This thread has become like the mafia…you can join but you can never leave. I tried to end this twice. BP chastised me for wasting his bandwidth, ask me if “I had enough blood” and then he bated me to respond again. I tried to take the high road but since you are continuing with this - I will respond one last time.
First, this email thread went to the CEO of the Guitar Center because I sent it to him. I am glad that I did. I am also glad the MF will be changing their policies as a result of this thread. That is what a good company should do (not that I think they are good). I am sure this email thread also raised the awareness that instruments over 2K can only be returned within 10 days.
Second, this thread has gotten so far from the primary issue. This thread became focused on whether I returned too many items and then ”cried wolf” as Big Poppa stated it. Although this is not the core issue, I will provide some insight from my perspective. The majority of my returns are a direct result of receiving defective products from MF. I do not consider returning defective items as “abusing” the MF return policy. I am convinced MF does not inspect their products before shipping them out. If they do then they are doing a very poor job at it. The guitar that spawned this mess was absolutely defective. I knew that immediately after plugging it in (neck pickup was very thin sounding – like a single coil). I told MF it was defective when returning it. Then when I sent it back they inspected it and determined it was fine and subsequently sent it back to me. And then once again I verified that it didn’t work properly. This is a fact!!!!!! Based on their inspection, this guitar will be sold again “as is” to some unsuspecting customer. And that person may not know the product well enough to know it is defective. If MF cannot tell a guitar is defective when someone has already pointed it out, how likely are they to catch defects proactively? The answer is very unlikely. Within the past year, MF sent me 2 defective Les Pauls along with 1 amp that would not power up. That is about 8K of defective product in one year). Some would ask why I continue to purchase products from MF if they are likely to provide defective products. The sad but true answer is that I can’t get them any place else. This is especially true for new product lines. Both Les Pauls were new models (2008 Standand and the Axcess). When these two guitars were introduced they were first available at MF. So unless I wanted to wait, MF was my only choice. Ironically, over the past two years I only returned 1 guitar because I didn’t like it, that was a Musicman Y2D.
Finally, let’s focus on what the real issue is here. I purchased a product that had a documented return policy. AFTER purchasing the item, I was told MF would not honor the return. They can set quotas on returns, decide I am not a good customer, whatever. That is their right as a business. I have no problem with those policies. However, if they decide to enforce an undocumented policy then that MUST BE TOLD TO THE CUSTOMER BEFORE THE ITEM IS PURCHASED. They cannot sell a product with an implied return policy and decide after the sale not to honor it. THAT IS MY PROBLEM WITH MF. In the end, they realized they were wrong and forced to do the right thing.
I will not waste anymore of my “bandwidth” on this issue. I am not responding to anymore email threads. These are the facts from my perspective….make up your own mind if you want to do business with MF. I will wait for new product to come out locally from now on.
you guys is cooool and made the job fun.
