This is Customer Service

MIKA-the-better-one

So I recently bougth a great new Dr Z Amplifier here in USA. a week ago I was just playing in my room with it and pop.... fizz... crackle...... Power tubes go, taking the rectifier, and the fuse ☹
So I email The Dr himself ... Mr Z.... of Dr Z ...... And he immediatly organises to send me a whole new set of Tubes, and Fuses...

Popped them in today and all is good again.

But the spped in which he amiled back and then UPS 'd my tubes to me is amazing.

Thanks
DR Z

MikeM

Man, I have even experienced service like this from some folks. The difference between the standards in service between up there and down here is shocking.

AlanRatcliffe

It happens here too. When I ran into an intermittent problem with the reverb on my Proel desk recently, Bothners swapped it out with a new one, even though it was already five months old and their workshop could not replicate the problem.

Things like that are why I harp on about backup being important for any gear being used professionally.

Norman86

Would it have been the same though had you been a member of joe public??

My first guitar cable i bought was a fender one, that kept cutting out.
i take it back to the shop, they cant replicate, they say its my fault and my gear that its happening...
get back home, same thing.
they tell me to being all my gear in to test.
Problem happens again, and they try with different amps. problem persists...
after 3 days and an hour or two of being in store, they swop the cable and admit the cable it the problem, not the guitar nor the amp.
helps to be persistent of course, but it was a mission to get the damn thing swopped.

IceCreamMan

i generally get excellent service from music stores in ZA. only thing is it is generally up to you the consumer that has to go back to the store t oswop something .....stores should come to you i reckon as they sold you something faulty in the first place...customer service has a way to go in ZA but the level of service you expereince by a store is generaly a factor of yourself.

Max

After about 6 months of my guitar purchase from Music Connection the Bridge pickup was giving me hassles.I took it back to them and they sorted it out and the service was excellent.

Bob-Dubery

IceCreamMan wrote: i generally get excellent service from music stores in ZA. only thing is it is generally up to you the consumer that has to go back to the store t oswop something .....stores should come to you i reckon as they sold you something faulty in the first place...

You have to presume that they did not knowingly sell you a dud.

If stores had to collect from the customer in case a repair is necessary they'd have to add some factor or other to the purchase price of every item - you pay for the collect even if you don't use it.

In some cases you have an option to buy extra cover such that the vendor will collect from you or send a technician out.

The status quo is, in this case, better.

Reinhard

I received a faulty speaker from Weber in the US. They sent me a replacement free of charge, awesome service from them in the past as well. The biggest hassle was convincing customs that it was a warranty replacement.
My Okko diablo died on me so I had to ship it to Germany, but it was repaired and shipped back to me free of charge.

IceCreamMan

X-rated Bob wrote:
IceCreamMan wrote: i generally get excellent service from music stores in ZA. only thing is it is generally up to you the consumer that has to go back to the store t oswop something .....stores should come to you i reckon as they sold you something faulty in the first place...
You have to presume that they did not knowingly sell you a dud.

If stores had to collect from the customer in case a repair is necessary they'd have to add some factor or other to the purchase price of every item - you pay for the collect even if you don't use it.

In some cases you have an option to buy extra cover such that the vendor will collect from you or send a technician out.

The status quo is, in this case, better.

Maybe so ,somewhere along the line i guess someone needs to pay and its always us the final consumer of the product i suppose. The store itself could get the costs back from supplier though. I have taken my time , my petrol and my effort to go to the store to buy their wares. If proven to be faulty they should at the very least be the ones held culpable for my time etc. This is how i view it. my time is my most important resource ,i dont want to have to waste it going back to a store that sold me a dud in the first place. make sense?

we have a way to go in that regard though. Maybe Walmart will instill this kinda metnality into ZA.....unlikely eh eish

AlanRatcliffe

Norman86 wrote: Would it have been the same though had you been a member of joe public??

To some degree it probably was because they know me - because they know that I do have a history of knowing a little wherof I speak and because I have been a customer of theirs for 20-odd years. So yes, they are more likely to give me the benefit of the doubt when I say there is something wrong but they can't find it immediately. All comes back to that building a relationship with a store thing.

It was also likely that it had something to do with the fact that I hinted that if I drove another four hours to pick it up again and the same thing happened at my next gig then not only would I return it, but I would hand deliver it to where the sun don't shine and ask for my money back on the whole PA (I hire out my PA and services too, so it's embarrassing when something breaks down). ? This consumer protection act thing is a good thing in that respect.

Bob-Dubery

IceCreamMan wrote: Maybe so ,somewhere along the line i guess someone needs to pay and its always us the final consumer of the product i suppose. The store itself could get the costs back from supplier though. I have taken my time , my petrol and my effort to go to the store to buy their wares. If proven to be faulty they should at the very least be the ones held culpable for my time etc. This is how i view it. my time is my most important resource ,i dont want to have to waste it going back to a store that sold me a dud in the first place. make sense?

we have a way to go in that regard though. Maybe Walmart will instill this kinda metnality into ZA.....unlikely eh eish

Maybe. But do they do that in the USA or the UK or wherever? I notice with the guitars and gear that you buy online there is a guarantee but you have to get the item back to them in case of a guarantee claim - even if you're in the same town as the vendor.

It's quite a common practice I think - for musical instruments anyway.

Again there is no one way of doing business. I know where I work we get a 3 year guarantee on lap top and desk top computers but they will only send a tech out during the first 12 months (and the tech will not recover any lost data), thereafter it's "carry in" with the buyer doing the carrying.

I've been on both sides of the fence. I've worked on a bench fixing stuff for companies that sell consumer electronic goods. It is not the case that every repair made in the guarantee period is covered by guarantee. I've opened many watches and calculators and found clear evidence of tampering or immersion in water or the sticky remains of a can of coke. I've fixed many a Casiotone where the problem was that the customer didn't want to buy the Casio psu because it was too expensive and bought a no-name brand item instead and promptly blew up his new toy.

For some types of items, things like cash registers that were used for business, I would go to the customer but the moment it became clear that the repair was not covered by guarantee I'd inform the customer and say that if he didn't have an account with us it was going to be cash and I estimate it was going to be this much and I'd like that before I do any more. Failing that he can take it into the workshop himself.

I had one customer call me out three times in 2 months to complain that his cash register wasn't adding up correctly when he ran the cash up process at the end of the day. It checked out fine. On the 2nd visit it still looked good but we replaced the unit to keep him happy. On the third the replacement checked out fine again and I told him that I could not replace a 2nd time on the basis of the evidence before me. He told me I could take that cash register and every other cash register that Casio had ever produced and stick them all where the sun don't shine. We didn't hear from him for 6 months or so. He had a very good looking book keeper by the name of Barbera. On that next visit I noticed that Barbera wasn't there. I asked what happened. They caught her ripping the company off. She'd been doing it for months and blaming the out of balance books on the cash register.

Years later I was working in IT. I got a call from a customer who said that our General Ledger system had a bug in it and thus his accountant couldn't balance the books. I asked him about the amount that they were out by. I can't remember the amount but I remember it was a multiple of 9. When you get that (multiple of 9) the first thing to look for is transposition of 2 adjacent digits (EG you capture 123.45 as 132.45 or 124.35 etc). They got all offended and said they knew exactly what they were doing and they'd paid good money for bad software. My boss struck a deal with them - he'd send me out to do the recon by hand, but if it was the problem we'd told them to look for they would pay for my time. I drove out there and checked printed invoices against their data capturing. After 5 hours I found one invoice where, as predicted, they had transposed 2 adjacent digits when capturing. They got an invoice for my time and travel.

I think in most cases the business does want to keep the customer happy and their own name good, but they can't afford to do so at any price.

Ray

I've had good service I think for the most part. There are things that grill me though but service wise I dunno - it's bee OK. I think we have a different market here. In USA or UK I think they sell a lot more of the stuff than the distributors and dealkers do here. So when something goes wrong they are so much closer to the manufacturer and so nuch more lkeverage due to the order volume that everything is not such a sweat. As much as we tjank about what things are costing us here from the retailers, I dont think that they have the luxury of sending out a van to collect and replace. That could just translate to a big $ loss. And then to return to the manufacturer and wait and wait until such evaluates the situation might hurt some. I dont know really it;s just the way I think about it with music retailers and places that sell specialist stuff like imported tools and stuff. So I usually say yes I want some ser4vice please within what could be described as acceptable but for goodnes sake, I'm not so special.

You know I dont know a lot about equipment but I've was in a store once when there were a bunch of young guys really bleating about a multi effect jobby that was faulty and there was this oke standing there looking at the item and I looked at it and it was like bruised hey. And I could see this guy didnt know what to do and he was trying to find a way out but these snotnoses were all around him and waving arms and actually shouting. So I stepped up and asked them if they bought the thing all fucked like it was so they just looked at me like I crawled out of the cheese. But they fo'd anyway - I think because I'm big and strong and they could see it. I really dont think it was anyone from here but I wonder on which forum they're shitting themselves.

singemonkey

Cool stuff MIKA. Big endorsement for the Doc.

But just bear in mind folks. It would be unwise to infer from MIKA's single experience with one situation and one manufacturer to the entire retail and manufacturing culture of the United States of America - the largest economy in the entire world.

Anyone not see how that would be a problem? ?

Wizard

I have to say that I've had stunning service & backup from Bothners Plumstead.
And I'm not an Alan.

domhatch

well, shucks. i generally have a great experience with andy's, and i do not - repeat, not - purchase anything every time i go in there. i know they're not everyone's cup of tea, but it goes back to what alan was saying about relationships. i've bought a lot of gear from them, and they know they'll probably sell me more stuff in the future, so i guess the relationship street goes two ways.

dh