Walt-In the Court of CommonSenseVille: Reasonably speaking, you had two choices:
(1) Send it back to the dealer that sold it to you.
(2) Send it to Collings since they built it.

You just can't expect to walk into a dealer's shop and demand service on a guitar you didn't purchase from them. Yours was NOT a warranty item. The action setting on a guitar is a subjective thing based on a player's desire.

I know you don't want to hear this. However, I would guess the consensus on this forum agrees with me. Time to move on and enjoy your guitar.

Oh my! I missed this entirely from the original post. I went back and re-read it, and indeed, Walt does acknowledge that the dealer DID DO THE ADJUSTMENT. For some reason I thought when I read this initially that he had been turned away, and even if that had been the case, as many of us pointed out earlier, that would have been understandable under the circumstances even as related by Walt. Given the additional info from this latest post, I'd say Mr. Stubblebine went well beyond the call of duty, and then to be trashed in the initial post, I can understand Mr. Stubblebine's anger. Beyond wierd.

This is an unusual thread but makes interesting reading. I'm not going to comment on the expectations vs. service thing. However, I would like to report an very recent experience of my own.

I brought my OM-2H into the location where I bought it This was about about 6 months ago. The guitar was bought in October 2003. Apparently, it was having a problem, some buzzing on the high E, and it was starting to bug me. Just on the a few frets, but nonetheless, a problem for me. They tried the easy way to fix it, with a shim, but that brought the action too high for me. It needed a new bridge saddle and maybe a tweak to the truss rod... plus it had dried out a bit too. Slightly sharp fret ends usually mean some drying has occurred and is probably still occurring

I got the guitar home with the shim still in and after 10 minutes simply hated playing it with the action so high. This guitar had played like a dream for 3 long years and now I wanted that back. So I removed the shim and played it with the buzz but did not use it for recording or performance. I also humidified the heck out of it all winter long with the sponge in the soap dish and sponge snake in the soundhole. The action improved a bit with the added humidity, the buzz diminished, but this was not a fix. It didn't play like it did when I first got it.

Options: I could bring it back in for a new bridge saddle, but first decided to call Collings. I talked with Alex, he said to just send it in. So now it's still in Austin and I imagine they will fix it there. My cost was $67 to ship it, which is cheaper than what it would cost me in gas, toll, time, and repair fees for a new bridge saddle. Collings will ship the guitar back for free, so I feel I'm getting the best possible service of all my options. I could care less about the $67 if this guitar comes back in top playing condition.

Hey, after 3 years and 6 months with this guitar, it has performed well for me but does need a little loving care from its maker.

quote:

BETTER Source

i certainly understand the initial (very initial) frustration. been there myself, natch. however: BETTER source or CHEAPER source? often not the same thing, in my experience. first and foremost when i'm looking for quality (in any item) of the kind that collings delivers, i'm looking for a guitar first. not a deal.

i am also looking for quality in service. looks like you got that in spades.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: ptoverly,

...busted

Walt,
This is the kind of crap that drives me crazy each and every day of my life with my own business, and all I have to say is you got what you paid for... PERIOD! Cheaper does not mean "BETTER", and you have obviously learned that lesson through this whole ordeal. By gravitating to the lowest common denominator, YOU made the choice that price was more important than service. Yet, you begin this thread by whining and complaining about something you did not pay for in the first place from either the dealer you're trashing in this thread or the dealer you bought the guitar from in the first place, which is SERVICE. How ironic is that?

I have a few questions of my own. First, I need to know what makes YOU so special and important that you feel the dealer YOU chose not to do business with should be required to drop everything they are doing on a busy Saturday and help you out by fixing a problem that seems could have been fixed by anyone skilled enough to tweak a truss rod and adjust a saddle? If you showed up at a car dealer unannounced (one you didn't buy the car from I might add) and demanded an oil change, tire rotation and alignment, would they do it on the spot? I think not. Second, did you buy your "9" previous Collings from this dealer? Based on your statements, I doubt it. Third, was your guitar shipped to you like this, and if it was, then why not call the dealer you bought it from and complain to them or better yet, why not ship it back to them in the first place? Heck, why not call BC and complain to him about the setup and action and see what his suggestions are to alleviate the problem? Finally, should we really be impressed that you drove up to Lexington from the Cape? My drive to the same dealer is about as far as you have, but you don't see me making an issue of it. I just don't get it... I hope the few hundred dollars you saved by not supporting you local dealer was worth it. If it was not for your local dealer whom you trashed in your posts, you would have had no where to bring your precious new Collings to in the first place for these adjustments. If they were as bad as you are making them out to be, they would have told you to pound sand and sent you on your way. Did the door hit you in the ass on the way out? It appears that it did not, since they did do the adjustments (for free right?) and handed the guitar back to you with a smile on their faces. So once again I don't get it... why the disrespect and trash talk about this dealer? If your new Collings is so important to you, based on what the repair technician said you should be taking better care of the thing.

I must also add that I've been told that Collings has a contract with their dealers that sets a "minimum" price on their new guitars based on a "maximum" allowed discount, and I am guessing that whom ever sold you the guitar broke this contractual agreement with Collings if they beat the price at the dealer you keep referring to. They can and should loose their dealership for doing that. Had the dealer in question met or even beat the price the other internet dealer gave you, they could have lost their dealership with Collings, and based on your actions and words here on this site, you are definitely not worth that. You say that Bill should call his dealers and have a serious discussion with them about how they treat his customers??? Well, maybe Bill should call some of his customers and have some serious discussions with them about how they should support and treat their local dealers?

Amen brother!

Whenever I bring a guitar in for tweaks, repairs, pickup installations, whatever... I first call to make an appointment to see if they'll have enough time that day to look at it. I tell them what is wrong, what I think needs to be done, and sometimes I have to leave it there and pick it up a week or two later. Or maybe reschedule to a slow night, like a Wednesday evening to bring the guitar in if I want it back that same day. I always try to accomodate the guy doing the fixing and his schedule.

ALSO... LET'S TRY TO REMEMBER THAT WE ARE MUSICIANS, AND THAT IT'S NICE TO BE ABLE TO PLAY AN INSTRUMENT, IN FACT IT'S MORE LIKE A PRIVILEDGE. So, maybe I'm happy that I'm a guitarist and not the guy behind the desk who has to look at 30 guitars a day and try to fix them. But I am always respectful to the person who has that job and very thankful that they are there to fix things when they go bad.

quote:

drove up to Lexington from the Cape

that explains it. i went to boarding school in concord for one year (a million years ago). that area was enough to make anybody mean.

There are as this story unfolds 2 sides as there almost always are. I'm sure that when Collings first sent this guitar to it's dealer it was in excellent playing condition. Unfortunately having traveled probably at least 2 times through less then stellar weather and humidity conditions and being new the guitar more then likely changed from that great factory setup. That's not a big thing having been there myself.

I'm not here to judge if Walt was wrong in expecting the dealer to drop everything to setup his guitar but I do hope that he called before making the trip. I've been to the Cape and wouldn't dream of going out to eat on a Saturday night without first making a reservation, unless my last name was Kennedy.

Take a deep breath and I'm sure everything will be okay, heck I'd even call the local dealer to apoligize for the misunderstanding. A little tact goes a long way and besides you never know when you might need there services again. Enjoy your new guitar it looks sweet.

Best,
Papple

Peter: Boarding school AND Stanford! Wow. And yet you turned out remarkably human. It's breakfast at Nora's, or maybe Sundays at the Coach. Go Bears. Maybe I'll see you this summer. We'll be on Antelope Flats toward the end of August into the beginning of September. You live there. I try not to resent that, with varying success. Happy Easter.

quote:

Maybe I'll see you this summer.

hey tom. one year of boarding school. i hated it. but on the bright side, it over-prepared me for the one nite i spent in the teton county jail (and fortunately, like jack lawrence says, "i don't need the whiskey anymore.")