Gibson CHEATS Lollapalooza winner?: Give Tonedeff what is rightfully his! ISSUE RESOLVED

[Nova]

First off; don't delete this thread. If you do, it only shows that you do not CARE about this whole situation. Which in turn would be a bad look for Gibson as a company, because it shows to the entire world that you don't give a **** about your customers. Without customers Gibson will cease to exist.

 

 

Tonedeff won the Lollapalooza Last Band Standing contest back in 2006 (!!!!). Part of the prize was 10,000$ worth of Gibson equipment. He still haven't recieved anything and Gibson is now ignoring him.

 

Read the whole story here:

http://blog.qn5.com/2008/general/rant-gibson-hates-hip-hop

 

Here's just one discussion on the matter:

http://consumerist.com/348960/gibson-screws-musician-out-of-10000-worth-of-equipment

 

 

Furthermore: This story is all over the internet by now, thousands upon thousands of people have already read this and I promise you hundreds of thousands more will read it in the next couple of days..

 

 

I am screen printing this reply just in case you decide to delete it, and please believe I will post this up EVERYWHERE to show that Gibson does not take this matter seriously.

 

DON PITTS has Tony's number so he'll know where to reach him.

 

 

 

Thank you for your attention.

 

 

 

 

EDIT: The matter has now been taken care of in a very professional way by Gibson, and my respect and believe in this company has grown conciderably. Unfortunately there was a third party involved in this issue that was not only screwing Tonedeff, but Gibson as well. I extend my sincerest apologes if I acted like an asshole, haha

[Gibson CS]

Thanks for the post. Gibson is aware of the issue and is making attempts to contact him.

[BunnySlope]

Gee, we are in the manufacturing arena as well, and if one of our representatives was as callous, unresponsive and seemingly uneducated (see his horrible use of grammar in his e-mail replies to "Tondeff" here: http://blog.qn5.com/2008/general/rant-gibson-hates-hip-hop), we would have fired his sorry you-know-what a long time ago. Hmmmmm, how much did that bad publicity cost?

[intravert]

+1

 

I saw this earlier and promptly started to post it on other forums :D/

[piecorax]

Thanks for the post. Gibson is aware of the issue and is making attempts to contact him.

 

Well that brings up just more questions...

 

1. Is Don some sort of incompetent that lost the contact info he's been using the last year and a half, or did you fire Don, but didn't think to save his address book?

 

2. Why aren't you just sending him the stuff you owe him? What's to contact him about? You guys promised him $10,000 in equipment, he's given you a gazillion lists of what he'd like, fill the frickin order. Don't post BS about "attempts to contact", pick up the phone, use it. The longer you drag this out, the less I'll buy from you.

[robyroxit]

I bet Fender or Ibanez or Jackson would step in and award him the gear, provided Lalapalooza dumped the Gibsnobs and promoted the heck out of the deal.

 

 

"Gibson" is 20 bucks worth of inlay on a headstock that serves to jack an instruments price up 300%.

 

 

"Worth" and "price" are far from par.

[robyroxit]

making attempts to contact him

 

 

Hmmm here's a tutorial, so that these "attempts" prove successful.

 

 

1) Click "New Email"

 

2) Type Tone's email address in the "To" field.

 

3) Type "Hello, Tone? Are you there? We'd like this resolved before the entire world finds out we're dishonest."

 

4) Click "Send"

 

 

 

I know, its hard. But you can do it! I know you can!

[Ignatius]

For those of you who didn't bother to read the comments sections in the articles linked in the first post above, you would have found out that it appears there was a problem with Mr. Pitts rather than Gibson. Here is an actual email a poster received from Gibson's CEO and posted on Friday, 25 January 2008. Gibson's CEO responded the same day the poster emailed, which makes me wonder why the artist seeking the prize didn't make a similar attempt to contact someone else in Gibson.

 

Anyway, here is the message:

 

I will investigate this issue and get back to you as soon as I get the facts. Since its Friday it will probably be early next week [hopefully Monday].

 

I will tell you that Don Pitts is no longer with Gibson and has not been with us for some time.

 

I have no personal knowledge about this issue and I personally approve all promotions for the company. We have a formal system where any agent of Gibson needs to present a promotion, its benefits and its cost. This then needs to be approved by a least two people before it comes to my desk. We do take these commitments seriously, and we have very strict internal processes to insure we deliver on our promises.

 

Regardless, I will get to the bottom of this and we will get you what was legitimately promised.

 

I do not know who you talked to other than attempting to contact Don, but we do have people on the phone 24 hours a day, seven days a week to solve any Gibson related issue [1-800-4-GIBSON]. While they do not have the authority to send you $10,000 worth of gear on the spot they are literally less than a minute from my office and should/could have resolved this in a very short period of time. If you had an unsatisfactory conversation with anyone else at Gibson, let me know so we can insure that this will not happen in the future.

 

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to address this problem.

 

Henry E. Juszkiewicz

Chief Executive Officer

Gibson Guitar Corp.

309 Plus Park

 

I am not attempting to say Gibson is innocent in this situation, but I am asking all these people who are posting this story to be sure they are reading all the information available. As you can see, it appears this promotion was not approved by Gibson, which may explain why Mr. Pitts could not fulfill the prize.

 

I'm posting Gibson's reply here so we all can watch to see how Gibson responds.

 

Ignatius

[kulddy]

I GUESS I WILL HAVE TO PRAY FOR A GIBSON CUSTOMER BUYOUT, SIMILAR TO THE HARLEY ONE IF U.S. CITIZENS WANT TO KEEP GIBSON HERE INSTEAD OF THE NEW DENMARK T.C. GROUP OWNERS HEADQUATERS IN DENMARK. THIS TOTALLY BLOWS.

THEY WERE SO BUSY TRYIN' TO TURN A BUCK THE DEVALUED THE ONLY NEW GUITAR THEY CAMEOUT WITH IN 50 YEARS, THE REVERSE V BY REISSUING THEM BEFORE THE GUITAR OF THE WEEK 400 HAD EVEN SETTLED DOWN. GOTTA MAKE A BUCK SO I GUESS THATS WHY TONE DEF GOT JACK**** OF THEIR PRIZE. GREEDY :D :D

KOOLDADDY (KULDDY)

PS I AM SO ANGRY

[guitarstrummer]

Thank you for posting Gibson's response, Ignatius. Seems there really are two sides to every story. When I first read the posts on this thread, I searched the Internet and found the official rules to that competition. I didn't see it stated anywhere in the rules that Gibson was a sponsor of this event. From the beginning, I felt like the winner of this competition had a valid complaint, but it was with the organizers of the competition and not with Gibson.

 

It's easy for readers of blogs to get caught up in the momment and respond accordingly. However, it's important to sometimes take a step back and see what actually shakes out before just assuming that everything you read is Gospel.

[Nova]

Thank you for posting Gibson's response, Ignatius. Seems there really are two sides to every story. When I first read the posts on this thread, I searched the Internet and found the official rules to that competition. I didn't see it stated anywhere in the rules that Gibson was a sponsor of this event. From the beginning, I felt like the winner of this competition had a valid complaint, but it was with the organizers of the competition and not with Gibson.

 

It's easy for readers of blogs to get caught up in the momment and respond accordingly. However, it's important to sometimes take a step back and see what actually shakes out before just assuming that everything you read is Gospel.

**********

Two sides?

Gibson has yet to come through on their part of an agreement made 18 months ago, it does not matter whether Don Pitts is responsible for this mess or not, as he was representing Gibson.

Don't try and tell me that he was the only one aware of Lollapalooza, and Gibson's involvement in it.

[guitarstrummer]

Gibson has yet to come through on their part of an agreement made 18 months ago, it does not matter whether Don Pitts is responsible for this mess or not, as he was representing Gibson.

Don't try and tell me that he was the only one aware of Lollapalooza, and Gibson's involvement in it.

 

Well, apparently you didn't read the response by Gibson. The person who approves all promotions had no knowledge of this promotion. And since Gibson is not listed as an official sponsor of the event in the rules, it might just be possible that they're telling the truth. It might also be possible that the event organizers promised something that was never approved and published the prize list prior to approval.

 

Like I said before, the complaint seems to lie with the organzers of the event and not with Gibson. Although it appears fairly obvious that Don Pitts was aware of this promotion, it is also possible that he never had it approved. It also looks like Gibson is trying to make things right, so give them a chance to deal with it.

[Gilliangirl]

I'm glad to see Gibson CS posted the Forum Rules as a sticky in this subforum. There appear to be a few 'hot-under-the-collar types' who need to rein their emotions in a bit. It's helpful to look at the whole story before posting. Reading through some of the posts on those links was pretty scary. Aiming rocket launchers at people??? I'm thinking that's a threat worthy of legal action.

 

Sounds to me like Henry is trying to make right with this, even tho' the former employee appears to have acted without management's knowledge or approval. Hostile, ill-informed types who post without going through the proper channels of communication for resolution really annoy me.

[guitarstrummer]

Reading through some of the posts on those links was pretty scary. Aiming rocket launchers at people??? I'm thinking that's a threat worthy of legal action.

 

Not to mention the possibility of civil law suits, if the claims turn out to be false and/or malicious and people actually did post the information on other forums, as has been suggested.

[Sandy]

Be assured, no matter how much my son wants something from Gibson, I WILL NOT be spending anymore money with them if they don't take care of this matter. Don Pitts was a representative of Gibson, and Gibson should do the right thing. I WILL be watching how this turns out. It will really be interesting if the news gets hold of this fiasco. I bet the fires would get lit then. Do the right thing Mr. Henry Juszkiewicz, get the man his prize.

[Gilliangirl]

Be assured' date=' no matter how much my son wants something from Gibson, I WILL NOT be spending anymore money with them if they don't take care of this matter. Don Pitts was a representative of Gibson, and Gibson should do the right thing. I WILL be watching how this turns out. It will really be interesting if the news gets hold of this fiasco. I bet the fires would get lit then. Do the right thing Mr. Henry Juszkiewicz, get the man his prize.[/quote']

 

Can you read??? Please re-read the letter in Ignatius' post. Henry stated he would take care of it.

 

"Regardless, I will get to the bottom of this and we will get you what was legitimately promised".

 

What part of that sentence don't you understand???

[Ignatius]

Be assured' date=' no matter how much my son wants something from Gibson, I WILL NOT be spending anymore money with them if they don't take care of this matter. Don Pitts was a representative of Gibson, and Gibson should do the right thing. I WILL be watching how this turns out. It will really be interesting if the news gets hold of this fiasco. I bet the fires would get lit then. Do the right thing Mr. Henry Juszkiewicz, get the man his prize.[/quote']

 

Hi Sandy--

 

I am not sure if you read the preceding posts in this thread, but as you would have seen there, it is not clear that Mr. Pitts was in fact representing Gibson. First, Henry Juszkiewicz, the CEO of Gibson, personally approves all promotions done by Gibson--but he said in a personal email message that he had no knowledge of this giveaway. Second, Gibson was not listed as a sponsor of the Lollapalooza contest. Both of these issues point to a larger issue than simply Gibson "doing the right thing." I am surprised so few people have asked where Lollapalooza's responsibility lies in this: for instance, in any other competition of this sort, it was my impression that the contest holder--and not the sponsor--makes the arrangements for delivery of prizes.

 

For instance, say a local radio station offers to give away a Les Paul. If I win and the Les Paul does not arrive, I wouldn't blame Gibson or even the local guitar store that was supposed to donate the prize: I would blame the radio station. My understanding is that you don't offer a prize unless you are guaranteed to have it. It seems fairly clear at this point that Gibson did not make a clear contractual offer of prizes to Lollapalooza. Short answer, then: Lollapalooza should not have listed the prize.

 

I work at a university. If I tell a contest that I will donate free tuition for four years as a prize, the contest better make sure I can deliver that prize before they list it as a prize. Just because someone works for a company or even is a "representative" does not mean he or she has the power to offer that prize. In my case, they would be very surprised to find that I don't even have the authority to offer a university pencil as a prize.

 

I am still not clear why so many people are so quick to blame Gibson when I have yet to see anything that says Gibson guaranteed a prize. Would it be good press if Gibson donated the prize? Sure, but then, what stops Lollapalooza or any other contest organizer from putting Gibson in the same boat next week? I could promise anything to anyone then, just by scanning a company logo onto my prize form. Heck, if that were the case, I think I would start to offer Porsches as prizes.

 

Just a few thoughts to encourage you not to write off Gibson too quickly. I may be completely wrong in wanting to vindicate Gibson, true. We simply do not have enough information to go on at this point. I am more than a bit suspicious of information I glean from personal blogs that have no investigative reporting to support the claims. Indeed, the second blog linked in the post that started this thread only uses the information in the first blog as evidence. So in fact, all we have at this point is one very upset person's view of the situation. And as Gilligangirl noted, we also have Henry's word that he will take care of it.

 

Ignatius

[Gibson CS]

Nova...

This is a forum for Gibson lovers.

Wheres your moxy ? ....

Do you think coming on here and ranting that Gibson owes you this, or Gibson owes you that, is going to turn us against Gibson guitars?

Nope...Its not going to happen.

Take it up internally. Write them letters, ring them up. Do what it takes, but dont bring the b/s here.

Im sorry youre upset, but as has been said, this is YOUR take on the situation.

 

Now lets talk guitars people!

[guitarstrummer]

Be assured' date=' no matter how much my son wants something from Gibson, I WILL NOT be spending anymore money with them if they don't take care of this matter. Don Pitts was a representative of Gibson, and Gibson should do the right thing. I WILL be watching how this turns out. It will really be interesting if the news gets hold of this fiasco. I bet the fires would get lit then.[/quote']

 

I agree, we need to get back to talking Gibson guitars. But, I can't let this observation pass. Have you noticed how many first time posters have come out on this issue? The above quoted post is particularly interesting. Sandy talks about her son wanting something from Gibson? It makes me wonder what brought Sandy to this "Gibson" Forum, if she has no interest in Gibson herself?

 

It just seems to me that people have been prompted to come out on this specific issue and this issue alone. They are attempting to have this issue "heard through the media", rather than taking logical steps to resolve it. That is, if there is even a problem at all. Who's to say that the original information is even accurate? Anyone can write anything in a blog.

 

I really hope that once this issue is resolved, the details are made public. And, if the original information was inaccurate, that all of these people who have tried to muddy Gibson's name, are held accountable.

[Gibson CS]

If lovely Sandy buys her son a Gibson....

Hes one lucky little dude!!

[Zaphod B]

Be assured' date=' no matter how much my son wants something from Gibson, I WILL NOT be spending anymore money with them if they don't take care of this matter. Don Pitts was a representative of Gibson, and Gibson should do the right thing. I WILL be watching how this turns out. It will really be interesting if the news gets hold of this fiasco. I bet the fires would get lit then. Do the right thing Mr. Henry Juszkiewicz, get the man his prize.[/quote']

What's it to you?

 

If you see a Gibson product that you like at a price that you like, buy it. If not, don't.

 

I agree with posts above that this is one disgruntled individual whose side we are seeing; we don't have anything close to all the facts at our disposal, so there is no point in passing judgement or trying to draw any conclusions.

[Nova]

^^

have you even READ the original blog post?

 

[guitarstrummer]

^^

have you even READ the original blog post?

 

 

Yes, and I have to say that it appears to be filled with inconsistencies. Have you read the official rules for the contest or have you read Gibson's response? I don't see Gibson listed as an official sponsor or organizer anywhere in the rules. Also, I have communicated directly with various people at Gibson over the years and have always been able to contact someone in a timely manner. The claim that they couldn't be contacted for a year and a half is certainly not consistent with my past experience.

 

Although your original intent may have been noble, you may have taken up a cause which may not only expose the true facts of this issue, but may also prove embarrassing to everyone who quickly jumped on board your band wagon.

[Ignatius]

^^

have you even READ the original blog post?

 

 

I also have read the original blog post' date=' and I also read over an hour's worth of information that I found on the web. The funny thing, though, is that every piece of information on the web is simply a recycling of the original blog post, often quoted word for word but not cited as a quote. In other words, they each try to look like "news" or "reporting," but they are just cut and paste jobs that (also interestingly enough) all showed up on the web within the same few days that a bunch of people started posting about this on the Gibson website. So this seems like a concerted effort, rather than actual news to me.

 

I also have to note that I could find no link that shows the original prize listings for the Last Band Standing contest in 2006. I did find the 2007 prize list, though, and you know what the grand prize there was? A Playstation and some games. [b']ONE Playstation for the entire band that won to share.[/b] And the Playstation is not credited as coming from the corporate sponsor of the contest, which was mp3.com. True, there are the hotel accommodations, etc. that Lollapalooza gave in 2006 as well, but it appears Lollapalooza had a difficult time finding a corporate sponsor in 2007. This suggests to me, again, that perhaps the problem in 2006 was more with the contest than with Gibson.

 

Ignatius

 

EDIT: For those interested here is the link: 2007 Lollapalooza Last Band Standing Prize List

[econtras]

I disagree with the assessment that Gibson is not an outstanding company who stands behind it's products/promotions. Wrong, everytime I have called for help, I have always recieved prompt and curteous attention.

 

The Custom Shop Les Paul I own is buy far the most beautiful and best playing guitar i have ever owned. The quality is superb and the hardware flawless. Yes you have to pay to play, but that's what handmade costs here in the States where we have to pay people a livable wage. If you want your guitar hand made in another country, then seek it out, but my guess is the quality would pale in comaprison.

 

I feel so strongly about Gibson Craftsmanship and Service that I felt a reply was neccesary. Also when you see a pal get pushed around you have to jump in and start pushing back. I feel that the tone and hostility expressed in the original post exemplifies the type of person that can't handle a matter professionally. If you have a problem with Gibson, seek it out and resolve it with them, Im sure they will accomodate any one with a reasonble issue as they have done for me. But dragging Gibson through the mud is not the answer. I'm proud to buy from a company in the USA with a reputation and history like Gibson. I am planning a visit their factory this summer for a tour, my wife even wants to go based on their beautiful wood work. Thanks Gibson, for every malcontent you have hundreds of satisfied customers.