3 years ago
Very nice store and incredibly friendly customer s...
Very nice store and incredibly friendly customer service. I would definitely recommend it, but I can't quite give it a five star rating.
I initially went in looking for left-handed guitars. Unfortunately, they did not have any in stock. I am used to this, however, so that wasn't too big a deal. I instead opted to order a particular left-handed La Patrie from Music Gallery, since they offered me an extra "Grand Opening" incentive. I was given an estimated delivery time and patiently waited...
I finally got the call to come and pick up the new guitar. I sat down in the store to try it out for the first time, only to discover there was a large crack running halfway down the face of the guitar body. I am sure the damage most likely occurred during shipping, but I did find it surprising that nobody had inspected the instrument in-store before giving it to me.
A new guitar then had to be ordered. The Music Gallery called me to tell me that the representative for Godin had told them that there were no more left-handed models of the guitar I wanted in stock. Therefore, a new one would have to be made. Out of curiosity, I e-mailed La Patrie myself to inquire as to how long that process might take. They responded telling me that they had several in stock and one would only take a week to ship. Now I'm not necessarily blaming The Music Gallery for the error, but some sort of miscommunication had occurred. Had I not inquired myself, I would have likely waited a significant amount of time for the wrong model of guitar to be made and shipped, only to then have to wait yet another period of time for the proper one to finally be shipped.
To their credit, The Music Gallery did let me keep the broken instrument for the duration of the wait. I now have my intact La Patrie, and can say that I really do love it.
Edit: The owner, Mike, contacted me to follow-up on my experience and review. It definitely demonstrated the care he has for every customers experience, especially for any experience that is anything short of exemplary. He explained to me that many guitar buyers are very particular about their new guitars, and in his experience they tend to prefer not to have anyone handling their new instruments before they do. Obviously, the damage that I discovered is more of a freak occurrence, and the 'no-inspection policy' would not typically lead to such problems.
Additionally, Mike explained that the plot as I explained above is incorrect. When he ordered a replacement for the broken guitar, the wrong guitar was never ordered. He was more than willing to e-mail me evidence that the correct guitar was requested in Godin's system from the very first step. This does not change the fact that I was told the wrong guitar had been ordered initially. I'm glad to hear that I was never going to be disappointed when the wrong guitar arrived. But I still did experience a fair amount of stress as a result of the miscommunication, since (at least from my perspective) this was an expensive purchase that I did not anticipate as being stressful.
I appreciate the follow-up and discussion of my experience with Mike. He apologized profusely, and assured me steps would be taken to prevent any miscommunication in the future. This is truly a level of customer service that I have never experienced in a guitar store before.