Anyone Ever Dealt with Norm's Rare Guitars?

peteri

I'm an avid follower of their Youtube channel, and really like guitar of the day (avoid anything with the son in, he's car crash for me).

But very disappointed with their customer service, they have a nice SG Standard on their website - something I'm on the lookout for.

Sent them a message as per the link on the guitar for more information - nothing

Sent them a general enquiry email via their website form - nothing

Now I know I could have called them, but to be honest I figured why pay the money for the phone call initially? I was after high-res photos and more details on the guitar, if these stacked up then I'd call - plus it's a nice indicator of customer service.

In the end, the way I got a reply was by posting on Mark Agnesi's instagram 'please can someone reply to the email'.

After doing it publically I got a two word reply 'It's sold'

Anyone had better dealings?  just not going to bother again if that's what they're like

rico

Never had any dealings but with the whole CITES palaver, is it really worth buying a guitar with rosewood from the US?

peteri

That was also one of my questions to them, how is it working for them in practice.

Maybe the answer is 'we can't be bothered'?

rico

Perhaps they are too busy making cringeworthy videos of JoBo buying stuff

Musicman20

peteri said:

That was also one of my questions to them, how is it working for them in practice.

Maybe the answer is 'we can't be bothered'?

I assume they probably would rather sell in the USA. I like their Youtube stuff, but I imagine it's hard work to buy from them in the UK.

jimmyguitar

Have you checked your junk email? Just a thought!

Gassage

I've dealt with Norm. He tends to deal with all himself and isn't very comp lit.

Call them.

adamm82

I visited them in October and were really cool guys, I like they said play whatever you want considering the value of some of the guitars they had there.

Though they said they are not shipping anything outside of the US with rosewood cause of CITES, 

IvisonGuitars

Norm’s are great, both Norm and Mark are nice guys, gave me two free t-shirts last time I was there!

I’ve contacted a few US dealers recently who have flat out refused to ship outside of the US due to CITES. Until that is properly clarified for vintage guitars, I think we can expect more of the same.

Skipped

I think the problem is - Even if it possible to ship a vintage guitar (with rosewood).....why would they want all the paperwork and all the hassle?

George Gruhn told me - 7 years ago - definitely "No" to a request to ship a 50s Gibson.

Then a couple of years later they changed their policy to "Yes". But there would be a delay while all documentation is processed and all these extra costs will fall on the customer.

And today their website says  "certain species of wood and shell products" are not eligible for shipping.

Strat54

Visited Norms about 12 years back and bought a couple of guitars, nothing grand about $6k in total. They were great to deal with and shipped them home to the UK for me F.O.C as I was staying out there for a few more weeks. We chatted for ages and he took me through to see the secret stash guitars. He asked me what I liked and took me to the Fender stash. He was genuinely enthusiastic about the old 50's Fenders and was happy to let me give them a strum including that minty Broadcaster. Warm friendly guy. When I got home the large package was there waiting for me and he'd thrown in some T-shirts, picks and a signed copy of his book. None of them are email/internet kind of guys, its a busy store and they have enough walk through punters. Their website is always ages out of date. Just phone them, email isn't real world to them and countless other dealers. 

peteri

Thanks all - lesson learned, I think you're all right - it's likely that CITES has probably killed this, but reality is - despite their growing Youtube presence, essentially - they're old school and you need to call/call in.

Lesson learned

tone1

All EQ’s at noon and a little bit of Reverb 

lewism

peteri said:

Thanks all - lesson learned, I think you're all right - it's likely that CITES has probably killed this, but reality is - despite their growing Youtube presence, essentially - they're old school and you need to call/call in.

Lesson learned

 But that's just stunningly daft on their part. Going through something similar myself, enquiried about a $5k vintage guitar from a similarly respected US vintage dealer 2 weeks ago. Initial request for info & more detailed photos got no response. I stated that I understood my CITES & customs liabilities etc. A follow up email got "I really want to sell this guitar but I'm waiting on a payment from someone else". It's still on their website & Reverb. Why leave it up if a sale is going through? I'll drop them another email but it sort of smacks of " I can't really be bothered, it'll sell eventually ". That's fine if that business model works for them but it's surely got a short shelf life if, as predicted, their market is in decline. If I end up genuinely thinking they can't be bothered, I just won't look at their website or listings again - there are plenty of dealers who still CAN be  bothered. Limiting their market surely isn't in their interests in the long term? Only really dealing via phone? Not too clever for an international market.

Neil

lewism said:

peteri said:

Thanks all - lesson learned, I think you're all right - it's likely that CITES has probably killed this, but reality is - despite their growing Youtube presence, essentially - they're old school and you need to call/call in.

Lesson learned

 But that's just stunningly daft on their part. Going through something similar myself, enquiried about a $5k vintage guitar from a similarly respected US vintage dealer 2 weeks ago. Initial request for info & more detailed photos got no response. I stated that I understood my CITES & customs liabilities etc. A follow up email got "I really want to sell this guitar but I'm waiting on a payment from someone else". It's still on their website & Reverb. Why leave it up if a sale is going through? I'll drop them another email but it sort of smacks of " I can't really be bothered, it'll sell eventually ". That's fine if that business model works for them but it's surely got a short shelf life if, as predicted, their market is in decline. If I end up genuinely thinking they can't be bothered, I just won't look at their website or listings again - there are plenty of dealers who still CAN be  bothered. Limiting their market surely isn't in their interests in the long term? Only really dealing via phone? Not too clever for an international market.

Thing is, they don't really need an international market.

Plenty of business for them in the huge market that is the USA where they don't need to bother with CITES, Customs etc  and can use the shippers they feel comfortable with. 

Why would they make things hard for themselves if they don't have to?

Strangefan

Strat54 said:

Visited Norms about 12 years back and bought a couple of guitars, nothing grand about $6k in total.







Nothing grand ..... Only 6k............ How the other half live ay:) 

lewism

@Neil , I get their logic to an extent but I think it's a little short sighted. The USA has large quantities of guitars that there's a large international market for but were only exported in relatively limited quantities at the time. If I were in their position I'd get good at making international sales run as smoothly as possible. As a purchaser I'd expect the additional costs To be factored into the purchase price anyway. The attitude of "nah, I've got a decent home market so I can't be arsed with export" has done for a lot of businesses. Obviously, my position is coloured by a bit of frustration though!

peteri

Agree with all the comments above, it's a contradiction - they have a website, and an active Youtube channel which is international.

But don't follow it up - I have a lot of American family, and get the whole 'we don't need to look overseas thing', but it's really a daft business model.

Still if they're happy - what do I know?

Lebarque

Plenty of great dealers in the UK to support and get guitars from...

Gadget

I've noticed this happening a lot with US companies (and not just for guitar gear). They seem to have pulled-up the drawbridge and decided to content themselves with their internal market, with some refusing to ship even new products outside of the US!

I have unsubscribed from loads of US product manufacturer emailing lits recently for this very reason. Every offer / competition / special deal is US only.

I guess they believe their market is big enough to not have to bother with the likes of us, in the same way we sometimes get classified ads on here from some London-based sellers who refuse to ship, because they know they have a big enough market locally.

richh

@peteri if you have family in America, could the guitar be shipped to then, and then forwarded to you?