Official Luthiers Forum!

In the immortal words of Rodney King- "Can we all get along?"
Whenever I buy something from the eBay site I analyze the feedback data and try to evaluate the risk involved in dealing with the person or company I am sending my money to. I realize that it is just postings from people who have their own unique expectations (realistic or not) of how the transaction should transpire and how they have been treated by the seller - but it does give an indication of what to expect and how I may be treated.
From reading the previous thread Barry cited, and which many of us contributed to, I get the impression the customer service at Stew Mac has slipped (a lot). If we attribute to them the same level of service we get from the sellers of the Middle Kingdom we may be less dissatisfied.
Reading Barry's original posting, my impression was it was along the lines of - "didn't you get the memo" But some are not as callow as myself. Whenever I get an angry reply from someone, I think the person misinterpreted my intentions (or they were off their meds....).
For those who believe in it, this might be a good thread to review:
viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=54336

P.S. - The library where my wife works sent out some banning letters to some kids who cut up the seat cushions in the teen room with a switchblade. Why would people destroy their own space and make it unpleasant to be there?

Hardly immortal words, and truly - a poor choice if looking for guidance and inspiration. Mr. King had a rap sheet a couple feet long, and dang sure not a hero or role model.

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

How 'bout humor?
At least he was trying to help.....

Good intent carries little weight in history.

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

These are all great concerns Josh and Stewmac should be reading this thread. I view my going on the nut here as an opportunity for StewMac (but not my blood pressure...) to improve and have a view of what is "critical to quality" in Six Sigma speak to StewMac's market.

Great comments man I appreciate you Josh.

StewMac did contact me, more on this in a minute in this thread.

Yeah that really bothers me, they spam me but won't answer the phone. Great comment they need to hear this.

They did contact me, more below.

Hey Don, hope you are doing great. They did contact me and more on this below. I don't think this is intentional I think it's simply a poor response to the pandemic that clearly has a bad look from our perspective. I have a feeling that we may see some changes because of this thread and my unique method of going to WWIII when I feel ripped off.

If I had to guess we may see some changes now for the better and that's my hope too. I would not write them off and again they have superb people but made the mistake of believing that technology acting as a buffer between superb people and their clients would not offend and let down. They were wrong.... and need to change it.

I'm chuckling because you are usually the one who moderates me when I get upset and now I'm asking you to not write off Stewmac. A role reversal of sorts.

Carey exactly! I would not be a luthier today if it had not been for the first Stewmac kit that I assembled in my hotel room in Sunnyvale.

Hi Dan and thanks for this, very much appreciated. Thanks for the Shock Brothers (great name ) too I'll be checking them out. This amp building is a LOT of fun.

Barry it's really too bad that empathy is not something that you would have afforded me. It's also too bad that you pushed back on me when I was struggling with a poor customer service response from StewMac and now call my not accepting your BS reply "semi-threatening..." You have NOT been threatened, grow-up and again if you can't accept what I post don't read it. That's not a threat man it's a recommendation and notice that you are off the mark if you intend to interact successful with me....

Thanks for your comments, sincerely....

Brian you're right and they are stepping up to make it good. I'm hoping that they also move to begin answering a phone again too. As Josh and others expressed for those of us with commercial pressures aka real clients.... we need our supply chain to be responsive and reliable. StewMac used to be both but they relied on technology to replace humans with the dang "contact us" button. It's failing obviously.

You know even the old automated phone menu lets us hit "0" with no instructions to do so and get a human.... StewMac needs to bring their humans back into dealing directly with customers.


Thanks for your very well thought out comments Brian I agree with you on all points. It's not easy to operate in this pandemic for sure.

He's had issues with me for a while but I'm willing to let it go and that's not why we are here. I appreciate this Darrel and feel the same way and so do others who contacted me when my PM was posted publicly. That's crap for sure but let's move on please? Thanks Darrel.

Barry I am looking to shine a light on poor StewMac customer service and not fight with you or make you feel less than welcome. You are an important part of this forum and you were very helpful to me when I was starting out. I thank you kindly for all you do here and have done for me too.

I don't mind really that you posted my PM it was crafted with the idea that it may be posted.

Let's move past this please? Polarizing the forum (we both are participating in this and should stop) does not get us our old Stewmac back or build better guitars does it. I'm sorry if I offended you but I again will let you know that I am who I am and that's not changing. If what I post offends you please consider not reading it. Thanks.

Well said, for once Thanks Clay, much appreciated.

OK the update:

Brock who is on my friends list on Facebook saw a negative review that I left on TrustPilot yesterday and PMed me on Facebook. He wanted to help and did and I am grateful for his help.

He contacted the customer service manager and they put Tommy at Stewmac in direct email contact with me. Tommy is in the SM videos building these kits and is someone that you just know you would like in person if you got to meet him.

They have had this issue with the cabinet supplier twice now and I seem to be the first one with the issue in the new batch of cabinets. Tommy says they know about the issue and that the manufacturer used a jig for hole spacing that was corrupted and wrong and I got one of these cabs....

So he has offered to replace the cab and that works for me.

I expect things to go wrong at times, I've been alive a long time, 65 years this coming week... but it's how an organization steps-up and makes it right that matters most to me. Stewmac is doing that here and that makes me whole again.

I would like to expand my complaint and desired resolution to include StwMac reviving the customer service rep who we can call during business hours and think that this would be an improvement for ALL OF US (and no I am not yelling I'm just ancient and don't know that using capital letter is yelling in the Internet age)

Thanks everyone for your thoughts and Barry you are a very valued forum member and I am keen to get along with you and not offend you. I know I have a duty to others here to not pee in the collective canteen either. So let's not argue please? That's my intent, let's please build something instead of fighting. Thanks.

No issues with Stewmac, beyond them carrying some merely adequate tools (their own fret pullers and nippers) when better are available (Hosco).

That said, I am concerned with forum software that causes the grammatically odd but NYT/WaPo headline-like 'Stewart Macdonald Has the Worst Customer Service Now Sadly' to the Twitter flashback-producing 'Stewart Macdonald Has the Worst Customer Service Now Sad'

Much like an annoying 80's pop melody stuck in my head or (as seven-year-old) walking into my parent's bedroom during designated 'mommy and daddy' time, I find that I cannot un-hear or un-see that slight but significant trumpcation of the last word in the title.

Please, Mr. Breakstone, make it go away. Stewmac versus Stewart Macdonald would do the trick.

_________________
For the times they are a changin'

- Bob Dylan

Thanks Woodie you are right and I have edited the title of my thread. Good suggestion, thank You.

Focusing on helping StewMac not lose what makes it great (the only thing about which I wish to comment in this thread):

I would understand if they have trouble staffing a phone line all the time during business hours with someone who has both knowledge and authority to fix problems. That is a big commitment. But I think they need to realize that they went too far in the other direction. It should not take the effort Hesh had to invest in order to get a resolution. If I have to take extreme measures to tell you what my problem is, and get a substantive response (not “we are experiencing a high volume of calls” or “your call is important to us” or “let me ask a specialist to call you next week” ), then you are failing to provide good customer service. And to be brutally honest, StewMac, if you stop providing at least good customer service (great is what you should provide, but good is the bare minimum), there is no reason for me to buy from you. There are OK quality knock-offs of your products on eBay. Your competitors (LMI, etc.) offer lots of alternatives to your products. Many of the items you repackage I can buy elsewhere at a better price. If you continue down this path of not providing sufficient communication opportunities to customers, you will be killing the one thing—the ONE thing—that gives you a competitive edge. Why any business thinks that is good business is a mystery. But it happens. I just hope it stops happening to you.

If you want a reasonable compromise, have a phone number with voicemail. Have the person responsible for returning calls do so within a few hours. Also have an email address with a similar turnaround time. If the person dealing with this has time an a specific day and time to staff the desk, then take the calls or emails right then. If that person has other things going on in the moment, then commit to a half day response time. That is good service. This nonsense about not providing any follow-up communication methods is insanely frustrating for your customers, so stop it, for your own sake.

And for Pete’s sake, explain the difference between Woodstax and your regular stock, and quit hiding your regular stock. That’s just bad website design. Somebody deserves a stern sit-down talk over that nonsense.

I thought it was the daily MJ that mostly took the edge off of Hesh, but I’m flattered if I sometimes play a small part, too. I hope all is well with you, also. I’m glad StewMac is stepping up on your amp kit.

Staying true to what Hesh references, and not aimed at anyone in particular (or I guess it is aimed at everyone): we all benefit from being civil with, and forgiving of, each other on this forum. It would be awesome if we could maximize the bits and bytes devoted to information about building guitars and related stuff, and minimize the amount we spend on pissing each other off. What it takes to get there is individual self restraint. I fail at that from time to time; we all do. But we can all move forward and try harder to make good choices.

Watch Ted Lasso. That show gets the point across really well.

Oh I see now. That is not a very good navigational design on their website so have that Woodstax right up front like that. I basically walked away thinking they don't sell top wood any more. But now I see it, thanks.

No worries; your reaction was completely normal. StewMac's web design causes this problem, plain and simple.

So, stew (pun intended) on that for a moment. This business doesn't do print catalogs any more. It has never had a walk-in location. It has cut off telephone communication. All their eggs are in the basket of their web page, and daily email ads, supplemented by things like sponsoring a forum here, putting an ad in a professional publication there, etc., all of which funnel buyers to the website. They really, really should want to make their website outstanding. It is pretty good, but when someone like you leaves the website reasonably thinking that StewMac doesn't sell top wood, that's a problem that needs correcting.

StewMac needs to get a handle on the fact that all of this criticism by all of us is meant to help them succeed. If they ignore it, they deserve to fail, like any other business that ignores what its most loyal customers want.

I'm late to this thread but glad to hear it worked out for Hesh. I'll throw my .02 cents in. I live in Dayton and StuMac is only an hour away. I had an issue 2 weeks ago with one of their guitar holding jigs I use while spraying. The welded joint on the jig failed. I contacted StuMac via email and they replied within 48 hours with an offer to send me a brand new part. Additionally, I had two other holders they were going to inspect, but because I had already modified them by adding JB Weld to be on the safe side, they offered me a $40 gift credit for anything I wanted. I was very happy with their service and response.

On a side note, while some of their tools are average and overpriced, I find most of their stuff has lasted me MANY years and I'm usually happy to pay a little more for a tool/jig that works exactly as it should.

Finally, as a member of their shipping club, I love the fact I can order anything, and get free shipping. I've logged on and ordered many small parts and supplies I would have otherwise waited for because I don't like paying $12 shipping on a $5 part. Cheers to all, I hope you all get the same service I've had.

Hi John yes StewMac has always been top notch so that is why I was offended that I could not speak to a human being and might have to wait 48 hours as well.

I have strongly suggested to StewMac that they need to answer their dang phone now and republish the number. This pandemic may be with us forever more in one form or another time to find work arounds and get busy again.

We don't purchase much from StewMac beyond replacement nut files when I wear mine out doing a couple dozen jobs a week but we are sure glad to have them out here.

Good to have you back here too John.

Going to the Stew Mac website and searching for tops I had the same problem as many others. Clicking on "Tonewoods" takes you to "Woodstax- shop Tonewoods by the Piece", and then clicking on "acoustic soundboards and tops" shows "0". Perhaps they should put "woodstax" under wood parts, just below soundboards and tops listing or do away with the "soundboards and tops" listing under woodstax since they don't offer any anyway. I don't buy soundboards from StewMac because I prefer to support those who are cutting the tops directly, so it doesn't really matter to me.
I think another way StewMac is shooting themselves in the foot is by doing away with the price discounts for multiple purchases, while offering the Stewmax service. You may as well do JIT multiple orders rather than buying more than you need to get the discount. The discount was also a way to make the price more competitive for us cheapskates who don't pay for the Stewmax service (don't need to order often).
It is possible that the "old StewMac model" of great customer service wasn't working (not enough pro repair people buying that need that level of support) and that the "Big Box" store model which has caused so many small stores to close works better. Or that nothing will work and they will fold their tent.

We very rarely order anything from StewMac or LMI now. These companies were great when I was a hobbyist and even greater for the sharing of useful information, videos, well documented kits etc. But as a pro we make our own stuff or go to the same manufacture that Stewmac may use and purchase direct.

With this said I suspect that StewMac gets most of their business from the hobbyist but I do not know or sure. I do know that we don't even order anything from them annually and may go a few years between orders.

I also know that I would not be a Luthier today if it was not for a well documented StewMac dr*ead kit that I assembled in a hotel over some months in California. It's their fault