Buying a harmonica from PMT in Cardiff

It's very interesting and ironic how a music chain called PMT which is a apparently a health condition that only happens to women every month and can cause ALL the problems above that they can do nothing about, won't let me test a musical instrument due to a misguided understanding of health and hygiene and basic selling practices!!

Now it's fair to say I didn't have a good feeling about the store before I even walked in, on the bases that the outside is so run down it looks like it could be a squat or a crack house.  Then when you enter there is more staff than customers in the store and they all just stand there and look at you.  It's like they are shocked they have a customer and they are trying to work out how to make the most money out of you.

So after pointing out the them that under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 you are supposed to be able to buy something that is fit for purpose.  So how could you possibly spend money on a harmonica and not test whether it's fit for purpose and sounds ok for what you want as a consumer?!  They didn't care, in fact the manager seemed to care less than the staff and said you can take it up with the company if you like but it's company policy and that's that.  So the rhetoric they have is that anything you blow has to have those rules and they said "we guarantee it's the same in every store".  I said nope that's not the case, I go into stores all the time and blow harmonica's and all kinds of instruments.  In fact there were 3 separate stores, and I used to do it regularly in Glastonbury.

So there are a few things going on here that just enrage me.

• The stupid order follower staff that are just following policy because it's their job and their job is so important to them and they are protecting a £5.99 harmonica!
• The business owner that thinks he has the right to create a policy that forces customers to buy an instrument without testing it
• The excuse of hygiene, baring in mind anyone can put a finger in their mouth and touch anything else - When I said this to them they said oh we can clean that, I said well you can clean a harmonica, they said no, not without taking it apart so I said you could soak it in something.   There response was, well then it won't be sealed.....that wasn't the argument genius, the argument was whether you could clean it.  At this point they start to just respond with anger and say...that's the rules and it is what it is there is nothing we can do.  I was tempted to just open the packet and say.....ooops you can't sell that now and then just walk out with it but it's probably not worth the ridiculous visit from a policemen if I'm seen busking with it!

So I shouted at them for all being brainwashed order followers without any knowledge whatsoever as to what a virus even is how things work in the world and whether you can even catch anything that way.  Immediately I get more anger......ohhhh where not here for that kind of discussion sir, well what sort of discussion do you expect when you use hygiene as an excuse for not allowing a customer to test a product you morons!  So I basically stood in the doorway with the door open on the high street shouting, "These morons won't let you test a musical instrument before you buy it because of hygiene reasons".  Any consumer who accepts that as terms before spending money frankly deserves everything they get.

When I come across a company like this I sometimes do more research to to uncover quite how dodgy the owners actually are...