Mr. Moon
Force of Naked
Hi. Here is a manifesto of my latest (and most likely last) attempt at a purchase from Musician's Friend. I have posted this in a couple of places online, so don't be surprised if it pops up somewhere else. I'm just hoping that someone else can avoid some of the difficulties I have run into to save time and money.
I pride myself on reading and following purchase agreements and have issues with folks who "test" guitars and other gear from online merchants, only to return them on the last day, and having no intention on keeping the items anyways. Sure there are times when you decide that something won't work, but then there are those folks who habitually misuse the return policies. Anyways, I'm not one of those folks, but I have received these returned items (guitars usually) when I have purchased "new" instruments, from Musician's Friend and other online dealers. While this does aggravate me, it has allowed me to get some great deals over the years when the support folks cut hundreds of dollars off the costs on future purchases in addition to sending me out another new item.
People ask: Why would you buy an expensive guitar online anyways, even with all these troubles?
Some of us, including myself, who live in certain areas (even larger metro areas like me) cannot always find high-end guitars locally to try out that are in decent shape ...or you have to "buy" the guitar before they'll ship it in, which is no different than buying online, except that you're more committed to the purchase and the return terms are sometimes pretty crappy.
Anyways, in the last 3 months or so I have bought 4 guitars from Musician's Fiend (yes, I know how clever that is!) and I've had to return three (3) of them due to *DEFECTS* and one (1) of them due to the fact that the case it shipped in was trashed. Musician's Fiend (MF) was really good about each and every return, mostly because I read and followed the terms of their purchase & returns agreement. Here's how the returns went:
Guitar #1 was an Epiphone G-400 with EMG's that had been shipped to me in the case (at my request), and the case had been damaged in shipping. Not to mention that the guitar itself was pretty cheap and sounded really "thin" and it just didn't work for me. MF was cool about this one!
Guitar #2 was an Epiphone prophecy which had a manufacturer's defect: the holes for the tailpiece anchors were routed too large in the factory, so the tailpiece would pull out whenever you tried to tune the guitar to standard pitch. A local Gibson-Authorized repair shop suggested that I return it, as a new guitar should not have that issue. MF was cool about this one too. They offered a price break on my next purchase.
Guitar #3 was a Les Paul Traditional. Read about it here:
http://www.lespaulforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=149348
MF was cool about this one, and offered me another price break for...
Guitar #4 was another LP Traditional. Read about it here:
http://www.lespaulforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=149563
After that, I was bummed. I ended up purchasing a Gibson Les Paul Historic '59 Reissue from Centre City Music in San Diego. They had full pictures of Les Paul's for me to choose from, and looked over the guitar for me while I was on the phone with them, and I ended up with the guitar of my dreams!!
Read about it here: http://www.lespaulforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=149753
OK so you think this is a *pro* MF post, right? Actually it is NOT!!
MF blatantly repeated to me that Gibson does not allow them to examine any of their guitars purchased from them to try to minimize piracy and such. I was convinced that MF was being square with me, especially when the MF rep I was dealing with said that he was going to have the guys in the warehouse open the box and examine the last LP regardless of Gibson's policy. I thought that was pretty great customer service, to say the least.
Well, then the strangest thing happened. Gibson USA contacted me after I emailed them about the problems I had with the defective Les Pauls. Long story short: I spoke with their QC people at length, and they told me that MF was misrepresenting the deal that Gibson has with their dealers. I won't go into specifics, but basically MF and all other Gibson dealers are *not* forced to keep the guitars sealed in the factory boxes, actually quite the opposite.
So, MF "adjusted & modified" the truth and sold me guitars that they never ever examined before selling them to me, even when they said the would. If they had, they would have noticed the defects and flaws on these instruments immediately and returned them to Gibson, and I would have received a quality instrument.
Anyways, because of this whole mess, the MF phone rep said that he credited me 50 bucks in-house credit for anything at MF purchased over the phone. I called them earlier today, and there has been *no* in-house credit applied to my account, of course.
And Gibson stood behind their product and did what they could to arrange it for me to hand pick a Traditional, since Musician's Fiend was unable to do so. So, I now have the Traditional that I was after too!!
Read about (and see pics of it) it here:
http://www.lespaulforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=150347
So, it all worked out well enough, I guess...
Well, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it, because I got no reason to lie (yeah)...
-mr moon
I pride myself on reading and following purchase agreements and have issues with folks who "test" guitars and other gear from online merchants, only to return them on the last day, and having no intention on keeping the items anyways. Sure there are times when you decide that something won't work, but then there are those folks who habitually misuse the return policies. Anyways, I'm not one of those folks, but I have received these returned items (guitars usually) when I have purchased "new" instruments, from Musician's Friend and other online dealers. While this does aggravate me, it has allowed me to get some great deals over the years when the support folks cut hundreds of dollars off the costs on future purchases in addition to sending me out another new item.
People ask: Why would you buy an expensive guitar online anyways, even with all these troubles?
Some of us, including myself, who live in certain areas (even larger metro areas like me) cannot always find high-end guitars locally to try out that are in decent shape ...or you have to "buy" the guitar before they'll ship it in, which is no different than buying online, except that you're more committed to the purchase and the return terms are sometimes pretty crappy.
Anyways, in the last 3 months or so I have bought 4 guitars from Musician's Fiend (yes, I know how clever that is!) and I've had to return three (3) of them due to *DEFECTS* and one (1) of them due to the fact that the case it shipped in was trashed. Musician's Fiend (MF) was really good about each and every return, mostly because I read and followed the terms of their purchase & returns agreement. Here's how the returns went:
Guitar #1 was an Epiphone G-400 with EMG's that had been shipped to me in the case (at my request), and the case had been damaged in shipping. Not to mention that the guitar itself was pretty cheap and sounded really "thin" and it just didn't work for me. MF was cool about this one!
Guitar #2 was an Epiphone prophecy which had a manufacturer's defect: the holes for the tailpiece anchors were routed too large in the factory, so the tailpiece would pull out whenever you tried to tune the guitar to standard pitch. A local Gibson-Authorized repair shop suggested that I return it, as a new guitar should not have that issue. MF was cool about this one too. They offered a price break on my next purchase.
Guitar #3 was a Les Paul Traditional. Read about it here:
http://www.lespaulforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=149348
MF was cool about this one, and offered me another price break for...
Guitar #4 was another LP Traditional. Read about it here:
http://www.lespaulforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=149563
After that, I was bummed. I ended up purchasing a Gibson Les Paul Historic '59 Reissue from Centre City Music in San Diego. They had full pictures of Les Paul's for me to choose from, and looked over the guitar for me while I was on the phone with them, and I ended up with the guitar of my dreams!!
Read about it here: http://www.lespaulforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=149753
OK so you think this is a *pro* MF post, right? Actually it is NOT!!
MF blatantly repeated to me that Gibson does not allow them to examine any of their guitars purchased from them to try to minimize piracy and such. I was convinced that MF was being square with me, especially when the MF rep I was dealing with said that he was going to have the guys in the warehouse open the box and examine the last LP regardless of Gibson's policy. I thought that was pretty great customer service, to say the least.
Well, then the strangest thing happened. Gibson USA contacted me after I emailed them about the problems I had with the defective Les Pauls. Long story short: I spoke with their QC people at length, and they told me that MF was misrepresenting the deal that Gibson has with their dealers. I won't go into specifics, but basically MF and all other Gibson dealers are *not* forced to keep the guitars sealed in the factory boxes, actually quite the opposite.
So, MF "adjusted & modified" the truth and sold me guitars that they never ever examined before selling them to me, even when they said the would. If they had, they would have noticed the defects and flaws on these instruments immediately and returned them to Gibson, and I would have received a quality instrument.
Anyways, because of this whole mess, the MF phone rep said that he credited me 50 bucks in-house credit for anything at MF purchased over the phone. I called them earlier today, and there has been *no* in-house credit applied to my account, of course.
And Gibson stood behind their product and did what they could to arrange it for me to hand pick a Traditional, since Musician's Fiend was unable to do so. So, I now have the Traditional that I was after too!!
Read about (and see pics of it) it here:
http://www.lespaulforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=150347
So, it all worked out well enough, I guess...
Well, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it, because I got no reason to lie (yeah)...
-mr moon