Dealing With Dishonest Customers

[Joe Gwinn]

This may not be true in your case but I've never heard of an honest pickup winder. They lie about their products tone and over charge on every one sold.

Troll Alert!

Do NOT feed the troll.

[David Schwab]

Troll Alert!

Do NOT feed the troll.

Yeah, his statement isn't even logical or true, since I think we can be quite positive that he has not "heard of" every pickup maker.

But that's why we post sound clips, right? They don't lie.

[kevinT]

Troll Alert!

Do NOT feed the troll.

No doubt....but i benefited too..I got a good rant out of my system...great relief...sort of like taking a good dump.

[Joe Gwinn]

But that's why we post sound clips, right? They don't lie.

How do we know that the clip is really you?

[David Schwab]

How do we know that the clip is really you?

details... details...


I guess the more different your pickups sound the better.

[Ruel]

This may not be true in your case but I've never heard of an honest pickup winder. They lie about their products tone and over charge on every one sold.

Now this is real cute. Boy, are you in for it!

[Brock Little]

I've worked in the sales industry for a long time, selling computers, cars, industrial equipment, services and real estate. There's an old phrase in the industry...

"All buyers are liars."

In my experience, professional salespeople are generally honest and hard working, and are not out to rip everyone off. You do come across the odd individual who tarnishes the image, but I've seen a damn sight more dishonest customers. I have never, nor have I ever seen a colleague actually try to rip someone off, but barely a day goes by without seeing a customer lie to a salesman and try to rip them off.
But is it really wrong to try and cheat someone you think is dishonest? For instance, what do you think about used car salesmen? Most car salesmen have heard all the lies before. They're not easily fooled.

Think about this the next time you're buying a car and bargaining for a better trade in on your old s#!tbox!

[Mystic]

This may not be true in your case but I've never heard of an honest pickup winder. They lie about their products tone and over charge on every one sold.

This may not be true in your case but This is a common misconception many pedophiles have.

[Zhangliqun]

Troll Stomp...! Troll Stomp...! Troll Stomp...!

[Robert M. Martinelli]

Pickup specs

Hi,
well' it amazes me how the discussion' s got off the rail, Kevin is probably right assuming there are some unfair costomers around, probably badams had a bad experience with some pickup winder, on the other hand when I see comments like "90 percent of the people are S*#t!" i start worrying, if this was true I could assume that 90 percent of this forum' s members are s*#t as well, which i obviously don' t.... So, I would advise everyone to cool down.....
I would say that 90 percent of the people are wonderful, and I keep on thinking the other 10 percent could mend their ways, but I still consider myself an uncorregible dreamer! How I managed to survive this long is still a mystery to me....

Going back to "business", my humble advice would be to do something indeed very easy to do : a pickup can be considered a RLC circuit, so every pickup maker/winder should declare the exact electrical values of every ( type of ) pickup he/she is selling, I' m talking about Inductance, parasitic capacitance, DC resistance, along with peak resonance, output, bandwidth ( with no load AND with at least a 47KOhm Z load, declaring them only when no load is connected is obviously useless ). Then he/she could add his/her comments and sensations about the way that particular pickup sounds....This way there could be space for BOTH phisical/electrical factors ( which are undisputable ) AND sensations/taste/perceptions ( which are as we all know, very variable ) ; as a matter of fact all the major brands only agree on publishing incomplete/conflicting data sheets, confusing people. Maybe it' s just that TRUTH and MARKETING are conflicting words, aren' t they?
Peace
Bob

[SK66]

I don't know the specs of my pickups until AFTER they are individually made.

Replace the pickup(s) and write it off. If you want guarantees, forget it. Best you can do is get signature upon delivery. And forget about insurance, it will cost you more than you will use it (for pickups anyways) and it's a huge pain to collect *IF* you do manage to collect.

[David Schwab]

I don't know the specs of my pickups until AFTER they are individually made.

I wont even bother to post specs because of that reason. They are misleading at best. Knowing that a pickup is 12K doesn't tell you a damn thing about what it sounds like!

[chevalij]

Do you think the average customer would have a clue about Inductance, Q or resonant peaks? For the guys that build buckers, the average question is probably "can you wind me something hot, around 14k?" I do singles and all I get is "can you do Gilmour". It would be a waste of effort.

[Robert M. Martinelli]

David, Chevalij, I understand your point, and yes, you' re probably right when you say that most customers don' t have an idea of the meaning of such parameters, on the other hand I don' t think it would harm measuring the specs and maybe give a rough explanation about their meaning, this way people could stop asking questions like " can you do me Gilmour... or Vai, or Satriani, or Gambale or..... And complimenting the specs, as I suggested, with "impressions" about tone or character, and maybe adding a CD-ROM with some samples would do a great job.... most customers would appreciate it, all customers would benefit from it, a well informed customer is a better customer....
Anyway, these are only suggestions, I didn' t mean to tell anyone how to do their job, only thought these were useful hints to have a better relationship with customers and have them better appreciate your work....
Regards
Bob

[Spence]

This may not be true in your case but I've never heard of an honest pickup winder. They lie about their products tone and over charge on every one sold.

Can you give us some examples?

To give you a free hand in this, take a look at my website at www.shedpickups.co.uk.

Tell me what you think is a lie and an explanation and by all means query the prices.