How Important Is Customer Service

[darwinohm]

I am bringing this up because I have a couple instances of great customer service very recenly and it means a lot to me. We usually hear about poor customer service and our expectation may be different but in my book customer service is king. Here are some recent examples:

My daughter purchased a new American Breedlove acoustic in 2008. The action was high for her and I lowered it as she was just beginning to play guitar. She has not used this guitar a lot but recently I checked it over and due to the action not being as low as we like, and the saddle being quite low, I decided it needed a neck reset. Keep in mind that it has been this way since new and many would have been perfectly happy with it. I called Breelove factory support October 9th and Kevin Young answered the phone. After explaining the situation and how I had measured the neck angle he said they would look at it. He issued the RA immediately and I had a UPS shipping label within 2 minutes. I shippedthe guitar on October 14 to the factory in Bend Or. It was delivered to them on Oct 20 and I received a call on Friday the 24 Th from Kevin telling it was ready to ship back. I was very specific on the setup and I received it back on Oct 30 Th. The neck had been reset and the setup was perfect. I have read on other forums where guitars were sent back to the big name manufactures and it takes up to 6 months to get them back. The experience with Breedlove has been an example that others should follow. I should add that Breedlove does not farm out their warranty work to dealers but do their own. I should also add that we paid shipping which was very reasonable but I would expect that.

A couple of evenings ago I changed strings on my Gadow Custom. One of the saddles in the TonePros bridge came loose and apparently a small clip had popped out. I temporarily installed a saddle spring to make it workable and called Ryan Gadow at 6:30 in the evening. Last time I called him in the evening he answered much to my surprise. This time I left a message on his e-mail and he called me back yesterday and explained what the issue was and he hasn't been using that bridge for the last 3 years and didn't have the little clip. He asked if I was willing to contact TonePros to save time in getting it. I was happy to do that and I sent them an e-mail on their main website and had a response within 5 minutes. They were shipping me some clips, no charge. Great customer service from TonePros and Ryan Gadow.

Last spring I was adjusting the truss rod on my Don Grosh Retro T. It is adjusted from the bottom of the neck (vintage Type) and required you to get in with a screwdriver from a side angle and hope you didn't slip and gouge the finish. I removed the neck and did the adjustment. Later I called Grosh and asked them why they didn't use a truss rod nut like Surh. They were well aware of what Suhr used and sent me that type truss rod nut and a hex wrench which makes the adjustment a breeze. Again, no charge

Taylor sent me a truss rod asjusting tool for my Taylor SB2 when I requested one at no charge.

G&L has also been very good for me although it has always been through the dealer or Craig on this board. I have never need any real warranty work from G&L but I think that this forum is the best technical support that G&L could hope for. Anyway I thought that these great customer service experiences were worth sharing and that brings up the question of what do you folks think about customer service. Folks that are overseas may have different challenges with customer service.

Have a great day everyone. For me everyday is a great day -- Darwin

[KenC]

The only customer service experiences I have had were with G&L and PRS.

I needed some replacement parts for a couple of used G&Ls a few years ago. It took some effort to reach G&L, as I didn't get responses to voice messages or emails. BBE had a live operator who tried to help, but she could only put me back to the same G&L customer service number. Craig brought it up to Dave, who was able to get me the info I needed and worked everything out.

I've contacted PRS three times. The first was to ask about the stock strings that would have come on a bass built ten years earlier. Their website has that info for guitars, but pretty much ignores the basses. I emailed their customer service, and had the answer within 15 minutes. The next time was to let them know about a counterfeit PRS part that was being sold on eBay. Again, I had a personal response within a matter of minutes. The third contact was a bit more in-depth. I emailed to ask if they could restore the pre-amp in a 23 year old bass. The immediate response was that parts were no longer available, but a few weeks later I received an email saying that they had found one of the original pre-amps and could do the restoration. They gave me all of the info to have the bass shipped back to the factory, but since I live less than 30 minutes away I asked if I could just drop it off. The estimate for the work ended up not being feasible (I would have ended up with more money in the bass than a stock example sells for), but they told me to bring it back any time if I changed my mind.

I think it's worth pointing out that PRS provided that level of responsiveness every time I've contacted them, despite the fact that they only have one person handling all of their customer service inquiries. When I went back to the factory to pick up my bass, he even carried it out to me and explained what they could do if I decided to have it restored later.

Ken

[patricks]

I've had great customer service from Yamaha for one of their digital pianos. It started making white noise from the right speaker one day - a very unusual problem, I haven't been able to find reference to it happening anywhere else and neither the repair shop nor Yamaha themselves have any record of it happening before, so it's definitely an isolated incident.

Anyway, it's been repaired three times, twice by the local repair shop under warranty and once by the factory even though the warranty had expired. Now, despite the fact that the local workshop could never reproduce the problem, cos it occurs randomly, the factory has honoured the warranty every time. The third time it occurred, the piano was nearly 3 months out of warranty, but Yamaha extended the warranty, I shipped it down to them and they replaced the mainboard, even though the technician couldn't reproduce the issue.

The problem has since recurred, but I'm not going to abuse their already overly generous goodwill on a 4.5 year old, outdated digital piano that (as far as I can tell) is the only one in the world with the problem.

A good example, I reckon, of how good customer service can be worth more than actually fixing the issue

[mbedard]

I was always impressed by the customer service at Ovation guitars. They really valued CS as part of their brand. Any inquiries or problems I had were responded to and sorted out quickly.

Last year I noticed one of the EQ tips on my Adamas Millennium was missing (my son loves to tinker with them when he sits on my lap and "helps" me play). I sent an email to Ovation CS asking if they knew where I could find replacements. The response was hilarious:

"Its under the couch, we just know these things. Still no luck? I'll put some shiny new ones in the mail for ya just in case.
Keep on playing, Kim."
-- no mention of cost, shipping, etc. Got an envelope in the mail a few days later with about 1/2 dozen tips in it.

Other guys on the Ovation Fan Club site have had only good things to say as well. They talk about sending them beat up (but rare or unique Os and As) and the luthiers basically completely rebuilding them at little to no cost.

Unfortunately, once Fender bought out Ovation, they began outsourcing everything but custom shop items to China. Then in April of this year the axe fell -- the end of Ovation Instruments and the closing of the Connecticut factory. Four decades of innovation and craftsmanship down the drain, a sad day...