Customers!

[Enzo]

Dammit, I give up. I don't usually take deposits, and often if I need to order something and the gear is usable, I let the customer keep it while parts come.

REcently a guy brings in his Korg keyboard for warranty - the plastc button caps on the panel are broken. The switches underneath them are OK. Since each board is different, I don't stock any of that, and neither does Korg USA. OK, take it home and I will order the parts. I ordered the three sets of buttons, and Korg tells me it will be at least three weeks. Order placed on 9/12/7. They came in today. More like 6 weeks. Oh, and they came in two boxes, that means two shipping costs.

I call the customer to tell him his parts were in. He tells me he took it somewhere else, he was impatient. Thanks a lot. I now have parts I don't need and paid shippping on, against a warranty repair I won't get.

Did the "other place" have the parts? No. How long did they say it would take? "Six days to three weeks." Yeah right. WOnder what will happen when the three weeeks have come and gone.

Another guy came in Monday with a Korg Triton keyboard. SOme of the panel buttons don't work. There are like 40 buttons. He wants all of them replaced, not just the bad ones. (of which about 10) Oh yes, wants it Thursday. I;ll see what I can do. No one wil have 40 of these damned little switches. And I stock a pretty good selection of the things. Tuesday he calls and wants to know if it is ready. No, you just brought it in last night, and I am working on it now.

I find that a number of switches are worn out or physically collapsing, but also one of the plastic button caps - remember those? - sorry, different type - had been repaired by someone else. it has broken in two and was fixed by gluing the two halves together with epoxy. Of course now it won't flex and it can barely operate the tactile switch beneath. Got to order tactile switches and the biutton cap. I had none of the switch - of the size, actuator heighth, and lead pattern, I could cover any two of the three. And of course no plastic button cap. I fashioned a working button cap from some Roland equivalent. Looked funny but worked. I moved a couple rarely used switches into the heavy used positions and put the lame switches where they won't be a problem for now. ANd reassembled the thing so he could have it while parts were coming.

Wednesday he calls and wants to know if it is ready. I tell him it is together and I need to order parts, but he can play it in the mean time. How long will the parts be? A week more or less. How about if I just pay you for your work and take it? You don't want it fixed now? I'll take it somewhere else. At least I got an hour's labor out of him. DOn't know where he plans to go that will have 40 tactile switches in an unusual lead pattern in stock, accept a repair on three days notice and have it done in two, but best of luck.

[R.G.]

I did an article in my monthly column in Premier Guitar about why a good amp tech is valuable, why they're rare, and why you (i.e. the musician) should value them and treat them well when you find one.

I think I ought to do an article on dealing with musicians. Now that I think about it, making music is inherently an emotional process, and should be. The whole point is to get across the emotional qualities of the music inside your head to the people listening. I guess it only makes sense that musicians in general are much more emotionally driven than logic driven.

[JJGross]

What does that say about practicing musicians who also make stuff? ;D
Tom Scholz comes to mind as well as any number of others hanging around here.

Cheers,
- JJ

[bob p]

RG makes a good point about what its like to deal with musicians. In some respects I think that they represent a more difficult clientèle to deal with for people who are in the service industry.

I guess in some respects, I'm not surprised by how they responded to you, Enzo. Its not that I agree with them -- its just that I'm not surprised by their behavior. Musicians. Its not in their realm of knowledge to understand the details of what its like in dealing with a manufacturer on warranty claims. I'm sure that they have no idea that sometimes you have to deal with needing replacement parts that just aren't available anymore, or that you're in a situation where you're forced to do the best that you can by adapting commonly available parts to the task at hand.

What happens then? If you can't get the parts that are needed, the customer blames YOU. Its not so much that the parts aren't available, its that YOU can't get them. So they blame you for the problem and they go to someone else...

Then there's the problem of how they react when you can't get the parts, and you provide a "creative" solution to the problem using parts that are available. Although the repair may be perfect from a functional standpoint, and the equipment may be returned to proper functionality, if it does't LOOK right; you've performed a hack repair on their gear and that has taken away all of their Mojo. Then they label you as a hack, and you end up having the reputation of a shoemaker who's cobbled-up their highly prized gear and made it UGLY.

Sometimes you just can't win. The only solace for you comes from the fact that no matter where else they go, at best they're going to get the same answer that you gave them, and at worst they'll get an answer that is not as good as the answer that you gave them.

[Paleo Pete]

I'm sure that they have no idea that sometimes you have to deal with needing replacement parts that just aren't available anymore, or that you're in a situation where you're forced to do the best that you can by adapting commonly available parts to the task at hand.

Any idea how many times I've seen almost exactly this with computer repairs? Half you rpost or more actually, I've been building and repairing computers nearly 10 years, 8 or so of it as a job, and people in general are basically the same way about computers. You never know just how addicted you are to sitting in front of a computer until it's not there for a few days...I have no idea how many times I've told someone 3 or 4 days and they call the next morning wanting to know when they can pick it up.

I rarely let any one touch my guitars, and usually handle the majority of upkeep on my amps and effects too, although I'm nowhere near good at the amp/effects part. But when I do take one in I try to be reasonable and patient, I'm very familiar with that end of it and the hassles getting parts can be. Same for small engines, repaired them for a living for a couple of years too. Parts will drive you nutz in almost any repair effort, usually by the time it needs fixin' up it's old enough to be obsolete and parts - well, guess what? - obsolete...

So yeah, it can really suck especially when someone gets me to do the troubleshooting and not only do I find about half the time someone else has already made it worse, but once I dig in and find out what's wrong they want to take it home, pay me an hour and let their neighbor in law who "knows computers" replace the parts...that's usually who did half the damage to begin with, it's frustrating...

On the other hand, I've done similar, ask a technician to do the troubleshooting, and I'll pay for it, but let me do the soldering/parts replacing/crawling under the car getting greasy. I like to do it myself, so I know exactly what's been done and it's done right. But he knows that up front, always, I don't try to pull a quick one on anyone. And I always assume it will be gone bye bye for at least a week, or I don't even load it up.

[Enzo]

Had one guy, dropped his amp off before we closed one Friday evening. Then he called first thing Monday morning when we opened. Wanted to know if it was ready and could he pick it up. Well no, we have not worked on it yet. "WHAT!!! You've had it three days!!!"

[TD_Madden]

Guilty!

[bob p]

Had one guy, dropped his amp off before we closed one Friday evening. Then he called first thing Monday morning when we opened. Wanted to know if it was ready and could he pick it up. Well no, we have not worked on it yet. "WHAT!!! You've had it three days!!!"

its very irresponsivle of you to squander 72 hours like that, Enzo -- spending a weekend on something foolish like yourself, when you could have been using that oopportunity to fix his amplifier.

[Enzo]

I am a worthless piece of shit. Just ask my wife, she'll back me up on this.

[Sweetfinger]

ALWAYS get half down on any special order as a matter of course, even if it is an item you regularly stock, or have been planning on adding to inventory. Just explain that it is store policy. Half sounds reasonable to most people, and they often just pay the whole amount up front. Usually, they eventually come back for the item, too

In a situation where you don't know what the parts are going to be, do the diagnostics, then tell the customer that you have figured out what the item needs and will need the deposit BEFORE the parts are ordered.

This policy was developed by my former boss, who ran a music store for 30 years.

[Enzo]

And when it is warranty?

[Thorny]

When it is warranty don't give it back to them unless they pay a refundable deposit for the parts. You can't be left holding the bag like that.

Some people you will never make happy, and those are best taking their gear to someone else. Life is too short to work for an ( ! )

[Sweetfinger]

Had one guy, dropped his amp off before we closed one Friday evening. Then he called first thing Monday morning when we opened. Wanted to know if it was ready and could he pick it up. Well no, we have not worked on it yet. "WHAT!!! You've had it three days!!!"

This is, of course, the truncated version. The customer will usually say "You've had it for a week!" You then point out that the actual drop-off date was three days ago. "Well, You've had it for three days!...and you haven't even LOOKED at it?!!"

Then, the follow up:
"I've got gigs coming up. We're playing the (insert supermarket opening or other sweet local gig here) on friday night and I GOTTA have my amp!"
You tell him you'll at least try to open it up and have a look sometime today.

You ARE cynical and jaded, but not without some tiny remaining compassion. You feel sorry for this guy, so you open up the amp and poke around. it needs that one part that the manufacturer has hand chiseled in bulgaria from the remains of an Unobtanium meteorite. You call the manufacturer and they're backordered but are expecting their Bulgarian shipment in about 3 weeks (which means two months). You play it safe and tell them to call when they get them in.

You decide that you might get lucky, and spend 40 minutes calling every other repair place in town. Miracles do occur, and there's actually one of those parts across town. You call the customer and leave a message that you've looked at the amp, and it needs part "X", that the manufacturer is backordered, but you've found one in town and *could* have their amp in time for the gig, but it might cost a little more. They call back at 11pm with the message: "F%#& yeah, man! you're a lifesaver. DO IT! Whatever you gotta do, I gotta have my amp Friday!"

You think to yourself that you've been needing to run a couple errands on the other side of town, so you plan an excursion the next morning to pick up part "X" and whatever. After braving the crosstown traffic you're back in the office in the afternoon and get part "X" installed and everything's groovy. You call the customer and let him know that his amp will be ready for pickup tomorrow. "You are the greatest! I'll tell all my friends to take their gear here. I'll be there right after work, man. How much is it gonna be?" In your head, You've spent four hours of your life bending over backwards to pay your competition five bucks for this stupid part that normally costs three bucks from customer service. Whatever you quote, it will not be enough, but you reassure yourself that you're making a deposit at the Karma Bank, paying it forward, building a loyal customer base, or other similar platitude.

You tell him the cost. It doesn't matter what the price is, the answer he gives is always "$$ bucks?! That's a LOT more than I thought it would be. OK, I'll have to go to the bank to get some money out/have to get my paycheck cashed but I'll be there right at noon on Friday."

You know how the story ends if you've been in this business. Three weeks later, you're having your high school kid call all the repairs that haven't been picked up.....while staring at the guy's amp. At some point, the guy finally comes in and picks up his amp. There's about a 56% chance that he'll mention that the band broke up.

If you've been in this business for some time, you know the postscript too. Six months later there's a padded envelope on your desk with .....you know it.... Part "X" and a sticky note from one of your monkeys. "This came C.O.D. from UPS today but we don't know what its for. it was only eight bucks so we just went ahead and cut them a check.

No good deed goes unpunished.

[bob p]

great story. the COD at the end was a nice touch. let me ask -- you didn't make this up did you? all of this stuff actually happened to you at least once, right?

[Enzo]

"I gotta have an estimate - find out what it will cost before you do any work."

Well then how will I determine what it needs to make the estimate? of course I come up with something - $65 - and try for three days to get ahold of the guy to approve it. "Oh that's cool, I just didn't want to get a $300 repair bill." Well why didn't you say that to begin with. I could have bought you a new one and a practice amp for myself for $300.

Then there is the guy who has to have it by Thursday, I have it ready, and he comes to my counter, "Is my amp ready?" Yes, it is. "Oh good, um, I didn't bring any money with me..." Well, did you think it was gonna be free?

Or the kid who brings in an amp and wants an estimate, so I give the standard, how about a budget? "Oh I don't want to spend a lot of money." Well I charge pretty reasonable rates, what do you consider lots of money? "Oh I wouldn't want to spend more than $25." Well, here, then, take it to someone who charges less than twice that for minimum, and tell me who it is. I can see at least $15 in parts right off the bat.