Non Existant Customer Service

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Non Existant Customer Service

Postby LarryS » Thu Feb 11, 2010 5:21 pm

Ok, so I have a bit of a rant today.

I teach guitar lessons. I recently had a new student show up with a brand new "entry level" Ibanez electric guitar that his parents purchased from a music store in Saint John. All six strings were literally laying on the neck. The guitar has a Fender style floating bridge. The bridge saddles set flat. The guitar was unplayable. Untuneable actually. His parents said that they paid over $300.00 for it, they also bought a small Line 6 amp. Taking their total bill to well over $600.00.

Shouldn't the store take the time to at least get the strings off the neck? Maybe just do even a half-assed set up on the instrument. Maybe not even worry about intonation. Maybe tune it for them??? This is just a rip off to me. Lazy and borderline dishonest.

Am I over reacting??? :evil:
Is it just me?
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Postby Mathieu Benoit » Thu Feb 11, 2010 5:44 pm

I'm not touching this one... Just in case. ;-)
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Postby macrae11 » Thu Feb 11, 2010 6:17 pm

You are overreacting a little, but not much. The only reason I say this, is that we don't know the condition it left the store in. It's possible that they could have taken it home and leaned it against the wood stove for two days.

The problem with these cheap asian guitars is they're often built in factories with 80%+ humidity. So when you get it in a store where it is humidity controlled somewhere around 40-50%, it's stays relatively together, but as soon as little johnny takes it to his room on the end of the old farm house the whole neck goes down the drain. I've seen necks come back in the store after less than a week and the necks have corkscrewed into unplayability. Not much the store can do about that, but any reputable store will offer a one time set up of all new guitars within about a month of the sale, and also educate customers on the importance of humidity control.

When I was selling guitars I would always do a quick check to make sure it was at least relatively well set up, and tuned it if it was for a beginner. Sometimes the drum guy who doesn't know much about guitars ends up talking to guitar customers on a Saturday morning when it's busy and doesn't realize how close the guitar is to imploding. Unfortunate but possible. Either way tell them to check back at the store for a free setup, and if they won't, just return it and go somewhere else.

All this being said, it could have been a case of gross incompetence or negligence, and everything I've said is irrelevant.
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Postby Malcolm Boyce » Thu Feb 11, 2010 9:31 pm

Drumwaiter wrote:I'm not touching this one... Just in case. ;-)
:lol:
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It just fills Forum pages..." --compasspnt

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Postby Crimson Chameleon » Thu Feb 11, 2010 9:55 pm

I agree with Andrew on this one: we really don't know what state the guitar was in when it left the store.

The parents should take it back and get an employee to set it up properly.
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Postby Greg H. » Fri Feb 12, 2010 12:09 am

When I bought my Fender Strat, one of the springs holding the bridge down was completely off, leaving the bridge at a 60 degree angle off the guitar. Wasn't a hard repair, but still, they said they had never seen anything like it at the store. Someone in the factory must have been getting lazy...
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