Anyone had a set up from J White Guitars in Ash Vale?

BlueStrat

I feel sick to my stomach reading this story and seeing those pics. Gutted for you. 

I hope you are able to get restitution in some form

Fishboy7

What a saga.  Accidents do happen and we've all made cock ups at work.  But the right thing to do would be for them to just purchase the guitars from you.  If they can complete the remedial work to a decent standard they would get most of their money back and their reputation would remain intact.  

Trying to wriggle out of it and shift the blame is the worst bit.  

EduardoFalicioni

Fishboy7 said:

What a saga.  Accidents do happen and we've all made cock ups at work.  But the right thing to do would be for them to just purchase the guitars from you.  If they can complete the remedial work to a decent standard they would get most of their money back and their reputation would remain intact.  

Trying to wriggle out of it and shift the blame is the worst bit.  

That’s would make such sense right… pressure off all concerned… but no…. 

It all reminds me about this old adage that my grandmother used to say to me: “young man… that makes about as much sense, as neck inserts in a guitar body…” 

she wasn’t wrong 

EduardoFalicioni

Fishboy7 said:

What a saga.  Accidents do happen and we've all made cock ups at work.  But the right thing to do would be for them to just purchase the guitars from you.  If they can complete the remedial work to a decent standard they would get most of their money back and their reputation would remain intact.  

Trying to wriggle out of it and shift the blame is the worst bit.  

Yep - insult upon insult after injury 

sev112

Terrible terrible situation
what concerns me at the moment is whether his “standard contractual terms and conditions” don’t in fact give you compensation other than he has the right to repair the work .  Now that sounds appalling in a variety of ways in this case but these are usually the kinds of contract terms used.

hopefully he has insurance, because if you do take him to small claims court, it will be his insurance which covers it, but sadly many don’t actually have this (it is not a legal requirement) and will find it easier to go bankrupt.

I would make an estimate of the damages you have received, and then give him written notice of intent to go to the small claims court as your first course of action.  give him the 2 weeks period to agree a satisfactory compensation, or at that point you will submit the claim.

good luck

EduardoFalicioni

sev112 said:

Terrible terrible situation
what concerns me at the moment is whether his “standard contractual terms and conditions” don’t in fact give you compensation other than he has the right to repair the work .  Now that sounds appalling in a variety of ways in this case but these are usually the kinds of contract terms used.

hopefully he has insurance, because if you do take him to small claims court, it will be his insurance which covers it, but sadly many don’t actually have this (it is not a legal requirement) and will find it easier to go bankrupt.

I would make an estimate of the damages you have received, and then give him written notice of intent to go to the small claims court as your first course of action.  give him the 2 weeks period to agree a satisfactory compensation, or at that point you will submit the claim.

good luck

Hello there; he has no T’s and C’s that I am aware of, and you sign nothing at the consultation 

Rich31k

sev112 said:

Terrible terrible situation
what concerns me at the moment is whether his “standard contractual terms and conditions” don’t in fact give you compensation other than he has the right to repair the work .  Now that sounds appalling in a variety of ways in this case but these are usually the kinds of contract terms used.

hopefully he has insurance, because if you do take him to small claims court, it will be his insurance which covers it, but sadly many don’t actually have this (it is not a legal requirement) and will find it easier to go bankrupt.

I would make an estimate of the damages you have received, and then give him written notice of intent to go to the small claims court as your first course of action.  give him the 2 weeks period to agree a satisfactory compensation, or at that point you will submit the claim.

good luck

All consumer contracts contain the implied term that the work will be carried out with “reasonable care and skill”. A trader cannot restrict this implied term. So there’s a breach of contract there without thinking about a claim for negligence (tort). 

darthed1981

Sounds like the guy is at least liable to pay the bill for a repair at a competent luthiers - no reasonable third party would expect you to hand over the instruments again to the same guy.. surely?

This should actually be the basis of a new forum FAQ answer - the impact of this batch of work was so much worse because the guy basically seems to have set about the OP's collection of extremely expensive instruments all at once like he was a torturer in one of the hostel movies.

When trying a new tech or luthier out - try them with one guitar only first and if it's this guy - send them a Harley Benton!

Best of luck to the OP getting this resolved, clearly the guitars mean a lot to you apart from the intrinsic value and this just isn't fair.

Guitartacus

I had a similar but smaller scale experience with h J White in 2019. Sat through the patronising consultation and left my prized Japanese Hybrid Strat with him for a set-up and to sort out some fret sprout. Picked it up a week later. The set-up and fret work was great, but he'd decided, without consulting me first, to drill out the pickguard to be able to "accurately adjust the truss rod under tension". I was gutted. Mentioned I wasn't happy about it and was told it's what everybody does to Strats. No acknowledgement that I should have been asked, that it was wrong or offer to make it right. Wouldn't ever use him again. 

This should be a picture of the damage
https://flic.kr/p/2pWMrxH

Was hoping to make a cheerier first post, but...

EduardoFalicioni

Guitartacus said:

I had a similar but smaller scale experience with h J White in 2019. Sat through the patronising consultation and left my prized Japanese Hybrid Strat with him for a set-up and to sort out some fret sprout. Picked it up a week later. The set-up and fret work was great, but he'd decided, without consulting me first, to drill out the pickguard to be able to "accurately adjust the truss rod under tension". I was gutted. Mentioned I wasn't happy about it and was told it's what everybody does to Strats. No acknowledgement that I should have been asked, that it was wrong or offer to make it right. Wouldn't ever use him again. 

This should be a picture of the damage
https://flic.kr/p/2pWMrxH

Was hoping to make a cheerier first post, but...

He was pressing me to let him cut a notch out of the anodized pickguard on my blonde b-bender at the consultation, but I flatly refused. Explaining that  I simply unscrew the pickguard and slide it out under the strings, when I want to adjust my trussrod with my stewmac tool. He then wanted to disassemble the Seymour Duncan antiquity mini humbucker, to change it from braided wiring to 4 conductor.

as for the patronising manner - it’s unbelievable - did you experience him rubbishing other people’s work? No ones as good as him 

EduardoFalicioni

I hope more people see this and speak up; I have a feeling we’re not alone 

Alex2678

Guitartacus said:

I had a similar but smaller scale experience with h J White in 2019. Sat through the patronising consultation and left my prized Japanese Hybrid Strat with him for a set-up and to sort out some fret sprout. Picked it up a week later. The set-up and fret work was great, but he'd decided, without consulting me first, to drill out the pickguard to be able to "accurately adjust the truss rod under tension". I was gutted. Mentioned I wasn't happy about it and was told it's what everybody does to Strats. No acknowledgement that I should have been asked, that it was wrong or offer to make it right. Wouldn't ever use him again. 

This should be a picture of the damage
https://flic.kr/p/2pWMrxH

Was hoping to make a cheerier first post, but...

Drilled into the body there as well, and doesn’t look anything like the Strat truss scoop he was aiming for. Not that it would have been ok otherwise 

TTony

EduardoFalicioni said:

I hope more people see this and speak up; I have a feeling we’re not alone 

Mr White is clearly not on top of his social media profile.  

Else he thinks a thread like this, with the ranking that Google gives it, is not important.

Either is a mistake.

EduardoFalicioni

Alex2678 said:

Guitartacus said:

I had a similar but smaller scale experience with h J White in 2019. Sat through the patronising consultation and left my prized Japanese Hybrid Strat with him for a set-up and to sort out some fret sprout. Picked it up a week later. The set-up and fret work was great, but he'd decided, without consulting me first, to drill out the pickguard to be able to "accurately adjust the truss rod under tension". I was gutted. Mentioned I wasn't happy about it and was told it's what everybody does to Strats. No acknowledgement that I should have been asked, that it was wrong or offer to make it right. Wouldn't ever use him again. 

This should be a picture of the damage
https://flic.kr/p/2pWMrxH

Was hoping to make a cheerier first post, but...

Drilled into the body there as well, and doesn’t look anything like the Strat truss scoop he was aiming for. Not that it would have been ok otherwise 

Yet again; rough and amateurish:(

Alex2678

That’s unfair to the amateurs out there doing rough work 

mrkb

Alex2678 said:

That’s unfair to the amateurs out there doing rough work 

wow, Sounds like Mr white went to the Ian Elson school of fine luthiery - what a cowboy!

victorludorum

I imagine that the 6 month waiting list is getting shorter.

BlueStrat

Guitartacus said:

I had a similar but smaller scale experience with h J White in 2019. Sat through the patronising consultation and left my prized Japanese Hybrid Strat with him for a set-up and to sort out some fret sprout. Picked it up a week later. The set-up and fret work was great, but he'd decided, without consulting me first, to drill out the pickguard to be able to "accurately adjust the truss rod under tension". I was gutted. Mentioned I wasn't happy about it and was told it's what everybody does to Strats. No acknowledgement that I should have been asked, that it was wrong or offer to make it right. Wouldn't ever use him again. 

This should be a picture of the damage
https://flic.kr/p/2pWMrxH

Was hoping to make a cheerier first post, but...

That’s cut into the fretboard too! WTF!

OilCityPickups

Guitartacus said:

I had a similar but smaller scale experience with h J White in 2019. Sat through the patronising consultation and left my prized Japanese Hybrid Strat with him for a set-up and to sort out some fret sprout. Picked it up a week later. The set-up and fret work was great, but he'd decided, without consulting me first, to drill out the pickguard to be able to "accurately adjust the truss rod under tension". I was gutted. Mentioned I wasn't happy about it and was told it's what everybody does to Strats. No acknowledgement that I should have been asked, that it was wrong or offer to make it right. Wouldn't ever use him again. 

This should be a picture of the damage
https://flic.kr/p/2pWMrxH

Was hoping to make a cheerier first post, but...

That's an awful standard of work - no smoothing to the wrongly shaped cut, and as someone else said ... the neck has been nicked too. 
I personally scoop all my own Strat Scratch plates on heel adjusting necks as I feel ease of maintenance and adjustment trumps looks ... they are tools to make music with after all .... but in this case .... just doing the work without consulting the customer is not on. 
As @TTony says, clearly nobody J White Guitars has an eye on their online rep or they would have seen this thread due to the Fretboards hugely high Google ranking..  

Alex2678

As well as the fact that he didn’t ask, the scoop being the wrong shape, the chunk he’s taken out of the body and the nick in the neck, the truss rod looks pretty chewed up