GOOD customer service

Lounge
1

this could go off the rails quickly, but let’s see where it goes. we all have tales about bad (sometimes legendarily bad) customer service. i could tell a few myself. the problem is, i always think that bad service can sometimes be a fluke, one bad egg type of thing and then you wind up slamming publicly an overall good place. and sure, i guess you could say the same thing about good customer service too. but i thought it might be cool to give props to places that have done us right. so let’s try to keep on the positive side here.

for me, i have 2. just got off the phone with sweetwater because i ordered a cable and they sent the wrong one. they have already got the new one out to me, and told me to keep the patch cables they mistakenly sent me. this is not uncommon with them, they have always gone above and beyond with me. the other for me is cioks, the power supply guys. they have somewhat confusing instructions IMO for their products, which is bad. but they will always answer any emails, usually blazingly fast and don’t mind if you send them repeat questions, they go out of their way to explain everything. outstanding.

7 Likes
2

I love SweetH2O customer service!

5 Likes
3

I ordered a bass from them, and opened the box to find a completely different instrument. They overnighted a replacement. this is how service should work

5 Likes
4

I have had excellent customer service from Sweetwater as well . . . :slight_smile:

No complaints here!

Cheers
Joe

3 Likes
5

They do have legendary customer service.

3 Likes
6

I ordered a PRS custom 24 from Sweetwater a while back with this cushioned gig bag my guitar arrived but the bag didn’t so they upgraded my case and sent me a tweed PRS hardshell case next day air. I have nothing but props for them.

5 Likes
7

Just off a Zoom with Frank from Bestbassgear.

I’ve been solving for the electronics replacement on the MIJ Fender HMT (a tricky thing as someone drilled a 4th hole and wanted to utilize it) and have given up with Bartollini (who have now sent the wrong buffer to me twice via Sweetwater, because the distributor apparently can’t tell their models apart).

It took Frank a while to sort but stuck with it and set up a zoom to look at the cavity. Go through all the parts, etc and had them all picked out and in front of him and in my cart already.

We talked through the solution, I liked it, and on its way (all this on a Saturday no less). To me this is great customer service. I think I’m these covid times fast customer service is a thing of the past, so the good follow through if great.

On another great customer service story…Gamechanger. Their new Reverb pedal has a glitch in the wiring (a few actually) which I alerted them to. The whole first batch of pedals has the glitch. They worked with me to troubleshoot and told me when they solved for it they would contact me. Sure enough a few weeks later (Yesterday actually) they emailed and said the new batch was ready to go and would send it directly to me without the hassle of going the through sweetwater and waiting for it to go to them and then to me.

Good customer service week after all.

8 Likes
8

Received the fixed version of the Light Pedal today from Gamechanger….shipped by air direct from LATVIA, with a return DHL label for my incorrectly wired one back to them.

WOW.

5 Likes
9

I have had great luck with the folks at Stringjoy. It’s a small shop in Nashville that will custom wind just about anything you want. I have their strings on all 5 of my guitars and now their standard 50-105 nickel wounds on my P-bass. Really great customer service and their website has a wealth of information.

3 Likes
10

I just got off the phone with a tech support fellow at Sweetwater, and I’m delighted.
I received my Arturia Keylab MIDI controller today, and was having a terrible time installing the software for it. I’m no rookie when it comes to Windows and computers and software in general, but this one had me pulling out my hair. I threw in the towel and sent a support request to Arturia, but being the impatient person I am, I called Sweetwater support.
Jon at Sweetwater was patient, knowledgeable, and extremely helpful. He took control of my computer with a remote app, and patiently worked through several different scenarios of what might be causing the problem. After an hour on the phone with him, he finally isolated the problem and corrected it. It’s so refreshing to talk to someone who’s not condescending, listens to the customer, and knows what to do. He got it done.
Another reason to buy from SweetH2O. It’s more than just the candy.

4 Likes
11

Excellent.

I find their reps to be outstanding in general. A company that understands customer service is important.

Listen up knuckleheads at Guitar Center stores

3 Likes
12

Exactly why I no longer shop there, even though there are several stores within reasonable proximity of me.

13

A shout out to EMG. I have done several orders from them now, and it has been great. They state they wind the pickups per order, and it may take 10-14 business days to ship, but everything has been shipped out in 2 or 3 days so far.

Here’s the good service part - today I received an email regarding a recent order, and it in part read:

Every guitar is different and installing electronics can be challenging. If we can help, please email us at tech@emgpickups.com or call (707)525-9941 and let’s get you taken care of!

What more could you ask for?

3 Likes
14

I called them with a question on the active Bello pickup set and they were super helpful then too.

2 Likes
15

A follow up from my previous post regarding the Arturia Keylab MIDI controller…

I’ve had a few minor issues of which I have sent support requests to Arturia, and in every instance I have received almost instantaneous response from a support person at the company. This is practically unheard of in todays, “Due to covid we cant help you, so f*ck off” mentality of most companies.
After my dreadful experience with M-Audio (they still haven’t responded to my 4 support requests), its really nice to own a product made by a company like Arturia that actually provides customer service.
I am so glad I unloaded that POS M-Audio Oxygen (and the company behind it), and got the Arturia MIDI controller.
Kudos to this company.

3 Likes
16

That sucks you had such a bad experience with M-Audio. I love Arturia as well. You probably got some software bundled with your keyboard too. I know Arturia usually hooks you up there.

2 Likes
17

So, here is a story about good customer service. Note that I haven’t installed these pups in my Peavey bass yet, but the service was exceptional.

A week ago Tuesday, I went to www.dragonfireguitars.com and ordered a set of their split coil AlNiCo jazz bass pups. These ones:
Dragonfire Split Coil AlNiCo Humbucking Jazz Bass Pickup Set, Color Choice

Not only did they send them the same day (tracking number, invoice, the works), but they also responded to an emailed enquiry within an hour of EOD that same Tuesday. I received the package today at noon.

As I said, I’m not speaking to the quality (that remains to be seen) but the level of service is great.

2 Likes
18

Oh man this is perfect thread for me.
So my local shops. Worst thing ever. Us Balkan people are known to have a temper, but when you make a living out of something you make sure your clients are happy.

So my first bass, bought it, didn’t know crap what to look for, got home took it out was happy. Action was nuts, and once I learned how to bring it down I noticed fret buzz. I contacted them for see if they have somebody who could do professional setup for me?Nope. Can I exchange it for another one cause of fret buzz? Nope. And plus to that is that sellers dont know crap about gear they sell. Once I was shopping for new amp, and theres was this Lirevo 12’'80 watt I bought, some chinese made. And the seller was, yah these amps are better than Marshalls. I was looking at him with this expression on my face like “Are you taking me for an idiot?”.

Then recently I bought some strings from them for my Mustang. I bought 5-er strings 125-45 to experiment with gauges on shortie. Once I got home and started changing strings I noticed 2 of 5 strings had smaller balls at the end, and would just fall through the bridge. Aight I was like I can wrap them through hole in the ball like on classic guitar but issue was one small ball was on E string (gauge 105) and I couldnt pull string through ball hole cause it was too small. I called them, they said they cant do anything about it. Awesome customer service.

Then once again recently I contacted local Yamaha shop, yes I have it, to ask them about prices for BB series. For example BB734A at their place costs a bit over 1100 euros. And I was like wtf you are official Yamaha shop why is it so expensive? I said I found it at neighbour country for 700 euros + taxes 17% of a price + delivery 20 euros and asked them why is it so expensive? They just told me to order it from that shop. Prior to that I bought 2 guitars from those people (neighbouring country) and they have good customer service, they will test out the instrument before shipping to make sure you don’t have to return it. Also if you find better price than theirs they will sell you by that price.

Luckily recently we got official Fender distributor here, which is also distributor for EBMM, it’s a quite small shop, I didn’t even know about them before, but they are so nice and superb in customer service. I was bothering them for days, and they were happy to answer my every stupid question.

And also most you know about that fiasco of mine with Dutch retailer when I bought Mustang.

So I’m not filling pockets of my locals anymore, guess dont like to make money, I’m just ordering stuff and giving money to retailers who care about my cash.

3 Likes
19

Sounds like a good retailer.
Care to share their details for us Europeans?

20

I don’t know where in the Balkans you are, but that approach to customer service (or more accurately, intruder disservice) seems to hold true for the post-communiust economies (even though it’s been 30 years). I spent 15 years on and off in Poland, and it was rare indeed to meet a business owner actually glad to have a customer, rather than treat him like a somewhat necessary annoyance. In the worst case, I actually heard “Fuck off, I’m busy.” This was also across the board: restaurants, government offices (ESPECIALLY government offices), the dean’s office where I did grad school, stores, retailers, you name it.

1 Like