Re: Good News and Bad News & 25th Anniversary in the house

[Poelbaum]

Well I just heard from Jay Wolfe. It seems Jay would like to send my 25th anniversary 535 VWB back to Heritage. The reason....you guessed it, the nut.

 

Here is what Jay wrote

 

From: jaywolfe@bellsouth.net

Subject: Wolfe Guitars

Date: January 2, 2010 11:08:33 AM GMT-05:00

To: xxxxxxx@rogers.com

Cc: vincxxxx@aol.com

 

Hi Peter;

 

My Luthier has asked me to return your Guitar to Heritage for replacement of the nut. He's not happy with the string spacing and slot depth. he's quite picky.

This is "not" just because of the recent mostly inaccurate posts on the HOC, but rather fairly common

when we find something we are not completely happy with........

This minor adjustment will unfortunately cause a delay in your receiving the guitar, but I'm sure you'd prefer to have Heritage correct the minor issue. I regret the delay, but I feel this is best. I will shoot a photo of the guitar before returning it for correction.

Thanks;

 

Jay Wolfe,

 

******************

 

I have included the details of the email here for a few reasons:

 

1. I believe Jay has dealt fairly and promptly with my unfortunate situation and have no beef with him. This is the 2nd guitar I will have purchased form him and highly recommend him as a dealer.

 

2. I believe there are likely 2 sides to every story, and the fact that Jay has not defended himself in the other thread I think likely has more to do with the fact that as a business person he has very little to gain from debating with potential customers the merits of this particular instance. The fact that the other guy says he has no problem with Wolfe should put that issue to bed.

 

3. I believe that this is something Heritage must take note of, and you will notice that Jay cc'd Vince on his email to me which references the HOC. It seems whomever is on "nut duty" these days might be celebrating the holiday season a little too hard, or something like that.

 

On a personal note, this kind of sucks for me as I was really looking forward to receiving it this coming week. Oh well...the wait continues.

[pegleg32]

Hey Poe, well that was welcome news but not surprising that Jay is holding up his end of the bargain. but it was really sad that you have to wait to get your new guitar!! I just hate new guitar day when it doesn't turn out right, on the other hand, now you get to look forward to another new guitar day and you can be pretty sure it will be a great one!!! Post pics when you get it!!!

[Thundersteel]

My Luthier has asked me to return your Guitar to Heritage for replacement of the nut. He's not happy with the string spacing and slot depth. he's quite picky.

 

He must have been out the day the "other bad nut" guitar was shipped out.

[Poelbaum]

He must have been out the day the "other bad nut" guitar was shipped out.

 

I note the sarcasm. Actually, though it is not my position to defend or not to, those circumstances were explained to me to my satisfaction. I suggest you pm Wolfe if you would like it explained to you. Given what I was told, and the fact that the person who received that guitar has no problem with Wolfe, I have no issues at all.

[barrymclark]

Awesome. This is good to hear. ...especially in light of a recent thread.

[JeffB]

Its a 50/50 thing this thread.

Its good its going back to be fixed, its bad theres a delay and you know about it.

Im not good at waiting.

[PacerX]

This is "not" just because of the recent mostly inaccurate posts on the HOC, but rather fairly common

when we find something we are not completely happy with........

 

Speaking for myself:

 

Heritage's process can be fixed so that it doesn't happen. It is important to do so.

 

To this day, Harley Davidson is still fighting down a bad quality reputation earned 30 years ago. They've made world-class motorcycles for the last 15 years or so, but once a bad reputation in that area is earned it takes ages of flawless performance to recover your reputation.

 

I'd like to see Heritage not have that problem.

If Heritage is struggling here and needs help there are people here (including myself) with manufacturing experience who would be happy to help them (and I'll even use lawyer-speak...) pro bono.

[FredZepp]

He must have been out the day the "other bad nut" guitar was shipped out.

It is nice that this was caught at the dealer, a lot less drama.

[hiro]

Sometimes 5 hits happen, but also comes for the opportunity for exemplary service to be shown, and seems that Wolfe and Heritage is handling this.

 

I'm blessed I'm in a location where there are vast collections of Heritage, GL, and Fenders in stores to play before buying . . .

[Jazzpunk]

It is nice that this was caught at the dealer, a lot less drama.

 

My issues (as well as several others this year) were caught by me so yes, it is nice that it's now being addressed at the dealer level.

 

When ordering a Heritage guitar one must pay a dealer fee so any issues should be caught and addressed by the dealer prior to shipping the guitar.

[Jazzpunk]

Furthermore, if there are inaccurate statements being made by paying customers here on the HOC, I would suggest they be addressed. The pics provided seem pretty clear cut imo. The ball was dropped at two levels- Heritage and the dealer. If the guitars shipped directly from Heritage to the customer than that is another story and should be clarified.

[Poelbaum]

Furthermore, if there are inaccurate statements being made by paying customers here on the HOC, I would suggest they be addressed. The pics provided seem pretty clear cut imo. The ball was dropped at two levels- Heritage and the dealer. If the guitars shipped directly from Heritage to the customer than that is another story and should be clarified.

 

Again I have no intention of diving into that whole debate, but I was satisfied by what I heard. By the way I posted pics of my guitar that were sent to me by the dealer right before he repacked to ship to Heritage. They are in another thread titled "25th anniversary 535 not quite in the house". And for those wondering....No there are no detailed pics of the nut. Just nice guitar porn to cheer me up.

[bluescat]

To this day, Harley Davidson is still fighting down a bad quality reputation earned 30 years ago

 

Very true. I had a set of Firestone tires recalled in 1976 and haven't bought a set a Firestones since, nor am I likely to ever again.

 

It doesn't take much to destroy a reputation.

[Poelbaum]

Very true. I had a set of Firestone tires recalled in 1976 and haven't bought a set a Firestones since, nor am I likely to ever again.

 

It doesn't take much to destroy a reputation.

 

You know I felt the same way about American cars generally for a long time. I bought a Buick Enclave last year and have been very pleased. But interestingly, while I was waiting for that vehicle (there was a 6 week wait at the time) I was frequenting a Buick owners club. There was a post about someone pissed off that there brand new Enclave had a leaky moonroof and he woke up to a soaking interior (a few people reported this and was traced to a faulty trim part). What was interesting was that some people were upset that he posted that as it might drive off (pardon the pun) some interested buyers. I chimed in, saying I recently ordered, and it was certainly something I wanted to know and would watch out for. One gentleman actually went so far as to say lots of cars moonroofs leak and it wasnt unique to American cars and Buick. I suggested to him that if he was willing to accept a brand new vehicle with a leaky moonroof he was a chump. Anyways I thought it was an interesting parallel to the whole discussion here. My point is merely that nobody here has any intention but to love their guitar, and to support and improve the company that makes it.