Am I being unreasonable?

Johnnyseven

I ordered a custom colour guitar body. It took 7 months to complete. Just before it was to be posted to me I get a message with a photo saying he's discovered a few small marks.

The photo shows, what I think is fairly major damage. Two, what look like, window screen cracks on the back of the body probably about 1cm diameter. Another straight mark about 1cm long and some major cracking to the finish around the neck screw holes which look like it follows round to the side of the body. He says it's got natural checking, considering I wanted an unaged, unreliced body i'm not too crazy about it having cracks in the finish.

He seems surprised that I have an issue with this. I just wanted to ask if i'm being unreasonable in not accepting this when I ordered a brand new, unreliced, unaged, painted body?

I should also say that I have been refunded in full, but I didn't want that - I wanted the body I paid for in new condition.

danishbacon

I don’t think you’re being unreasonable. Find a different supplier and move on with life. 

Axe_meister

Warmoth have always come up tops for me.

goldtop

The fact that he got in touch with you shows what he really thinks. He knew you'd reject it if he had sent it as-is. 

Johnnyseven

danishbacon said:

I don’t think you’re being unreasonable. Find a different supplier and move on with life. 

That was my thinking, it's just when you've been looking forward to something for so long and the guy had no interest in doing another body to put it right that got me annoyed. All he had to do was do another one and i'd be happy.

KDS

er..... Move on

Johnnyseven

goldtop said:

The fact that he got in touch with you shows what he really thinks. He knew you'd reject it if he had sent it as-is. 

At least it saves me the hassle of having to post it back ;-)

Winny_Pooh

Either way, 7 months is bad. 

merlin

Not unreasonable at all. A product has to match its description. 

Bridgehouse

This thread is kinda useless without pics....?

PVO_Dave

Choose a new guitar body and get in touch with @lamf68  

WezV

Things go wrong with finishing sometimes, but that's not your problem if its not coming to you at the spec you wanted.


I have had to email a couple of customers about finish issues before to give some options when things haven't gone quite right.   First options are always to re do or refund, but sometimes it's worth checking what the customer thinks

One i had go wrong was a rush job at the wrong time of year.  It crazed beatifully, but wasn't what was asked for. Thankfully the customer liked the look as much as me and we carried on with an aged finish

One was when I had someone else spray a blackburst flamed maple tele body.   I forgot he was colourblind.   He used a purple tint instead of black for the main colour.    I did offer it to the customer as is, but wasn't surprised when he said no 

ennspek

Plenty of cowboys out there. You can get plenty of recommendations on here for next time.

Iamnobody

I think you were well within your rights to reject it and it sounds like the seller is overall decent and has refunded.

7 months is the unfortunate part. Has the seller offered to turn another around quickly for you? That would be great customer service.

goldtop

Bridgehouse said:

This thread is kinda useless without pics....?

True enough, but the OP can't report the photos without the copyright holder's permission. And I think we know how that conversation would go.

Johnnyseven

Iamnobody said:

I think you were well within your rights to reject it and it sounds like the seller is overall decent and has refunded.

7 months is the unfortunate part. Has the seller offered to turn another around quickly for you? That would be great customer service.

I knew there would be a wait when I ordered, it was a month, possibly 2, later than was quoted but with covid and other issues I wasn't too concerned about the 7 month wait.

I understand that things can go wrong but what annoys me is not being offered another body with a quick turnaround. I even told him I didn't want a refund and would rather wait for another body to be finished but he just wanted to wash his hands of it.

viz

Sell it to Harry 7 and get another one. 

Johnnyseven

goldtop said:

Bridgehouse said:

This thread is kinda useless without pics....?

True enough, but the OP can't report the photos without the copyright holder's permission. And I think we know how that conversation would go.

This.

WezV

Johnnyseven said:

Iamnobody said:

I think you were well within your rights to reject it and it sounds like the seller is overall decent and has refunded.

7 months is the unfortunate part. Has the seller offered to turn another around quickly for you? That would be great customer service.

I knew there would be a wait when I ordered, it was a month, possibly 2, later than was quoted but with covid and other issues I wasn't too concerned about the 7 month wait.

I understand that things can go wrong but what annoys me is not being offered another body with a quick turnaround. I even told him I didn't want a refund and would rather wait for another body to be finished but he just wanted to wash his hands of it.

I would assume whatever situation led to the original delay will also mean a quick turnaround just isn't an option.   If it was, you might have been offered it.

Bridgehouse

goldtop said:

Bridgehouse said:

This thread is kinda useless without pics....?

True enough, but the OP can't report the photos without the copyright holder's permission. And I think we know how that conversation would go.

I don't disagree. My point was more about the fact that we can't answer the OP's question - "Am I being unreasonable?" as there are so many factors at play - 

- What sort of finish?
- What angle/light was the photo taken at/in?
- Some may see it as very minor, others more major

and so on.. in this situation context is king and we don't have that context. 

Johnnyseven

WezV said:

Johnnyseven said:

Iamnobody said:

I think you were well within your rights to reject it and it sounds like the seller is overall decent and has refunded.

7 months is the unfortunate part. Has the seller offered to turn another around quickly for you? That would be great customer service.

I knew there would be a wait when I ordered, it was a month, possibly 2, later than was quoted but with covid and other issues I wasn't too concerned about the 7 month wait.

I understand that things can go wrong but what annoys me is not being offered another body with a quick turnaround. I even told him I didn't want a refund and would rather wait for another body to be finished but he just wanted to wash his hands of it.

I would assume whatever situation led to the original delay will also mean a quick turnaround just isn't an option.   If it was, you might have been offered it.

I think the delay was due to taking on too many orders over lockdown but now the issue could be getting hold of another body with covid/brexit delivery issues. If that is the case he only needed to explain that to me and I would have been ok with it. I'm in no rush for this, i've waited long enough already, i'd have been ok waiting another couple of months for another one to be done.