Gordon Smith and Richard's Guitars

IvisonGuitars · May 2017

It's a real shame as he's less than an hour from me and is a Stonebridge/Furch dealer - one guitar I'd really like to buy having tried them before. But having contacted him and been sent some convoluted terms of purchase and having read threads like these, I just steer well clear.

Sporky · May 2017

Scumbag.

Sold me a Cort with a wobbly bridge and no cap on the tone control, then tried to blame me for it; he had a meltdown and ended up insisting I have all the money back.

I won a bass in the Regent Guitars crimbo raffle; took 8 months to arrive, and every time I queried it I got called ungrateful and worse.

He sent emails to suppliers claiming I'd libelled them on his forum (while misreporting what I'd actually said).

All that said, I would piss on him if he was on fire, but only on the bits that weren't burning.

richardhomer · May 2017

miserneil said:

It's a real shame as he's less than an hour from me and is a Stonebridge/Furch dealer - one guitar I'd really like to buy having tried them before. But having contacted him and been sent some convoluted terms of purchase and having read threads like these, I just steer well clear.

He wouldn't have time to deal with you.

According to his post, he's already working 24/7....

monofin · May 2017

Ooh missed it. Assumed he'd be along at some point.

Philly_Q · May 2017

When this thread resurfaced I was going to post and say I felt ever so slightly sorry for Richard that he wasn't able to be here to defend himself. But it sounds like he came back... and went again. Shame I missed it.

HarrySeven · May 2017

Teyeplayer said:

stevengarside said:

It's a very long and tortuous story (see Trustpilot for the full horror).

No sign of this on trustpilot under rguitars -have you been a victim of the classic dispute for inaccuracy thing that every business does on there when they get a negative review?

https://www.pissedconsumer.com/company/richards-guitars/richards-guitars-unprofessional-aggressive-and-refuses-refund-201705121046364.html

EricTheWeary · May 2017

I drove past his shop the other week, nice bit of the world.

Just looking at some of his The Mindful Guitarist stuff on his website (and we do get a mention, a reasonably positive one - possibly not a very up to date entry!) and it seems quite interesting but it also seems very odd stuff to have on a business/ sales website (and once you've got past an annoying amount of pop ups). Having had no dealings with him and had I never read any of the comments in this Discussion I might pause before making a purchase.
He seems to have a lot of stock and I guess he does okay but it all seems an odd approach to take.

fandango · May 2017

tony99 said:

I've never thought of wrath as something to be heard, I thought you felt wrath

Or watch wrath ... as in the Wrath of Khan ... I'll get my coat...

digitalscream · May 2017

Teyeplayer said:

stevengarside said:

It's a very long and tortuous story (see Trustpilot for the full horror).

No sign of this on trustpilot under rguitars -have you been a victim of the classic dispute for inaccuracy thing that every business does on there when they get a negative review?

I wouldn't be surprised if that had happened. After all, the reason he was banned is not for deleting his content (as he said in the post I removed earlier), but rather because he threatened the forum with legal action in order to get negative comments removed from public view (as a rule of thumb, anybody who presents a threat to the ongoing existence of the forum doesn't get to continue using it).

For a bit of balance, I feel I should also add that after many emails back and forth, I finally got tired of the threats/bluster and called him - and he came across as a lot more reasonable and everything was resolved in fairly short order. I suspect that the main problem is he doesn't communicate well via text-based channels; understandable, not everybody does. On that basis, my advice for anybody who does business with him is to get him on the phone - things will (probably) go a lot smoother and everyone's blood pressure will remain at healthy levels.

octatonic · May 2017

digitalscream said:

For a bit of balance, I feel I should also add that after many emails back and forth, I finally got tired of the threats/bluster and called him - and he came across as a lot more reasonable and everything was resolved in fairly short order. I suspect that the main problem is he doesn't communicate well via text-based channels. On that basis, my advice for anybody who does business with him is to get him on the phone - things will (probably) go a lot smoother and everyone's blood pressure will remain at healthy levels.

Agree 100%.
I don't want to get into the specifics but I found this to be the case too.

tony99 · May 2017

fandango said:

tony99 said:

I've never thought of wrath as something to be heard, I thought you felt wrath

Or watch wrath ... as in the Wrath of Khan ... I'll get my coat...

I can assure you good sir that if I only knew how to post pix on here you would now be looking at Ricardo Montalban's very impressive flock of seagulls style hairdo !!

Teyeplayer · May 2017

digitalscream said:

Teyeplayer said:

stevengarside said:

It's a very long and tortuous story (see Trustpilot for the full horror).

No sign of this on trustpilot under rguitars -have you been a victim of the classic dispute for inaccuracy thing that every business does on there when they get a negative review?

I wouldn't be surprised if that had happened. After all, the reason he was banned is not for deleting his content (as he said in the post I removed earlier), but rather because he threatened the forum with legal action in order to get negative comments removed from public view (as a rule of thumb, anybody who presents a threat to the ongoing existence of the forum doesn't get to continue using it).

For a bit of balance, I feel I should also add that after many emails back and forth, I finally got tired of the threats/bluster and called him - and he came across as a lot more reasonable and everything was resolved in fairly short order. I suspect that the main problem is he doesn't communicate well via text-based channels; understandable, not everybody does. On that basis, my advice for anybody who does business with him is to get him on the phone - things will (probably) go a lot smoother and everyone's blood pressure will remain at healthy levels.

Hadn't realised Richard was back on here and had commented earlier tbh.

I must be open and honest that I do feel in part responsible for his originally being banned, as it was due to a thread I'd started and that I'd invited him to share his opinions regarding Eastmans on -as I felt the fella deserved a chance to voice his opinion and I'd never had any gripe with him. If often felt that he seemed a bit unfairly vilified.

In fact I emailed him after that debacle and offered my apologies, I found him to be very reasonable; although I suspect you are spot on regarding how he may respond to written tone, particularly on forums -but we are all guilty of that sometimes.

Anyway my comment re the review is based upon experience, trust pilot (to my mind) are a bit too focussed on looking after the businesses who (I guess) may pay into their running as they are very careful to remove any negative feedback of companies (from experience).

As to Richard, I am yet to meet the guy so will reserve judgement. I've found some highly regarded guitar shops have provided a less than satisfactory service before, whilst others that are lambasted have been fantastic, so am aware that everyone has their off days.

kin · May 2017

I bought my Godin from him about five years ago, left me to have a good play around with it, no pressure and I was happy with the experience.

I am always amazed by the persona that comes across whenever I see him post stuff anywhere , completely at odds with my experience of the bloke face to face.

kin · May 2017

Have a look at his facebook, the fretboard is apparently a cesspit or breeding ground for haters lol.

underdog · May 2017

He's a mentalist let's be honest

xsmarty · May 2017

underdog said:

He's a mentalist let's be honest

Harsh! I've always found him to a decent chap to be perfectly honest. I appreciate his rants can come across as OTT but that's passion for you! I wish more retailers had that amount of passion for what they did.......

impmann · May 2017

Apparently he deleted his comments...

Iamnobody · May 2017

smarty said:

underdog said:

He's a mentalist let's be honest

Harsh! I've always found him to a decent chap to be perfectly honest. I appreciate his rants can come across as OTT but that's passion for you! I wish more retailers had that amount of passion for what they did.......

Good of you to sign up at 5am and use your first post to defend Richard.

Passion eh? Uncanny that's almost like something Richard himself would say...

Anyway welcome to the forum Smarty. Next time I'm in Stratford I'll pop into the shop and say hello.

impmann · May 2017

Iamnobody said:

smarty said:

underdog said:

He's a mentalist let's be honest

Harsh! I've always found him to a decent chap to be perfectly honest. I appreciate his rants can come across as OTT but that's passion for you! I wish more retailers had that amount of passion for what they did.......

Good of you to sign up at 5am and use your first post to defend Richard.

Passion eh? Uncanny that's almost like something Richard himself would say...

Anyway welcome to the forum Smarty. Next time I'm in Stratford I'll pop into the shop and say hello.

Busted!

digitalscream · May 2017

@impmann / @Iamnobody - looked into his account, doesn't seem to be Richard. Besides, Richard has never tried to hide his identity, he's not that kind of guy from the communication I've had with him.

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Gordon Smith and Richard's Guitars

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