This is why things will not change. An owner of a brand new couple thousand dollar anything should not have to repair it straight out of the freakin box.
How easy it is or isn't is NOT THE POINT.
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This is why things will not change. An owner of a brand new couple thousand dollar anything should not have to repair it straight out of the freakin box.
How easy it is or isn't is NOT THE POINT.
I traded a Rickenbacker 4001v63 for my first Dingwall bass, and the Dingwall's neck pickup died after about a month.
I called Dingwall, and Sheldon Dingwall answered the phone.
I explained the problem to him, and his response was simple:
"Dude! That sucks; I'm so sorry! We can either send you a return-shipping ticket, or a new pickup if you're comfortable soldering it in"
I told him I was OK with doing the soldering, so he told me "What's your address; I'll overnight you the new pickup"
I gave him my address, and asked if I could order a set of strings since there were less places to get them back in 2003.
He declined to sell me a set, saying that he'd prefer to throw them in for my trouble!
I got the new pickup and strings -- overnighted from Canada to Iowa -- the next day.
Customer service is a part of corporate culture, and some people get it.
I prefer doing business with those who do.
Crap happens. My beautiful, custom-ordered, handmade Drake worked perfectly in Andrew's laboratory for a month before he shipped it to me and, somehow the $15 jack decided to develop an occasional malfunction. It's a good quality jack that just happened to create a spotty, occasional, random issue that would kill batteries. I had my local tech check it out. Now it's fine. And it certainly isn't Andrew's fault, although he offered to have me ship it back and do the work.
I'm sure it was fine when it left the factory. If it were a big design flaw, we'd ear about it all the time. I'd bet that it happened in shipping after it was inspected. Should it happen? No. Should Rickenbacker fix it if asked? Yes. Will they? I'm sure they will. Is there anything produced that doesn't occasionally have a problem even right out of the box? No.
There is no way I can think of that we'll know what really happened. It seems he has a few obvious options.. different people would go different routes.
1) return it for a refund and go buy something from some other company
2) exchange it with the seller for one without the issue
3) work with the seller or Rickenbacker to get Warranty work done
4) fix it yourself if it looks simple... it sounds like it may be.
Personally I'd go with 4 and move on with things that are more important to me.. and I'm sure there are other options.
As for QC, unless someone can prove that it was broken when it left the factory, personally I highly doubt its a QC issue and is just a case of bad luck. It happens to all of us. Different people act very differently in theses situations. There is no right or wrong thing to do here... well, burning the Rick... that would be wrong no matter what...
There is no way I can think of that we'll know what really happened. It seems he has a few obvious options.. different people would go different routes.
1) return it for a refund and go buy something from some other company
2) exchange it with the seller for one without the issue
3) work with the seller or Rickenbacker to get Warranty work done
4) fix it yourself if it looks simple... it sounds like it may be.
Personally I'd go with 4 and move on with things that are more important to me.. and I'm sure there are other options.
As for QC, unless someone can prove that it was broken when it left the factory, personally I highly doubt its a QC issue and is just a case of bad luck. It happens to all of us. Different people act very differently in theses situations. There is no right or wrong thing to do here... well, burning the Rick... that would be wrong no matter what...
Of course it would. A Jazz would probably burn much longer.
/yeah, I'm stirring the pot
//Jazz owner
Not the same thing at all.
Your bass worked out out the box. A failure DOWN THE ROAD has nothing to do with initial quality and quality control at the plant.
I bet your opinion would be different if that pickup was bad out of the box
I play a Ric and a Jazz. I agree. The Jazz would most likely burn longer. Glad to make some progress in this thread.Of course it would. A Jazz would probably burn much longer.
/yeah, I'm stirring the pot
//Jazz owner
If the rest of the bass met or surpassed my expectations I'd have fixed the switch and saved all the hassle of returning and searching for another one.
but to each his own.
but to each his own.
I loved the bass. I didn't want it to go through the postal service Cuisinart for a lousy jack.
Not saying that it's acceptable by any means, but I think If I loved the bass itself, finish , playability, and so on, I would spend the 10 bucks and fix it myself rather than take the chance of shipping it two and fro across the country possibly risking other issues. That could possibly open up an even bigger can of worms..
Hardly a fair comparison, not defending Rickenbacker, but Rickenbacker is a much bigger operation than Dingwall. You should still expect good customer service, but the owner is not going to answer the phone. Your story does support the fact that issues like these happen to EVERY manufacturer for one reason or the other on a regular basis.
Warranty or not, it's always a bit of a crapshoot shipping something valuable without a Shockwatch or similar indicator on the package. To me it's not worth it for a jack that would take five minutes to replace, but I do appreciate the annoyance at having to deal with it after having spent that much money.
Last time some legitimate gripes about some issues with a new Ric were aired on the Rick Resource Forum, Ric CEO John Hall quit the forum in a huff and never came back.
My '73 4001 Jetglo was rescued from a pawn shop in the 1980s. Switch still works just fine.
While I've never worked in a factory building bass guitars, I did work as a Quality Inspector at the Ampeg factory the last 10 years it was in St. Louis. I can tell you that the people at RIC probably do inspect every instrument before it leaves. Do they miss stuff? They sure do. So did we. They're human, and no matter what you do, when you do it all day every day you're going to occasionally miss things (the saying "100% inspection is only 80% effective" exists for a reason). All companies do. The ones who set themselves apart, though, are the ones who handle any problems in the best possible manner ... whatever that is. Sounds like that's exactly what happened here.
Exactly. Paying Ric prices for a fix-er-upper is not good.
Some companies constantly look to fix design flaws, problems in their manufacturing process and QC. Others don't.
Ouch!
Sheldon is one of our local manufacturers, but it still (sort of) hurts to hear this.
Both Rics and Dingwalls are superlative instruments though.
As far as we know, this is the first time this has ever happened with a Ric ( I doubt it, but since I've never seen anyone else post about the issue, that's where I'm starting from ). They have sold thousands of these over the years. One report of this particular issue doesn't make it a design flaw.
If we can find numerous instances of this happening, I'd take it more seriously. I'd be upset too if it happened to me. But I think I'd have handled it differently. I probably would have posted about it, though.
If we can find numerous instances of this happening, I'd take it more seriously. I'd be upset too if it happened to me. But I think I'd have handled it differently. I probably would have posted about it, though.
