musicman axis MM90 order in october?

[NickZ]

Hi Scott - thanks - I do appreciate it.
I will continue to deal with hem because at this point starting over somewhere else is only going to make things longer and more of a hassle - but let's say they didn't do right by me and certainly wont get any future business. I emailed them this morning to check in and to see about ordering a left JP/piezo and they were less than helpful - given all that's gone on - I would think they might hustle a little bit and try and make nice.
I have run my own business for over 17 yrs - and treat every client like I couldn't eat if it weren't for them and that has served me well and helped my business grow. I know this may just be a goof and an isolated incident.
PM sent - thanks for your offer to help.

 

[beej]

Man, that really sucks. I'm sorry to hear it. I would be pretty steamed.

 

[NickZ]

Well - I just called in and cancelled the order over the phone and judging by the way the conversation went they could care less.
Sterling if you are reading this - these bozos cost you a customer. Not that you are hurting and your reputation for building quality instruments is great (which is why I wanted one in the first place).
Furthermore in an email from the CDN distributor they claimed to have goofed about 50 or so orders around the same time - yo may want to have a look into that.
Thanks for good wishes and offers to help folks - I'll likely be back @ some point with a MM guitar - I wish someone local had them in stock left handed - life would sure be a lot easier.
BTW - if any dealers are reading this - pls feel free to PM me with what you've got left handed - thanks.

Nick

 

[lumberjack]

Hey Nick,

Sorry to read how this ended. I hope this ordeal doesn't keep you away from the Balls for too long.

 

[browndog]

That really is a shame. Thats not like them.

 

[NickZ]

browndog - their side should be the same as mine if they are telling the truth - would you like me to post a JPEG of my deposit and the corresponding emails . This was done on Oct 7 2009.
I have the email from Grant from YESTERDAY telling me the order never went through - send me your email address if you are so concerned with THEIR side of the story and you can hear it directly form them. I have nothing to gain by posting here - and if you have ever waited for a special order guitar to get into your hands - then you know what the excitement and anticipation is like. If you look back to my original post it was in effort to try and get some info on the guitar and find out w@ the 12th fret from yesterday.
hen it would be ready.
If you need any details feel free to PM me - I can send you the email form Grant from yesterday.

 

[agt]

I was browsing ebay and LA Rock City in Canada has a number of lefty JP BFRs. I know it's not the model you were interested in originally, but I thought of this thread when I saw them and wanted to pass the info along.

 

[Big Poppa]

Ill check in on it but why take it out on us?Having said you owned your business for 17 years you know people make mistakes...Itf the dealer dropped the ball we shouldnt be punished....Oh well

 

[threeminutesboy]

Ill check in on it but why take it out on us?Having said you owned your business for 17 years you know people make mistakes...Itf the dealer dropped the ball we shouldnt be punished....Oh well

this is true statement, manufacturer is not directly responsible for poor dealer support. and I guess in your eyes the MM90 is still a good guitar.

I know it's hard but I would give EBMM another chance cause I'm sure they can find out some stock somewhere in their network and ask a US dealer for instance to ship it to your Canadian dealer. Of course all extra cost should be bared by the Canadian dealer cause he is the one responsible for this situation.

in that case, you will have a win win win situation. Well the dealer will win less but in the end that's his original mistake

 

[NickZ]

Ill check in on it but why take it out on us?Having said you owned your business for 17 years you know people make mistakes...Itf the dealer dropped the ball we shouldnt be punished....Oh well

Not sure why you would suggest I am taking it out on you? My original post was a plea to EBMM to find out what was up because after 4 months of waiting the store I ordered through was not returning emails and had no info forthcoming. i was very excited to get my hands on this gtr and I think that clearly came across in my post.
I don't see what exactly you suggest I am taking out on you - I never once mentioned EBMM as being at fault - I know they aren't and clearly stated my frustration with the store/distributor. Sorry you missed that.
As the owner of the company -I would think that this is valuable information to you.

 

[threeminutesboy]

Not sure why you would suggest I am taking it out on you? My original post was a plea to EBMM to find out what was up because after 4 months of waiting the store I ordered through was not returning emails and had no info forthcoming. i was very excited to get my hands on this gtr and I think that clearly came across in my post.
I don't see what exactly you suggest I am taking out on you - I never once mentioned EBMM as being at fault - I know they aren't and clearly stated my frustration with the store/distributor. Sorry you missed that.
As the owner of the company -I would think that this is valuable information to you.

Nick I think that's because you said EBMM lost a customer, so we understand here that you will not buy your Axis

I really think you should contact CS, find our in their list if your dream guitar is somewhere and try to organise something between dealers

 

[NickZ]

I actually asked about this and was told there is nothing available in lefty. Didn't even ask for the duties etc .. to be waived - I am not trying to make out with some for nothing - just trying to get a hold of a gtr here .... Thanks for the suggestion though

this is true statement, manufacturer is not directly responsible for poor dealer support. and I guess in your eyes the MM90 is still a good guitar.

I know it's hard but I would give EBMM another chance cause I'm sure they can find out some stock somewhere in their network and ask a US dealer for instance to ship it to your Canadian dealer. Of course all extra cost should be bared by the Canadian dealer cause he is the one responsible for this situation.

in that case, you will have a win win win situation. Well the dealer will win less but in the end that's his original mistake

 

[NickZ]

BTW - Thanks for the input and helpful attitudes here folks. I am going to drop the thread now - I didn't mean to clog up the board and didn't think this would be the outcome when I started this thread. I was really just trying to get some info from the horse's mouth since the store I was dealing with wasn't communicating any real info to me.
You guys are a good bunch - maybe I'll be back with an EBMM some time.
Take care,
Nick

 

[Big Poppa]

NIck there are no problems here...I guess as the owner of the company Im now expected to read every post in search of missing orders! hehehe

Not buying the guitar bedcause i didnt read this thread until a sunday night....I just cannot do everything. I try to stay as up to date as possible but am actually running FOUR other companies besides Music Man...oh yeah and a charitible foundaiton. One of these days I will get more than 5 hours of sleep

If you ever decide to buy another of our guitars and the loses the order....... call us email us or send us a cup of Time Hortons. A public forum may not get noticed all of the time. (I do have over 14,000 posts so I try!)

We lose out because you are not buying the guitar.....That is sort of punishing us for a dealers mistake....let smove on now

 

[NickZ]

Sterling you keep missing the point whether it is intentional or not - i don't know.
PLs go back and read my post - I didn't expect you to personally read my post or do anything. I put a feeler out since employees of EBMM are on this board - i thought I could get some info.
In the meantime the rest has transpired and that's that.
You keep putting "I" into this when I never mentioned your name or asked for your help directly.
I was asking for EBMM's help since my dealer was being less than helpful - i don't know how many times I need to repeat that. Thanks anyway.

 

[TheStiffness]

being taken care of.

 

[glensterr]

Nick,

Check your private message box.

Thanks Glen.

 

[lumberjack]

C'mon Nick. Get that Ball. You've got Customer Service and the distributor helping out.

 

[Applelurker]

Nick,
I am very sorry to hear about this situation. We would love a chance to make it up to you, but I just want you and everyone else to know that we have a new system in place for confirming orders that will 100% guarantee this will never happen again. If anybody wants confirmation on their orders, feel free to contact customer service directly via e-mail or phone call and we'll make sure your order is in.

 

[12th Fret]

I was asking for EBMM's help since my dealer was being less than helpful - i don't know how many times I need to repeat that. Thanks anyway.

My name is Nevin, and I work here at the 12th Fret. We would not normally get involved in forum discussions, but a few things have been said here that need addressing.

I am posting a message from Grant MacNeill, owner of the 12th Fret, which has been e-mailed directly to Nick in response to the situation.

"Hi Nick

I just got back from my short vacation

sorry to hear you are so disappointed that the guitar did not arrive on time and cancelled your order.

I do want to point out that this was not our fault...I've been totally up front with you on this; Ernie Ball made the mistake on the order...and they admitted the problem. They were very forthcoming about admitting the mistake and offered to rush the order in 4 weeks and give you a $300 Wah pedal as an attempt to make up for their mistake.

Frankly after waiting so long, I can imagine you are frustrated but...it seems they were trying to do their best. Guitars do take time to build and when they realized their error they did make a genuine offer to rush your order

now that the guitar is only about 15 days away...you have cancelled the order.

I see you are disappointed in my email response time. Normally I get 50 to 100 emails daily. During the last weeks of November and the month of December it was 200 per day and our Christmas Boxing sale generated 4000 emails alone

this is not an excuse for my slow response. Simply an explanation for why I don't respond faster

Realistically I get to them after several hours or several days depending on the questions and if I have an immediate answer

whenever I saw your many emails come in asking for an update on the arrival time, I would email my rep for an update. over Nov December I count 14 emails to you and 6 to my rep at Ernie Ball.

He is busy too and took several days to get an answer back to me from Ernie Ball....which was always a reasonable response time in my opinion. And the answer was always the same; "not done yet" and "Due very soon"


Each time when he did get back to me I passed on what news I had. Usually not more than a sentence or two since there was little news to report... with custom left hand guitar orders...it is always a guessing game as to when they will be complete

Sorry they were not long responses but I was not aware you wanted more information. If my answer was short it was only because I had little news to tell you.

with roughly 100 emails per day, I try to keep my responses quick and short

I also recall there was email about setup with 10-46 and again...simple request from you and short and simple answer from me

All that said !! I'm very sorry you were so disappointed.

I've certainly have not built my business over the past 33 years to disappoint my customers !!

I take great pride and so does our staff in providing the very best in customer service but occasionally guitars simply don't arrive when they were expected. I cannot provide good service if we can't get the guitar !!

It is particularly tough for left handed players since most guitars need to be custom ordered from scratch.

Hopefully your next guitar order experience with go smoothly

Note: one last comment. My staff and a number of customers have pointed out that you described Mike Gray on the E.B Forum as dismissive or not helpful with you when you cancelled the order. Mike is one of my most important staff and without exception always polite and helpful with customers. I routinely get complements on his high level of competence and his agreeable nature.

Most shops would not accept a late cancellation on a custom left hand order...late delivery or not...but Mike took the initiative and agreed to refund your deposit which he did immediately. I support his decision since the circumstances were unusual and Ernie Ball acknowledged the mix up.

We refunded your deposit because you were clearly not satisfied...but by doing so seem to have offended you more. Sometimes we just can't win.


Regards
Grant MacNeill
The Twelfth Fret Inc
Toronto Canada. 416 423 2132
www.12fret.com"



In closing, I would just like to add a couple more points. While it is unfortunate that the order got lost, we are still looking at an amazingly fast delivery time for a custom-ordered left handed guitar. As Grant states in his e-mail, guitars take time to build. I have ordered Music Man guitars in the past that took 6-9 months to arrive, so a 5 month wait really is nothing to complain about at the end of the day. Music Man did a commendable job of trying to keep Nick happy.

I also must say that while I never spoke to Nick directly, I was in the room with Mike Gray when Nick called to cancel his order. Mike was absolutely helpful and understanding. Not once did he challenge Nick's right to a full refund for a special order guitar that was only a couple of weeks away. He did exactly what Nick asked in an attempt to make him happy, and in return got knocked for it.

Sorry for the long post. The fact is we are doing our best here to prevent these kinds of situations. Sometimes, despite our best efforts, they still happen. I would again like to thank Music Man for their great service and all their help in trying to resolve this issue.

Nevin Douglas
12th Fret Guitar Shop