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Zon basses - is everything OK ?

#81
jfh2424 said:
I respect your opinion.

However, for the greater good of the bass community, I think that this thread should be a sticky. We should know about this stuff.

More than three years to wait for a bass build, at least one person waiting reportedly six years...the TB community should know what they are getting into when they deal with Zon. For most people, that is completely and utterly unacceptable. It's also disrespectful.
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I must say I agree.

It makes no sense, and one thing is to call a brand and they tell you, we'll only start your build in a year, there is a waiting list. Once started, it will be ready in 6 months.

Another thing, completely different, is this. No answering, no returning calls, successive delays, years and years waiting.
 
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#82
Sadly, I must agree. It saddens me to say that because I think Zon are some of the best instruments around but things have clearly gone very badly wrong at Zon over the past few years to the point where these issues have arisen. Sadly, once a company that works to a small scale and hand-builds a product like this falls into difficulty with meeting their orders, the problem often snowballs. Robbing Peter to pay Paul may work once and buy you a week or two here, but the corrosive effect of that sort of practice can quickly become a critical issue. One deposit is spent paying bills and wages, another deposit is taken, that money is spent funding a NAMM build and neither bass is made so more deposits are taken, but then you have to build basses one and two even though the deposit has come and gone from the bank...

...you can see how this sort of situation can become tricky. I am hoping and praying that Zon can get things stabilised. I would very much like to own another some day.
 
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#83
Raoul_Duke said:
Are all the Zon builds taking years longer than promised, or is it just a lucky few who are repeatedly bumped to the back of the line?
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I don't believe it's all Zon builds, not even with the 2020 calamities (pandemic, CA wildfires). We have to keep in mind that unhappy customers are quicker to post negative comments than happy ones are to share positive ones.

Two data points I can speak to personally: I ordered mine in mid-2017, and got it 9 months later, just one month over ETA -- no complaint from me, especially given the long waits that I'd learned about. However a friend ordered his around the same time: it took two full years to arrive, and same as others with long waits, he was extremely unhappy with the lack of communication from the shop.

Here on TB, Angus, basschanges, mrgittleman, and now Rumblefisher have experienced / are still experiencing extreme delays: 3+ years. MaidenBass waited two years before understandably losing his patience. Pretty sure there have been others, and I've only been following Zon for 3 years or so. However some TBers besides me have received their orders approximately on time. We tend to remember the bad news, and overlook the good because it's expected.

Overall, my hunch is that Zon goes for the lowest hanging fruit in order to deliver as many on-time orders as possible. If there's a hitch with someone's build, it'll be shelved until the shop manages to find some catch-up time: after all, that order is already late, the customer is already unhappy, so the goal is to minimize the overall number of unhappy customers. Again, just my hunch that's solely based on what I've read here on TB.
 
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#84
jfh2424 said:
I respect your opinion.

However, for the greater good of the bass community, I think that this thread should be a sticky. We should know about this stuff.

More than three years to wait for a bass build, at least one person waiting reportedly six years...the TB community should know what they are getting into when they deal with Zon. For most people, that is completely and utterly unacceptable. It's also disrespectful.
Click to expand...
Totally agree it should be sticky.
 
#87
If you read the thread that was posted you will see that it has been an issue and members of the forum have been made aware of it for at least 3 years.
My snide comment is a result of almost 6 years of frustration my apologies to any members who were taken aback but I wish I had known about this prior to ordering an instrument.
 
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#90
In January 2019 a Zon warning thread was created at the request of a TBer waiting for two overdue orders. That thread was taken down fairly quickly because the person who requested it changed his mind. He didn't go about it the right way, but there were complications... I'll just say that he had his reasons and will leave it at that. Coda: he eventually received one of the basses after 2 years (and quickly sold it because it was a pound heavier than he'd specified and he has back problems stemming from military service), and was able to get reimbursed for the second -- not by Zon, but from his "valuable personal property" insurance policy.

Anyway: I'm not a moderator, but it makes sense that the sticky request must come from someone suffering an extended wait. I can understand not wanting to volunteer. The Darrin Huff thread didn't become a stickied warning until a number of us on the wait list essentially lost hope after 5+ years.
 
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#98
No problem. There's bigger problems out there than waiting for a custom instrument. But thank you all the same :)

The guys at Zon have been nice. I've not felt shrugged off or anything. I'm asking them if maybe we can pivot to a 32" neck if they haven't joined the body to a neck yet :)
 
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#99
Rumblefisher said:
No problem. There's bigger problems out there than waiting for a custom instrument. But thank you all the same :)

The guys at Zon have been nice. I've not felt shrugged off or anything. I'm asking them if maybe we can pivot to a 32" neck if they haven't joined the body to a neck yet :)
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There's a lot more involved in changing scale than just the neck. It can affect bridge and pickup placement.
 
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