Mail Order

I dare say somewhat of a surprise to many  but I no longer offer a mail order service – Based on the fact that for many dealers, mail order generates the highest % of sales – As an old fashioned retailer, who was brought up in the days when 100% of your business was as a result of a showroom visit , I’ve always preferred this option – Yet I’ve acquired a number of customers who have ‘become friends’ and in many cases I have never actually met these customers – But somehow you still create a nice bond over the phone – But and it is a huge BUT – In the last 3 years I have been stung for around 10K on 3 different transaction – I think I’m quite savvy and aware of many fraudulent issues, but these guys are getting better – And unfortunately I’ve lost 3 guitars and £10,000 in the last 3 years – For a small business this hurts big time – Unfortunately the police are 100% a pain on this and not interested one little bit – On top of that, I’ve never been a fan of the 14 day return period – Effectively a 14 day trial – In many cases it was not an issue as a) returns were not that frequent and b) customers would update me about any return within an hour or so from evaluating the guitar – Nearly always, any returns were based on feel, tone, playability, which I fully appreciate, as against a defective product – So who needs 14 days to evaluate a guitar – But today, it has now got to the stage whereby many ‘new customers’ are taking the piss – I can’t argue against the law and your rights, but equally I don’t have to join the battle – I even had a case recently, of a customer returning  a 60’s ‘vintage guitar’ – But on inspection I realised they had taken off the original tuners, replaced them with some ‘aged’ replicas and hoping I wouldn’t notice – I assume to keep the original tuners for his own needs – Maybe they’d get away with it whereby the shop employers a ‘junior’ member of staff for unpacking returns etc as they’d probably not notice – At first they denied such an issue, claiming that is how they received it, but fortunately the before and after pics were good enough to please the credit card company and I won the battle, but it was a long winded ‘fight’ with both the customer and card company  – So I got back the original tuners before I issued the refund – In short I don’t need such sales and battles.