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Mikeyswood - BUYER BEWARE

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#23
Hopkins said:
I will reserve judgement on this until the other party has a chance to explain his side.
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I would really like him to! This is an attempt to get his attention. I would love to hear his side, but he won't give it to me! He won't even acknowledge my attempts to contact him, in spite of me giving him ample warning that I would create this thread.

BTW - Those emails I quoted have not been edited and I have not left any emails out. I think they speak for themselves.
 
#26
Alexander Eddy said:
He can contact me - we're facebook friends and he has at least a few posts daily (including the last week in which I have been trying to contact him).

He's ignoring me. No two ways about it.
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Too bad you're across the pond. If you were near him you could bring him to small claims court to get your money back. No idea if that's even possible internationally.
 
#30
Hopkins said:
Sorry, but I have a feeling that this thread may have ruined any chance of that happening.

I'm not saying I don't believe you, I am just a firm believer that there are two sides to every story.
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Indeed..and considering he's now some sort of politician Im sure he is well aware of how things work. This smells like a spell of arrogance to me..perhaps taking advantage of a guy..If you cant build the thing then the funds should be refunded..plain and simple..makes you wonder how much of these funds were used in his other endeavors.

Sucks if his reputation is killed but alas such is life..he's made it a point to state building isnt high on his radar anymore..perhaps he's fine with burned bridges..but Im always confident...scams like this always have a way of killing the scammer.

Anyone know this dude personally that can talk to him.?
 
#32
Reticle said:
How ironic............ I was just wondering the other day why that self absorbed A-hole hadn't been around here berating people.
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Please, let's not break the TB rules and personally attack people.

I am posting facts, with emails to back them up. I have not made judgement on anyone's character and to stay within the rules, I won't.

I would like to keep this thread open
 
#33
I feel for you but ... you tried to do business with the comic book guy from the Simpsons. Worst. Decision. Ever. From his posts here and on FB, it seems fairly clear that this guy isn't a grown-up. Why in the world would you send him $1500 from 10,000 miles away???
 
#38
Hopkins said:
Sorry, but I have a feeling that this thread may have ruined any chance of that happening.

I'm not saying I don't believe you, I am just a firm believer that there are two sides to every story.
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Ha ha! Yep, and one side has decided to disappear into BS fantasy world. Mikey whatever his friggin name is should consider his half baked luthery dream as history. How hard is it to communicate? How hard is it to keep to an agreement? Come on, you really think he is credible?
 
#39
UPDATE - A response was what I was after, and a response I got.

Emails below - READ EM! There in their entirety, unedited.


SEP 12 - From me
Mike,

I understand that you were/are not going to give me your full attention or customer service akin to Alembic's because I am not paying for Alembic but am receiving Alembic quality. I am comfortable with that.

It would be an understatement to say I am disappointed with the current state of affairs. I am at a loss to understand why you have not addressed the issues I raised with you in early July and why you have failed to advise me of the state of play for ten weeks

"I will make a concerted effort to keep you apprised of your bass' creation on a weekly basis"



On the 3rd of July I requested the following, which I did not and do not consider an unreasonable burden
A detail of what stage of construction is the bass at now (have you chosen the cocobolo layout and body sandwich on my behalf? What hardware has been purchased?)
A firm date at which this bass will be completed. 6-9 months? Fine, my finances will need to be considered
A firm completion price
A complete spec list - list all inventory and wood layout. If there is stuff that needs ironing out still, I can spit out a dwg showing laminates etc for your consideration
After reviewing the spec list and build status, allow me to raise any concerns (about the construction) additional to the ones raised above and have them addressed.

Following that, you gave me a price ($3k) and a date (September). The rest of my requests were not addressed

My brother in law is in the USA at the moment and I was hoping for him to bring back the bass with him, saving me some $800 in FEDEX costs, and avoiding Australia's 10% goods and services tax.

attempting to pick this back up would change this from creating it with you to building it for you.

Was this to say, that you intended to continue (have continued?) building without allowing any further input from me? If this is what you meant, how can you justify excluding my input into a custom bass that I conceptualised, commissioned and am financing.

I look forward to receiving your prompt response.

Alex
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SEP 15 - from me

Mike,

Your failure to address or even acknowledge the receipt of my email some 4 days ago, has led me to the point where I am reluctantly considering taking further steps to seek satisfaction.

I do not want your full attention, and am not sending you $9k for it. I have sent one email in ten weeks.

Alex
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SEP 16 - from me

I don't like being angry, and I don't like sending emails like this, but I am running out of options here. You have $1500 of my money, I have nothing. I am not comfortable with this.

10 seconds of your time is all that is needed here.

2 emails and 3 facebook messages and not a single whisper. I won't accept that you haven't seen them, as you are quite active on fb.

I'm giving you a chance to acknowledge my contact before I make efforts force your hand.

As a start, I have permission from TB moderators to post our emails in their entirety on Luthiers Corner, along with voicing my dissatisfaction with your service. I have been keeping two of LC's more prominent members in the loop re my dealings with you, and it is generally accepted that I am being shafted.
I have plenty of dry powder after talkbass, but I really don't want to use it, in fact I don't want to burn any powder. I'd really prefer an open and honest line of communication, and a mutually happy resolution. This can't happen as long as you consider posting pictures of sofas on facebook more important than conversing with your client for the first time in ten weeks after weekly updates were offered but never delivered.

Google tells me it is Saturday night in Cincy. Get back to me by 8pm Sunday, and let's resolve this sensibly. Surely you can spare a few seconds in the next 24 hrs.

Alex
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JUST NOW - FROM MIKE!

Hi Alex,

It is unfortunate that you are angry. I do apologize for you feeling that way. You should know that this bass continues to be built to your specs. In time you will have an instrument that well exceeds the money spent on materials.

You are welcome to open our conversations to the public. I ask that you include them in their entirety. With each communication I spend time editing and condensing as to use words efficiently and wisely. Chemistry and luthiery are among the leaders in my skills so I allow much time for each sentence written. Receiving multiple messages written with emotion requires time to construct a proper response so as to keep the conversation focused on the goal.

As that goal approaches completion I shall not post additional photos unless it requires your immediate attention. As my time in the shop is tight, the time editing and posting pics shall be held until this round of instruments is complete. The additional maintenance of conversation created by their posting as well as their lack of posting will focus my time in the shop.

We do not have a contract. However, in the USA email is considered legally binding. And since you declined purchasing a completion date this instrument shall be completed as each step is able to be done properly; with completion anticipated in the next fortnight.

Bass wishes,
Mike
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JUST NOW - from me

Built to my specs? I don't remember having the opportunity to lay them out! I requested a current manifest in July and still have not received it.

You apparently bought a bunch of pickups to test after I had explicitly stated the make and model I wanted. From what spec did you choose the pickups?

I have asked about headstock redesign and it fell on deaf ears. How can the headstock be to my specs?

For electronics I have requested a special tone circuit be integrated, and you never responded. How can the electronics be to my specs?

You gave me the choice of 4 wood layouts for the top, said you would show me overlays of each using the paper cutout so I could choose which suited the bass best for me, but never did it. How can the main feature of the bass be to my specs?

" In time you will have an instrument that well exceeds the money spent on materials." That's what I'm paying you for!

On the third of July 2011 you wrote the following

"The finish will be System 3 Clear Coat and KTM9. The sanding of the Clear Coat absolutely sucks and chews through sandpaper - but it's completely worth it. The colors and durability make it the best finish combination. The KTM9 top coat will allow you to easily touch up scratches when they occur without having to do a complete refin. Figure about $500 for the finishing.

I may try to talk you into Nordstrand or EMG pickups. The DiMarzios are good but the audio quality from Nordstrand is better (IMO) and EMG is the purist electric sound if you prefer clarity. $320 is on the high end of my instruments for pickups, but you are wanting three so let's aim for $320 at the top-end target.

I'm a Hipshot dealer and we'll only need the saddles since they'll be inlaid into the Cocobolo. Figure ~$50ish for 4 saddles, but let me get a price from them before you hold me to that. The tuners should be ~$120ish for two sets.

The passive wiring will be much cheaper than that. I do not think I could hit $150 with solid gold switches. The amp side of my shop uses high quality mini switches and I'm thinking that they are between $1 and $3 for each.

$80 for strings?! Wow. I had to really talk myself into allowing $65 for Optima gold strings a few years back. Does juststrings.com have what you prefer?

This bring me to a balpark of:

Wood = $400ish
Hardware = $150ish
Finish = $500ish
Electronics = $320ish

A top-end target of $3040 for Coco front and back or $2650ish for only a Cocobolo front; and I encourage you to do that for aesthetics. I'm not sure if the hardware will reduce at all, I believe that is an accurate number. "

I would certainly hope that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Leo Fender never made a cent by selling a branch from an ash tree and some iron ore to prospective guitar players.

As for you needing "time to construct a proper response so as to keep the conversation focused on the goal", I call ********. Plain as day. I asked for an acknowledgement of my contact, not a thesis. That, Mike, takes ten seconds. If time is such a precious commodity, then perhaps you should spend less time posting inane comments of facebook about your minister beating off in church. That way way you might have a spare ten seconds to send a message to one of your customers.

As for what is legal and what isn't, I really don't care. I care about what is right, and what is wrong. In any case, to decline purchasing a completion date, I would have had to have been offered one in the first place.

How on earth do you expect me to send you another $1500 if it takes what is has just for you to acknowledge my contact? I really had to force your hand to get the email I just got, which probably consumed all of about five minutes of your time. I shudder to think what it might take for you to make the time to box up a bass and take it to FEDEX.

If you are fair dinkum, and you had have made an effort to keep me apprised of my instrument's progress on a weekly basis (end quote), that bass could have been passenger luggage on a QANTAS with my brother in law flight out of LA before the end of the month. As it stands now, it will be a large FEDEX bill plus Australia's 10% GST and a bass built which I have no guarantee will be to my specification.
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Evidently my skill to construct a coherent sentence was slightly impaired in my last email, but honesty is the best policy, so they are posted verbatim...
 
#40
Being in the final stages of my first commissioned build, there are some things I have learned.

Communication is easy and takes hardly any effort. I've responded to every email, returned every missed call, and answered every voice mail.

Keeping to a timeline can be very difficult, however. Things happen. Parts you need go in and out of stock. Wood behaves like a b@&%h. Critical tools break and sometimes have to be ordered, leading to unpredictable delays.

However, communication is the key to dealing with chaos. I've had a number of things go wrong with this build. At all phases I kept the customer informed and he has been OK with delays. Sometimes the problems were caused by my relative n00bness, and so I ate the cost of a few pieces of wood being replaced.

As for mikey...very knowledgeable guy, but he always rubbed me the wrong way. I can't say I'm surprised by hearing about this issue coming from him, but it is still distressing.
 
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