Regulus
21-06-2016, 12:07 PM
Just wanted to share this to show that occasionally a global business knows how to do customer service.
Last October I ordered an Alvarez MD60 guitar only to be told that they were unavailable until the next container came in in January. No problems, I'll wait.
Then in January I saw the products displayed on the businesses web site and promptly ordered one. To be told a week later that, 'sorry, this model is not standard in the line-up anymore and is a special order item with a 3 months delivery schedule'. So I back off and think about which other instrument might do. Obviously my original second choice is looking good.
Two weeks later a phone call to say; "Trev, you'll never guess, but D'Addario (the importer) have found that they have one of the Alvarez MD60's in their Sydney warehouse!' (How does an importer not know what stock they have?) And this was there all the time since my original order in October. So, of course I order it.
Sooo excited the day it arrives. Didn't even wait for the delivery but drove to the depot where it was un-shipped ready to be put on the delivery truck. Keen, isn't even close.
Got it home and un-boxed it, noticing no one since the factory has touched it because it still had the tissue paper wrap on the strings, and I had the privilege of sticking the scratch plate onto the body.
Tuned it, and in the process breaking a string ( a rare occurrence that a new string breaks and it has happened only once in over 40 years). open a new set and replace the high E and carry on tuning.
I sit it in my lap and strum the first chord, and am totally stunned at the overwhelming buzz of the strings on the frets! This is not how it's supposed to go. I look at the neck profile and see it is actually bent backwards. Not a good thing, but not necessarily a calamity. It came with a truss-rod adjusting tool and so I proceeded to bring it forward to a more reasonable angle, and watch as the 'action' (the height of the strings above the fingerboard) gets more and more un-playably high. The buzz is still not entirely eliminated and the Action is way to high.
Absolute disappointment and ready to cry, having waited so long and anticipated so highly. What I do is ring the local luthier (guitar builder/repairer), a man with enormous experience in building, and he asks me to bring it up, which I do immediately.
His diagnoses, after a good look and a few adjustments is: The neck is warped backwards. Not only that but this has popped some of the frets up out of their slots, so even if the neck could be set at a playable angle, the string buzz would still need dealing with by refretting some of the fingerboard. Damn!
I contacted the seller and let them know, and they said, 'If your guy thinks it's fixable, then we'll forego profit and absorb some cost if is the repair price is reasonable.' Wow, I thought. They were prepared to spend up to $400 to get it right. Unfortunately it was just not a practical repair, and so it was shipped back, no expense to me, the day after I received it. Talk about disappointing. And I started to look at buying the second choice instrument.
In the meanwhile I went to the makers Facebook site and told them the story. They came straight back to me expressing surprise, and then the Senior Vice CEO in St Louis, USA, is messaging me asking questions about the experience and wanting the serial number of the guitar. Which I had. He tells me that the Aust. importer has had the guitar for 2 years and that he would contact them about their storage protocols.
Meanwhile, tomorrow, or Thursday, I will receive at no cost to me, the top of the range Alvarez acoustic guitar by way of an apology. Can't stop looking at the DHL tracking site since it left overseas on Thursday evening.
That's customer service!
Trev
Last October I ordered an Alvarez MD60 guitar only to be told that they were unavailable until the next container came in in January. No problems, I'll wait.
Then in January I saw the products displayed on the businesses web site and promptly ordered one. To be told a week later that, 'sorry, this model is not standard in the line-up anymore and is a special order item with a 3 months delivery schedule'. So I back off and think about which other instrument might do. Obviously my original second choice is looking good.
Two weeks later a phone call to say; "Trev, you'll never guess, but D'Addario (the importer) have found that they have one of the Alvarez MD60's in their Sydney warehouse!' (How does an importer not know what stock they have?) And this was there all the time since my original order in October. So, of course I order it.
Sooo excited the day it arrives. Didn't even wait for the delivery but drove to the depot where it was un-shipped ready to be put on the delivery truck. Keen, isn't even close.
Got it home and un-boxed it, noticing no one since the factory has touched it because it still had the tissue paper wrap on the strings, and I had the privilege of sticking the scratch plate onto the body.
Tuned it, and in the process breaking a string ( a rare occurrence that a new string breaks and it has happened only once in over 40 years). open a new set and replace the high E and carry on tuning.
I sit it in my lap and strum the first chord, and am totally stunned at the overwhelming buzz of the strings on the frets! This is not how it's supposed to go. I look at the neck profile and see it is actually bent backwards. Not a good thing, but not necessarily a calamity. It came with a truss-rod adjusting tool and so I proceeded to bring it forward to a more reasonable angle, and watch as the 'action' (the height of the strings above the fingerboard) gets more and more un-playably high. The buzz is still not entirely eliminated and the Action is way to high.
Absolute disappointment and ready to cry, having waited so long and anticipated so highly. What I do is ring the local luthier (guitar builder/repairer), a man with enormous experience in building, and he asks me to bring it up, which I do immediately.
His diagnoses, after a good look and a few adjustments is: The neck is warped backwards. Not only that but this has popped some of the frets up out of their slots, so even if the neck could be set at a playable angle, the string buzz would still need dealing with by refretting some of the fingerboard. Damn!
I contacted the seller and let them know, and they said, 'If your guy thinks it's fixable, then we'll forego profit and absorb some cost if is the repair price is reasonable.' Wow, I thought. They were prepared to spend up to $400 to get it right. Unfortunately it was just not a practical repair, and so it was shipped back, no expense to me, the day after I received it. Talk about disappointing. And I started to look at buying the second choice instrument.
In the meanwhile I went to the makers Facebook site and told them the story. They came straight back to me expressing surprise, and then the Senior Vice CEO in St Louis, USA, is messaging me asking questions about the experience and wanting the serial number of the guitar. Which I had. He tells me that the Aust. importer has had the guitar for 2 years and that he would contact them about their storage protocols.
Meanwhile, tomorrow, or Thursday, I will receive at no cost to me, the top of the range Alvarez acoustic guitar by way of an apology. Can't stop looking at the DHL tracking site since it left overseas on Thursday evening.
That's customer service!
Trev