International order, arrived with wrong neck

[Brain Fog]

When you click on the non-relic you get all of the options of color and fretboard. It's not a matter of making it clear. It's right there in front of you.

The point I'm trying to make is that I don't think the "fredboard" option is real. It's poor website design. I think only the pictured combinations are actually what are offered. That's why the seller is confused when the OP says he specified maple; the seller doesn't know the website is giving maple as an option. Of course, I may be completely wrong.

EDIT

I'll wager the only basses in inventory are the color combinations pictured; you really don't have a choice of "fredboard". Bad website design.

 

[project_c]

Good point. There is a certain cachet to " Made in the USA", even more so when it comes to guitars.

I agree with this, and to an extent it's justified - my experience with US made instruments and music gear, as well as customer service has always been very good. Over the years I've ordered basses and pedals from the US, Canada, Japan and the EU (as well as the UK), and this is the first time I've encountered a glitch.

I really don't want to bad-mouth this company too much - they acknowledged that the shipping thing was a nightmare and shipped this bass via FedEx for a much higher cost which they swallowed, and the bass I received plays super well, and weighs practically nothing. If this is a glitch rather than a mistake, then their ordering system needs to be fixed so that there are no weird glitches like this in the future, but regardless of that the quality of the bass itself is undeniably very high.

(But it would just be so much better with the maple neck)..

 

[Wyrdlow]

I agree with this, and to an extent it's justified - my experience with US made instruments and music gear, as well as customer service has always been very good. Over the years I've ordered basses and pedals from the US, Canada, Japan and the EU (as well as the UK), and this is the first time I've encountered a glitch.

I really don't want to bad-mouth this company too much - they acknowledged that the shipping thing was a nightmare and shipped this bass via FedEx for a much higher cost which they swallowed, and the bass I received plays super well, and weighs practically nothing. If this is a glitch rather than a mistake, then their ordering system needs to be fixed so that there are no weird glitches like this in the future, but regardless of that the quality of the bass itself is undeniably very high.

(But it would just be so much better with the maple neck)..

My experience has been good too -thus far - although it's never been this level of investment. It does look gorgeous, I can't deny (yes - maple for preference!) and I could have been sorely tempted. I love the headstock, and the olive is a great choice. It IS their fault though. If you kept it, would you always get that sinking feeling when you looked at it as you must have when you unwrapped it? It's a sad story so far. I hope they sort it to your satisfaction.

 

[J Posega]

Send them the link to the threads you've made.

I agree with this, and to an extent it's justified - my experience with US made instruments and music gear, as well as customer service has always been very good. Over the years I've ordered basses and pedals from the US, Canada, Japan and the EU (as well as the UK), and this is the first time I've encountered a glitch.

I really don't want to bad-mouth this company too much - they acknowledged that the shipping thing was a nightmare and shipped this bass via FedEx for a much higher cost which they swallowed, and the bass I received plays super well, and weighs practically nothing. If this is a glitch rather than a mistake, then their ordering system needs to be fixed so that there are no weird glitches like this in the future, but regardless of that the quality of the bass itself is undeniably very high.

(But it would just be so much better with the maple neck)..

They need to match their customer service and support to their product quality. Someone had to pack up your bass, and they had a packing list/invoice to check that against, so a human messed something up.

Do. Not. Settle. For. Something. You. Didn't. Buy. If you ordered a steak and received a burger, you'd tell the waitstaff and get the right meal, wouldn't you? Same deal, just at a different scale.

Every website should get QA tested before launch, so if maple wasn't actually an option, it's still their fault and it's still on them to make it right because it's their product, their website, their reputation.

 

[gln1955]

My experience has been good too -thus far - although it's never been this level of investment. It does look gorgeous, I can't deny (yes - maple for preference!) and I could have been sorely tempted. I love the headstock, and the olive is a great choice. It IS their fault though. If you kept it, would you always get that sinking feeling when you looked at it as you must have when you unwrapped it? It's a sad story so far. I hope they sort it to your satisfaction.

I guess semantics whether this is bad web design or bad marketing behind the design. If the web ordering system is wrong and there really are limited combinations, this can't be the first time this error has happened.

 

[Jefenator]

As someone who used to reside outside the continental US, I can relate with the woes of extra shipping, customs & exchange rates.
As a former US-based vendor, I used to cringe a little with international orders, but found them to be mostly worthwhile.
I always had extra fingers crossed nothing would go wrong in transit, and extra diligence at my end wouldn't be the worst idea. That might involve some follow-up communication to make extra sure the order got placed right, then triple-checking said order before shipping.
An acceptable resolution to me would be for them to send a maple neck, and maybe offer enough refund to pay your local tech to swap it on? (I would be game to do it myself, but that's just me.)
I expect this will wind up being a big money-losing hassle for them (has been for me occasionally) but also an opportunity to demonstrate their CS - and revise their order processing.

 

[project_c]

As someone who used to reside outside the continental US, I can relate with the woes of extra shipping, customs & exchange rates.
As a former US-based vendor, I used to cringe a little with international orders, but found them to be mostly worthwhile.
I always had extra fingers crossed nothing would go wrong in transit, and extra diligence at my end wouldn't be the worst idea. That might involve some follow-up communication to make extra sure the order got placed right, then triple-checking said order before shipping.
An acceptable resolution to me would be for them to send a maple neck, and maybe offer enough refund to pay your local tech to swap it on? (I would be game to do it myself, but that's just me.)
I expect this will wind up being a big money-losing hassle for them (has been for me occasionally) but also an opportunity to demonstrate their CS - and revise their order processing.

I agree this is probably the right way to resolve this. I’ll see what they say in response to my previous email and suggest this. I’d probably be fine fitting the neck myself, I’ve done it a few times before.

 

[mcnach]

Don’t buy from USA

Or don't buy basses. That'll do it too.

But neither is a very constructive suggestion.

 

[mcnach]

The point I'm trying to make is that I don't think the "fredboard" option is real. It's poor website design. I think only the pictured combinations are actually what are offered. That's why the seller is confused when the OP says he specified maple; the seller doesn't know the website is giving maple as an option. Of course, I may be completely wrong.

EDIT

I'll wager the only basses in inventory are the color combinations pictured; you really don't have a choice of "fredboard". Bad website design.

If that's the case, then they also do not read their own order documents...

 

[deadline_]

Hello good sir, hope you managed to solve the issues with the bass one way or another. I stumbled upon these basses on Reverb, and I’m really interested in getting one. I mean; Cool design, lightweight, quality hardware and a slim short scale neck… What’s not to like? Is it good?