• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

My HORRIBLE Alleva-Coppolo experience...

Status
Not open for further replies.
#706
Fuzzbass said:
You make good points. OTOH, I offer this counterpoint:

Jimmy should be embarrassed that this bass exists with his name on it. For honor and business rea. ns he should buy it back, burn it, apologize profusely to the OP. He could follow up by publicly admitting the mistake, e.g.: "sorry, I've been dealing with a personal issue (health of a family member, whatever), I made a terrible error in judgment, but I've now made everything right and won't let it happen again".
Click to expand...

I still very strongly disagree. Trust me. The best thing he can do is make things right with the op, do whatever he needs to do to avoid repeating this scenario, and put it to bed.
 
#710
joeyl said:
really? user car dealer that would take a car back, wow :eek: I've never met one. I've even bought a new car from a dealership where the sales guy would disappear after we signed the contract to avoid answering questions.
Click to expand...

Just because you haven't met one, doesn't mean they don't exist. For some of us, reputation is more important than money. It's about the long game.

Repeat business saves tons on advertising. It's a business model that has worked well for me.
 
  • Like
Reactions: S-Bigbottom
#712
Just to be Devil's Advocate for a minute...

So:
Y'all do understand the 9th was Friday, which is followed by a weekend, and a Monday, right?

Y'all all act like Jimmy should wade into this thread, which is a bunch of guys who had nothing to do with this transaction, and apologize to you as a group?
Or, perhaps more likely, take a group beatdown from the lot of you; who did not have anything to do with this transaction...

And last I read in here, and I could be wrong, the OP hasn't placed a phone call to him to try and sort this out as close to "face to face" as might be possible. Maybe I'm wrong, I haven't read all 20-whatever pages, just notifications throughout the day.

Don't me wrong, I do in fact see the issue here, and I do have empathy for the OP. Things do in fact take time, and not all resolutions take place in a web forum.

I also wonder if you all would hold yourself to the same sort of standards and expectations you go on about here, not knowing anything about the vendors side of this; and what is or isn't being done about it.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Low Class View Post
Over 24 hours since this thread was started and no word on this issue being resolved. That tells me all I need to know about Jimmy Coppola.
fourstringdrums said:
The fact that Addison said that he sent his last email to Jimmy August 9th should tell you something as well...3 days later.
Click to expand...
 
#713
I'm saying nothing new here, but the fact that someone would do something like this to one of their customers is just saddening. Mistakes happen, especially with spalted woods, but any good builder would have made it right immediately.

AC was never really high on my GAS list. I think that the "Vintage Fender made perfectly with today's technology" market is cornered quite nicely by Lakland and no preamp is worth the extra $2K to me. I guess I am glad that I live walking distance of Rudy Pensa and half an hour away by public from Sadowsky, Fodera, and Valenti.
 
#715
Okay everybody the moment you’ve all been waiting for, so sit tight and listen close because I’m only posting once. It’s frustrating and unfortunate that it has come to this as I did the best I could to work with Addison, he didn’t like any of my solutions. I viewed the photo’s that Addison posted on this thread, none of which he sent me personally by the way. I need to tell you all first that the bass was completed a year ago, so please don’t mistake it as it just came off the bench. It was a show and shop demo piece. Players spend a lot of time at my exhibits and in my shop literally playing the heck of the instruments all day. Some may consider it a used bass, well I guess its all how you look at it. The bass was never shipped to a final destination before Addison. I feel I made it clear that the bass had been played; I also believe that the discount I gave sure would have compensated for any question of what is played or worn condition (word it however you want), one man’s definition of this is different than another’s. When the bass left the shop it was set up perfect with no fret buzzing and certainly no so called “glue” marks on the fingerboard. A lot of people have seen and played this bass; Dug Pinnick, who has toured the world for decades, played it in front of me, like a man, with a pick through an amp at BPL and no buzz; with a pick everybody. The bass has been photographed; it’s even in the January issue of BP (granted the photo is small but it is in there). Do you think that I or any of the A-C fans would allow a trashed bass to be exhibited or photographed? Someone e-mailed me that “photos don’t lie”: Addison told me he is a full time graphic designer (even offered his services to me). I’m not accusing him of any foul play but it does make one think. Someone with those techniques knows angles, lighting and God knows what else to manipulate a photo. Just try it, use your Iphone with the flash on, and take a picture of your rosewood board neck close up. Now take the same photo with the flash off in normal lighting. Can you see how drastically different they are, how one looks normal and the other looks similar to Addison’s photos? Lighting can play a lot of tricks plus shooting direct flash on something close up is always going to look weird and not how your eyes see it naturally. Addison’s photos used a hard flash as you can see his thumb lit up in one of the photos. We haven’t even factored in any editing, and/or going into a photo program which exaggerates details to another level. I oil the fingerboards on all my instruments and any of those lines could have simply been an excess oil line. Heck for all we know the bass could very well have been in someone else’s hands, where that someone else could have dropped in let’s say some super thin glue alongside of the fret thus the desired effect would be achieved. To be realistic and fair because I truly want to believe that Addison would never do such a thing, for all we know the so called glue lines are simply excess fingerboard oil and just lighting. Addison solicited me, this bass was in lay-a-way for someone else. Addison really wanted it, so much so that since the bass was in lay-a-way longer than what the original purchaser and I agreed on, I called the original purchaser to see if he’d be willing to release it so Addison could have it (and I’ll just start building a replacement which production already has started). I had to be strict on the no refund policy not only because the discount, not only because he got a bass right away (and didn’t have to wait a really long completion time) but it also could have put my relationship with the original purchaser in jeopardy (fortunately all is fine there). I guess I haven’t learned yet that no good deed goes unpunished. Here’s where I’m at, I still want to help Addison even after all of this and I want this bass back. I stand by my product and I will refinish the body in nitrocellulose lacquer instead of the thin skin satin finish it currently is. I also want to see and address whatever the heck is going on with that fingerboard because as all of you who know me and my basses know that’s not how they are. This bass is obviously in the wrong hands. Once it is back it will get some extra TLC increasing the value (heck just the entire hoopla may have increased the value, this bass is legendary now) and then needs to go to the right player and right home. Since Addison chooses to use this public forum to discuss our private business through, as long as he has not made the charge back claim with the credit company yet, I want him to please send the bass back for a full refund. If he has already made the charge back claim as he suggested, than it may be too late as it becomes a legal issue and the credit card company takes things from there. I’m not 100% sure of this but it does need to be looked into and discussed. I like to thank all the people who privately messaged me with support. Talk Bass can be a great service bringing all of us in the music community together; it’s a shame that there is what seems to be a mob mentality without even considering two sides to a story. It is things like this that keep me away from these forums. Take care everybody, keep playing.

Jimmy Coppolo
 
#717
Copollo has nothing to gain by providing his side of the story in this forum. Haters will always hate. I have a hard time believing that this is not a humungous misunderstanding. Does Jimmy truly personally inspect every instrument that leaves his shop? There has to be another side to this story.
 
#719
Low Class said:
Over 24 hours since this thread was started and no word on this issue being resolved. That tells me all I need to know about Jimmy Coppola.
Click to expand...

First of all you spelled his name wrong. Secondly, I happen to know Jimmy personally and all the people on this thread who are taking personal swipes at Jimmy are ignorant about who he is and what kind of person he is. I also happen to know Jimmy's side of the story as I talked to him extensively today. Remember that concept, two sides to every story?? It reminds me of all the armchair judges who follow a court case on TV and pretend to know as much as the jurors who have heard every minute detail. Just my two cents.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Oddly
Status
Not open for further replies.

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back