I want to share a bad experience with a local luthier. I hope everyone learns from this experience, and takes proper precautions.
See, I had my guitar brought to the luthier for refretting and replacement of some parts, including a tone capacitor. Note, this was my third time to have him refret my guitar. I had OK experiences from the previous work he did.
Two days later, luthier calls me up to say the guitar refret and replacement has been all completed. So I go to his shop to test the guitar. It played decently, the refrets were OK. He mentions the capacitor has also been replaced with the part I gave him. I asked for the original tone capacitor. He gives me some generic capacitor. It was a red,square chicklet type capacitor. My guitar originally had a green circular one. I immediately asked him where the original capacitor was. He goes and says, he was not the one who actually removed the capacitor. It was one of his repair guys and he will check with that person. But instead, he gives me several used capacitors from his stash (most are junk anyway).
My reaction to this initial incident was that of betrayal of trust. I trusted this reputable luthier for repair and he comes out and steals my capacitor? I know a capacitor is not a major part of the guitar. But it does contribute to the tone. I am irked because of the blatant disregard of customer trust.
Anyway, the story does not end there. Luthier goes out and asks me to send him a picture of the capacitor. Because he says there is no such thing as a green tone capacitor. I send him one over to make sure he is able to find the capacitor somewhere in his shop. Luthier then goes back to me and says to ask me to take a picture of the brown capacitors he gave me, since different lighting might make the brown cap look green.
Wait Mr. Luthier, customer has actually seen the capacitor, sent you the picture, and you doubt that the capacitor is green? Is that nuts or what?
Anyway, I said "No" to his stupid request to take pics of the brown caps. What kind of stupid idea is that? Was this guy trying to insert doubt into my story. I had a bad feeling at this point. I saw the cap and I had pics of it. It was Green. Damn it.
His reaction was he will try to look for a capacitor. But also asked how he can make it up to me. His exact words were "How can make you happy as a customer?" Hmm, although I had doubts, I gave him a bit of faith that he indeed wanted to make it up to me. So I sent him over a link on ebay for a good tone cap. It was a high-end cap. But then again, if he was able to return my orig green cap, then I would be OK already. You see the orig guitar cap, based on my research was a high-end cap. He says that it was a bit expensive. So I sent him another option - a high quality brown cap and he says he will buy that one instead. Good, I said. Give me that by next week.
Before the week was up, I follow it up with him. Also please bear in mind, all this time, I was the one following up with him. He made no effort whatsoever to text me or update me on what was happening and how he can appease a customer he betrayed the trust of. So I follow up, and asked him the status.
He changes his mind and says, if I lost your green capacitor, then we should look for a green one as a replacement. Good logic?! He was the one who said there is no such thing as a green cap and he wanted to replace it with anything I wanted to appease me. And then this. It seems he was changing his word all the time, to make sure he does not spend a dime for a mistake he made.
I said green/brown, whatever, as long as it is in good condition and has the correct specification then it should be fine.
So the week ends, he misses his deadline by a day, and tells me he has the replacement cap already. I go there and pick it up. He was on the phone and he hands me over a plastic bag with several green capacitors. All were used up and none had the correct specification. He hangs up the phone and I tell him this was not our deal. I return the bag to him. He tells me he has some brown capacitors with the correct specification. He goes to his shop and 10mins later comes out with 2 brown caps, with both the wrong values.
So I asked him what happened to the deal? He goes out and tells me I gave you the benefit of the doubt when you told me it was a green cap. Now, you should give me benefit of the doubt that these are the right capacitors. He was raising his voice when he said this. Awesome guy huh? I was talking in a civilized manner and he raises his voice at his customer. You see up to this point, he was still insisting that there is No Green Cap in my guitar. But how can he say that, when he admitted that he was not the actual person who replaced it, but it was one of his repair guys. I told him we are past that argument, and the point now was to appease the client and give him what he promised. I also think the person who raises his voice first in an argument is the defensive one and wants to dominate the conversation, because they have no argument to begin with. Realizing that this guy really had no intention of sticking to his word, and did not give a damn bout his client's trust, I said... "You just lost a customer..." and I left.
This guy really knew how to turn the tables on you, and he can make his wrongdoing, you're wrong doing. Instead of immediately trying to regain your trust. He inserts doubts into your story and makes you on the defensive side. Clever tactic, if you are easily-swayed. Guys, I suggest you take pictures of your guitars and all the parts, because you never know what happens behind closed doors of a luthier.
