason to cross Kawai of my list. Although, I wonder if this policy applies equally to other manufacturers....Yamaha, Casio, Roland?

Thank you all for your help.
I decided to buy online, after all, it is 400e difference and hopefully everything will be fine.
I'll keep you updated.

Maja

Redcoat : I suggest you get a particular manufacturer's warranty policy re on-line and cross-border supplies BEFORE you buy. It might save you from a nasty surprise.
My previous observation that the dealer's integrity is the most important still stands, since it's the dealer who is responsible for warranty.

Not a bad idea - recently I noticed on Rolands website that they were warning on-line customers to check that the internet dealer they are buying from are in fact a recognised ROLAND authorised dealer. They would not stand over shops on line offerring equipment if they were not a Roland dealer.