Give a new Gibson for a gift=No warranty

[NeoConMan]

I believe he said it was a mail-order thing.

No store.

[Blackie]

Can you buy direct from Gibson ?

[NeoConMan]

No.

Not without a six-digit franchise agreement.

[Blackie]

I find that persistance and going over the head of any companies first line of "No" pays off, but I am cool about it.

I say hey I spend thousands of dollars with yall....I should be able to expect you give me the service I expect.

[Flight959]

Fcuk Gibson!!!

 

Buy secondhand next time so Gibson doesnt get a single penny!!!

 

Gibson are a JOKE!!!

[cwness]

I believe he said it was a mail-order thing.

No store.

 

Neo I just reread all his posts and so no mention of an online order.

Am I going blind?

 

CW

[cwness]

The reason I assume he made the statement was I had inquired about service over a year ago.

I needed to let things be for a while. Any help is surely accepted. So let me know what sounds so wrong other than the way I was treated?

Thanks

 

What happened that you had to let it be for a while?

 

CW

[Blackie]

Post some pics and describe said defects........you know the electronics are only warantied a year anyway.

[Blackie]

disgruntled

[NeoConMan]

Neo I just reread all his posts and so no mention of an online order.

Am I going blind?

 

CW

Sorry CW' date=' and the rest of yuz guyz...

 

That information was gleaned from a PM I received from the OP.

I didn't make that distinction in my post, and I should have.

 

Here's an excerpt from the PM where he explains how his fiance got the guitar, I had not deleted it yet.

 

[b']"I do sometimes have difficulty getting my point across.

Sorry for any missunderstandings.

She purchased this guitar online. It was a great surprise...."

 

".... I thought I would make a post to help others avoid this type of warranty issue."[/b]

 

I sort of shared his sentiment - helping others - when I posted about a "Public Service Announcement".

 

I don't know the full story, or what options he feels work best for him.

Any resolution is fully in his hands - with whatever advice he's gleaned from here.

[milod]

Well...

 

I was going to let this thread alone.

 

But... I think the guys have it right. It's too easy to pile on before the thing is nailed to what exactly is going on with the difficulty.

 

I used to do an "action line" and on the other side, help stores who had "action line" type problems with "the press."

 

Bottom line is that 80 percent of the time the customer is shown wrong and 15 percent the company will do a make good, but that either a grouchy customer, a grouchy store rep or both caused the problem. The other 5 percent of the time the store got whipped by "the press."

 

When I was on either side of the question, I wanted both sides of the story independently. What often gets told as in the initial bit of this thread may or may not be either true, or the perception of the service rep or service rep's recording machine may indicate why there is a failure of communication more than anything else.

 

m

[retrosurfer1959]

I guess I'm totally missing the point here, the guitar was bought by his fiance before any legal relationship was present so the guitar and the warranty belongs to her - case closed. If she gave it to him the warranty is still in her name just like if she sold it to someone if they are married then it's her name he should use for warranty and if they split up and buy some miracle he gets to keep the guitar then why should the warranty cover him it's no different then when you sell a guitar?

 

Gibson warranty is for the original purchaser period it's the benefit you receive to buy new if you don't thinks it's worth having buy used. granted good customer service is good customer service but whining is just that - whining!

[LerxstLee]

Since at some point there is some doubt to my story, I have asked what part is difficult and I would gladly explain to help clarify.

 

I was given a Gibson guitar for my birthday from my fiance. She ordered it online NEW from a Gibson online retailer.

I was the first to open the guitar and it was a gift to me. It is not second hand. I am the "original owner" but not the original purchaser.

That is the distinction. If you give something to someone it is legally theirs. A guitar is not like an engagement ring, that is called a gift of contemplation, if the wedding takes place, the ring is hers. In most cases, MOST cases, if the wedding does not take place the ring is rightfully

given back to the person who proposed.

I had a few issues with this guitar out of the box. The trem arm was of the lyre type and the tip was not screwed on all the way and was upside down. When installed on the guitar it rested against the guitar. I called gibson customer service five times, I could not get a replacement trem arm, the trem are is not covered under warranty. They will look into it. They will get back to me. They have no previous notes that I called. My point was simply it's a trem arm, it is not correct and as the picture showed, it was not a match for the guitar.

Finally Gibson said they would look at it,and replace it if it was incorrect, even with a picture showing the trem arm installed properly and stuck against the body. I had to send the guitar back just to get them to "verify" that the trem arm was indeed incorrect.

I went to all parts and bought a new one instead. Why, the less a guitar gets trucked shipped around the better. Within two weeks dark spots bled through the finish in a very few spots, that is not covered under warranty, its a finish issue. That is where I had to take a break before I said or did something really stupid. If you want to call spending $35 bucks for a part that was incorrect on a $3700 guitar whining good for you. Why should I have to spend any money to get an instrument correct because of a simple error, the arm was gold plated and they missed five more turns of the trem tip. Why not let me return the arm and send me a new one?

Regardless of relationship status, let me make the point so perhaps you could understand it.

If your last name was Smith and you remarried, your stepson's name is Retro, since you feel the need to enforce the law here, he is legally your step son. If you buy the guitar for young retro and the salesperson puts sold to Mr smith, and little Retro sends in the warranty card he does will not have the warranty. Yet the guitar is little retro's, it was a gift, you will not get it back, even Judge Judy would tell you in plain and simple terms a gift is a gift. The recipient of a gift is the owner. We are not talking about used here, we are talking a brand new guitar bought online, I signed for it from UPS, and waited for her to get home. I was then informed "happy birthday", it is not about whining or legal matters, it is simple ethics.

She feels bad that I cannot get warranty coverage, I feel bad that she has to feel that way, and I am upset that they won't honour the warranty.

When someone gives a gift, the last worry on that persons mind is, if something ever goes wrong will my nice gesture cause problems.

Isn't that at least worth a bit of understanding? I would have loved to buy it, but at the time I could not, she knew I wanted it and bought it for me.

What sounds so wrong here? What makes it sound like I should have bought a used guitar that someone bought me for a gift?

Now that some other issues have started that are indeed covered under warranty, I thought I would call and perhaps get it fixed.

After reading some of the repair horror stories, and I am not talking about the repair and restoration dept.,simply the repair center where it seems the repair work is sub par, perhaps I will just send the Guitar to Heritage guitars and have some of the original Gibson workers do the repairs properly, pay for them and move on. I surely am not worried about paying for the work, I just have a problem with a company that cares little for its customers. When I sent in my warranty for my '04 LP custom, the dealer called me and asked if I received my care kit with the guitar. I as plenty of other did not, I called gibson and they sent me the care kit, I had it in four days. I would just like to share this experience. Nothing more. If Gibson does change it's stance, perhaps I will get another $8 an hour disgruntled phone worker who will simply say "not a problem" glad to help. I will let you all know. For now, I am sharing an experience, a sad and disheartening one at that. I guess until Gibson tells you what I have been told or as retroS wrongly believes a gift can be taken back because he said so, defend Gibson, I have no hidden agenda here, I could care no less if you whine no one gave you something or if being engaged has anything to do with it, since when is being engaged a legal relationship? Keep to the subject.

[Blackie]

man put a little space between paragraphs or something.........I am not reading all that.

[LerxstLee]

man put a little space between paragraphs or something.........I am not reading all that.

 

Cannot blame you for that' date=' but since it seems we have a few conspiracy people here, I did not want to leave any

stone unturned. I will call Gibson again and perhaps I will get another service rep who might be more amiable towards this issue, and as someone posted "gibson told me "

Just think, I am basically telling the same story three times, yet one says its fishy another thinks a gift is not legally mine, I hope you can read this one.

At least I do not list all my gear one by one at the end of every post. /cringe

/best to you

[jamman]

You put NON Gibson parts on a new Gibson Guitar; thats why its not warranty. What guitar is this' date=' a tremolo on a Gibson only a few guitars have those. I called Gibson Cstmr Svs right after I read your post and yes its only the original purchaser; but they do work around gifts (spoke with Blane), but what I think we have here is your confused about what is warranty and what is not. When you noticed that there was a issue with the Trem; you report it right then. You do not wait, you do not purchase other parts. You did this to yourself, not Gibson and like my original post there was some very important facts missing. You modified the guitar with parts that are not original parts. And reading your post I bet your calls where a little heated also; so you gave them a reason not to repair your mistake. I was correct, it was your fault and not Gibson. Too bad you wasted all this time on a thread, especially if you would have included the non-factory parts in the opening comment it would have been a closed case right then. Its a expensive mistake you got there; but its one you did to yourself.[/quote']

+1 , also He is not the "original owner" he's girlfriend is, as when she paid for it, it was hers to give to him. Makes him the 2nd owner. But if he let his girlfriend request warrany service maybe it would have been fixed. But now we have a better understanding of the whole story.

[rockstar232007]

LerxstLee' date=' that last part of my first post was a joke. Guess you're not a Ghostbusters fan. "Ray, if someone asks you if you're a god, you say yes."[/quote']A great line, from a great movie!

 

Thanks Tim! (I'm a HUGE GB fan!:P )

 

And, just my .02 but I've bought 2 new guitars in my life; My Epi LP Standard (from Marshall Music Co.), and my Splatter Strat (from MF), and when it comes to walkin retail stores (i.e. GC/MM), they do (or are at least supposed to) have you sign a bill of sale/reipt to prove that you were the OP, just for that very purpose. That's what I had to do when I bought the Epi, and that was less than half the price of a Gibson.

 

When it comes to warranty service, most companies don't f around...for obvious reasons, and even though this seems to be some sort of "technicality"? It's actually not, because of this: "THIS WARRANTY IS EXTENDED TO THE ORIGINAL RETAIL PURCHASER ONLY AND MAY NOT BE TRANSFERRED OR ASSIGNED TO SUBSEQUENT OWNERS.". In other words; as the third-party owner, you're screwed! Because, as soon as your fiance handed you the box/guitar, it became "used" in they eyes of Gibson, and they will maintain that front until the cows come home.

 

Edit: I wish I would have read the rest of the thread! Could've saved myself a few minutes!

[freak show]

When someone gives a gift' date=' the last worry on that persons mind is, if something ever goes wrong will my nice gesture cause problems.

Isn't that at least worth a bit of understanding? I would have loved to buy it, but at the time I could not, she knew I wanted it and bought it for me.

[b']What sounds so wrong here?[/b] What makes it sound like I should have bought a used guitar that someone bought me for a gift?

 

Well, for what it's worth, I don't think anything you did "sounds wrong" or suspicious.

 

Actually, everything is "on par": Gibson is known for less than laudable customer service, and your experience confirms this.

 

Like all companies Gibson exists to make money and maximize profits. Screwing people on warranty issues is one way of achieving this. That's the way it works. If they can somehow avoid spending time or money on you, they will.

 

As to the reactions of some of the other members: You're on a Gibson forum. There are some "fan boys" here. I suppose one could compare the situation to the Simpson trial: There are still fans who believe O.J. is innocent!

 

Thanks for telling this story. I know I'll be even more cautious in the future.

[retrosurfer1959]

Well little 'Retro" has bought quite a few guitars including a couple of Gibson's over the years and Ive never had a issue with anything on getting warranty coverage including a LP that had a few scratches on the truss rod cover after a VOS install went a little heavy handed, I asked about it and they sent me all new plastic - truss rod cover all the cover plates and a new pick-guard and told me to do whatever I wanted with the old parts as they were not worth shipping back. Sorry you feel screwed the comment about owning the guitar if you ever separate was a joke sadly that you will undoubtedly understand more if you ever get divorced since as a man your lucky to get away owning your underwear let alone a $3700 guitar as you pointed out so many time.

 

When you ask for opinions on a open forum guess what your not going to agree with everything you hear, get used to it it's called life. the more you whine the worse it get's The truly sad thing here is sounds like you have a awesome lady there who went out of her way to buy you and amazing or I guess kinda amazing gift too bad all the problems and the windgin and moanin have taken the shine off her act of love.

[LerxstLee]

You put NON Gibson parts on a new Gibson Guitar; thats why its not warranty. What guitar is this' date=' a tremolo on a Gibson only a few guitars have those. I called Gibson Cstmr Svs right after I read your post and yes its only the original purchaser; but they do work around gifts (spoke with Blane), but what I think we have here is your confused about what is warranty and what is not. When you noticed that there was a issue with the Trem; you report it right then. You do not wait, you do not purchase other parts. You did this to yourself, not Gibson and like my original post there was some very important facts missing. You modified the guitar with parts that are not original parts. And reading your post I bet your calls where a little heated also; so you gave them a reason not to repair your mistake. I was correct, it was your fault and not Gibson. Too bad you wasted all this time on a thread, especially if you would have included the non-factory parts in the opening comment it would have been a closed case right then. Its a expensive mistake you got there; but its one you did to yourself.[/quote']

 

No it is not the trem arm. One screw and the other one is back on. The problems have nothing to do with the

trem arm. I sure was upset they would not replace it unless I spent twice that in shipping.

The issue as I said was original purchaser, and the warranty card. If you give a Gibson for a gift, the recipient

does not get warranty service. That is the issue.

[lespaul339]

LerxstLee, post pics of this guitar. I just want to see what your talking about.

[cwness]

Thanks for the heads up I understand what your talking about where you

head to give them a bit because you were mad. I think it's stinks to high

heaven. Bottom line do not by a Gibson as a gift. Gibson sure shot them

selves in the foot on that one. If I by a gift for someone I don't use it before

I give it to them. Thanks again for clarifying my question and good luck.

I think it's time to call customer service and talk to a supervisor. That would

be my next step. Funny thing is most gifts you get you can return for the money

and all you want is a poorly manufactured product fixed.

 

CW

[ksdaddy]

I wonder if the person on the other end of the phone is just a lowly* customer service rep with little or no decision making authority. They could have just been following a matrix or flow chart in a three ring binder and weren't able to go outside those parameters. I'm guessing if this goes higher up to someone with more 'teeth', the minor hair-splitting original owner vs. purchaser thing might not be so much on an issue.

 

*no offense meant

[DanvillRob]

OK maybe people just don't read my posts; I called Gibson. They have ways to get around this Gift Issue and they do get around it. This isn't the only present of a guitar ever in history. Just think of all the brats with executives for parents who buy off their kids' date=' Wives to Husbands etc..... Call Gibson yourselves rather than feel sorry here. There are pieces of this story still missing. [/quote']

 

I'm sure your posts were read....but...yanno..... sometimes people would rather curse the darkness than light a candle.

[NeoConMan]

Candle?

Nah, this generation simply flips open their cell phone for a flashlight.

 

Cell phone dead = S.O.L.