Customer Service

Joey2014

Bought a set of Sperzel locking tuners from NW Guitars which arrived broken. Requested a replacement set, which also ended up being unusable. The third set, while intact, ended up getting sent to the wrong address and took an age to sort out. Very dismissive tone whilst emailing, too. Haven't used them since! 

MattNovak

Only positive experiences with North West Guitars here... 

andy_k

Joey2014 said:

Bought a set of Sperzel locking tuners from NW Guitars which arrived broken. Requested a replacement set, which also ended up being unusable. The third set, while intact, ended up getting sent to the wrong address and took an age to sort out. Very dismissive tone whilst emailing, too. Haven't used them since! 

I find this one particularly concerning, surely, Sperzels are a pre packaged item and Northwest are only distributing them.
To have issues with 2 out of 3 sets ordered, is quite alarming, unless they are selling B stock items as new parts.
I am not suggesting this is the case, but it is a possibility.
They are not cheap parts, and I have only ordered a few small things from them myself, usually the cheapest available from ebay, neck plates etc.
The problem with the body is a different matter really, and is an example of bad service, although gold / bronze finish is a notoriously difficult thing to get right. Metallic finishes can oxidise or react, processes that take a while to show.
The time between the initial order, and the subsequent build problem obviously complicated things, but it should have been dealt with differently.
We expect these kind of things with second hand parts, it is part of the process, but shouldn't happen with new items.

hoops

I won't use them again on this evidence. 

Creed_Clicks

I have had no issues with them buying necks and bodies and some bits and bobs, but taking the experiences on board here as well...

Jimbro66

Joey2014 said:

Bought a set of Sperzel locking tuners from NW Guitars which arrived broken. Requested a replacement set, which also ended up being unusable. The third set, while intact, ended up getting sent to the wrong address and took an age to sort out. Very dismissive tone whilst emailing, too. Haven't used them since! 

FWIW defective Sperzels locking tuners are also part of the issue I had. Perhaps as they take the view that there’s “nothing wrong with them” they are then sent out to other customers? Hopefully not.

lysander

I've bought a lot from them in the past but recently had issues with defective pots, multiple times, and they were a pain to deal with and I had to jump through hoops to get a replacement.
I was not impressed and thought there was something a bit wrong there - seems like there is indeed.

Joey2014

andy_k said:

Joey2014 said:

Bought a set of Sperzel locking tuners from NW Guitars which arrived broken. Requested a replacement set, which also ended up being unusable. The third set, while intact, ended up getting sent to the wrong address and took an age to sort out. Very dismissive tone whilst emailing, too. Haven't used them since! 

I find this one particularly concerning, surely, Sperzels are a pre packaged item and Northwest are only distributing them.
To have issues with 2 out of 3 sets ordered, is quite alarming, unless they are selling B stock items as new parts.
I am not suggesting this is the case, but it is a possibility.
They are not cheap parts, and I have only ordered a few small things from them myself, usually the cheapest available from ebay, neck plates etc.

The locating pin on the back of one of the tuners had snapped off in the first and second instances, meaning that I couldn't install them. NWG's argued that because they were pre-packed, they typically didn't inspect them (which is fair enough imo). The fact that they didn't think to check the initial replacement was a bit annoying however, as it ended up costing me more time and them extra postage! 

Jimbro66 said:

Joey2014 said:

Bought a set of Sperzel locking tuners from NW Guitars which arrived broken. Requested a replacement set, which also ended up being unusable. The third set, while intact, ended up getting sent to the wrong address and took an age to sort out. Very dismissive tone whilst emailing, too. Haven't used them since! 

FWIW defective Sperzels locking tuners are also part of the issue I had. Perhaps as they take the view that there’s “nothing wrong with them” they are then sent out to other customers? Hopefully not.

I certainly hope they aren't using defective/returned inventory to fulfil new orders! Personally, I look elsewhere for Sperzel products now. 

skunkwerx

Joey2014 said:

andy_k said:

Joey2014 said:

Bought a set of Sperzel locking tuners from NW Guitars which arrived broken. Requested a replacement set, which also ended up being unusable. The third set, while intact, ended up getting sent to the wrong address and took an age to sort out. Very dismissive tone whilst emailing, too. Haven't used them since! 

I find this one particularly concerning, surely, Sperzels are a pre packaged item and Northwest are only distributing them.
To have issues with 2 out of 3 sets ordered, is quite alarming, unless they are selling B stock items as new parts.
I am not suggesting this is the case, but it is a possibility.
They are not cheap parts, and I have only ordered a few small things from them myself, usually the cheapest available from ebay, neck plates etc.

The locating pin on the back of one of the tuners had snapped off in the first and second instances, meaning that I couldn't install them. NWG's argued that because they were pre-packed, they typically didn't inspect them (which is fair enough imo). The fact that they didn't think to check the initial replacement was a bit annoying however, as it ended up costing me more time and them extra postage! 

Jimbro66 said:

Joey2014 said:

Bought a set of Sperzel locking tuners from NW Guitars which arrived broken. Requested a replacement set, which also ended up being unusable. The third set, while intact, ended up getting sent to the wrong address and took an age to sort out. Very dismissive tone whilst emailing, too. Haven't used them since! 

FWIW defective Sperzels locking tuners are also part of the issue I had. Perhaps as they take the view that there’s “nothing wrong with them” they are then sent out to other customers? Hopefully not.

I certainly hope they aren't using defective/returned inventory to fulfil new orders! Personally, I look elsewhere for Sperzel products now. 

I had a similar thought recently about something else. 

I’ve had like 4 Esp guitars in the last 12 months with crap QC issues. 

The last one was a new model Phoenix which I bought from Andertons. They marked them as limited edition and they were immediately on an ‘epic deal’. 

Bought one. 

A month later the Andertons youtube video goes up where Mr Anderton tells us these Phoenix’s were very early factory rejects based on the colour being wrong. Too yellow. 

Awesome. So they bought em as b stock or at least ‘factory not up to spec’ from Esp, advertised them as new, and Limited edition no less because theyre a wrong shade of cream!

Bit unethical really. It does play fine and the colour isnt an issue but makes you wonder what else they do this for doesnt it. 

in the same or different video he mentioned something like this: They saw xx amount of stock listed as discounted for whatever reason so ordered them.  

It got me thinking. I honestly think retailers see that b stock or reject stock is available from the supplier/manufacturer, buys it a cut price and flogs it as new and hopes no one notices. 

The Snakebyte and Ouija’s I ordered were the same, proper crap issues from various stores. 

Then again Esp themselves advertised the Phoenix as having a bone nut, yet it arrived, its plastic. Checked back on Esp website under the comments section for the guitar yesterday where someone specifically asked ‘does this come with a bone nut as specified?’ 

The admin says ‘yes it will’. 6 months ago this was. 

Now they’ve finally updated the spec to say its actually plastic. 

They never use bone on Ltd’s the fuckers.  

chunkmonk

Joey2014 said:

The locating pin on the back of one of the tuners had snapped off in the first and second instances, meaning that I couldn't install them. NWG's argued that because they were pre-packed, they typically didn't inspect them (which is fair enough imo). The fact that they didn't think to check the initial replacement was a bit annoying however, as it ended up costing me more time and them extra postage! 

I certainly hope they aren't using defective/returned inventory to fulfil new orders! Personally, I look elsewhere for Sperzel products now. 

This is an interesting comment given the impolite email I received yesterday from the owner of NorthWest Guitars, who was insistent that he and his staff inspect items before they are dispatched from them to the customer.

Interestingly, NorthWest have also come back indicating that ‘ the responsibility to prove that the item was defective during manufacture rests solely with the you, the purchaser It is the buyer’s responsibility to prove the defect was present when the product was manufactured, it’s not our responsibility’.

Does this imply sellers can take no responsibility for the quality of product which they sell?

Kylef

I bought a Vibramate from them a night or two again. I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t think twice about using them from now on on this evidence. 

blueskunk

What a shame as this sounds horrible and potentially losing them business. I wonder if they have any interest in responding on the fretboard ?

Jetfire

Looks like they read trustpilot reviews thou: 

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/northwestguitars.co.uk

blueskunk

Jetfire said:

Looks like they read trustpilot reviews thou: 

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/northwestguitars.co.uk

Interesting.  

Joey2014

chunkmonk said:

Joey2014 said:

The locating pin on the back of one of the tuners had snapped off in the first and second instances, meaning that I couldn't install them. NWG's argued that because they were pre-packed, they typically didn't inspect them (which is fair enough imo). The fact that they didn't think to check the initial replacement was a bit annoying however, as it ended up costing me more time and them extra postage! 

I certainly hope they aren't using defective/returned inventory to fulfil new orders! Personally, I look elsewhere for Sperzel products now. 

This is an interesting comment given the impolite email I received yesterday from the owner of NorthWest Guitars, who was insistent that he and his staff inspect items before they are dispatched from them to the customer.

Interestingly, NorthWest have also come back indicating that ‘ the responsibility to prove that the item was defective during manufacture rests solely with the you, the purchaser It is the buyer’s responsibility to prove the defect was present when the product was manufactured, It’s not our responsibility’.

Does this imply they take no responsibility for the quality of product they sell?

That sounds like an awfully long-winded way of saying "we have better things to be getting on with than ensuring we don't send out rubbish".

They may well be within their rights to claim so (I don't have a comprehensive knowledge of the liability side of things and don't claim to know either), but it doesn't scream great customer service. 

As a point of comparison, I used to work for a different UK-based independent MI retailer. Whenever we received a delivery, I was told in no uncertain terms to check over EVERYTHING and make sure that items were in full working order. Seems like common sense, doesn't it?

shuikit

chunkmonk said:

Interestingly, NorthWest have also come back indicating that ‘ the responsibility to prove that the item was defective during manufacture rests solely with the you, the purchaser It is the buyer’s responsibility to prove the defect was present when the product was manufactured, it’s not our responsibility’.

Does this imply sellers can take no responsibility for the quality of product which they sell?

If you're within 6 months of purchase, then it is the retailer who is responsible for proving that it is not a manufacturing fault

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/consumer-rights-refunds-exchange/#goods

Fifty9

Absolutely pathetic. Anyone can have a bad day & make a mistake but sh1tty attitudes like those in the stories in this thread are inexcusable.

prowla

I've bought parts from them before, but never necks/bodies.

Were they the people who did a glowing report a while back of a Rickenbacker bass they'd serviced, only to have a deluge of replies that it was a Chickenbacker knock-off copy?

skullfunkerry

I’ve never even heard of Northwest Guitars before today, but I’ve read this thread with dismay: I used to work in a busy sales office and we had it drilled into us from day 1, the customer is always right. Obviously some customers are dickheads, but even so without them you’ve literally got no business.

There’s a fine line: there are plenty of examples of people leaving spurious bad reviews and then being destroyed by the establishment (seems to usually be bars, restaurants & garages), but equally there are pages and pages of people responded with mind-boggling character assassinations on people who have posted something they’re not happy with (one that springs to mind is a pub landlord responding to a “service wasn’t great” review with a whole screen of “I remember you lot, you ordered one coke between you and sat in the corner, I don’t need dweebs like you coming in and wasting my time, you’re all keyboard warriors and probably live with your mums, you’re barred”).

I’m waffling... tl:dr; I won’t be bothering with Northwest Guitars based on what I’ve seen here...

mbe

I have previously bought pickups and other odds and ends from them and think they are getting a good markup on their sales. Therefore, one would think they have a reasonable margin of funds to mitigate any customer dissatisfaction without quibble or prevarication.

I have now removed them from my list of trusted suppliers with immediate effect.