UPS mangled my DV-72!!!

[Taylor Martin Guild]

I read a story of a Taylor guitar that was totally destroyed in a hurricane.
This was a limited production Liberty Tree guitar worth a lot of money.
Pictures showed this thing was a total loss.
One of the workers at Taylor said that he would take on the task of trying to repair the guitar.
The guitar was not only salvaged but it looks great.
Moral,
When the right person does the work, they can do the impossible.
I hope that the Guild Shop does some of their magic for you.

 

[southernGuild]

Jazz.....those photos do indeed speak for themselves! Man I am SO SO VERY SORRY. THAT is a nighmare come TRUE and should not have been visited upon you. I have that sick in the gut feeling FOR you!
THIS is exactly what i was fearing with my own DV52 in its recent trip down under, even told my friend to remove the bottom strap pin ( read about that on net) he said he couldnt, and so it remained in. But THAT damage on yours ( pin in or out would have made little matter there!) is the result of some serious neglect....dare i say ABUSE!.... on their part, a person cant be expected to pack against THAT kind of package abuse! ....MAN....I AM SORRY! and ANGRY too , .and Yea, what a loss. That should not have occured, had they just taken the least bit of care!
I'm sure everyone aroud here feels this one for you. We are all vulnerable to this sort of thing. I am particularly sensitive to it as WHAT I SEE here, is just what Ive been fearing this past week! Tried to blot that out of my mind until it arrived...and when she did, I was so SO thankful to see her here in good order.
No words........................But SO SORRY MAN. All you can do now is...TRY to make the best of this matter. Repairs,....restore, renew..........TRY to find some good here. It CAN be fixed.....Maybe she'll just turn out fine!...BETTER than fine even....Ive seen some amazingly damaged guitars repaired to excellent standards. Owners even say the guitar is in some ways "better" ( but noone wants that) ...LET this be one of those success stories!
For now though, Im sure its just all too much..and VERY disheartening. DEAL with it when you can.
Hang in there mate. Sorry, Southern :roll:

 

[southernGuild]

Whoa,.....I read the first page over coffee, thinking that this JUST happened TODAY!... only to read on and onas the events unfolded.......the SAGA indeed! What a mess! Glad I didnt see this last week! I would have been a very VERY worried man. Still, Sorry man! Southern :roll:

 

[West R Lee]

Why would you ultimately pay $2000 for a used, unrepaired guitar and get a repaired one and not say anything?

The thing you're talking about is diminution of value; yes, it's back together but if the repair is detectable by a knowledgeable buyer, luthier, or appraiser, then your reputation would be worth disclosing it. Doing so, more likely than not, will knock the selling price down to less than what you paid before the repair - assuming you didn't overpay for the guitar. If you're talking about going back to the seller for the difference;

If you said 'fix it' and nothing more and they did, that would be the end of it.
If you said 'fix it and I'm going to want another bite of the apple' ... chances are, they wouldn't have fixed it in the first place.

If you go back now, not having said you were going to be asking for more money, their likely reply would be 'I wish you'd said something before ... otherwise I might have acted differently'. Alternatively, if a carrier paid for the repairs, very good luck trying to squeeze them for more money.

I had a car flood-damaged in the mid-90s; insurance carrier elected to repair instead of 'Total' it. When they got done messing with it, I - like you - was stuck with damaged goods and a duty to disclose material facts about the car if/when I went to sell ... flood damage pretty much qualifying as a material fact. Anyway, I went back to the carrier, reminded them that they - not I - chose not to Total it and would they please pay me the diminished value .... whereupon they bought the car outright and sold it to offset their loss.

Good luck with your guitar! CJ

This post of Cappy's reminds me of a guy that had a DV72 for sale a couple of years ago. I can't remember what he was asking, but it was pretty rediculous....something like $3500 or $3700 or something. I wrote to ask him why he was asking so much and he explained that it had had a neck reset, binding repair, new bridge, etc. He went on to tell me that his asking price barely covered the cost of the guitar and repairs....furthermore, that the person that bought it would never have to worry about those issues, making his asking price reasonable :shock: :shock: :shock: .......who can argue with that?

West

 

[geoguy]

-Guild Nashville Repair Invoice-

- Repair top seam, and rim cracks. Check/reglue bracing -> $160
- Repair/Reglue binding -> $40
- Re-fret and replace nut -> $280
- Complete Guitar refinish -> $480
- Reglue bridge/reassemble/set up to specs -> $160

Would all this work address your concerns? For example, would you have a level & properly oriented fretboard when Guild/Fender/whomever is done?

Playing the role of devil's advocate, I could foresee the other luthier & seller arguing that a complete guitar refinish is an improvement that should not be at their expense . . .

- Mark

 

[jazzmang]

Would all this work address your concerns? For example, would you have a level & properly oriented fretboard when Guild/Fender/whomever is done?

Playing the role of devil's advocate, I could foresee the other luthier & seller arguing that a complete guitar refinish is an improvement that should not be at their expense . . .

- Mark

Yes, I was sure to focus on this when I sent it in to them. They will plane the fretboard as much as they can (without needing to remove the inlays, I would assume), then refret it to make it completely level. This is the only thing I'm afraid that the luthier won't want to pay up for. Technically although his neck reset was expensive, comparitively, he never promised to plane and refret, so he may not want to go for that, although after his massive screwup I'd hope he'd think that this made up for it. Mistakes have consequences!

To address your question about the refinish: the luthier is actually the one that told me that it probably needed a refinish and that he wasn't capable of doing such things at his shop. In reality, its nice to be getting one, but the guitar didn't originally have any real finish problems (only one craze on the top), so this isn't much of an improvement.

Personally, I'd worry that a normal shop would slap on the finish too thick, killing the sound. Pessimist aside, I've heard great things about Guild SVC in Nashville, so I'm hoping they'll finish it with a nice, thin, glassy-like finish.

Actually, I'm really looking forward to seeing their work. There's a couple stories of Nashville's repairs floating around here (I know of one LTGer that had his F-50R serviced and it came out really well) and all have been very positive.

I still haven't heard back from the Luthier or the seller just yet. Hopefully I'll hear something soon.

 

[Tunes]

Jazz,

Been following this thread - all I can say is hang in there brother. These things are sent - it seems - to test us and our resolve. Be resolved this will turn out OK somehow.

I know it may be cold comfort - but at least you (and hopefully your loved ones also) are still in one piece, and that's the most important thing.

Guitars can be fixed or even replaced - you can't.

 

[chazmo]

Jazz,

Been following this thread - all I can say is hang in there brother. These things are sent - it seems - to test us and our resolve. Be resolved this will turn out OK somehow.

I know it may be cold comfort - but at least you (and hopefully your loved ones also) are still in one piece, and that's the most important thing.

Guitars can be fixed or even replaced - you can't.

Well said, Tunes.

Not sure I'd have your patience though, honestly, Jazzy. More power to ya.

 

[jazzmang]

Well said, Tunes.

Not sure I'd have your patience though, honestly, Jazzy. More power to ya.

Haha, I'm not sure I have any other choice but to be patient in this situation!

I've currently got 2 guitars at Guild in Nashville. This and the D-100C that UPS also mangled...twice. Long story on that one. Maybe I'll post that one up on a slow day...

 

[taabru45]

Sooooooo, if we buy a guitar that needs some work.....be sure to have UPS drliver it.....there must be some way of winning with these guys, they have a huge service charge when delivering to Canada. Much better for us to use USPS. Steffan

 

[6L6]

This and the D-100C that UPS also mangled...twice.

WHAAAAAAAAAT.....!!!!????

 

[Tunes]

Jazz,

You do have the patience of a Saint ... so I give you .... Saint Cecelia, the patron saint of Musicians - really - I looked it up and everything. May she look over your guitars from this day forth.

 

[onewilyfool]

Jazz.....this is my first reply on this thread.....so very sorry to hear of this continuing saga of mistakes and mismanagement from the companies involved.....I can't really believe it. When I see the pics of that repair, or so-called repair....I'm pretty sure I could do a better job as an amature!!! hopefully the total facelift with bring it back to it's original beauty.....and sound....good luck with your challenge

 

[killdeer43]

Jazz,
.... Saint Cecelia, the patron saint of Musicians

Didn't Paul Simon write a song about her? :lol:

Joe

 

[killdeer43]

But seriously, back to the UPS thread. Some might recall my own incident with the UPS mangling of a recently acquired D35. After several phone conversations with the seller and a visit to my neighborhood luthier, it turns out that the damage (crack) didn't go all the way through the wood. *Still pretty ugly, though.
So, I decided to try the repair myself and save 200 clams. I used hide glue and worked it into the crack in several applications and it looks good enough to now begin the process of filling and sanding and finshing the job (someone suggested duct tape, but I passed on that remedy).
In the meantime, I have the D35 at my shop for 'eye candy.'

And I also have those 200 clams in hand to fuel another GAS attack! :wink:

Life is good,
Joe

 

[chazzan]

I read most of the saga........... sorry this had to happen!
I have bought 3 Guilds through the mail from stores and was lucky they came to me in one piece.
Maybe it's a good thing- with my warieness of E-Bay and shipping concerns seems to cancel out and GAS I would have.........better than TUMS

 

[taabru45]

But seriously, back to the UPS thread. Some might recall my own incident with the UPS mangling of a recently acquired D35. After several phone conversations with the seller and a visit to my neighborhood luthier, it turns out that the damage (crack) didn't go all the way through the wood. *Still pretty ugly, though.
So, I decided to try the repair myself and save 200 clams. I used hide glue and worked it into the crack in several applications and it looks good enough to now begin the process of filling and sanding and finshing the job (someone suggested duct tape, but I passed on that remedy).
In the meantime, I have the D35 at my shop for 'eye candy.'

And I also have those 200 clams in hand to fuel another GAS attack! :wink:

Life is good,
Joe

So Joe, did you happen to take before and after photos of the progress? You knew someone would ask, right? :lol: Steffan

 

[killdeer43]

So Joe, did you happen to take before and after photos of the progress? You knew someone would ask, right? :lol: Steffan

Steffan,

I did take a couple of 'before' shots and when I finish I'll post one together with an 'after' for comparison. We'll see how it goes. Should be OK, though. Still sounds like a D35!

Joe

 

[jazzmang]

Seller agreed to pay for all but the refret, which I had expected.

Repair work is under way and ETA is about 60 days.

 

[kitniyatran]

Patient congrats for the time being, jazzmang