$80 Shipping Fees for Factory Warranty Work?

[RealtyViking]

Background: I purchased a new acoustic guitar from a local shop from a reputable manufacturer not even three months ago. Guitar has been terrific, but seemed to need new strings as it lost its dynamic and volume. Started to change the strings and see that the bridge has cracked right along the pins. Pull all of the strings and the crack goes all the way through to the spruce top. No worries good warranty and purchased new so no problems.

Took lots of pictures and shot off email to manufacturer. Received a quick reply that I would have to take the guitar and have it checked out by the original sellers tech. No problem as I would be in the area. Shop owner takes a look at the guitar and agrees that it has a cracked bridge. I give him copies of the pictures sent and let him know that he might be contacted. He then mentions that it is not something he would be able to fix and that I would be responsible to pay to ship the guitar back to the manufacturer. I did not get too upset as there are always exceptions to these rules. After emailing the manufacturer again I was told that I would be responsible to pay for shipping the defective guitar to be fixed as they only cover parts labor and return shipping.

I dropped off the guitar with the shop as I do not want to even look at it right now and the owner is going to attempt to negotiate on my behalf with the manufacturer. He is also going to get me a complete quote for shipping, but he is pretty sure it will be about $80. Is this standard for a brand new guitar with a defective piece of wood?

[ericmeyer4]

Re: $80 Shipping Fees for Factory Warranty Work?

Shipping guitars can get expensive and the $80 doesn't sound too far off. I shipped a reso a few months back, a bit heavier than your acoustic I imagine, and shipping and packing fees cost me about $90.

[RealtyViking]

Re: $80 Shipping Fees for Factory Warranty Work?

Shipping guitars can get expensive and the $80 doesn't sound too far off. I shipped a reso a few months back, a bit heavier than your acoustic I imagine, and shipping and packing fees cost me about $90.

I am not upset about the amount to ship. I am upset that I have to pay $80 to ship my defective new guitar under warranty to the factory to fix a factory defect. My other choice is to live with the problem as it can not be fixed locally.

[Ayrton]

Re: $80 Shipping Fees for Factory Warranty Work?

Who the hell are you guys using for shipping?

I can ship a guitar in a HSC fully insured coast to coast with FedEx ground, and the most it would be is $50.

[Andrew Lamprecht]

Re: $80 Shipping Fees for Factory Warranty Work?

Who the hell are you guys using for shipping?

I can ship a guitar in a HSC fully insured coast to coast with FedEx ground, and the most it would be is $50.

Yeah, the last 2 times I shipped guitars it was $35 each time....

[DrNewcenstein]

Re: $80 Shipping Fees for Factory Warranty Work?

If the store is shipping it out for you, they will have to get a shipping carton and packing material. Stores don't usually hoard boxes like us shmoes do.
They'll probably take it to a local pack-n-ship place and have them make a double-lined box and foam padding for the case.

For that price, they should.

This insures against further damage during shipping.


It also depends on the remoteness of the manufacturer's facility. I'm not sure of how close to the freeway the Gibson Montana plant is, but given that it's Montana, I'm sure it takes a minute to get there.

[The Dali]

Re: $80 Shipping Fees for Factory Warranty Work?

Sound right... when you get warranty work done on most anything you have to pay for shipping (at least one way).

[LesStrat]

Re: $80 Shipping Fees for Factory Warranty Work?

Who are YOU guys using for shipping? It cost me about $80 to ship my Mojo from Redlands, CA to Louisiana via UPS.

[formula73]

Re: $80 Shipping Fees for Factory Warranty Work?

Who are YOU guys using for shipping? It cost me about $80 to ship my Mojo from Redlands, CA to Louisiana via UPS.

This. The last few guitars I shipped were about like that. What kind of guitars are you other guys shipping, and more importantly, HOW are you doing it? If you properly pack a guitar and it gets broken, you'll have to fight, but you'll get reimbursed. If you just toss the thing in a box and they break it, you're f-d. Just a little food for thought.

[KeeperOS]

Re: $80 Shipping Fees for Factory Warranty Work?

Now I don't know what passes off as warranty in the guitar world but in the electronics world (computers etc) we sometimes have to ship products to a different COUNTRY (for instance Sony Vaio's service center for the entire Europe is in Belgium, Olympus is in Portugal and Dell's in Germany) and the company will pay for door-to-door shipping EVERY TIME (which is why each company has contracts with courier companies for volume discounts ).

On the other hand if the product in question turns out to have be damaged from the owner rather than defective the owner then has to pay full price for shipping both ways as well a a minimal fee for the technician's time it took to check it...

[RealtyViking]

Re: $80 Shipping Fees for Factory Warranty Work?

Now I don't know what passes off as warranty in the guitar world but in the electronics world (computers etc) we sometimes have to ship products to a different COUNTRY (for instance Sony Vaio's service center for the entire Europe is in Belgium, Olympus is in Portugal and Dell's in Germany) and the company will pay for door-to-door shipping EVERY TIME (which is why each company has contracts with courier companies for volume discounts ).

On the other hand if the product in question turns out to have be damaged from the owner rather than defective the owner then has to pay full price for shipping both ways as well a a minimal fee for the technician's time it took to check it...

This is the type of arrangement that I have had in the past.

If I break it or screw up - I pay. If they screw up - they pay. The dealer and the manufacturer are agreeing that it was a factory defect.

In this instance they used a bad piece of wood and are requiring me to pay shipping. I would not expect them to cover shipping if I screwed up.

[jalguitarman]

Re: $80 Shipping Fees for Factory Warranty Work?

This is the type of arrangement that I have had in the past.

If I break it or screw up - I pay. If they screw up - they pay. The dealer and the manufacturer are agreeing that it was a factory defect.

In this instance they used a bad piece of wood and are requiring me to pay shipping. I would not expect them to cover shipping if I screwed up.

I don't think that's right. They should pay it if it was there screw up. Some. I think some companies are better than that about it. How long did you have the guitar before the crack was noticed? I could see it if you had had the guitar for a few months but if it's only a few weeks old (basically still brand new) then they are totally wrong IMHO for making you pay to ship it. That doesn't mean that argument will get you any where. I think a lot of different kinds manufacturers make you pay shipping one way for warranty work. Which I always thought was crud if the item in question is under 2 months old. Unfortunately, that's just how the ball bounces.

[Vengeance]

Re: $80 Shipping Fees for Factory Warranty Work?

I've pretty much have had to pay to ship anything back for warranty work.

$80 seems a bit much unless it's going LA to NY ground.