Would Ernie Ball do this to forum users?

[Twilight Zodiac]

I have to admit, that I do not own any Ernie Ball Music Man instruments, however I still love and appreciate their look and sound and the people that make and play them. I myself am anxiously awaiting the left handed JP's.
Now, the reason I am posting this is because I am very disheartened about another company's forum. I posted a thread about product suggestions, just letting people talk and discuss ideas that they have about the company's products. Not critisism, no complaints, just suggestions.
Today I see that not even a full 24 hours of posting it, it has been deleted.
From my understanding, they don't want critisism or even their customers making comments about their products.
Now for the question to this forum...If I were to do the same thing, what reasoning would you have to close it? I just want to understand why that happened there and why it may happen here.
I would think that a company would like some customer feedback and maybe suggestions.

Thank you.

 

[strummer]

I have to admit, that I do not own any Ernie Ball Music Man instruments, however I still love and appreciate their look and sound and the people that make and play them. I myself am anxiously awaiting the left handed JP's.
Now, the reason I am posting this is because I am very disheartened about another company's forum. I posted a thread about product suggestions, just letting people talk and discuss ideas that they have about the company's products. Not critisism, no complaints, just suggestions.
Today I see that not even a full 24 hours of posting it, it has been deleted.
From my understanding, they don't want critisism or even their customers making comments about their products.
Now for the question to this forum...If I were to do the same thing, what reasoning would you have to close it? I just want to understand why that happened there and why it may happen here.
I would think that a company would like some customer feedback and maybe suggestions.

Thank you.

Here, what it boils down to is that we as a group are not really representative of the market as a whole. That said, no threads have ever been closed because someone suggested something. Ridiculed, yes, but to my knowledge never closed.
And once in a while, when enough bitching has been done by us, the forum members, something unexpected comes out of it. The Dargie Delight is the best example of that, do a search and see
Also, the owner of the company has been known to throw parties for us, hijack the occasional birthday and most importantly hang out with us here every day. Hell, it has even spread, so that just weeks ago there was a party in London, by Mr lemon of Strings&Things.

What I'm trying to convey is that this is a really nice place, hosted by a company making awesome instruments, and as long as you respect that you are effectively in the house of Sterling Ball you'll be fine. I think.

 

[paranoid70]

It's like telling your wife you didn't like the dinner she made last night. If you tell her, "damn you burned the chicken, it tastes like crap"........ you see where I am going with this? It's all in the delivery.

One can offer honest criticism, that's always great. However, when it sounds like one is bitching or being overly nitpicky, it's understandable that the folks who work hard on something aren't very eager to listen to nasty complaints.

 

[leftyguitarblue]

I have to admit, that I do not own any Ernie Ball Music Man instruments, however I still love and appreciate their look and sound and the people that make and play them. I myself am anxiously awaiting the left handed JP's.
Now, the reason I am posting this is because I am very disheartened about another company's forum. I posted a thread about product suggestions, just letting people talk and discuss ideas that they have about the company's products. Not critisism, no complaints, just suggestions.
Today I see that not even a full 24 hours of posting it, it has been deleted.
From my understanding, they don't want critisism or even their customers making comments about their products.
Now for the question to this forum...If I were to do the same thing, what reasoning would you have to close it? I just want to understand why that happened there and why it may happen here.
I would think that a company would like some customer feedback and maybe suggestions.

Thank you.

Welcome to the forums!!!
you will like this thread...
http://www.ernieball.com/forums/mus...nally-my-left-handed-goal-comes-fruition.html

the only thing people really hate here......are well, left handed guitarists for some reason. Maybe it's because when they come over to hang, they can't play our guitars!

stick wround, lots of cool people here.

 

[Twilight Zodiac]

Actually, I only paid compliments. I did not critisize at all, not a single negative thing.
Its really disheartening when a company doesn't even allow suggestions when it comes with nothing but good reviews.
And yes, I enjoy reading posts on this forum, you can sense the difference between this forum and others. Here you can sense the unity that the PEOPLE at the company have and the customers, it really is like a great big family...all with similar good tastes too!
I love the products and the people at Ernie Ball, they encourage ideas and customers to speak their mind. Thats all I really wanted to do at the other forum, was express a few ideas, not critisism.
As of right now, I can't really express any critisism here, because I simply can't think of any!
And as far as the lefty thing, yeah, comes with being a minority.

 

[Beth]

Wow. If you can't talk about their products on their forum, why log on there to talk about anything at all when you've got The Ballet Site's "The Forum About Nothing"? http://http://www.phpbbplanet.com/theballetsite/viewforum.php?f=15&sid=9a30836b3eedd184a201035584f81cd8&mforum=theballetsite

 

[leftyguitarblue]

I was just kidding about lefties being hated, more like treated like a red headed step child.

But seriously, you can speak your mind hear and share thoughts. My first post here was begging for a left handed JP and in little under a year, it's in the process of becoming reality.

There are a ton of good hearted, kind people on here who all share a great love for this company and the products they make and their customer service is second to none!! You will find no better anywhere. You'll even see the head honcho on here "Big Poppa" Sterling Ball talking right to his customers. Where else can you get that?

 

[candid_x]

There's only a couple of real no no's here, but offering suggestions for design "improvements" hasn't been one that I'm aware of. We do it all the time, in fact. BP's patience with that has been admirable.

First one is: don't air product complaints that should be directed to customer service. That's only fair. The second is: don't PM BP. That will earn you 20 stripes with a .46 gauge Slinky!

This is a friendly and pretty chillin' place.

 

[dwells]

hey im a red headed step child dude? whats wrong with that? lol

 

[leftyguitarblue]

hey im a red headed step child dude? whats wrong with that? lol

hang on, I gotta take my foot out of my mouth...

 

[Volt]

I think that this is a subject area that needs to be treated very maturely and carefully.
IMO, irresponsible bad press could hurt a company, especially one without deep pockets. It would be very easy for a "supposed" instrument owner to post some phony problems to undermine the company when in fact the complainant is actually the competition.

Even minor problems that sometime occur with instrument manufacture could easily get out of hand.

JMHO

 

[BigMESA]

Were you on the Dean forums? They are notorious for that.

 

[whitestrat]

We've seen plenty of product feedback, be it complaints, comments and even commendations. This forum certainly has no problems when it comes to those things. I didn't get to read that thread that was created on this which apparently was deleted, but I am curious to know how it was phrased.

For what it's worth, I could come out and say to EBMM "This Top Sucks!!!!" referring to a certain BFR sku that was published here, and then come back to claim that I was giving constructive criticism. erm... right. This was why the BFR thread was created in the first place. To show EVERY BFR made, for us to comment on. To show that the company had nothing to hide. Being a non-listed company, this is certainly not a necessity for them to show.

Even the Dargie colour was issued by popular request here. Which other brand forum has this level of interactivity? Fender? Ibanez?

and I'm certainly curious about one thing.

Having never owned a single EBMM instrument, what gives the threadstarter the idea that he's in any position to comment or critique on EBMM products? We can base our impressions of EBMM guitars on what's already out there in the market by others. Sure. Comparing a Silo Spec with a generic Strat clone out there isn't the smartest thing to do, as we've found out, and this knowledge comes from owning a Silo Spec yourself.

Dang!!! I just realised I've exceeded 1,000 posts!!!!

 

[Big Poppa]

depends on if I agree.......heh heh hehhhhhh

 

[Twilight Zodiac]

Thank you for all the encouraging words!
As far as the company, I will not say which one as I don't feel it would be very appropriate or productive if I did.
Eithe way, I'm gonna start a thread for all that, unfortunately I can't post EXACTLY what I posted on the other one, but you'll get the general idea and feel.

Thanks guys and gals!