Good customer service experiences: Because it does happen

[FrankenFretter]

Perfect Stranger posted something about a good experience with GC the other day, and it got me to thinking; we often hear the bad experiences, but seldom the good ones. I've actually had some good ones, and I wanted to share mine and encourage others to share theirs. If it needs to be said, I have no affiliation with any retail outfits. I just think it's nice to hear positive things about companies you've dealt with.

My most recent experience was with Phil of White Bridge music. I bought a Tele clone from White Bridge a couple weeks ago, and got several emails from Phil about the guitar, and we managed to fit a lot of gear talk into our emails as well. Read my post about the Tele for more details about that part. It doesn't end there, however. I recently posted about my guitar project weekend both here and on the Agile forum. I talked about the tone pot not working on the Tele, which may even be my fault since I was tinkering this weekend, and put a Mallory cap in the Tele. Regardless, Phil read my post and sent me an email today offering to send me two CTS 500K pots, free of charge. This was a total surprise to me, and I'm pretty impressed. I'll let him know that it may have been something I did, but if he still wants to send me those CTS pots, I'll take them. That's pretty darn cool.

I also may have a good customer experience to relate about the Gibson company. After I pretty much reamed them for the new Firebird X, I feel a little guilty, but I emailed them about the straplocks on my Epi Tribute LP falling apart after only a couple months of use. From the response, I think they're sending replacements to me. Not a huge deal, but that's nice to know that they really do honor their warranties. If the straplocks are just exactly the same, I may just throw them in a drawer, though. They're not very well designed.

How about other stories? Anyone? Bueller? Anyone?

[guitarhack]

Good to hear about the good guys, especially these days. Thanks.

[mw13068]

I was driving around Syracuse, NY on Saturday, looking for trouble (actually, touring the music shops). I wanted to find some upgrade pickups for a Squier. After seeing that the one shop that did have pickups only had very expensive ones (Fender noiseless), I gave up hope, but went to visit one more shop.

The guy running that shop said he didn't sell components, but referred me to a shop that did about 15 miles out of town in Manlius, NY. The shop is called "Beat Street Music".

When I got there, I began chatting to one of the guys behind the counter about what I wanted, and he listened and asked "what is your price range?". An excellent question. I told him "about $100", and he lead me over to a case full of used pickup sets.

I walked out with a used strat pickguard loaded with Lace Sensors for about $75. Perfect for my Squier upgrade.

A small, privately owned well-stocked music shop, with helpful staff is a great thing to find!

[Tig]

I'll bring up some online retailers since not too many of you live close to me for the brick and mortar shops.

I had a good eBay Store experience last week when buying a new 20' Mogami 2524 Neutrik Gold instrument cable (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140267697908). Good price ($39), great seller communication, ultra speedie shipping, perfectly packaged. I'll be buying from NY PRO AUDIO CABLES (http://stores.ebay.com/NY-PRO-AUDIO-CABLES) again. Oh, and it sounds really nice!

I've always had great service from the good folks at Eurotubes (http://www.eurotubes.com/) and V-Picks (http://v-picks.com/).

[marnold]

I've gotten personal emails back quite quickly when I've emailed Jet City about a couple of minor things, mainly when GC neglected to give me the manuals.

[Spudman]

The folks at SKB, the case company, are very good to their customers. I had a locking knob for my pop-up mixer case disappear and they sent me 3 more free of charge after I called them.

Next time I called it was to inquire about their case hinges. I had several get real saggy and now will no longer hold the covers in place. They sent me a big bag of new style hinges and pop rivets to replace the old ones with...free of charge. That's pretty cool if you ask me.

[oldguy]

Bob Pletka at Eurotubes. Always great to talk tubes, fast service, all around nice guy.
I actually stumbled across TheFret from a link at Bob's site.:thumbsup

[Eric]

1) Tech 21: I was having some trouble with my Sansamp clipping/getting static and noise at one point, so I emailed them for suggestions.

They wrote back a very conversational email in which they recommended some DeOxit, since it sounded like it might be a bad connection. They warned about using too much of the lubricating kind on the guitar knobs, as it might make them a little too loose. When I emailed back to ask where to get it and which type, they said the Radioshack stuff would probably be fine, and what I could expect to pay.

It was the type of useful input I'm not accustomed to receiving from a company, and input that was very well-received.

2) Seagull: I bought a blem version of an S6 cutaway from some online retailer, and I eventually discovered that a fret was too low, resulting in buzzing when a string was played on the 2nd fret. I contacted the retailer, who told me to take it to a shop. The shop told me to contact Seagull. When I talked to Seagull customer service, the guy said it sounded like people were giving me the runaround and that I should just ship the guitar back to them and let them look at it.

Fast forward a couple of weeks, and I get the guitar back. The strap button I had installed was no longer there, and neither was the hole for it. I brought it in to have a new strap button installed, and yup...they had installed a whole new neck on the guitar. On a b-stock guitar! I don't think I realized at that point how nice that was, but I was still happy.

[syo]

I know I never waste an opportunity to plug Bare Knuckle Pickups so I'll plug them again. The owner, Tim Mills, is incredibly fast on the email and stands behind his work. He responded to my initial email enquiry within an hour while on holiday in France (now I wouldn't do that for my own dear mother). I had one problem pickup which was promptly made right. If you read reviews on BK pups you will see that almost everyone loves them and mentions Tim by name in their review as having been a great help.

As for online retailers I'm a fan of Soundhouse here in Japan. Always amongst the cheapest prices (for Japan anyway) with Amazonlike efficiency. I think they'll even ship abroad. Site in Japanese but they do offer guidelines for doing things in English I believe.
http://www.soundhouse.co.jp/

[NWBasser]

Bob Pletka at Eurotubes. Always great to talk tubes, fast service, all around nice guy.
I actually stumbled across TheFret from a link at Bob's site.:thumbsup

When I ordered my new tubes and bias probe from Bob, he walked me through the entire installation and setup. Awesome guy!:thumbsup

I'll give a shout to Tom Clement, clementbass.com, for offering great advice when I had a very minor issue that I thought was related to my bass. It was the cord, of course. It's always the cord that causes me problems.

Tom's one the coolest people around to talk to and will really go to bat for his customers. He happens to be one of the best bass builders around, IMO.

[Spudman]

Bob Pletka at Eurotubes. Always great to talk tubes, fast service, all around nice guy.


Certainly a great guy to talk to. Last time I called we talked about everything but tubes for at least a half an hour. At the end he reassured me that I'd be happy with my tube choices. He didn't forget his 'customer' after all the 'friendly' talk we did.

[sunvalleylaw]

I have actually dealt with a pretty nice guy over at GC recently. He is not strictly in the guitar dept, but was helping me on my CV layaway. Some guy who is a guitar specialist or whatever horned in a bit, and my help me on a set up if i need it, but the first guy was really great.

[sunvalleylaw]

Oh, and the guy I got my Viking from was really great. Good customer service from an "e" store I found on ebay. I dealt directly and he was great!


EDIT: Oooh, Oooh . . . . Mr. Carterrrrr!!!!!! One more. There is this guy who I have bought two custom pedals from. He is really great. Maybe the best of the 3 I mentioned. I believe he goes by "Duhvoodooman" round these parts. :thumbsup

[oldguy]

Shame on me..........I've only bought one pedal from
Duhvoodooman!!

but the customer service and follow up e-mails and info were awesome!
Highly recommended, (and I need to save up for another pedal....sigh.)

[FrankenFretter]

I can also attest to the good customer experience with DVM, who modded my Tube Screamer for me. Good price and very quick turnaround!

[ZMAN]

I have had a good experiences with RS Guitar Works. I ordered a Vintage upgrade kit from them and had my tech install it in my Classic GT. When I got it back there was a lot of humm and it didn't sound good. I got a hold of RS and one of the owners emailed me back on a Saturday night! I emailed him a picture of the installed pots and he pointed out a problem immediatley. Armed with the email I returned to my shop and showed my tech. When I showed him the email and pictures he was shocked that he had made the mistake. He copped to a total Brain Fart and fixed it on the spot. Great CS from RS for sure.

[deeaa]

Nik from Ceriatone amps was VERY helpful, super quick and efficient in all his emails, though he must have a plethora of stupid questions from prospective buyers all the time. I was very leery of buying something clear accross the world sight unseend and paid for in advance, but he was so good with the communication I went for it, and all went well.

Most any gun-related issue I've contacted manufacturers with, such as RBCS reloading press, has been pretty much no-questions-asked and just like certainly, have a nice day, we'll send some spare parts, free of charge no problem.

All in all, my experience with U.S. companies is they seem to invest way more in customer relations than local people do. Here it's sadly quite often if not just a little sticky, sometimes downright trying to screw the customer, the customer is always wrong-attitude prevails largely.

A good example is the law requires _any_ retailer of a given brand to accept factory-warranty products to ship for repairs, even if the device wasn't bought there, but almost all shops try their best to make this impossible or just plain refuse to do anything unless you have a receipt etc. and from their store. Which is basically illegal, but they don't care.

The last time I had problems with a harddrive that broke under warranty, I found it easier to just deal with WD directly by email and use their warranty services, than to fight the local seller for a replacement drive, as it would have taken at least a week and receipts and all, probably the drive would have just waited there until they would have more stuff to send at the same time...not even a discussion about getting a replacement BEFORE the drive is deemed faulty by the importer or whatever...direct contact with WD USA and they shipped me a new drive instantly from their Germany HQ and I had like a month to send them the faulty one back.

[Tig]

And how could we forget Brookwood Leather?

Bob went above and beyond for me when I bought a custom strap this year. He looked all over for a pair of strap locks to pre-install, so when there were none to be found, he did the prep work to allow easy installation for me when it arrived, and even made a new installation page on his website!
http://brookwoodleather.com/installing_strap_locks (http://brookwoodleather.com/installing_strap_locks)

:thumbsup

[kiteman]

Have I got a good experience today from Mr Roger Linn about my Adrenalinn III box. :dance

It quit working today and I was really sick about it, I luv that box and I wrote to Roger about how I can get it fixed. The box is stuck with the display showing DSP and nothing will work, won't even do factory resetting.

Roger wrote back after a while:

Hi Willy,


Sorry about that. Your 2-year warranty expired in June of this year but you're close enough. Please reply with your current mailing address and we'll send out a set of our current v303 software, which will not only bring it back to life but also protect against this rare "dSP" problem occurring again. In the package will be a request to mail back the older v301 chips you will replace.


- Roger Linn


How cool is that? Great guy. :)

[FrankenFretter]

Update: I just heard from Gibson this morning. They've already got a new set of strap locks in the mail.

Have to also give props to Dennis of addiction-fx on Ebay, who's been really great to deal with when buying pickup magnets.

I may tackle Samsung this weekend. I have a Blu-Ray player that only seems to play the discs it likes, even discs that are fresh out of the box. Very irritating. I'll cross my fingers that they're going to be another good customer service experience.

[otaypanky]

When I come across somebody who is just outstanding in the way they do their job I will quite often contact someone higher up the food chain at their place of work and let them know what a great employee they have working for them.
It only takes a minute to make a phone call or send an email and when some one goes out of the way for me I appreciate the chance to return the favor ~

[FrankenFretter]

I have another one to share; this one is with the Kodak company.

I bought an all-in-one Kodak printer about 10 months ago. About three months ago, I started having problems when I tried to print photos. There were no problems printing anything else, but the photos turned out looking like blobs of ink...really bad. I emailed Kodak, and they sent a new print head. I installed the new head, and tried to print a photo: Same thing. At this point I'm getting a little pissed. I emailed again, and this time I got back a lengthy reply/apology and...wait for it...a request for my shipping info so that they could send me a new printer. Well, it arrived today (about five business days after I sent my info), and it's actually a bigger, better model than the one that it's replacing. I do have to ship the old printer back, but it's on Kodak's dime. That's pretty good customer service, if you ask me. I'm happy I went with Kodak for this printer, and because of this experience, I'll probably continue to buy Kodak products. Just thought I'd share that with everyone.

[Spudman]

Wow! That's awesome.:applause


I have another one to share; this one is with the Kodak company.

I bought an all-in-one Kodak printer about 10 months ago. About three months ago, I started having problems when I tried to print photos. There were no problems printing anything else, but the photos turned out looking like blobs of ink...really bad. I emailed Kodak, and they sent a new print head. I installed the new head, and tried to print a photo: Same thing. At this point I'm getting a little pissed. I emailed again, and this time I got back a lengthy reply/apology and...wait for it...a request for my shipping info so that they could send me a new printer. Well, it arrived today (about five business days after I sent my info), and it's actually a bigger, better model than the one that it's replacing. I do have to ship the old printer back, but it's on Kodak's dime. That's pretty good customer service, if you ask me. I'm happy I went with Kodak for this printer, and because of this experience, I'll probably continue to buy Kodak products. Just thought I'd share that with everyone.

[oldguy]

Very nice story, FF. Timely as well, since we're needing a new printer. You just made the choice easier. Thanks! :rockya

[Kazz]

Frank

The blu-ray issue is probably as simple as your player needing a firmware update. If you have a network capable player you can download the firmware from inside the menu of the player....if not you will have to download it to either a cd, dvd or usb drive and install it. The issue resides when the blu-ray you are trying to play is considerably newer than the blu-ray player itself. Keep in mind Blu-Ray is still evolving technology and they are making it better for us every day.

I love my 2 Blu-Ray players.

[Beerman]

I was tiring of the sound of my Ibanez acoustic and wanted another brand that sounded as good as a Martin but didn't cost my future. I had heard of the Zager Guitar company a few years back and looked at the website and the positive reviews were overwhelming. Certainly this was being overblown.
I emailed a question and got a reply in 15 minutes! Fluke right?
Then I kept searching for other options but kept going back to Zager. I figured if they gave me 30 days to try the guitar and would even pay shipping back, what could I lose? I bought one.
During the 3 days before it shipped I had a few questions and I sent an email on a Sunday night shortly after 9 pm. Bam, got an answer in 20 minutes. Even after the sale the customer service was excellent and of course, I'm loving my Zager guitar.

[FrankenFretter]

Frank

The blu-ray issue is probably as simple as your player needing a firmware update. If you have a network capable player you can download the firmware from inside the menu of the player....if not you will have to download it to either a cd, dvd or usb drive and install it. The issue resides when the blu-ray you are trying to play is considerably newer than the blu-ray player itself. Keep in mind Blu-Ray is still evolving technology and they are making it better for us every day.

I love my 2 Blu-Ray players.

My Blu-Ray is actually connected (hardwired) to my router, and it always tells me when there's a new firmware update available. I've had somewhere around six or seven updates since I bought the player. The last update was a couple days ago, and I haven't had any trouble since then, but that might not mean anything. We'll see. I do keep hoping.

[FrankenFretter]

I was tiring of the sound of my Ibanez acoustic and wanted another brand that sounded as good as a Martin but didn't cost my future. I had heard of the Zager Guitar company a few years back and looked at the website and the positive reviews were overwhelming. Certainly this was being overblown.
I emailed a question and got a reply in 15 minutes! Fluke right?
Then I kept searching for other options but kept going back to Zager. I figured if they gave me 30 days to try the guitar and would even pay shipping back, what could I lose? I bought one.
During the 3 days before it shipped I had a few questions and I sent an email on a Sunday night shortly after 9 pm. Bam, got an answer in 20 minutes. Even after the sale the customer service was excellent and of course, I'm loving my Zager guitar.

Nice. I'll have to check out their site sometime.

[FrankenFretter]

Very nice story, FF. Timely as well, since we're needing a new printer. You just made the choice easier. Thanks! :rockya

Cool! Hope you get one you like!

[FrankenFretter]

I have another one to share; this one is with the Kodak company.

I bought an all-in-one Kodak printer about 10 months ago. About three months ago, I started having problems when I tried to print photos. There were no problems printing anything else, but the photos turned out looking like blobs of ink...really bad. I emailed Kodak, and they sent a new print head. I installed the new head, and tried to print a photo: Same thing. At this point I'm getting a little pissed. I emailed again, and this time I got back a lengthy reply/apology and...wait for it...a request for my shipping info so that they could send me a new printer. Well, it arrived today (about five business days after I sent my info), and it's actually a bigger, better model than the one that it's replacing. I do have to ship the old printer back, but it's on Kodak's dime. That's pretty good customer service, if you ask me. I'm happy I went with Kodak for this printer, and because of this experience, I'll probably continue to buy Kodak products. Just thought I'd share that with everyone.

I can no longer recommend Kodak. The printer that they sent me is doing the same thing the old one was doing, and it doesn't matter which computer I print from. I replaced the print head and the cartridges, and I ran all the maintenance protocols. The problem is still there.

From what I've been reading on the Internet, this is a problem with a lot of Kodak printers, maybe all of them. I think I'm stuck with a lemon. It will still print simple documents, but photos are a bust. You would think a company like Kodak, who's name is associated with photography, would produce a printer that could actually print more than a dozen photos before going TU. Not so much, apparently.

I've once again sent them a sternly worded email, and received the stock "use our online troubleshooter" reply. If I keep pushing, they'll probably send another refurbished printer that will eventually exhibit the same problems. I imagine that I'll have to find another brand of printer and just bite the bullet.

[marnold]

I've had good experience with Best Buy/Insignia. Bought one of their plasma t.v.s last Sept. I have a problem with it restarting itself when accessing certain menu options the first time. Someone from the Geek Squad is going to drive here to replace the one board in it which should fix it. All the people I spoke to were very helpful and clearly not in India. Color me impressed.

[Duffy]

I have owned a kodak photo printer and several hp's. I have a Canon now that I especially like.

[otaypanky]

This past Thanksgiving was the 3 year anniversary of the date I bought an iMac online during their Black Friday sale. I got the 3 year Apple Care plan too.
I had only 1 minor problem in the 3 year period, sometimes the 'puter wouldn't wake up from sleep mode. I had to disconnect the IEC cord, plug it back in, and then hit the power button to get it going. I didn't want to take it just anyplace for repair, I figured taking it to an Apple store was best. But the nearest Apple store is an hour away. I decided since it wasn't critical and I use it everyday for business I would wait until the end of the 3 year period in case something else happened I'd get the whole thing checked out. I called to set up an appt. and they told me my plan had expired. I didn't take in to account that Thanksgiving is a day later each year. I explained to them if I'm only 3 days out consider the fact that the computer was shipped to me after purchase, I didn't have it for a week after buying it online. They said the warranty starts when the unit is paid for. That didn't sit well with me, grrr, and I was persistent in asking to speak with people higher up the food chain at Apple corporate until I finally got to speak with the right person who authorized a warranty repair.
It was an hour's drive to the Apple Store, they checked it and said I had to leave it. An hour's drive home. A week later it's done. Two more hours of driving to pick it up. They had replaced the entire motherboard and a fan. The problem occurred 4 or 5 more times over the next several weeks. They wanted me to bring it back again. I asked what they thought the problem could potentially be since they had replaced the entire motherboard already 'guessing' that would fix it, they didn't really find the reason for the problem. I asked for the head tech to ask what the game plan might be. I explained it's 4 hours of driving and a week without my business computer. Doing it again would be 8 hours drive time, another week off line, and still no guarantee if it was fixed since no one had an answer to why it happens. I told him I thought was an awful lot to expect from a customer so they could replace parts 1 or 2 at a time in the hopes they fixed it.
How many times was I expected to do this???
I guess the driving part convinced him, maybe he hates traffic too, but he decided to authorize a new iMac for me !!! Yikes !!! A brand new machine for my 3 year old one. Nada, N/C, on the house, friggin' freebie all the way. Thank You Apple man, that was awesome

[Spudman]

I guess the driving part convinced him, maybe he hates traffic too, but he decided to authorize a new iMac for me !!! Yikes !!! A brand new machine for my 3 year old one. Nada, N/C, on the house, friggin' freebie all the way. Thank You Apple man, that was awesome

That is super sweet. Congratulations.

[Tig]

I have owned a kodak photo printer and several hp's. I have a Canon now that I especially like.

We've had several color inkjet printers, but the latest one from Canon has been the best, most reliable by far.
I saved almost 30% on ink refills by buying via Amazon. The ink refill place here does a crappy job and the cartridges print results were sloppy.

[deeaa]

I have a HP photo printer/copy machine, but it's been out of ink nearly a year now.
I also have two laser printers and another scanner which I seem to primarily use.

I've been considering buying new inks (it has four reservoirs, black and the three colors) but I dunno if it's worth it any more...those refills cost such a big percentage of a new printer it seems crazy. Lemme see how much actually...

Costs almost 80 euros for all new ink cartridges it seems...new printer costs 129 euros.
80 euros for ~300 pages (or a couple dozen large photos) makes almost 30c per printed page, or something in the range of 2-4 euros per printed photograph just for the ink, not including the paper!

Now, the net is full of printing services that print photographs for as low as 0.9c per picture, and bigger ones at 15c etc...and those are REAL photographs, not printed ones.

After all, no matter how great a printed picture _looks_ - well I can't tell between a shop-made real photo and one from my printer by eye...if you take a magnifying glass to it, or especially if you try to repro-scan it, you notice it is after all way lesser quality.

So, the photos cost half as much ordered than when printed home - and if you wish, you can also edit the photos/make them into cards if you like - you just send them over online and they are delivered to your door in 2 days - they are of way better quality, and there's no hassle...WHY would I ever want to print my own when this is so?

B&W is usually quite good enough for me anyway...and even one of these cheap laser printers is capable of ~4000 pages before the ink runs out...and by then it's usually always cheaper to buy an entire new printer too. The last time I bought a new cartridge, and it's fine, but I won't buy another but a new printer instead. Because you never quite get the quality after a few cartridge changes, there will be some small spots now and then; I can't clean up the system well enough for a new cartridge. And, often it's cheaper to buy a new printer anyway. Although the new ones only have a smaller cartridge for ~2000 pages, it's still at least like a year of use and no worries about dirt and specks on prints.

I've been thinking I should really buy me a color laser, and if I want some vibrant colors on like birthday cards, I can laminate them or something.

But, hardly makes sense to buy inkjet printers or inks for 'em these days it seems to me.

[deeaa]

BTW it just makes me so sad that in the space of the last decade or so I've tossed 3 laser printers, one matrix printer, two scanners, at least 3 inkjet printers into the garbage...loads of landfills only because the manufacturers have made it so much easier and better just to buy new stuff.

Not to mention all the monitors, TV, 3-4 computers and the loads of other appliances I've taken to the dump in the same time...hell it's enough to fill a small room I'm sure.

It should be made illegal to sell anything that lasts only a few years and is cheaper to replace than keep in shape or refill. I would gladly pay 300-400 for a printer I'd know would for sure last me at least a decade and refills would be just a few dollars, instead of nearly the price of a new machine....

[sunvalleylaw]

Story of two printers. Well, two types of printers.

I have at my office a HP 5mp laser printer that I still use every work day and have since purchase in December of '95. They still sell the cartridges for it, and it prints just fine. A little slow on PDF's as compared to the new Brother my paralegal has, but still. The Brother has been good over the first two years too. OTOH, our inkjets at home have been an endless stream of garbage printers that use a ton of ink, jam up regularly, and in the end fail. We have a HP L7590 right now that jams too much, uses too much ink, etc. When it dies, I am seriously thinking about getting a laser printer for home too. I would probably go black and white, and just keep a color inkjet for if we really need to print color.


Good Customer Service story: When I purchased my tele at GC Boise the other day, the workers were all quite good and helpful. The manager ended up handing the transaction, and tipped me to a used molded hard shell case for $10. It was a good shopping experience. Not the same as the old independent Boise store that folded last year, but still a good customer service experience. :AOK

[Eric]

Good Customer Service story: When I purchased my tele at GC Boise the other day, the workers were all quite good and helpful. The manager ended up handing the transaction, and tipped me to a used molded hard shell case for $10. It was a good shopping experience. Not the same as the old independent Boise store that folded last year, but still a good customer service experience. :AOK
I can relate. My last couple of GC purchases have been really good. I found one around here that I like, and the people are very nice and reasonably competent. There's still usually some idiot drummer who never knows anything and is working the counter, but I have to say I've been pretty surprised at the level of service otherwise.