Anderton's Vertex video

guitarfishbay

digitalscream

Anyway, it looks like I'm not going to be able to deal with this one - my mother-in-law has just had a heart attack, so I've retrieved her dog and I'm probably heading over to the hospital shortly.

Best wishes.

JD50

skunkwerx said:

 

The re-made Mesa one! Lots of downvotes there too. 

What's the re-made Mesa one?

meltedbuzzbox

skunkwerx said:

Teetonetal said:

I'm guessing (or hoping) that andertons don't really research and take things at face value. Plenty of other brands to choose from. Do hope Lee addresses the backlash. I don't think I've seen an andertons video with such a volume of negative comments before. 

This video is certainly strange. 
I don't believe for a second that Lee is putting money before his integrity. 

Why choose this Mason scammer then when Lee could have chose from a plethora of boutique builders if he just wanted to cash in.

I really, really do.

And he knows full well what is discussed about him online. He has made many references to it in private meetings. 

NelsonP

Since this thread seems to be about shamelessly stealing something and rebranding it as your own here is a funny image that I pinched from TGP made 

skunkwerx

JD50 said:

skunkwerx said:

 

The re-made Mesa one! Lots of downvotes there too. 

What's the re-made Mesa one?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cCskTx1vYKU

Story was that Lee and Rob made a video about a cabclone. They were honest and didnt like it. 

Mesa didnt like that, so basically told them to pull the video.
Andertons obliged, to keep relations good.
Mesa then sent Danish Pete who back then worked as a freelance demonstrator for a Mesa distributor known as Westside, to show them how to use the product, as Mesa implied the reason Lee & Rob didnt like it was because they were using it wrong.. 

But the resulting re made video is awkward, because Pete is sat there during it (did Mesa insist he was in the video/there whilst filming I wonder?). Lee & Rob have no freedom to say what they actually think and you can tell theyre not too happy about it. 

Both Pete and Lee have comments in the comments section clearing things up on that vid, Pete got a lot of stick for it, so I'm guessing they'll do the same for Vertex. 

Paul7926

Response from Andertons just been posted on the vid

Fretwired

Lee's response:

Thanks for posting all these comments - I've been thinking about how best to respond for the last 24 hours. To give some background to my thought process, here goes... I'd never heard of Vertex pedals prior to 2018 - I don't spend any time on forums, so I had no idea about any of Masons history or the accusations against him. Vertex contacted me earlier in the year & asked if I'd have a listen to some of the new pedals they had coming in 2018.

I responded in the same way I do to the numerous pedal companies that contact me every month. I asked them to send me some samples to try. I received the pedals & I liked them. I saw they were already available from other reputable music stores in Europe & I placed our opening order. Nothing seemed untoward, there were no irregularities in placing or paying for the order & the 1st delivery arrived in March 2018. The pedals have sold OK (we've sold about 40 units so far) and nothing came up on our social media feeds to suggest that stocking Vertex was a problem.

At summer Namm I met Mason for the 1st time. He had a booth at the show, there seemed to be plenty of people checking out his stuff, and he was very pleasant. We shot some footage for his Game of Tones videos (which I think are cool videos) & we agreed that he'd come over in the autumn & shoot some video at Andertons. All this is just normal day to day stuff for Andertons.

I enjoyed making the video with Mason - what you see is pretty much the whole interview - I'm not avoiding any awkward subjects because I didn't know there were any awkward subjects to avoid! So now we move on to the video comments & how I feel about the accusations made against Mason/Vertex, and more importantly how I feel about the way in which I've been accused of being complicit in Masons past discretion by having him on the show. I've read the basics of the complaints against him, including the letter from Michael Landau, the letter from Robben Ford & a post by Joe Bonamassa (which I assume are all genuine).

Assuming all these are true then clearly Mason has made some poor decisions in then past and I can totally understand why some people have boycotted his products & are upset at my decision to make a video with him. My personal views on the situation are very much along the lines of Robben Fords letter - essentially, OK, the guy messed up - he misled people in to thinking that all his pedal designs were his own, when in fact one or two of them were just re housed versions of other companies designs. Is he the 1st guy to do this? No. Will he be the last guy to do this? I doubt it. Is it the worlds worst crime? No - its poor form, but nobody died. He says he was in a bad place when these decisions were made, he's apologised & is trying to make amends & get on with his life. Since I started dealing with Mason he seems like a nice guy, & like I said I think the pedals sound good.

I'd like to give him a second chance. Honestly its not about the money - trust me - selling 40 Vertex pedals is a minuscule % of our total turnover. I do respect every ones decision to boycott Vertex & if you really feel that strongly about it, boycott Andertons too, but I'm going on what I know of Mason from the time that I started dealing with him. And in the spirit of giving people a 2nd chance, I'm leaving the video up. If he steps out of line again, or betrays my (or my customers) trust in any way, I will drop Vertex immediately & offer everyone that ever bought one from me a full refund. BTW - I don't really have time to get into drawn out arguments on this one, so apologies in advance for not replying or responding anymore on this one.

Thanks & all the best, Lee.

RaymondLin

Paul7926 said:

Response from Andertons just been posted on the vid

The Plausible Deniability Defence. 

And give him another chance, the guy lies all the time.   How many chances does one get?

simonhpieman

And boy does that cab clone sound like crap compared to the actual cab! Wowzer...

EDIT: And they're 260 quid?! Hahahahaha

Wazmeister

In fairness, a decent response from Lee...

However, the line "I'd like to give him a second chance" has been uttered a few times by many I guess... but still, Lee will find out one way or the other over time...

The level of upset must have shocked Lee though 

RaymondLin

Wazmeister said:

In fairness, a decent response from Lee...

However, the line "I'd like to give him a second chance" has been uttered a few times by many I guess... but still, Lee will find out one way or the other over time...

The level of upset must have shocked Lee though 

I think it's BS.

Mason has PROVEN beyond doubt that he is a pathological liar, he has lied in this video as proof.  

jpttaylor

"So it's not about the money, but I will continue to sell these overpriced pedals and make money from them because other retailers stock them and I don't want to lose out."

meltedbuzzbox

RaymondLin said:

Wazmeister said:

In fairness, a decent response from Lee...

However, the line "I'd like to give him a second chance" has been uttered a few times by many I guess... but still, Lee will find out one way or the other over time...

The level of upset must have shocked Lee though 

I think it's BS.

Mason has PROVEN beyond doubt that he is a pathological liar, he has lied in this video as proof.  

It's a massive steaming pile of male bovine excrement rolled in glitter.

Buuuuuut interestingly no one is losing their shit about peach selling the same pedals...

preston61

What I took from that statement is that buying Vertex Pedals from Andertons is essentially like paying in to a savings fund, you're going to get your money back at some point. Wonder if they'll add 8% interest like PPI

Paul7926

RaymondLin said:

Wazmeister said:

In fairness, a decent response from Lee...

However, the line "I'd like to give him a second chance" has been uttered a few times by many I guess... but still, Lee will find out one way or the other over time...

The level of upset must have shocked Lee though 

I think it's BS.

Mason has PROVEN beyond doubt that he is a pathological liar, he has lied in this video as proof.  

If you assume for a minute that Lee really didn't know the full background then he really only has two responses. 

He can publicly admit that he has been taken in by someone (he even says "Since I started dealing with Mason he seems like a nice guy") or he can go down the "Second Chance" route which implies that he didn't get sucked in and is being generous.

He almost has to take the second option as the first doesn't make him look like a very good businessman.

What I hope he takes form this is that more research is required when making these videos if he wants to maintain any sort attempt at impartiality and credibility in them.  I mean we all know they are a sales vehicle but there is a world of difference between people thinking you endorse something because you believe it to be good and people thinking you endorse anything just to get money in the till.

RaymondLin

meltedbuzzbox said:

RaymondLin said:

Wazmeister said:

In fairness, a decent response from Lee...

However, the line "I'd like to give him a second chance" has been uttered a few times by many I guess... but still, Lee will find out one way or the other over time...

The level of upset must have shocked Lee though 

I think it's BS.

Mason has PROVEN beyond doubt that he is a pathological liar, he has lied in this video as proof.  

It's a massive steaming pile of male bovine excrement rolled in glitter.

Buuuuuut interestingly no one is losing their shit about peach selling the same pedals...

Start a Peach thread and i will join in 

mattismetal

I read the response.

There are 9 month old comments on Anderton's own channel about all of the same issues. 
We know the comments are read because of previous anti-troll pleas and the infamous cab clone video.

The response does not address the lies told in the video by Mr vertex

digitalscream

OK, popping in briefly...

I'm fully on-board with the Vertex haters - the guy's proven himself to be a bit of a dick time and time again.

Trying to put myself in Lee's position for a moment, and expanding on the post from @Paul7926 - these are the options:

1 - Say "Who cares? This is business, let the market decide."

2 - Ditch the product line, thus effectively giving power over his inventory to The Internet Hate Machine.

3 - Opt for a somewhere-in-between choice, whereby he continues to do business with Mason, but unlike most suppliers who'd get a few chances to get it right, he only has to fuck it up once and he gets ditched.

Honestly, if I based all of my opinions on what People On The Internet said, my life would be a total mess. I can understand why he's done it this way - it's effectively "Never mind what everyone else says, I'm going to make my own mind up", which is totally understandable given that his direct personal experience with the guy has been positive thus far.

Given that the stakes are minimal for Lee (and for Andertons in the wider view), giving him a chance doesn't really cost him anything financially. The number of people who've actually been affected by the Vertex scams are really quite small, and while the number of people who're angry about it is probably a couple of orders of magnitude bigger...even if all those people boycott Andertons it's still probably little more than a rounding error in their balance sheet.

People on forums might feel that this is a huge issue, but step outside the echo chamber for a bit and you might see that this is such a piddling small controversy that it barely deserves the name. Yes, there are moral issues at hand, and as I said...I'm offended by this guy's behaviour too. I'm not about to let that colour my opinion of a guy who's always acted in a far more mature and sensible manner than forums and the YouTube comments section have demanded.

Philtre

So, these Vertex pedals that they're selling...are they bad quality or something? Over-priced?

Adam_MD

People are way too upset about this just don't buy the stuff if you don't want to deal with a dodgy pedal company passing off someone elses circuit as their own.  Add him to the list along with lovepedal, jhs etc and move on.