Has anyone had custom order issues?

[gunslinger_burrito]

Has anyone here had a weird time getting custom instruments? By weird, I mean long delays and not a lot of communication.

*****I don't want to give the makers in question a bad review/reputation/whatever until I figure out what do to or what's going on, so PLEASE don't give any guesses to who it is (PM me if you want extra info). They're not on ILF, to my knowledge.*****

Give me some advice on how to tactfully communicate my concerns, and PM me if you want details. I'm just not sure what the best way to go about this is, because I do want the instrument in question. I can understand delays, but no one is telling me what's going on or why it's taking extra long.

Hopefully I'm concerned over nothing. The situation just feels awkward to me

[Inconuucl]

If they're a small builder it can be that they had something personal happen to them. Mind you a lot of boutique makers are only one person. This also plays as to why they are not answering.

[gunslinger_burrito]

Yeah, they are. And they've mentioned some things about life stuff slowing them down. I don't want to keep asking "Hey, any updates?" but I just want to know what's going on. Not sure how to come across tactfully.

[gunslinger_burrito]

I had this issue with my last cab order. Just give them some space but check back in every couple of weeks not much you can really do other than ask when they anticipate it will be done. You want to be sure to keep lines of communication open but not badger them to death?

Yeah, I've been a sparse as I can with the update questions, but it's like I'll ask about it, they say "oh yeah, we're about to do 'x' to it, we'll message you with any specific questions," and then like 6 weeks goes by......nothing. Like I said, I can understand delays for any reason, but I find it strange that I'm told something is happening, then there's no communication for loooong stretches of time. I'm just crossing my fingers that the extra time means they're waiting on good parts, taking their time, etc so that I'll end up with something totally baddass.

[Ugly Nora]

Ask them for a burn down chart or some other representation of the tasks left and the dates they expect each task to be completed by.

Building an instrument/pedal or whatever is project and projects should be managed. This company should have a clearly defined list of tasks and ETA's. If they don't, well, shit like this happens.

Nora.

[UglyCasanova]

I'm in that situation right now. It's the first pedal-builder I've ordered from who has not kept me posted OR answered my emails (if and when he does, he only answers 1/3 of my questions).

People are different, and that's fine. But personal stuff or not, I would not conduct my business like that. On the other hand, I don't need the pedals for anything special. I don't have any upcoming gigs or anything like that. I just want to play with them.

Louise(Devi Ever), Andrew(Industrialectric) Ryan(Dr.Scientist) and Tom(Fuzzhugger) have all kept me updated at all times with all of my orders, whether or not it was a custom build. I like a personal touch (twss). I don't want to feel as if I'm a pain in the ass.

[Tristan]

Indeed, exactly that, you don't want to feel like a pain in the ass, the ILF builders I've dealt with have been absolutely stellar so far (and I know I can be a pain in the ass sometimes):
Tom / FuzzHugger, Brian / SS/BS, Ryan / Dr. Scientist, Adam / Copilot FX, Evan / Dirge Electronics, Andrew / Industrialectric, Scott / Montreal Assembly,
Ian / Ghost Effects, Ian / Gigahearts FX, Johnny / Anarchy Audio, Kevin / Henretta Engineering

Together with the quality of their work which speaks for itselves it's yet another reason to buy stuff from ILF related builders I'd say, it's one of the additional benefits of this forum.

[UglyCasanova]

and I know I can be a pain in the ass sometimes

Haha, yes. Me too. I want to plaaaaay!

Just to be clear, the builder I'm talking about is non-ILF.

[gunslinger_burrito]

Thankfully they answer my emails, although the last one seemed a bit short (as in, I couldn't tell if they were annoyed or not .... ). I keep my fingers crossed that one day I'll get notified that the project is almost done.

[oscillateur]

The only time I had an issue was maybe 6 years ago when I ordered a custom Jaguar-inspired electric ukulele from a luthier in another country. I paid part of it in advance (not a lot of money, the whole thing was quoted pretty cheap) and the guy had some personal problems a bit later, stopped doing custom instruments too. He had started working on it though (I have a few pics somewhere) but couldn't finish it. I actually got my money back a couple of years ago when I had completely forgotten about it, so that was a nice surprise.

[Iommic Pope]

Burrito, aren't your builders frequently on tour?

[Ugly Nora]

Burrito, aren't your builders frequently on tour?

That shouldn't matter. You either run a business or you don't. If you accept money for a project it should be completed in a timely manner/in the agreed upon time frame. If it cannot be completed in that timeframe then these guys should at least be in constant communication about the progress. Burrito really needs to get them to commit to a completion date.

[backwardsvoyager]

what length do you mean by 'long delay'? with stuff like custom guitars i think being a few months behind can be okay. people's workloads can change erratically so it can be hard to be accurate about project completion dates.

the communication thing is kinda shit though. even if they're really busy i think once the due date has passed you're obligated to give a progress update every couple of weeks even if there's nothing to report, especially when the item in question has been fully paid for already. if they're not doing that there's no reason to feel bad about asking honestly for a status update, because you're entitled to it. i would rather have to wait longer for something but get regular updates of how it's coming along than just be in the dark the whole time.

my Harvester guitar was quoted at 8 months and took 10 months, but when i look at like EGC customs quoted several months taking like 3 years i consider myself lucky, because that's messed up.

[gunslinger_burrito]

what length do you mean by 'long delay'? with stuff like custom guitars i think being a few months behind can be okay. people's workloads can change erratically so it can be hard to be accurate about project completion dates.

the communication thing is kinda shit though. even if they're really busy i think once the due date has passed you're obligated to give a progress update every couple of weeks even if there's nothing to report, especially when the item in question has been fully paid for already. if they're not doing that there's no reason to feel bad about asking honestly for a status update, because you're entitled to it. i would rather have to wait longer for something but get regular updates of how it's coming along than just be in the dark the whole time.

my Harvester guitar was quoted at 8 months and took 10 months, but when i look at like EGC customs quoted several months taking like 3 years i consider myself lucky, because that's messed up.

It's a few months past what I was told initially. That bit ^^^ about the EGCs make me feel better, though. I had thought about getting one in the past, and now I'm kinda glad I didn't. The communication thing just feels awkward.

[D.o.S.]

No problems here, but I also don't get bent out of shape when it comes to radio silence.