Sweetwater Music Sound Inc. HH Jaguar defective, Used (unbeknown at the time). Not honest company to deal with. Fort Wayne Indiana

Upon receiving my letter via fax. Doug Strahm had called me. Outcome of situation. I was to return my jaguar for full refund. And sweetwater will remove p/'u's and bridge i had replaced and send back to me. Today is July 23rd. and all the above has been said and done.
I thank sweetwater for making good on thier word.
Problem has been resolved mutally and customer is satisfied.
thank you,

Unfortunately this post is full of inaccurate information. In all fairness to the customer, it appears that she is only posting or repeating the information that she has been given by other parties. Sweetwater does care about customer service and wins awards for outstanding service before, during and after the sale. Below are the facts of how we are addressing this issue and resolving it for the customer. Normally I would not post or reply to these types of messages however I've asked this customer to remove or modify her post but it hasn't happened.

Here are the facts:

The guitar is not used or ten years old. Fender is now involved and has offered to contact the customer to let her know that they shipped this serial number to us at the end of 2008 and that the HH series was not even around ten years ago. Her allegations that we "cleaned it up to appear that way" is not true. We sold her a new guitar and it's unfortunate that she had problems with it however there are no records where the customer contacted Sweetwater to address the issue up front. Instead she took it to a local Luthier who was not a Fender authorized service center, and had the pick-up replaced and repair work performed.

The customer was upset that the guitar did not come with a manual or registration card. Upon hearing this, we immediately contacted Fender to have the proper doc's sent. Customer also told us that she paid a local shop to repair the guitar so we refunded her the cost incurred.

Three months later... we are informed how upset the customer is about all the issues above, spoke to her Sales Engineer who assured her we would get all of this taken care of.

I've contacted this customer and explained the above and offered to fix it or refund her. She is not interested in fixing it but wants a refund.

The customer threw away the original packing so Sweetwater is sending her a replacement box to send the guitar back in and once received, we will remove her pick-ups, re-install the factory pick-ups, send her back her pick-ups and refund her money. All of this at no cost to her. This is how we handle customer service. I hope this customer understands that most companies would walk away from this once she took it upon herself to have the guitar repaired on modified by a non authorized service center. However Sweetwater is truly a customer advocate and we have already spoken to Fender about these issues and they have agreed to partner with us to resolve this for the customer.

I just wish the customer would have given us the opportunity up front to either fix or replace the guitar once she identified problems. We would have gladly and immediately sent an advance replacement to her and brought the potentially defective guitar back and no cost to her. This is the way we take care of customers and always have. We've been in business for over 30 years because of this quality of service and have a great reputation in the industry for it.


Doug Strahm
Director of Customer Service
Sweetwater

I was contacted by Debbie in Deltona Florida regarding the guitar in question, and I spoke to her about that model of guitar discussing details and price, and she eventually made the purchase from me. When Debbie received it, she said there were problems.

She said that the guitar did not contain the documentation or manual, so I checked with the manufacturer who claimed that they do not include manuals with those guitars. She also said that the set up on her guitar was not to her liking... In fact, she claimed that our guitar inspection and set up had not been done. I cannot speak directly to that, since I did not watch it being done, however, it is our policy to inspect each guitar and make sure it is set up in a good playable condition before we ship it. (As far as I know, Sweetwater is the only online dealership that does this!). I make the assumption, when I sell a guitar to one of my customers, that this is done. I personally know our luthiers and know them to be competent and caring about their work.

Debbie insisted that the set up was not right, so I got clearance to pay for her local luthier to do a set up on the guitar. We sent her $45 to have that done. Again, I wonder if any other online dealership would have done that. As far as I knew from that point on, Debbie was satisfied that I had taken care of her, though she was disappointed with the experience.

A few days ago, I suddenly got a message that Debbie had called on a day that I was not in the office, claiming that we had been giving her the run around. After having no contact for about four months, I wondered what was meant by this.

She claimed that I did not care about her and the fact that she had said she had a bad experience with us and would never buy a guitar from us again. My view of this was that I had done everything she asked me to do, and certainly done more than any other online dealer of music gear would have done, and would have considered any further contact from me as harassment, so I did not bother her. I could not see in any way that she had been given the runaround.

But since Sweetwater does care about our customers satisfaction and needs, I spoke to people in our administration and service department to make sure that whatever would make her happy as a customer was done. I could not, however, change the past. She had been sent a guitar that was apparently defective.

Debbie claimed that the guitar was used and ten years old and had defective wiring inside. I do not refute her claims that the guitar was defective... it obviously is. As far as me personally selling her a guitar that was used and sub standard, I must say that I sell a lot of guitars, and unless the customer personally requests it, I rarely see the actual guitars that my customers purchase. I trust the Fender company when they tell us they have sent us a new guitar right off the line. I have no reason not to trust that information, since we sell thousands of Fender guitars. If I had had any information that the guitar was defective or old, or used, I would not have sold it to her as new. the information i was given was that this was a brand new guitar.

When you are dealing with a LARGE guitar company selling large numbers of guitars through a large company like Sweetwater, there are simply times when defective product gets through the system. There is no malice in this... it is just statistical, though Sweetwater has the inspection process set up to avoid this. There have been several times guitars were purchased and I would get a call from our guitar shop and they tell me that they cannot send that guitar out since something was wrong with it. But it would seem that one slipped through the cracks.

As a company, we do everything in our power to avoid situations like that happening, however, on the rare occasion when it does happen, we do our best to make it right for the customer, asking what is the solution that would suit them best. Debbie told me that she would like her local guitar tech to be paid by us to repair the problems, and we did that gladly. We did not even ask for verification of the problems. We trusted her assessment of the problem and did what she asked us to do to make it right, and then after that we did not bother her.

After months of silence, the level of discontent in her communications to us was surprising. I had no idea that she was still upset, and if I had, I would have asked her what we could do to take care of it. In fact, that is what we did, and the solution she proposed is what we did.

I do not see how our response to her was anything less than excellent customer service, in that with each communication she gave us, we responded by doing what she asked us to do.

I do know that Debbie felt that she was called a liar because some of the people she talked to at our company expressed doubt that Fender would have sent a used guitar to us claiming that it was new. I hope she can understand the dismay expressed by members of our company who have never had anything like this happen before.

Also, I see Debbie seemed to feel somehow slighted by the fact that she was asked to leave a message in the voicemail of the company owner's assistant, instead of the company owner himself. That was simply done for her benefit, since the owner was not in that day, however his assistant WAS in and she would get more immediate attention if her message was left in the voice mail box of someone who was in the office and could give her immediate attention.

I understand that Debbie had a bad experience, but to claim that Sweetwater is dishonest and doesn't care does not seem consistent with the things we did for her. Whenever she made a request of us, we did what she asked and, in the case of paying for her to use the guitar tech of her choice locally, I felt we went above and beyond what most other companies would have done. Apart from going back in time and changing the fact that she got a defective guitar, I do not see what else we should have done.

Debbie finished her statement that it was hard earned money wasted down the drain. However, upon her request, we have given her a full refund and paid for the guitar to be returned to us. And we did not have to ask over and over, but this happened within the space of one business day. (The most recent communications from her happened over the holiday weekend, so she was taken care of on monday by mid-day.)

In my two years of working at Sweetwater, this is the first time I have had this type of response from a customer. I generally get people telling me over and over what excellent customer service we provide at Sweetwater. We literally have tens of thousands of examples of happy customer testimonials. Here is a small tase of that.

http://www.sweetwater.com/about/feedback.php

I would welcome any additional comments regarding this incident that could give me another pespective and see how I could yet improve my personal level of customer service.

Jon Gillespie, Sweetwater Sales Engineer

On 7/2/09 this Deborah York reported on this site that she had purchased a defective Used HH Jaguar from Sweetwater and that we were not an honest company to deal with.

This customer claimed that the serial number showed it to be ten years old. Being very concerned that there might have been a mix up with the manufacturer, we contacted Fender who assured us that the Serial number for her guitar was shipped to us in late 2008 and the that HH model was not even in production ten years ago. Customer should perhaps check the validity of her sources. If she or her Luthier happened to be looking online, then there are some sites that say this model is predated back twenty years or more (which would make it a very valuable guitar) however this data is incorrect. I explained to the customer that the guitar was not ten years old and asked her to remove this post but unfortunately she refused.

This customer also took the guitar to a repair shop that is not a Fender authorized service center and a person there changed her pick-ups because of a hum noise in the guitar. They also told her that there wasn't a ground wire in the guitar and supposedly showed her where it was missing. Customer then took the guitar home and there was still a hum. It only seems reasonable that if this was in fact a qualified Luthier, why then did the guitar leave the shop with any hum at all if that was the customers original complaint? If she paid for the hum to go away why then is she still upset with Sweetwater? Customer also failed to mention that we reimbursed her for the money she spent to this "Luthier" out of good faith, because we gave her the benifet of the doubt. So basically we paid for a problem she claimed needed fixed but in fact never got fixed.

Customer stated "they obviously don't care about customers/customer service once item is purchased. Word of Mouth, tells all!!" Sweetwater actually wins many many awards for outstanding customer service and despite the fact that she has had the guitar modified by a non authorized service center, thrown away the original packing and waited for months to make an attempt to resolve this issue, we are still willing to take care of her on this issue. Many others would refuse her right up front because of these circumstances that she took upon herself. However, as usual Sweetwater will step up to the plate and make her happy. Customer does not want the guitar fixed but only wanted her money back. Since she threw away the original box, Sweetwater is sending her a replacement box to ship the guitar back at no cost to her. When we receive the guitar we'll uninstall the non-factory pick-ups and send them back to her, at no cost to her. Then we will put the original pick-ups back in, at no cost to her and refund her money if the guitar has not been damaged, modified beyond what she mentioned. If the guitar arrives in any other shape than what she stated, there may be a re-stocking fee for any additional problems with the guitar that was not mentioned.


Doug Strahm
Director of Customer Service
Sweetwater

On 7/2/09 this Deborah York reported on this site that she had purchased a defective Used HH Jaguar from Sweetwater and that we were not an honest company to deal with.

This customer claimed that the serial number showed it to be ten years old. Being very concerned that there might have been a mix up with the manufacturer, we contacted Fender who assured us that the Serial number for her guitar was shipped to us in late 2008 and the that HH model was not even in production ten years ago. Customer should perhaps check the validity of her sources. If she or her Luthier happened to be looking online, then there are some sites that say this model is predated back twenty years or more (which would make it a very valuable guitar) however this data is incorrect. I explained to the customer that the guitar was not ten years old and asked her to remove this post but unfortunately she refused.

This customer also took the guitar to a repair shop that is not a Fender authorized service center and a person there changed her pick-ups because of a hum noise in the guitar. They also told her that there wasn't a ground wire in the guitar and supposedly showed her where it was missing. Customer then took the guitar home and there was still a hum. It only seems reasonable that if this was in fact a qualified Luthier, why then did the guitar leave the shop with any hum at all if that was the customers original complaint? If she paid for the hum to go away why then is she still upset with Sweetwater? Customer also failed to mention that we reimbursed her for the money she spent to this "Luthier" out of good faith, because we gave her the benifet of the doubt. So basically we paid for a problem she claimed needed fixed but in fact never got fixed.

Customer stated "they obviously don't care about customers/customer service once item is purchased. Word of Mouth, tells all!!" Sweetwater actually wins many many awards for outstanding customer service and despite the fact that she has had the guitar modified by a non authorized service center, thrown away the original packing and waited for months to make an attempt to resolve this issue, we are still willing to take care of her on this issue. Many others would refuse her right up front because of these circumstances that she took upon herself. However, as usual Sweetwater will step up to the plate and make her happy. Customer does not want the guitar fixed but only wanted her money back. Since she threw away the original box, Sweetwater is sending her a replacement box to ship the guitar back at no cost to her. When we receive the guitar we'll uninstall the non-factory pick-ups and send them back to her, at no cost to her. Then we will put the original pick-ups back in, at no cost to her and refund her money if the guitar has not been damaged, modified beyond what she mentioned. If the guitar arrives in any other shape than what she stated, there may be a re-stocking fee for any additional problems with the guitar that was not mentioned.


Doug Strahm
Director of Customer Service
Sweetwater

On 7/2/09 this Deborah York reported on this site that she had purchased a defective Used HH Jaguar from Sweetwater and that we were not an honest company to deal with.

This customer claimed that the serial number showed it to be ten years old. Being very concerned that there might have been a mix up with the manufacturer, we contacted Fender who assured us that the Serial number for her guitar was shipped to us in late 2008 and the that HH model was not even in production ten years ago. Customer should perhaps check the validity of her sources. If she or her Luthier happened to be looking online, then there are some sites that say this model is predated back twenty years or more (which would make it a very valuable guitar) however this data is incorrect. I explained to the customer that the guitar was not ten years old and asked her to remove this post but unfortunately she refused.

This customer also took the guitar to a repair shop that is not a Fender authorized service center and a person there changed her pick-ups because of a hum noise in the guitar. They also told her that there wasn't a ground wire in the guitar and supposedly showed her where it was missing. Customer then took the guitar home and there was still a hum. It only seems reasonable that if this was in fact a qualified Luthier, why then did the guitar leave the shop with any hum at all if that was the customers original complaint? If she paid for the hum to go away why then is she still upset with Sweetwater? Customer also failed to mention that we reimbursed her for the money she spent to this "Luthier" out of good faith, because we gave her the benifet of the doubt. So basically we paid for a problem she claimed needed fixed but in fact never got fixed.

Customer stated "they obviously don't care about customers/customer service once item is purchased. Word of Mouth, tells all!!" Sweetwater actually wins many many awards for outstanding customer service and despite the fact that she has had the guitar modified by a non authorized service center, thrown away the original packing and waited for months to make an attempt to resolve this issue, we are still willing to take care of her on this issue. Many others would refuse her right up front because of these circumstances that she took upon herself. However, as usual Sweetwater will step up to the plate and make her happy. Customer does not want the guitar fixed but only wanted her money back. Since she threw away the original box, Sweetwater is sending her a replacement box to ship the guitar back at no cost to her. When we receive the guitar we'll uninstall the non-factory pick-ups and send them back to her, at no cost to her. Then we will put the original pick-ups back in, at no cost to her and refund her money if the guitar has not been damaged, modified beyond what she mentioned. If the guitar arrives in any other shape than what she stated, there may be a re-stocking fee for any additional problems with the guitar that was not mentioned.


Doug Strahm
Director of Customer Service
Sweetwater

On 7/2/09 this Deborah York reported on this site that she had purchased a defective Used HH Jaguar from Sweetwater and that we were not an honest company to deal with.

This customer claimed that the serial number showed it to be ten years old. Being very concerned that there might have been a mix up with the manufacturer, we contacted Fender who assured us that the Serial number for her guitar was shipped to us in late 2008 and the that HH model was not even in production ten years ago. Customer should perhaps check the validity of her sources. If she or her Luthier happened to be looking online, then there are some sites that say this model is predated back twenty years or more (which would make it a very valuable guitar) however this data is incorrect. I explained to the customer that the guitar was not ten years old and asked her to remove this post but unfortunately she refused.

This customer also took the guitar to a repair shop that is not a Fender authorized service center and a person there changed her pick-ups because of a hum noise in the guitar. They also told her that there wasn't a ground wire in the guitar and supposedly showed her where it was missing. Customer then took the guitar home and there was still a hum. It only seems reasonable that if this was in fact a qualified Luthier, why then did the guitar leave the shop with any hum at all if that was the customers original complaint? If she paid for the hum to go away why then is she still upset with Sweetwater? Customer also failed to mention that we reimbursed her for the money she spent to this "Luthier" out of good faith, because we gave her the benifet of the doubt. So basically we paid for a problem she claimed needed fixed but in fact never got fixed.

Customer stated "they obviously don't care about customers/customer service once item is purchased. Word of Mouth, tells all!!" Sweetwater actually wins many many awards for outstanding customer service and despite the fact that she has had the guitar modified by a non authorized service center, thrown away the original packing and waited for months to make an attempt to resolve this issue, we are still willing to take care of her on this issue. Many others would refuse her right up front because of these circumstances that she took upon herself. However, as usual Sweetwater will step up to the plate and make her happy. Customer does not want the guitar fixed but only wanted her money back. Since she threw away the original box, Sweetwater is sending her a replacement box to ship the guitar back at no cost to her. When we receive the guitar we'll uninstall the non-factory pick-ups and send them back to her, at no cost to her. Then we will put the original pick-ups back in, at no cost to her and refund her money if the guitar has not been damaged, modified beyond what she mentioned. If the guitar arrives in any other shape than what she stated, there may be a re-stocking fee for any additional problems with the guitar that was not mentioned.


Doug Strahm
Director of Customer Service
Sweetwater