Official Luthiers Forum!

Anyone else having trouble with StewMac getting orders correct? Last Friday I ordered close to $300 worth of tools and supplies for myself, and our own dear fumblefinger. The box showed up Monday. However, it was short one of my tools - and some of the supplies were broken. No problem, called on Tuesday - they said they'd take care of it for free. Package shows up today, and guess what? Still short the tool, and the supplies were broken AGAIN. Then, Al Bacon emailed me to say he just opened one of their truss rod repair tool kits (ordered last Friday), and some of the parts are the wrong size! Now I have to call again on Monday. WTH, PEOPLE?

Are the new owners hiring addicts and drunks to be pickers in the warehouse?

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

The new owners only care about profits..... Wish I could say how I know that for certain

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Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

And this vendor seems to be conceding a whole lot of competitive bandwidth with its uneconomic shipping charges and a prime competitor offering free shipping, which I have happily used.

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Peter Havriluk

I've been buying stuff from Stewmac since the 90's when you had to call your order in and can only remember one time when they screwed up an order. I've not bought much this last year though so I hope it doesn't become a trend. IF so there are certainly plenty of other options.

Just got an email apology this morning, with a promise to send the correct stuff post haste. We'll see. I still might call just to vent. I can see a mistake once in a great while.... but 3 in a row on the same order? This suggests a serious problem.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

I've had it happen maybe twice, but what I've done to make life easier is compile a list of things that they sell that are available from sources that end up being way cheaper and easier to deal with.

Good example being the "acoustic maple shims" they sell. It's just maple veneer sheets cut down to a smaller size. As a result I no longer buy their shims but just buy maple veneer and cut whatever I need, saves so much money.

And honestly alot of what they sell as "specialty" tools are tools you can make yourself without a huge amount of effort or investment. They really just take alot of machinist tools and *slightly* modify them to make them work better for instruments.

But what about the left-handed screwdrivers?

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Peter Havriluk

They're in the section with the left handed pianos

Saturday, the 18th - I finally have ALL the tools I ordered (including the stuff for Al Bacon), nothing is broken. They sent them in a box this time, instead of a bubble envelope.

That is TWO WEEKS and 3 mailings for one order. It's pathetic.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince