ESP / Chondro drama

[technomancer]

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.

Meh he pretty much admitted in his going out of business post that he didn't keep track of the finances like he should have. This is happening less than 2 months after doubling the store size and renovating the new store addition.

Looking at it from ESPs side you have a guy that publicly stated he mismanaged his finances and didn't even maintain the business phone when he shut down. That does not scream somebody you want to be on the hook with for a large amount of money.

That's as a disinterested observer that has run several companies.

 

[Wiltonauer]

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.

Keep in mind that nobody, including ESP, has to do something just because “many brands” do it. And just because they bring on an online-only dealer at one point, doesn't mean they can’t change their policy later and cut off everybody who doesn’t have a brick-and-mortar storefront. I can see some brands being happy to have a dealer whether they are online-only or not, but I can also understand a brand not wanting to do that. But then you have the bait-and-switch aspect of what happened as told by Chondro, and that’s different.

In other industries, I have seen things like:

1.) A manufacturer cutting off a dealer for selling an item below full retail price. Not advertising at a lower price, but selling on a one-on-one basis.

2.) A manufacturer firing all their reps — many of them with decades of experience selling and supporting the brand — without warning and moving to an in-house salesforce, who are usually entry-level, green, and clueless, because, well, don’t want to spend too much.

3.) A manufacturer cutting off direct sales to their smallest tier of dealers and either refusing to sell to them or requiring them to buy from a distributor, and then not telling them about it until they go to place their next order.

 

[Metal-Box]

I was looking at a Jackson USA SL2H and he offered it to me at the $3000 price vs the then new price of $3700 because he bought it prior to the massive price increase and he would honor the price. He could have charged me the $3700. Great guy.

 

[mlp187]

Well goddamnit, sounds like the industry is losing a good dude.

 

[KnightBrolaire]

I've never heard anything bad about Randall beyond his shit takes on modern metal and his disdain for tacos lol

 

[OmegaSlayer]

Came for the drama, stayed for the Sabo Beretta

Jokes aside, in these days where money is scarce, the quality of service makes the difference.
It sucks that a nice dude had to shrink down his business.

 

[Emperoff]

Speaking from the ESP side of things, I guess Max and Techno summed it up. Problem is ESP is the only company that did this, from all those Randall dealt with in his store. That really makes ESP to look as the bad guy and cautious or not, they did make a huge mistake.

I am not sure Randall is closing due to bad finances. The store grew outstandingly fast for those following and he deals pretty much with high end stuff so the margins are not as low as your average store. There was people buying 6-10k guitars day in, day out.

He's got a loud mouth for sure (and he'd be the first to say it), which I guess is why some people might get the impression of him being a douche. But truth is that as far as customer service goes, you'll have a very hard time finding something negative. He always went the extra mile for the customer, and ran into problems with companies more than once for publicly posting their shitjobs. So people really liked his honesty.

As far as I know he had a successful business and zero life outside of it (which happens to plenty of people). The pedal company he started with his wife in the meantime is also going well, so he's probably sticking to that and enjoying more of his life outside the store.

 

[Apex1rg7x]

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.

He was the first one to admit that a lot of his practices were 100% the reason behind him closing his doors. He knew it and owned up to it. His honesty, albeit sometimes quite abrasive was one thing that I appreciated when dealing with him.

 

[HeHasTheJazzHands]

his disdain for tacos lol

I hope ESP sues him for every cent he has

 

[technomancer]

Speaking from the ESP side of things, I guess Max and Techno summed it up. Problem is ESP is the only company that did this, from all those Randall dealt with in his store. That really makes ESP to look as the bad guy and cautious or not, they did make a huge mistake.

I am not sure Randall is closing due to bad finances. The store grew outstandingly fast for those following and he deals pretty much with high end stuff so the margins are not as low as your average store. There was people buying 6-10k guitars day in, day out.

He's got a loud mouth for sure (and he'd be the first to say it), which I guess is why some people might get the impression of him being a douche. But truth is that as far as customer service goes, you'll have a very hard time finding something negative. He always went the extra mile for the customer, and ran into problems with companies more than once for publicly posting their shitjobs. So people really liked his honesty.

As far as I know he had a successful business and zero life outside of it (which happens to plenty of people). The pedal company he started with his wife in the meantime is also going well, so he's probably sticking to that and enjoying more of his life outside the store.

He literally said he mismanaged the books and was working a second job to pay his employees... check his facebook post in his group, he went into it in the post where he announced he was closing.

 

[narad]

I'm started to feel bad I didn't buy a guitar from this guy that was running margins so close he couldn't pay employees from the gear sales. If he wasn't closing, this would be great marketing.

 

[Meeotch]

A couple years ago I bought a new Schecter custom shop from Randall and it showed up with some light surface scratches. I requested a partial refund and he issued it without flinching. I spoke to him several times on the phone and he was always awesome. At that time he told me he was considering closing shop, but I was starting to think he had a change of heart based on his continued presence on the high end of the industry.

I'm sorry to see him getting the shaft in this situation. It makes me wonder if he could have played his cards differently and maybe just stopped taking new orders, all while phasing out his business in a more gradual manner.

 

[Flappydoodle]

Yeah I think I agree mostly with ESP here. Are they really going to ship these guitars to a solo dude who doesn't have a store any more? That doesn't make much sense to me.

Who is right or wrong really comes down to what contract was signed. If the guy was obligated to have a store front, or to maintain whatever business, then he broken it (no matter what assurances were given by sales reps at NAMM).

On the other hand, if contracts were signed, ESP shouldn't be able to just say "fuck it" and walk away. I suspect another motivation could be that they might want to ditch the orders due to rising costs and being locked into previous lower prices.

 

[technomancer]

Yeah I think I agree mostly with ESP here. Are they really going to ship these guitars to a solo dude who doesn't have a store any more? That doesn't make much sense to me.

Who is right or wrong really comes down to what contract was signed. If the guy was obligated to have a store front, or to maintain whatever business, then he broken it (no matter what assurances were given by sales reps at NAMM).

On the other hand, if contracts were signed, ESP shouldn't be able to just say "fuck it" and walk away. I suspect another motivation could be that they might want to ditch the orders due to rising costs and being locked into previous lower prices.

ESP is allowing the orders to be transferred to other dealers at the same price IIRC so the ditching the orders thing doesn't track. I think ESP just doesn't want to ship >$100k of merchandise to somebody operating out of their basement.

 

[narad]

ESP is allowing the orders to be transferred to other dealers at the same price IIRC so the ditching the orders thing doesn't track. I think ESP just doesn't want to ship >$100k of merchandise to somebody operating out of their basement.

I wonder if I can get a list of the orders and find some cool ones. If they can transfer dealers, why not customers?

 

[technomancer]

ESP is allowing the orders to be transferred to other dealers at the same price IIRC so the ditching the orders thing doesn't track. I think ESP just doesn't want to ship >$100k of merchandise to somebody operating out of their basement.

Or I guess more accurately, they don't want to build >$100k in merchandise and rely on somebody operating out of their basement to pay them when the guitars are done.

 

[budda]

Or I guess more accurately, they don't want to build >$100k in merchandise and rely on somebody operating out of their basement to pay them when the guitars are done.

You guys ever heard of axe and ye shall receive?

 

[groverj3]

I can totally understand ESP not wanting to do business with Chondro when they're shutting down and operating out of a basement.

However, telling Randall they would fulfill existing orders, before doing a 180 on that is pretty shitty. Not to mention customers maybe losing their place in the build queue, even if they'd honor the previous pricing.

Also, didn't he operate out of a basement before they had a physical store? They didn't seem to have a problem with it then.

 

[JimF]

I can totally understand ESP not wanting to do business with Chondro when they're shutting down and operating out of a basement.

However, telling Randall they would fulfill existing orders, before doing a 180 on that is pretty shitty. Not to mention customers maybe losing their place in the build queue, even if they'd honor the previous pricing.

Also, didn't he operate out of a basement before they had a physical store? They didn't seem to have a problem with it then.

I'd say its more to do with this:

Or I guess more accurately, they don't want to build >$100k in merchandise and rely on somebody operating out of their basement to pay them when the guitars are done.

Yes they deal with him when he had no storefront, and he was on the up, and he proved himself. But from the outside, this looks like company going down the tubes, and it wouldn't be out of the realms of possibility that when it comes time to pay ESP, there's no money left.

 

[Seabeast2000]

I hope ESP sues him for every cent he has

Taco Hate usually gets federal agency attention, he's looking at 20 years.