Thoughts on my recent GC repair.

[sound of bass]

A while back my young daughter broke the volume pot on my F active Jazz, for awhile I was still able to use it, though it was very positional, then it just stopped playing. Took me a long time to find the right 250k pot, (GC had none) finally I was able to take it to get soldered in. After 3 weeks, and not hearing anything from them, I went to get it back...repaired or not. I was then informed it had to be sent out cuz the repair was beyond them! (?) If I had a soldering gun I could have done it myself but I didnt know which wires were + - etc. I finally got my bass back yesterday after a full 9 weeks to the day! For a simple volume pot? Am I missing something in the complexity of it all? And a charge of 80.00 bucks. I was furious! 1st for no communication from GC, shipped it without my knowledge or consent, 2nd- they let me stew for 3 weeks for what i thought would be a quick repair 3rd- that kinda job was beyond them? 4th- 9 whole weeks! 5th- 80.00 bucks! Is that reasonable? Ultimately, I finally have it back, everything seems fine but I will NEVER use GC Tech service again! Im just glad we werent in the studio without my best player. Thoughts please.

[frianbisher]

Sorry to hear about your experience, I would never treat my customers like that and more than likely I would have had your bass back to you in a day or two depending on workload. Techs like that make it harder for me to convince my customers that I can provide a quality service.

[JonnyAngle]

Soldering gun = $15
Solder = $5
Going online to find the correct wiring (or just take good pictures before you replace it), labor, reassembly = $75/ hour

Is it a rip? Probabally.

GC doesn't want to have Bob from drums fix it because he replaced a pot way back when. THe same is true for all retailers: Best Buy, GC, Walmart, etc. Everyone has to have gone through the "company training" before they can start "fixing" customers' instruments, cars, TV's etc.

Take it as a lesson learned... Do it yourself next time.

[berwick63]

Thats the problem with GC in general is that they hire just about anyone just like any other retail place. So the people who actually do quality work get grouped with the people who are just out to make their buck.

Originally Posted by frianbisher

Sorry to hear about your experience, I would never treat my customers like that and more than likely I would have had your bass back to you in a day or two depending on workload. Techs like that make it harder for me to convince my customers that I can provide a quality service.

[4001]

GC


9 weeks

$80.00

For installing a 250k pot.

[testing1two]

I agree that was ridiculous. To be fair, the volume pot on active Fenders is actually soldered directly to the preamp circuit board so it might intimidate the soldering novice. Still, 9 weeks is utterly ridiculous, as is $80. Sorry you had such a bad experience. But that said I think this is a great opportunity to do some research on reputable local techs/luthiers in your area so you can get more personalized service in the future.

[jmattbassplaya]

I wouldn't of paid it.

[JLS]

Originally Posted by 4001

GC


9 weeks

$80.00

For installing a 250k pot.

Yep, this truly takes the F****** cake.

You should go to management with this. This is unacceptable, even for the Clown Store.

[CullerBass]

I had a similar experience with getting a JBL EON repaired by them. From what i gather, they do VERY little or no repairs in-house. For a simple repair, go to the reputable repair guy at the local "mom and pop" shop. For more complicated repairs, i've always had good luck dealing with manufacturers directly. Better luck next time.

[XtheDeadPawn]

I have a local shop I get all my basses (Okay both) set up at.
I only paid $90 and for that they set up both of them fixed a loose tuner put on new strings and gave me a couple free picks. Total time I was without them? 8 days.

And the only reason it took that long is the repair guy was on vacation.

[Pilgrim]

The OP should go back and demand a substantial refund based on the delay.

[Billnc]

Always have a personal relationship with the group of people who support you and treat them well. Take your stuff to a repairman, talk to him/her face to face. If the repair is good, tip them. Your next experience will be very good, and you will never be overcharged.
Support/supply/repair can never be faceless, lesson learned in the army and 30 years later serves well. Just another form of networking.

[slaphappychappy]

if i have to use a guy, i walways make sure its the guy who is repairing. if you go to the chainstores you never get that.

[VanillaThundah]

A solder job shouldn't have taken that long OR been out of their realm of expertise. Not to judge but my guess is the guy jacked something up real bad and was trying to cover it up by shipping it off and feeding you the line about it being beyond what they can do. This is of course an anecdotal experience for that particular GC, we have the same problem at Best Buy with different Geek Squad precincts. We run ours quite differently than most do, the focus is on doing it right the first time rather than pushing things out the door asap, and making sure the client feels in-control of what is being done to their computer....we don't pop up and ship things off without asking for approval first.

[MarkA]

I would go to the management. The way your situation was handled was not only sloppy (nine weeks, incommunicado?), but unethical (shipping your bass anywhere without permission) to boot. Any manager with even the remotest clue will offer you, at minimum, a full refund, but it's not about the $80 at this point, and they need to know that. Just maybe, they'll handle things differently the next time a similar situation arises.

That aside, Billnc's post makes the most sense to me of anything in this thread. I would extend it to say that taking the time to develop personal relationships will not only pay the types of dividends he mentions, but help weed out those people you don't want to deal with in the first place. In this case, be thankful your instrument wasn't broken, lost, or accidentally sold. Find someone else to work on your basses.

If you find yourself in the position of needing a repair from a GC or similar establishment in the future, make sure you get certain things straight at the start. Like, "If it's going to cost more than $50, if you need to do anything we haven't discussed, if it's going to take more than a week or if you need to send it out, you check with me first." (I might not have thought to do this before, but reading your thread drives it home.)

That said, it's possible to find a good tech at a big box store. My brother has been taking his guitars to one for years, but he always makes sure he deals exclusively with "his guy" no matter how minor the adjustment or repair needed. So far, the work's been quality, timely, and fairly priced. My brother's relationship is with the tech, not the store, but it hasn't hurt the store, as he's bought strings, pedals, cases, straps, cords, cymbals, etc., while he's been there.

[SurferJoe46]

Originally Posted by Pilgrim

The OP should go back and demand a substantial refund based on the delay.

Originally Posted by slaphappychappy

if i have to use a guy, i walways make sure its the guy who is repairing. if you go to the chainstores you never get that.

Wasn't it said that this is a PC-soldered pot and may have needed more expertise? I agree that shipping it out is something they should have offered an option on to you, yea or nay - but even $80 for a PC repair is right in there for labor costs in any circuit board repair.

However, there are GCs that have full-blown techs and ever luthiers in their own right who work at GC for a little extra money. It appears that unfortunately, your GC doesn't have one or he may have been off that day. Even techs need a day off.

I had a buddy who had a Gibson guitar that needed a compensated nut, and Gibson played hardball with him and said it wasn't the nut's fault. It was - but that's another story.

Anyway - he took it to a privateer in a 'reputable' store that fixes band and pro instruments and has a very good reputation.

It was fixed in a couple of day per estimate, but it had a large gash on the from of it from something that dropped onto it.

Now I know that guitar and have seen it hundreds of times and the repair guy said it had to have had that gouge on it when it got there. It didn't, NO WAY!

That guitar is WAS prime-o and has never had a scratch or even a week go by without a full wax job. The owner's more anally restricted than I, if that's possible.

After a few minutes, the 'guy' said: "well - things can happen in the shop and we're not responsible for that'. End of his story.

The owner is incensed about the damage, and the store says that you give them a free pass if anything happens that is 'out of the ordinary' when you sign the work order. Weasel words.

So much for the great service at a privateer.

[john grey]

How to repair a Potentiometer in a Bass.

1.) Access the problem pot and remove (several wood screws and retention nut of the pot).
2.) There are generally only 3 lugs to the pot; of that two will be soldered, Center and one of the side lugs. So you are only un-soldering and re-soldering TWO contacts.
3.) Obtain the proper pot(s). Generally they will be 250 / 500K-Ohm and are offered by Honeywell (the GOOD ones) and Alpha (the ones that often mess up).
Honeywell stock number: 53C2250 (for 250's)or 53C2500 (for 500's).
4.) These can be obtained via Allied Electronics or Mouser electronics for $15 for the Honeywell or $6 for the Alpha. Just go to Mouser.com or Allied and place your order....get your parts & do your repair.

Total time invested will be 20 minutes. It may be a better idea to retain those stock numbers (as these are VERY common parts) & do this yourself rather than rely up the "I'll-learn-on- your-stuff 'technician'" at your local Large Retail Music Store.

[SMILEYSIXX]

For an insanely simple 5 minute job? And for $80? 9 weeks? I would never step foot in that store again.

[Need2KnowBasses]

I would recommend going back to the store and asking to speak to the manager. Tell him your story, make sure he knows that the process was ridiculously long and stressful for such a simple repair, and request a partial/full refund for your inconvenience and being overcharged. That repair should cost no more than $40. You should not have to pay extra for the fact that they had no one in house capable of doing it and they didn't even ask you if it was okay to ship it out for another store to fix it.

[Slowgypsy]

As has already been posted... you were treated badly and got ripped off. No middle ground here in my book