Learned something about GFS today...

Re: Learned something about GFS today...

The seller always has the option to do a mutual cancellation, and in this way, the seller can recoup their fees-if the buyer agrees to cancel the transaction.

I agree with the above poster this shouldn't be posted here. IMHO-it shouldn't, because Jay is not here to defend himself.
 
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Re: Learned something about GFS today...

All I see here is two belligerent windbags arguing over something really inconsequential. You f-ed up and expected them to fix it, and when they offered you a fair compromise, you overreacted. The guy got defensive, and it went downhill from there.

Bottom line: you're an idiot, he's an ass - it was a recipe for disaster right from the start. Sorry.
 
Re: Learned something about GFS today...

I think the seller was professional,why the hell should he pay for your misstake?
Sorry bro,i don`t think you should have posted this:(
 
Re: Learned something about GFS today...

I'm with GFS. The principle is this: Say no one bid on the item, and it sold for an astounding $3.00, then should he swap it for whatever you wanted? Even if the bridge and neck are the exact same price, he's still managing inventory. The necks might be less popular than the bridges and he knows he can get full asking price all day long on the bridge models, but the neck ones don't command as high a price on average. I think besides some tempers flaring, your post made HIS case very strongly IMHO. He was fair with you in the beginning, and you mistook it as profiteering. The Squire analogy works like this: Say you bought a GREEN Squire for $80, but you meant to buy black. Now say the black ones are more popular, so they always sell for $100. It's not fair to ask him to swap the green for black, even though technically they may list at the same price.
 
Re: Learned something about GFS today...

squawk said:
>
> But I REALLY hate to be threatened- so do me a
> personal favor- TELL THE WORLD how poorly we treated
> you. Go on forums, post on the boards, buy a
> billboard- rent the Goodyear blimp- call the
> relatives- and tell them how poorly we've treated
> you. It would make me happy. And then as we roll out all
> of our new product this fall, new pickups, new
> proprietary onboard effects, new bodies and necks,
> new guitars- remember that Guitarfetish is off limits.

I agree that squawk was in the wrong, but Jay should not have said what he did. He did challenge him to "...post on the boards..." after all. That is not professional in the least.
 
Re: Learned something about GFS today...

frankfalbo said:
The necks might be less popular than the bridges and he knows he can get full asking price all day long on the bridge models, but the neck ones don't command as high a price on average.
Exactly what I was thinking.
 
Re: Learned something about GFS today...

gfs is getting popular and i see the odd neg here and there on the forums but by and large positive. I am surprised that jay invites you to bag him in the public forums. Sounds to me like he is getting pretty busy and cant handle the pace. Anyone doing music instrument support business on the web lives and dies by what is said in these forums. The major point of this post is not who is right or wrong but that a well known seller [guitarfetish.com] takes a dispute with a buyer straight to usenet or other public forum. I have seen many a dispute quickly resolved by the mere suggestion to a vendor that a negative post be made on a forum. It is as if Jay wants to cool business off a bit by doing a bit of chest thumping and ragging a customer. If that is what he wants or not, that is probably what the result will be if players and repairers see a bit more negativity. It would be a pity as the guy has good stuff at fair prices. By the way I think you should have just taken the bridge pickup for the extra few dollars. However to have Jay invite you to rag him on the web is just plain stupidity on his part.
 
Re: Learned something about GFS today...

gripweed said:
I agree that squawk was in the wrong, but Jay should not have said what he did. He did challenge him to "...post on the boards..." after all. That is not professional in the least.



Yea, when you're representing a newly rising company, you can't be doing stuff like that to your customers.

After seeing that, I surely won't be buying from them, I don't care who is right or wrong. Most companies will break their back to please you if you've made them money in the past. I base my opinion on the fact that the seller blew his lid instead of just cooling off, he kind of had a hateful mood to all of his emails too.

Not many companies will go out of their way to bitch you out in an email... :laugh2:
 
Re: Learned something about GFS today...

I bought an Item GFS had listed on EvilBay,Received Item,wrong Item,contacted Jay at GFS,Jay sent out right Item at his expense and without asking me to return wrong Item now thats customer service.Jay and GFS are well on their way of becoming a powerhouse in the music business,The adage "THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT" in this case does not apply here since the customer admits being in the wrong(honest mistake).Being a resourcefull businessman that I'm sure Jay is,he has seized this opportunity to call attention to his new line of products coming out this fall,QUOTE" And then as we roll out all
of our new products this fall, new pickups, new
proprietary onboard effects, new bodies and necks,
new guitars."END QUOTE,So you see even while the proverbial chit is hitting the proverbial fan a good businessman manages to plug his wares.
Whether you think Jay is right or wrong by calling the man out you just got to give Jay credit for his good business sense.
Now people who never heard of GFS will be going to Jay's website and have a look and while they are there they just might purchase something.Does'nt get any better than that.
 
Re: Learned something about GFS today...

I don't see how you can expect anyone to do anything that will cost them any amount of money (and this will, because it takes time if nothing else) when they did absolutely nothing wrong. Sure, you can hope they will and often times a good businessman will do it, but they have no legal or moral obligation to.

Normally, I don't even respond to threads like this or I'll tell the thread starter that this isn't really the place for a thread like this. But he told you to do it. He challenged you to tell everyone you know about it. And you know what? It's only helping him. It's free publicity (even bad publicity is better than none at all - just look at Ed Roman), and hardly anyone thinks he's in the wrong. You're the only one that isn't benefiting from this. Even we're getting a laugh out of it.
 
Re: Learned something about GFS today...

Sniper1 said:
I bought an Item GFS had listed on EvilBay,Received Item,wrong Item,contacted Jay at GFS,Jay sent out right Item at his expense and without asking me to return wrong Item now thats customer service.

Yeah, but that WAS the companies mistake. In THAT case, you SHOULD expect that kind of service. Squawk, bid, paid, and received the EXACT item up for auction. The initial email to Jay was not published, so we can't exactly see what tone was used to initiate this sequence of correspondence. If squawk's first email could have been interpreted as hostile, or offensive (even if it was not his intent), then Jay probably felt he needed to defend. Sure, he shouldn't have ranted as he did, but he probably is confident in his customer relations to feel that one grain of sand in the cogs is better washed away.

Again, not all the evidence is presented, and this isn't a court. If nothing else, your experience has underlined the iimportance of paying attention.... ESPECIALLY on ebay....

Hope things work out for you,
Allen
 
Re: Learned something about GFS today...

I quite liked the humor of "post the boards, hire a blimp, billboard etc" But then again i relate to the sarcasm thing...unless it's directed my way. Then I get cross and say things i mildly regret.
 
Re: Learned something about GFS today...

That kind of stuff is indeed sophomoric for an entrepeneur. But that's kind of par for the course in the music business. This business doesn't always attract the most sophisticated people. And since being in the music business means you're surrounded by musicians, sometimes you slide down that slippery slope even if you started out in the business as a Harvard grad. :) So I agree with everyone who's calling Jay out as well for some of his comments (which weren't necessarily designed to be publicly broadcast) But on principle I'm still with GFS.
 
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Re: Learned something about GFS today...

The problem with pissing matches is, someone's going to get wet!
 
Re: Learned something about GFS today...

As a follow up to yesterday, I can only add that GFS was paid in a timely manner, well within the time limits of a closing auction. I never said I wasn't going to pay the man for his pickups, only that this would be my last purchase from Guitarfetish.

And while I rarely post, I do learn a lot from the cool people on this forum by reading and get a lot of great insight re: all things guitar. But I was not seeking validation of whether I was right or wrong. The intent of the post was about customer service and how it was lacking. When I said 'No thanks and 'I view that as gouging' and that 'I'll stick with the neck pickup' he should have just said 'fine, thanks for your purchase' and left it at that. I was, after all, making yet another purchase from them. Jay made a big fuss over how much trouble my mistake would cause him, however he was happy to undo the mistake if paid the 'fair market value' in his Ebay store. That, to me folks, is gouging. It also tells me that whatever is necessary to undo the original transaction is not that much trouble at all. My viewpoint on this topic remains unchanged.

I appreciate all feedback from you forum brothers. If anything this experience has taught me that I could have handled it better, and well, that you brothers are tough on newbies. :)

ratherdashing said:
Bottom line: you're an idiot, he's an ass - it was a recipe for disaster right from the start. Sorry.

But whether I purchased a pickup over Ebay or a shirt from storefront merchant like JC Penny is irrelevant. They are both retailers dealing with an end customer. My focus was supposed to be poor customer service and I offer this analogy to make my point:

You buy a shirt on sale at JC Penny. Immediately, you bring it back because you got the wrong size, admittedly your mistake, and the merchant says to you 'Be happy to get you the right size, but you have to pay full price because that shirt is no longer on sale'.

If your response is 'No thanks, I view that as gouging and I'll keep the shirt and this will be my last purchase at JC Penny and I'll be letting my friends know exactly why', then at that point the only real acceptable response by the merchant is 'Sorry you feel that way, thanks for your purhase and have a nice day'.

When said merchant proceeds to go on a rampage about how many people ask this very same question, how the only reason the shirt was on sale (at cost or less than cost) was to gain exposure for the other clothes in the store, how you are threatening him and he doesn't like to be threatened, and what a huge hassle it is to give you the right size now because to go back now and restock the item, repair the database, reprint the order would cost FAR more than the upcharge. How you deprived JC Penny of the chance to make money on that shirt at that time forever. Admonishing you over and over and over for your mistake... then urging you to rent the Goodyear Blimp and tell world.

This IMO is over the top. :rocket:

I doubt he would have taken that tone with me in person, so email makes it OK?

Can anyone on this forum honestly say that they would stand for such treatment? :dunno: I seriously doubt it.

Anyone who would must be a lightening rod for hostile and abusive treatment. Which, come to think of it, is what I think I have become in this thread... So I am happy to let this thread die a peaceful death. In hindsight, I regret posting, but only did so because I was dared to do it and highly frustrated at the time. I'm outahere! :outahere:
 
Re: Learned something about GFS today...

You make some good points, Squawk... but I still believe you both went a bit too far.

There is never any harm in asking if you could make some kind of deal - and he could have just said no - and that should have been the end of it.

But in my opnion, you both went beyond that - and it got ugly.

And by the way, I have been treated that way by retailers in person, and I don't return to those stores - and I do tell people. But I always try to be on my best behaviour as well.
 
Re: Learned something about GFS today...

I've never tried GFS pickups, but...
23$ for a pickup is not 'gouging'....
That was over the line on your part. period.
Jay definitely responded badly. Unprofessional.
There is no point getting bent out of shape over so small an issue.
Let it go.
 
Re: Learned something about GFS today...

Squawk your logic is flawed. eBay is not like any other retail store. Sellers have a responsibility to provide you the item you bid and won, and that is in the eBay guidelines. If they do not and you can prove it then you can file a SNAD against the seller. Alternatively, an eBay seller has NO responsibility to provide you what you really wanted when you won something else - regardless of any flawed logic you present trying to offer comparisons to retail operations.

Jay has been bashed in forums much worse than this feeble attempt. And as far as I am concerned, he has nothing to defend himself against.
 
Re: Learned something about GFS today...

Kindred_Spirits said:
Dude, you just owned yourself in your own thread.
Hey were you talking about me? It's okay if you were, I just couldn't tell. If so, let me clarify a little. His attitude and behavior was sophomoric, but the actual decision he made, which was to disallow the swap, was within his rights. So I'm with GFS on the actual decision he made to ask for the fair market price on the replacement item, but not really with him on his sarcasm, etc. So I would say yes to "poor customer service" if you're referring to his tone, and behavior, but NOT about the decision to refuse the substitution.

Squawk's JC Penny analogy is perfect. The JC Penny clerk could politely say "thanks have a nice day" or "Yeah well you can crab and moan all you want, get a blimp, etc. because that's JC Penny's store policy! Now go rent a billboard and tell the world about it! They'll all side with me." and that would be tantamount to poor customer service, while still being within the rights of the transaction resolution. When Squawk called "gouging" Jay should have kept his cool and said "I'm sorry you feel that way, etc" instead of saying "too bad for you and your boycot, you'll be sorry when you realize all the cool stuff we're debuting soon" Honestly, kitchy budget priced Asian made pickups don't really excite me. I can't imagine I'll be falling out of my chair over his next product reveal.
 
Re: Learned something about GFS today...

GFS is one of Duncan's competitors, mostly because they're a copycat company who undercuts everyone with cheap Asian products, probably assembled by workers making $30 per week.

Lesson to you....you get what you pay for......and even less when you don't read the auction description. Next time, pay a little more and buy pickups from the people who care about every detail of their product, have professional dealers, and provide you with a free forum.

If GFS had a forum, that would be a great place to stick it to 'em. We already know better here.

No offense....I'm not a fan of Walmart pickups.
 
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