Got my guitar back but.. I got a Vigier in the end too!

[CJ]

in all honesty... i can't believe how many of you would be going crazy about something like this. personally i'd feel like i hit the lottery. you're getting your guitar back, functioning fine, plus a free guitar? so yeah, unfortunately your guitar has a hole in the back now, but unless you're planning on selling it, is it that big of a deal? i guess a lot of you are more concerned with your instruments value than its playability... but then again, i didn't see the guitar. maybe it was a really nice guitar with a great finish.

anyway, i'm just saying... a lot of places might of just repaired the hole/crack and said sorry. they're doing that as well as giving you a free guitar. and a nice one at that.

[Philly Q]

in all honesty... i can't believe how many of you would be going crazy about something like this. personally i'd feel like i hit the lottery. you're getting your guitar back, functioning fine, plus a free guitar? so yeah, unfortunately your guitar has a hole in the back now, but unless you're planning on selling it, is it that big of a deal? i guess a lot of you are more concerned with your instruments value than its playability... but then again, i didn't see the guitar. maybe it was a really nice guitar with a great finish.

So you're saying you don't mind taking your guitars to a "professional" who may do a bad job, and it's OK for them to do a bad job, so long as they give you some kind of freebie to make up for it?  It's just giving them a licence to be incompetent.

You take your car to be serviced, and it comes back with a big dent in the door and scratches all over the paintwork.  That's OK, it still functions fine and they've thrown in some seat covers and a spare wheel they've had sitting in their stock room for 5 years.  Everybody's happy?

[Twinfan]

I'm with you, Phil!

[AndyR]

I'm not sure that's what CJ's saying Philly?

F@ck-ups happen, we all know they do, and from what I've read so far, these guys are owning up, taking responsibility, and making an offer of restitution. And a somewhat better offer than many organisations we all come across would make (as I understand it so far - they'll fix it to the best of their ability, they won't charge, and, er, here's a free guitar as well...)

I don't think anyone's suggesting a licence to be incompetent here - they'll know what a mess they've made - and the erk that did it is either going to learn from his mistake, or they'll get rid of him if he keeps f@cking up (hopefully they've spoken to him in a fashion that encourages him to take responsibility).

[Dmoney]

yo if i took my les paul custom to a place i thought was reputable and then someone did something as dumb as put a screw through the back of my guitar id be heartbroken and id want another les paul custom.

if i sent an amp to a dealer for repair and they lost parts, put in bad tubes, biased it dangerously and so on, i'd want another amp because the work carried out can't be trusted. (if it was in warranty)

it's not about resale, its the fact that some doofus just made a hole right through your favourite guitar. caring about the condition of your guitar is different to caring about resale value. I dropped my guitar off my strap (dunno how as i use straplocks) last time we played, and my stomach clenched up. i wasnt thinking "oh no! the resale value of my guitar just went down!" i was thinking "oh my god thats my favourite guitar and i don't want a huge chunk taking out of it"

as it happened, the pup selector plastic bit broke off and that was it.

id also be reluctant to let THEM repair it. if needs must they should pay to have it fully set right, not just some wood filler in the hole and and polish and away you go.

[Philly Q]

I'm not sure that's what CJ's saying Philly?

F@ck-ups happen, we all know they do, and from what I've read so far, these guys are owning up, taking responsibility, and making an offer of restitution. And a somewhat better offer than many organisations we all come across would make (as I understand it so far - they'll fix it to the best of their ability, they won't charge, and, er, here's a free guitar as well...)

I don't think anyone's suggesting a licence to be incompetent here - they'll know what a mess they've made - and the erk that did it is either going to learn from his mistake, or they'll get rid of him if he keeps f@cking up (hopefully they've spoken to him in a fashion that encourages him to take responsibility).

Yeah, yeah, kind of.  I suppose my reply to CJ's comment comes across as "Outraged of Tunbridge Wells" when I was mostly just having a sarcastic dig.   Lowest form of wit.  Sorry.

But coming back to Jonny's case, they haven't really done all they could.  They have owned up - eventually, after seemingly using "wiring problems" as an excuse for a week or so.  And they've offered to repair the cracks - but NOT do a respray. 

The free guitar is a nice gesture, but it's probably one they haven't been able to sell so not really a big deal to them.  If it was me, I wouldn't want the guitar and even if they offered an equivalent discount against something else, I'd still end up having to spend £500 (or whatever) I hadn't planned on spending.  

CJ suggested we're more concerned with our instruments' value than playability - I shouldn't think anyone here gives a sh!t about resale value.  We just don't expect a guitar to come back from the repair shop with problems it didn't have when it went in.

The thing that really bothers me is the trust aspect.  I do most work on my own guitars.  I'd only go to a pro if I wanted something done that I'd be afraid to tackle myself - a refret maybe.  I'd want to feel confident they'd do a better job than I could myself.  I wouldn't expect them to say "the refret's fine, but we ripped some chunks out of the fretboard.  It's OK, you can hardly see the Ronseal wood filler, we got a colour that almost matches."  Of course mistakes can happen, but it's not unreasonable to expect someone to take care to avoid them.  Measure twice, cut once and all that.

[Ian Price]

I agree with Philly on this one. The thing that would have annoyed me most (apart from the mess up on the guitar) is that they had already pretty much decided on what a suitable level of compensation would be - or so it seems. They were obviously aware that they had completely screwed up but could have handled it so much better.

[Afghan Dave]

The free guitar is a nice gesture, but it's probably one they haven't been able to sell so not really a big deal to them.  If it was me, I wouldn't want the guitar and even if they offered an equivalent discount against something else, I'd still end up having to spend £500 (or whatever) I hadn't planned on spending.  

CJ suggested we're more concerned with our instruments' value than playability - I shouldn't think anyone here gives a sh!t about resale value.  We just don't expect a guitar to come back from the repair shop with problems it didn't have when it went in.

The thing that really bothers me is the trust aspect.  I do most work on my own guitars.  I'd only go to a pro if I wanted something done that I'd be afraid to tackle myself - a refret maybe.  I'd want to feel confident they'd do a better job than I could myself.  I wouldn't expect them to say "the refret's fine, but we ripped some chunks out of the fretboard.  It's OK, you can hardly see the Ronseal wood filler, we got a colour that almost matches."  Of course mistakes can happen, but it's not unreasonable to expect someone to take care to avoid them.  Measure twice, cut once and all that.

Thanks Philly - I couldn't have said it better myself:

The Cort probably represents close to zero value for them & Johnny didn't want it or need it in the first place.

[FELINEGUITARS]

Actually that Cort isn't that cheap - there's one in the shop down the road from me

I think the shop are trying hard to make amends - let's not knock them too much!

Johnny needs to sort out with them the best course of action
Us pulling the whole thing apart online over and over isn't helping anyone
It's only raising Johnny's blood pressure and casting aspersions on the shop who from what I can tell are trying to put things right.

Maybe we ought to give both parties a chance to sort it out themselves....

[Afghan Dave]

Actually that Cort isn't that cheap - there's one in the shop down the road from me

I think the shop are trying hard to make amends - let's not knock them too much!

Johnny needs to sort out with them the best course of action
Us pulling the whole thing apart online over and over isn't helping anyone
It's only raising Johnny's blood pressure and casting aspersions on the shop who from what I can tell are trying to put things right.

Maybe we ought to give both parties a chance to sort it out themselves....

Come on Jon. Lets not get distracted & become adult and reasonable....

I sense me a lynching be a comin' ....

BURN THE WITCH!!! Persecute the heretic...  YARRRRRRRR PDT_029 PDT_029 PDT_038 PDT_042

[Lew]

I find the 'don't be hard on them' attitude perplexing to say the least. Sure there's no need to 'ruin' them on the net - but this thread isn't doing that, if we can't discuss this sort of thing here then there's really very little point in the forum.

Unless I've got my wires crossed Blue already said that they $%&#ed the fretboard on his 75 paul and told him to $%&# off at an earlier point? So we have it first hand it's not the first time something like this has happened.

CJ - It's great that you have such a utilitarian approach to your instruments but have a think about the poor sod that one day takes his 59 lester in.

At the end of the day if you don't have a qualified tech in the shop then you shouldn't offer the service - I remember when I worked at the guitar dept. at Duck Son and Pinker when I was a weeee lad and they would get frustrated with me because I turned away work I wasn't equipped to do, people would come in wanting fret levels - truss rods tweaked all things that they could easily do them selves but felt peace of mind paying for someone else to do it properly.

My local World Guitars refused to tech work untill very recently because they didn't have access to anyone of a high enough standard - even though Jeff there is very experienced in setups and clearly knows what he's doing he wanted someone that was excellent. They've found someone now - the guy that's done all my work over the last 3 years in-fact and his work is superb. Kudos to them for turning away business until they could do it properly.

[Jonny]

Hey guys, just an update on the whole situation.

I went in, calmly said I didn't want the guitar and edged myself towards the Vigiers. They first said it'd be difficult to get any money off it so I remained persistent. In the end they took off money, I tried both a floating trem one and a hardtail one and the sake that I didn't want to lose anymore hairs over a floating trem I got the hardtail one. And they'e reserved it so I can come back in (after it's got a simple re-string [don't want them to trying re-wiring stuff on it yet!])

So yeah.

I got a Vigier.

[_tom_]

haha nice one. Of course, "pics or it didnt happen" applies (when you get it home that is)

[Jonny]

Here's a few things I know of the guitar:

It's green, sort of textured green.
H-S-H, DiMarzios (wow!)
Rosewood/maple neck
Hardtail

That, or either the textured black, Vigier pickups, maple/maple neck, Vigier floating tremolo (which was more expensive)

I liked the colour and the neck but I was iffy on the pickups and the tremolo so I went for the hardtail one.

[Lew]

Good for you Johnny! Vigier don't make their own pups though, the black one is probably an Indus with Dimarzios. Sounds like you got yourself an urban green Supra? http://www.vigierguitars.com/page/fiche_produit.php?id_prod=219 It'll be a big step up from your Ibanez  8)

Best thing with the Vigier is you wont have to take it into the shop for trussrod adjustments  :lol: :lol: