to all those out there making a living off of your fx a Q?

[Ansil]

how do you deal with people ripping off your customers??
someone thinks they bought a quality pedal for a deal (new or used) or the dreaded ebay buy where you paid good money for an empty shell or a useless circuit.  

i had this happen with a boss pedal i bought online it was supposed to be a pitch shifter but all it was was a od.. now that wasn't making my day by no means.  now big old corporation just asked me for my proof of purchase and send them my hunk of junk and they sent me a brand new pedal.  

for the big corportaion that is fine, they didn't really miss out on much, but look at some of the boutique makers they can't afford to do that.  i mean the klon pedals  joe gagan   [fill in various other people making a living off of fx and such].  

i have had a lot of people hosed by different fx companys even when they bought stuff new.  i got screwed by ibanez for like a year.  

so how would anyone else take care of this.  

i was faced with a similar problem and it has no longer been an issue but it leaves a naggin thought in my mind on how to handle such as this.

[ExpAnonColin]

I've never heard of anyone swapping out a botique PCB for anything else, let alone a non-botique swapping (until now)... do I understand correctly?

-Colin

[petemoore]

I'm not sure I wuite understand the sequence of events you're depicting...

[Peter Snowberg]

I don't quite understand either, but good customer relations are priceless.

Warranty and approved dealers should take care of everything 99.99999% of the time.

If you buy a $10 Rolex, something if fishey.

-Peter

[petemoore]

I always liked the stuff that works.
 Nothing fun about a nonworking car or amp with a great warranty...by the time you figure out it's not working you probably are gonna need it before the warranty can help fix it.
 I use warranties as an indirect guide to what the marketeers and designers think about a products estimated life, but never had a warranty i liked using..lol
 I barely got the MkII reissue fixed under warranty...course that was partly the discount dealer I got it from [pay the extra ~5%...give it to a dealer with a great reputation...you'll thank yourself if anything goes wrong...warranties can be a terrible nightmare.
 Roger here at Akron Music would never have let that happen to me...quite probably would have seen that I get a loaner till mine got fixed.
 The only recourse I had was go to court, which I told them "Ill do'  if you keep dragging your feet...There IS a BIG difference how different musical [and other] dealers treat warranties in my experience!!!...

[Ansil]

lets put it this way..   lets say you buy one of my pedals..  

a hate machine.  the last batch i did all had hand made pcb's and a custom paintjob on eachone.   lets say you buy it used at a music store.  come to find out it isn't what it is supposed to be..  lets say a kay tememlo inside my dist box what would one do.

i just replaced the board and sent it on my way,b ut i am joe schmo  i was wondering what the ethical.. {maybee that isn't the word} thing to do?

[Peter Snowberg]

Ansil,
Hmmmm.... I've never heard of that happening, but If I got a pedal back from somebody and it was the original box with original controls and the PCB was missing, I would call them to try and figure out what happened and where.

If it came from a dealer, I would call the dealer right away.

If the customer was cool about it on the phone and the problem was with the dealer, I would probably just put another PCB in and send it back. The box, switch, pots and knobs can be 95% of the cost of an effect when it comes to boosts and distortions so I would take the opportunity to create some good will.

If the person bought it off the street or on eBay, I would have to say, "Sorry, but the seller ripped you off." and offer to rebuild it at roughly cost.

Too many variables.... depends on the pedal, the dealer, the customer, my cash level, and the phase of the moon; but I would do what I could to make the situation "right".


Pete,
I know what you're saying about warranties. I don't think I've EVER sent a card in for anything. From the other side, when you sell through reputable dealers, they want to make sure their vendors are going to stand behind their products and not leave people hanging.

pay the extra ~5%...give it to a dealer with a great reputation...you'll thank yourself if anything goes wrong...warranties can be a terrible nightmare.

Excellent words to live by.

Take care,
-Peter

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

If someone makes a pedal, and then later it is sold secondhand, but it turns out that it is broken (or worse, has soemthing else entirely inside it! but I cant see that happening too often!) then it is up to the shop or person that sold it to refund the money to the uyer, because it wasn't what they were told it was.
having said that, on the if anyone ever buys one of my pedals secondhand & it is buggered, they can mail it to me for a free fix

[Ansil]

so basically if its used your off the hooke. i was just wondering.  if eel better now.. but not for my friend   he has a schematic for a pedal he got yanked on.   but it isn't the original pedal just the shell.. oh well..

[bwanasonic]

If someone buys say a used Fulltone pedal, and the circuit inside is an Arion board (or no circuit at all), it really has nothing to do with Mike Fuller and Fulltone. It has to do with local police as this a clear case of fraud. If you pay for a pitch-shifter and you get an OD, unless you bought it directly from Boss, it is not their obligation to send you the correct pedal. It is the retailer's obligation to send you what you ordered.  The scenarios you describe are more cases of fraud than a matter of a manufacturer standing behind their product.

Kerry M