D-55 on its way to Guild for warranty service

This is great news, provided that it turns out to be true, and that they did a good repair job.

Fingers crossed!

Hallelujah!, hoping that timeline sticks, and that it arrives better than new.

Please, no more unpleasant surprises!

dwasifar said:

Guild did call me back as promised today, with a firm commitment that the instrument will be finished this week and shipped out. I also got a promise of frequent status updates in the meantime.

I am hopeful that all this turns out to be true. I don't think it's time to declare success just yet, but I do feel like it's good progress.

I asked the rep if he could tell me what was behind the long delay, and he said he did not know, but he will try to find out.

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Thanks for keeping us looped into this Dwasifar. I know buying an expensive well-made guitar is a very personal thing. You have provided this forum a window into your experience which always brings about opinions and suggestions. All well intentioned mind you. However, I hope in the end you are satisfied with the final product.

Well.

I was promised it would be complete today, if not ship today. The agent I have been talking to told me he would be out today, but I asked him to ask his boss to call me with an update today, and he agreed.

I did not receive that call. I called looking for him, left a message, no callback. No email. No indication that the guitar is complete today as promised.

I love this guitar and I am eager to have it back, but I'm really iffy about ever buying another Guild (or Cordoba) at this point. So far they're batting a big fat zero on keeping promises.

dwasifar said:

Well.

I was promised it would be complete today, if not ship today. The agent I have been talking to told me he would be out today, but I asked him to ask his boss to call me with an update today, and he agreed.

I did not receive that call. I called looking for him, left a message, no callback. No email. No indication that the guitar is complete today as promised.

I love this guitar and I am eager to have it back, but I'm really iffy about ever buying another Guild (or Cordoba) at this point. So far they're batting a big fat zero on keeping promises.

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Did everyone who made commitments understand that Veteran's Day is a holiday?

Yeah.... my soldier boy and I celebrated with beer and shots. But frono this is Friday. Do THEY not know about holidays and stuff?? I mean, just tell me the fing truth!!

I am thinking that if

dwasifar​

would post an email link that we should all respond to let Guild know that all are listening!

Update: It turns out the customer service boss did try to call me back. Unfortunately, he called me back at the number I had called him from, and not the number I left for him in the message. As a result I didn't get the call, and it took a couple of hours before I received his voicemail. So that is not quite the lapse it initially seemed.

However. When I called him back, he did (very apologetically) confirm that the work is not finished today as promised, and the technicians went home without providing an update other than that it's a "difficult instrument." He stated that he believes I'm being more than reasonable, and he promised to make it his mission to get it moving on Monday. I agreed to talk on Monday. Afterwards, I texted him to add (politely) that I really want to know in what way it's difficult, and how that brought us to this point, and suggested maybe if they can't fix it they should replace it. I said I know they don't just have them lying around, but I'm sure they could build one in less time. So we'll see what he says to that on Monday.

Regarding the email link idea: I appreciate the willingness to help, but I feel like it would probably do more harm than good for them to get all those emails and have to reply to each one. It risks descending the situation into chaos, so I'm going to table that idea for now. But thanks.

fronobulax said:

Did everyone who made commitments understand that Veteran's Day is a holiday?

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Well, they were working today, as it turned out, so I would have to say either "yes" or "it isn't relevant here."

2 steps forward, 1 step back. <sigh>
I'd be interested to know what's difficult about the repair, too. Maybe the tech is a builder and not repairman.

Then maybe share this conversation as a whole with Guild? just to let them know that others are watching.
You absolutely are being mare patient than I would

Sounds like the guy is blowing smoke.

prairieschooner! said:

I am thinking that if

dwasifar​

would post an email link that we should all respond to let Guild know that all are listening!

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I actually thought that same thing the other day when I was readding the latest on this.

FNG said:

Sounds like the guy is blowing smoke.

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I don't think the broken promises are originating from customer service; I think the shop is breaking their promises to the customer service people. But since I can't talk to the shop guys, I can only express my frustration on the reps, which I am trying to do politely but firmly.

dwasifar said:

I don't think the broken promises are originating from customer service; I think the shop is breaking their promises to the customer service people. But since I can't talk to the shop guys, I can only express my frustration on the reps, which I am trying to do politely but firmly.

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As far as you the customer are concerned they are all one and the same.... Guild / CMG. Not your concern that the shop is having issues. Like I said in a previous message. Either send it out to an authorized Guild repair specialist or send you your money.

D30Man said:

As far as you the customer are concerned they are all one and the same.... Guild / CMG. Not your concern that the shop is having issues. Like I said in a previous message. Either send it out to an authorized Guild repair specialist or send you your money.

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You're right, it's not my problem; but it matters because it affects how I deal with the customer service reps.

If someone is lying to you directly, you're entitled to be harsher with them than if someone else lied to them and put them in the middle. In the latter case, a more diplomatic approach keeps that person on your side. Right now I have the customer service people on my side, and I don't want to squander that advantage by being nasty to them. That might change if things go much farther, but the guy I talked to yesterday seemed dreadfully embarrassed to find himself in this situation with a customer, and I believe what he told me about the current status.

Without going back to the beginning of this whole thing, I'm pretty sure that part of the problem was the finish flaking off in spots. Now I'm not making excuses for them at all, because that shouldn't happen. But honestly it probably seemed fine in the beginning. But after the fact, when you have finish coming off or having problems, you have to address the CAUSE of that and determine why that's happening. If the finish isn't sticking to the wood, why is it not? And to fix that, the finish has to come off. Maybe they resprayed it and over time saw it still wasn't adhering to the wood. So in that case they have to take the old finish off and sand the wood again and then use a spit coat and possibly several coats to get the finish to adhere. Much more difficult and time consuming that spraying wood that's been prepped. So while I'm not making any excuses for them, it's much more difficult than slapping finish on fresh wood in an assembly line situation.

Anyway, I just wanted to throw that out there for consideration. They really should have a system in place to address repairs and warranty work. It's difficult to believe since they've been making guitars in Oxnard, that this is the first and only repair they've ever done. If it is, that's pretty good!!

Hopefully, Monday or soon after, you'll get some satisfaction. For now, we wait.

davismanLV said:

Without going back to the beginning of this whole thing, I'm pretty sure that part of the problem was the finish flaking off in spots. Now I'm not making excuses for them at all, because that shouldn't happen. But honestly it probably seemed fine in the beginning. But after the fact, when you have finish coming off or having problems, you have to address the CAUSE of that and determine why that's happening.

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Exactly why I have given them this long.

It's been suggested to me that I should ask them for some compensation for my trouble after this is all over. I'm not sure how I feel about that, or what I would ask for. So I'm throwing it out there for opinions. Is that over the line?