narad
Progressive metal and politics
Of course we allow exceptions for HBs in the nightswan and STEF cases.
ESP / Chondro drama
- Thread starter narad
- Start date
Of course we allow exceptions for HBs in the nightswan and STEF cases.
Counterpoint: Barettas would be so much cooler if they were Nightswans.
MetalDestroyer
Heaven's Football Bat
I've seen other examples of Japanese companies poorly handling interactions with outside people where they have a semi-independent US subsidiary. The cutoff letter being from ESP USA while the promises seemingly came from ESP Japan seems more like ineptitude via miscommunication than malice. Not surprised they refused to comment if that’s the case - they aren't just going to come out and say "this dude from our company didn't get the memo sorry".
Nintendo is notorious for doing similar stuff - promises made by one branch being trampled by the other then the company going completely dark when the public shitstorm starts.
On another note, anyone know what the back-of-the-queue build time is in 2023? I can't imagine waiting 2 years then having to start over with an even longer and more expensive build.
Nintendo is notorious for doing similar stuff - promises made by one branch being trampled by the other then the company going completely dark when the public shitstorm starts.
On another note, anyone know what the back-of-the-queue build time is in 2023? I can't imagine waiting 2 years then having to start over with an even longer and more expensive build.
groverj3
Bioinformagician
Heard about this as it was unfolding on Facebook. Bad look by ESP, the other dealers are doing what they do trying to make a buck in a low margin business. As far as the fear about them not fulfilling orders due to lack of a physical store, there are entirely online-only dealers for many brands so I don't buy that. However, because Chondro was in the midst of winding down operations and intended to close after fulfilling all current orders I could see them thinking they wouldn't actually all be fulfilled. There seemed to be a disconnect somewhere because apparently he had contacted them before deciding to close down, and they were (at that time) going to continue shipping out customer orders.
Someone, somewhere, made a judgment call on the ESP side to back-out.
Someone, somewhere, made a judgment call on the ESP side to back-out.
Folks have been throwing around two and three years, which sounds about right, but also probably depends on what you want. I don't see pretty basic Original variants taking the upper end of that, but who knows. Even production ESP stuff is literally years behind.
As for pricing, dealers have said that they're honoring original quoted prices.
I don't know why folks are giving the other dealers a hard time. Like obviously they're not doing this altruistically, but what's the alternative?
RevDrucifer
Well-Known Member
That actually bummed me out more than expected, he put his time into that band and wrote some stuff I really dug on the newer stuff. Though he posts some pretty fucking badass guitars via Diablo, so all is not lost.
Hollowway
Extended Ranger
Those things are just killer. Love that you used the kid to prop it up for the photo.
Pingu
NOOT NOOT
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Yea TBH I been catching up on this now, and it really feels like a accountant made this decision, not a rep.
I have two cents here. I am in a place to buy what I want, and I have reached out via phone and email to purchase from Condro several times over the past few years with no reply. No big deal, but it is telling to me. I have been dealing with DCGL since approximately 1989 and never an issue. I shop a few places once in a while if they have an exclusive, but only for that reason. And many of these places have folded.
I am sorry to see another dealer struggle to survive, but it is a tough business in general. It takes deep pockets.
But it ends up pushing buyers of those type of guitars/gear to just the few dealers that can get them...and they continue to have a monopoly.
I am sorry to see another dealer struggle to survive, but it is a tough business in general. It takes deep pockets.
But it ends up pushing buyers of those type of guitars/gear to just the few dealers that can get them...and they continue to have a monopoly.
/wrists
enthusiast
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i also got no reply from axe palace lol
but streetwater has been good to me - not sure if they do custom esps though
i will never buy new from other shops
Dumple Stilzkin
Pointy star bastard.
I have nothing to add except my opinion, the guy who runs Chondro is a douche.
cardinal
Well-Known Member
Huh.
Well, I'll recount my story of buying from Chondro: I bought a Lipe guitar from him (Lipe was at Ibanez LACS but started his own small shop). I immediately noticed that something was wrong with the guitar's neck and sent a message to Chondro saying yo, this is not good. Within 5 minutes, he called me on the phone to discuss and probably 10 minutes later he had Lipe on the phone with me to get it worked out (turned out the neck was indeed warped and Lipe built a new one).
I guess, ideally Chondro notices that the neck is warped before selling it to me? But he certainly snapped to attention to deal with the problem once he knew about it.
That mid-mounted hum is just a deal killer for me. Great idea, let’s put a giant pickup right where one would pick. Also, it just looks absurd.
Toddlers make the best guitar stands.Those things are just killer. Love that you used the kid to prop it up for the photo.
Apex1rg7x
Agent of Chaos
I bought a guitar from Chondro awhile back only for it to get "lost" in transit. He felt so bad that he let me buy anything I wanted and would sell it to me at his dealer price. Didn't matter what it was. I proceeded to order an ESP CS and got a crazy price on it. I can guarantee most dealers wouldn't have done that and to me that was the best customer service I've ever received in my many years of gear buying/selling.
soul_lip_mike
Well-Known Member
Bad take. Randall is an all around great dude In all my interactions with him. Purchased lots of stuff there.
Wiltonauer
SS.org Regular
Sounds eerily familiar. I didn’t mind the long wait time, but ESP kept setting dates and missing them. I let it go on for a year before I became fed up with getting my hopes up and then having to reshuffle. If they had told me something accurate upfront, I would have dug in and waited. All those times when they said they were about to ship it, I wonder what they were basing that on, that they suddenly had to pivot to it being another couple of months?
On ESP switching it up on Chondro, that makes me wonder if someone at ESP made the promise assuming it would be okay, then got overruled by somebody with more clout.
It kind of sounds like someone needs to hire and train more luthiers, unless that someone tends to get nervous when the backlog dips below a certain threshold.
groverj3
Bioinformagician
Yep, he's a good dude. However, this kind of customer service is probably why he wasn't making any money. Running a music store is very low margin.
Wiltonauer
SS.org Regular
It can’t be easy. That “good customer” who “lets” you make 5% gross margin on a sale isn’t keeping your doors open.
