50% of full price deposit to initiate commission and secure a spot in the build schedule.
75% of that is refundable if no materials have been procured for the guitar in question.
No refund after any work has been done on the guitar, that is, until it is completed and resold.
At that time, the guitar is resold and 50% of the original deposit is refunded.
Spots in line are transferrable if both parties holding the spots are in agreement.
If an order is cancelled, the spot in line is eliminated and all customers behind slide forward on spot in the build schedule.
If a customer sells their spot at a pfofit to another person, the warranty is still registered and credited to the origianl customer and the person buying the slot is not the original buyer, so there is no warranty on that guitar.
If my workmanship proves to be any less than the absolute best work that I can do or the materials prove to be substandard or faulty in any way, I will resell the guitar and refund the full price with the exception of a brokering fee.
My work is not to be compared to the work of any other builder or manufacturer to draw any conclusion s to its quality.
Tone is never a consideration for a refund of any kind since it is a completely subjective.
Again the tone of a guitar built by me from any combination of woods is not to be compared to the tone of any other builder's guitar of similar size, shape or materials.
I've had exactly one experience in this area when a customer received his guitar and "fell in love" with it after owning for a month. He waited about a year and decided that he was no longer a heavy ham handed flatpicker and strummer, but changed styles to a very light, fleshy fingerstyle playing.
He then wondered why his Rosewood/Adirondack MJ that was designed and built to his specs wouldn;t deliver under his very light attack with the efficiency that it had when he was using an aggressive flatpick attack.
I explained that his playing style and needs in a guitar had changed...not the guitar that he loved so much before and refused to accept the return or offer a refund of any amount.
I did offer, though, to point a few interested parties his way as he began to try to sell it. One iof them bought it up in an instant and sight unseen because he had taken delivery on several other of my guitar of that same wood combination before. It sold for twice the price that the original customer bought it for and both were happy and its buyer treasures it to this day.
That original customer returned to me almost a year later wanting to place a new order on a Rosewood/Cedar guitar, but I gently refused his order because he wasn't the kind of person I want to work with. He's gone on to give a few other builders a hard time since then.
Each situation calls for its own unique consideration depending on the situation of the customer.
And don't forget....the customer is not the onlt one who can cancel an order. Too many times we hear about the way the luthier didn't deliver on time or that he said the guitar would sound like my Grandpa's Martin and it doesn't. People allow their expectations to mount up as they're waiting for their commissioned guitar to be completed and are disappointed even in that builder's best efforts.
If a builder fails to hold up his end of the commission a customer can cancel, but on the other hand, if a customer proves to be hard to please and tough to work with, th builder can cancel as well. In those cases, the builder would likely be best of refunding 100% of the original deposit, but it would be to their discretion.
Regards,
Kevin Gallagher/Omega Guitars
|
