George Martin Posted November 28, 2012 Share Posted November 28, 2012 Dear All The set up is warranted, i am happy to sort that out at no charge, the work on the front is also warranted, if anything goes wrong with the work we did down to poor workmanship, we will of course stand behind what we do, this is always the case. There was no buzz or rattle when you left with the bass, you said that yourself, the problems only arose when you went home and played for 20 minutes. I think that the buzz is something much more complicated that it would be impossible to predict while fixing up all the loose seams and also sorting all the cracks on the front. It would be impossible for us or anyone who works on basses to warranty an entire bass just because we worked on certain areas, i can not guarantee old glue. This is in the same way as if you go to the garage to get your clutch changed and you drive down the road and the electric windows stop working, you wouldn't go back to the garage and ask them to fix the windows for free if they had changed the clutch and not worked on the windows! I am so sorry about this whole situation Daf but i am much to old, much too tired and much to busy working for happy customers to repeatedly explain myself for things i can not control. Glue fails, wood breaks and sometimes things go wrong when you buy an old bass on eBay with the intention of making it good as is in your case. We tried to help, did our best, we are still offering our best and this is not good enough. We have worked on literally hundreds of basses for hundreds of happy customers from all over the globe and we will continue to offer the best service to our customers which is why we continue to be busy. As I say please feel free to contact us if we can be of any help. All the very best George Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sarah thomas Posted November 28, 2012 Share Posted November 28, 2012 'To charge 1k more than the estimate without consulting you is plain wrong.' I can see George's point to some extent, but this has not been addressed. To use George's analogy, if I took my car to my mechanic and he charged me £1,000 more than he had quoted without letting me know, then he would have to take me to court to get it. Furthermore, I would make sure all my friends and the local newspaper knew about it. As it is, he wouldn't dream of going £100 over, if that, without telephoning me for a go ahead. So what happened here? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Martin Posted November 28, 2012 Share Posted November 28, 2012 I gave a rough estimation of the costs going in looking at the bass from the outside. We went ahead and did the work, we came to the end and i added the hours up and it was more than i thought it would be, we also included an endpin at Dafs request that makes up for over £100 of the extra's. Also a large part of the extra is VAT which there is nothing we can do about. How long it takes to do something is very difficult to predict. Again i am sorry, i apologised many times to Daf, I did say at the start that the price was simply an estimate and what happens when we get inside is a different matter. As a professional company we can not do a half or rush job, things have to be done properly. When you get an estimate for work it is just that, an estimate, sometimes things take longer to make good. We as a company should not be penalised for wanting to do a good job and the right thing by the bass even if it takes longer than estimated. I think you will find that every luthier will only estimate and not put a fixed price on anything that has an unsure amount of work in it. Daf did not ask me to call him if the price was going to be different or try to fix a price, he simply wanted the work done to a high standard which we did. The fact that something else has gone wrong somewhere else in the bass that is out of my control is just one of those things. Appologies once again and you are very welcome back if we can help you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hawkeshealey Posted December 18, 2012 Share Posted December 18, 2012 only just seen this daf. i've heard of other cases like this over the years, and had a similar experience myself this year.(not with george martin) i am not personally going to get into a war of words online anyone who knows me will find out. i took my bass in to get the neck reglued as it had moved slightly. i was presented with a quote for £2500 for various jobs. i didn't feel any of this was necessary and then expressed there was no way i was paying this amount. the neck was then reglued for £100, and has been perfectly fine ever since. i realise luthiers are concerned with demonstrating their skill but there are two issues here. 1. there should always be a follow up call if the quote rises dramatically, 2. don't just take quotes without question, if it seems excessive, get a second opinion. i must again add i am not referring to george martin. thanks for sharing, all the best mate, andy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bass Wielder Posted December 29, 2012 Share Posted December 29, 2012 Not nice! I feel the need to support Daf here. There's no way Daf would do this unless he felt genuinely hurt by the affair. He is also experienced with double bass issues and is not an 'newbie'. With that kind of money to be spent, there should be more thought than this: "We went ahead and did the work, we came to the end and i added the hours up and it was more than i thought it would be,..." Especially to add in excess of 50%!! '"Hustled" comes to mind.....(might not be true but it enters my mind...) Good luck Daf. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daflewis Posted December 31, 2012 Share Posted December 31, 2012 Thanks for that - i wasn't going to post until the repairs were finished and i know more, but i just want to say that i appreciate the support. There are so many things George has said that i have issue with, but as i say, i'm going to wait till the repairs are done before i reply. Cheers, Daf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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