Not too happy with Carvin...

[Poster Nutbag]

Well my Carvin experience was positive. First off, I wanted some things done that weren't standard, so I ordered over the phone and talked to Keith. He was really helpful and took the time to make sure we were on the same page. I did get a email order invoice from him. Later, as my due date approached I hadn't heard anything, but then again, I don't expect them to email every waiting customer to say "Your guitar is almost done".

 

As it ended up, I needed to put the remaining balance on a different card than I used for the deposit, again, Keith was very helpful. And my guitar ended up being shipped 5 days after the due date, which I was fine with, as I'd rather it was done right, than fast. And it was, it turned out exactly like I had pictured in my head.

 

Later on, the TuneOMatic bridge had a small rattle - I used a light drop of oil to fix it, but I called Carvin just to get their take on it. I was forwarded down to Albert on the shop floor, and while he was quick and to the point, he did listen to my concerns and suggested the same fix that I had happened to do.

 

I think it's true that they don't have a easy way of seeing what is where on the production floor. I read on the Carvin BBS that they used to have this system called GuitarTraq or something that would use the RFID tags in them to show where your build was during the process. But they pulled the plug on it, I suspect one of the reasons was people calling incessantly with things like "I saw on the GuitarTraq website that my guitar is getting painted - did you do the neck in satin like I wanted? Huh, did ya, did ya?"

 

Overall, Carvin ain't perfect, and the website is kind of a mess. Perhaps they focus their resources more to good quality manufacturing, which we can't fault. But you get a lot for your money, and if they make a good axe, I can let the other annoyances slip. And really, in this day and age, just the fact that you can get an English speaking live person on the phone is a plus. I'd certainly order from them again.

 

[RaVenCAD]

If they have an email address for customer inquiries, they should respond to it. The excuses you guys make for Carvin are humorous. I remember another thread a while back with one of their biggest supporters (sounds like CravenRad) was blaming the customer for not working with the right sales rep, much as he's blaming the OP's email filter instead of acknowledging that just perhaps Carvin dropped the ball. There is an advantage to email in that there's a written record of exactly what was said and when. In transactions involving 4 figures, some people prefer to work that way.

 

Actually, that thread involved an impatient person that ordered through the website instead of calling and talking to a human. Sorry, but that's just asking for trouble.

 

No one said Carvin was blameless here, but I've had enough emails get hopelessly lost in my spam filter to assume that isn't the case. If it isn't, then fine, Carvin {censored}ed up.. They could have spelled the OP's email address wrong, or they could be secretely trying to scam him. He should cancel his order immediately. Clearly, he isn't Carvin material..

 

But ya know, it's funny.. You give me {censored} for defending Carvin, yet every single damn time a thread like this pops up, you are here doing the attacking. Glass houses man, glass houses..

[mistersully]

 

I've been told that customer service has no accurate way to finding out when a guitar will be done.

 

 

well that's completely unacceptable

[Poster Nutbag]

My impression is that they can find out, but they would need to call down to the shop floor, then a worker has to go around and find a specific guitar and report back - so do-able, but not preferred.

[RaVenCAD]

 

My impression is that they can find out, but they would need to call down to the shop floor, then a worker has to go around and find a specific guitar and report back - so do-able, but not preferred.

 

 

That's the impression I got as well. CS ca't just walk in and look for something apparently. Different building maybe? I dunno.

 

I wonder if you can call Jackson or Gibson and get an exact update? Seriously.. Can you?

[mistersully]

 

Then don't buy a Carvin. Can it get any easier than that? If you don't like it, then don't do business with them. I win there, because when I order my next one, you won't be clogging the shop up ahead of me. I'm just as impatient as anyone, if not more so, and even I understand it's a condition of doing business with Carvin. If you can't handle that, then Carvin isn't for you.

 

 

 

what an infantile response

 

it would be a deal breaker for me... if a company's customer service department can't tell me when my product will be completed (one the company had given me an eta on)...it's "i'll have my money back thanks"

 

didn't they misspell your daughter's name on your custom order?... and you just kept it?

 

i think the op's concerns are more than valid... i think most people would, most people that don't desire to give carvin a collective rim job

[RaVenCAD]

 

what an infantile response it would be a deal breaker for me... if a company's customer service department can't tell me when my product will be completed (one the company had given me an eta on)...it's "i'll have my money back thanks" didn't they misspell your daughter's name on your custom order?... and you just kept it? i think the op's concerns are more than valid... i think most people would, most people that don't desire to give carvin a collective rim job

 

 

Yes they did spell her name wrong, on a truss rod cover that is easily replaced (which they did without hesitation) and yes I did keep that guitar.

 

Infantile? Hardly.. It's an honest and simple answer to the problem. If you can't handle the process then go to GC and buy a guitar you like. Carvin, and probably a HOST of other custom shops, isn't for you. That doesn't make you a bad person..

[mistersully]

 

Infantile? Hardly.. It's an honest and simple answer to the problem. If you can't handle the process then go to GC and buy a guitar you like. Carvin, and probably a HOST of other custom shops, isn't for you. That doesn't make you a bad person..

 

 

like i said... it would be a deal breaker for me... so yes... i would go else-where

[RaVenCAD]

 

my mistake... not a big deal at all... i thought it was on the guitar

 

 

That demonstrates your ignorance about Carvin beautifully.. You are here, dogging the company and their fans, and you don't even know that the truss rod cover is what gets engraved? What else are you an expert on that you've never owned?

[mistersully]

 

That demonstrates your ignorance about Carvin beautifully.. You are here, dogging the company and their fans, and you don't even know that the truss rod cover is what gets engraved? What else are you an expert on that you've never owned?

 

 

i was dogging a business policy of giving people an estimated time of when a product will be finished... and then their customer service not being able to tell a customer when their guitar will be ready... to me... that's unacceptable

 

and i said so

 

you coming in saying "well if you don't want to deal with the way they do business then don't" is infantile ... especially when 'the way they do business' seems to reek of poor customer service and complete unprofessionalism... regardless of whether or not the completed guitar {censored}s gold nuggets

 

this is a guitar forum... discussing the business practices of guitar companies is allowed here... even the one you fly a flag for

[tlbonehead]

?

On the few actual custom shop guitar experiences that I am aware of the buyer was able to actually speak directly with the luthier as the guitar was being built.

[RaVenCAD]

How is it infantile? Carvin does business how Carvin does business. If you can't handle that, you shouldn't deal with them. Same goes for Gibson, Fender and every other company on the planet. If you disagree with how they do business, you need to not deal with them. How is that infantile?

 

Now go away, and let someone that's actually dealt with Carvin speak on the subject.

[tlbonehead]

How is it infantile? Carvin does business how Carvin does business. If you can't handle that, you shouldn't deal with them. Same goes for Gibson, Fender and every other company on the planet. If you disagree with how they do business, you need to not deal with them. How is that infantile? Now go away, and let someone that's actually dealt with Carvin speak on the subject.

exactly! Like G and myself.

[RaVenCAD]

Say what ya want, Bonehead. You bought a Carvin, you've got a right. This other clown has no firsthand clue about the product and is just regurgitating what he's read about them on here. It'd be like myself going to an Anderson or Solway thread and bitching about the product. I've never held either one in my hands, so I have no right to dog them.

[mistersully]

 

and is just regurgitating what he's read about them on here.

 

 

yes... i took it straight from what YOU wrote

[RaVenCAD]

Then you should choose your sources more carefully. Lots of bull{censored} floating around in this toilet bowl..

[jjpistols]

hmm

 

Carvin threads are fun

 

 

 

 

I've got an old Carvin HB, about 60 or 70 tiny little screws across the bobbins - dug out the guitar it's mounted in last night and damned if it ain't a little screamer

 

no idea which pup it is, only that it's at least from the 80s

 

 

 

I'll have to make a clip of the little darlin'

[kherman]

No customshop is going to give you an exact date that a guitar will be done.

Too many variables that can take place.

 

That's why they give a "estimated" completion date.

Which means "some where around" such and such a date.

Not exactly on said date.

 

Carvin catalog says right in it "5 to 8 weeks".

 

Online is a little more accurate estimation.

 

 

My ST300 was done on the 5th week.

I received it a few days earlier than the card date.

Card date was Aug 21st.

Received it Aug 19th.

Immediately took pics and spammed the forum with them .

 

 

Speaking of which:

MORE PIC SPAMMING!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[kherman]

400/300

 

[tlbonehead]

That's why they give a "estimated" completion date. Which means "some where around" such and such a date. Not exactly on said date. Carvin catalog says right in it "5 to 8 weeks". Online is a little more accurate estimation. My ST300 was done on the 5th week. I received it a few days earlier than the card date. Card date was Aug 21st. Received it Aug 19th. Immediately took pics and spammed the forum with them .

But the true custom shops I have history with allow you to talk to the builder/luthier during the building process, ask questions, give comments, etc. I don't think you get that kind of intimate service with Carvin.

[kherman]

 

But the true custom shops I have history with allow you to talk to the builder/luthier during the building process, ask questions, give comments, etc. I don't think you get that kind of intimate service with Carvin.

 

 

Maybe not with the exact guy working on your guitar.

But, you do with Albert, who is head of the guitar shop.

And he's not just a guy stuffed in an office.

He's the head luthier, and is on the floor.

A number of us have talked with Albert.

And he's usually pretty good about getting back to people and

answering your questions.

Maybe not on the exact day you called.

But, usually within a few days.

[tlbonehead]

Maybe not with the exact guy working on your guitar. But, you do with Albert, who is head of the guitar shop. And he's not just a guy stuffed in an office. He's the head luthier, and is on the floor. A number of us have talked with Albert. And he's usually pretty good about getting back to people and answering your questions. Maybe not on the exact day you called. But, usually within a few days.

but, a few days could mean they are well past the timeframe of the creating/building area that you would want to discuss.

[Flintc]

I finally bit the bullet and ordered a Carvin on October 2. On the 17th, I got a card from them giving an estimated completion date of November 9. Then I got an email from them saying the guitar was shipped on the 5th, and will arrive on the 11th. So, nearly a week earlier than predicted. Nice.

 

On ordering, I tried to use the online builder, but then I decided to talk to an actual person because I had some questions about options. The person I spoke with was very helpful and friendly. Yes, I can ask them to look for a certain sort of wood grain, no extra charge but no guarantee they'll nail what I want. No, I can't get a high-gloss fingerboard; they don't do those. And so on.

 

I think what people here don't quite realize (and maybe Carvin themselves is a bit weak on it) is that

 

1) When you don't work through a retail network, you need 100 times better customer support than anyone else, because the retail stores aren't doing it for you. And

 

2) When you're offering so many options that they could produce 100 million guitars without ever making exactly the same one twice, there is a LOT of room for error and they must go to extraordinary lengths to keep track of the details, and

 

3) When it takes one or two months to fill a custom order and their competition offers the instant gratification of grabbing a guitar off the wall and taking it straight home, there are going to be a LOT of itchy impatient people trying to track their order daily if not hourly, which requires either hazy responses, or an enormous and expensive effort to have a computerized checkoff at every workstation to track every order. And even THEN, since different guitars have different build processes and non-critical-path processes can take place in different orders, the customer STILL isn't going to get a clear picture of where he stands.

 

And with thousands of instruments being built at any given time, this requires customer support people with the patience of a saint and the knowledge of a god. All of which is overhead that adds to the cost of the products.

 

I invite anyone to compare this with, say, buying a PRS at Guitar Center. You get one color choice, one wood choice, one bridge choice, one neck choice, etc. You get THAT ONE, right there on the wall. Take it or leave it. You're not about to call up PRS (or Jackson or Ibanez or Dean or Gibson or Fender) and ask them to modify it to your taste.

 

Even if you go to MF and order off the net, you usually get ONE (1) selection. For some, you might get two color choices. Certainly you will NOT get choices of fingerboard radius, inlays, top wood, hardware color, and on and on and on that Carvin offers. And after you order there's nobody to call to say "are we there yet, are we there yet, are we there yet?"

 

But in exchange, you get the one choice available to you within a couple of days. And you pay more. Is it worth it?

 

So what I read here is, people want the Ibanez buying experience ("I'll take this one, RIGHT NOW, thanks") with the Carvin price and custom options.

 

Carvin continues to experiment with their customer relations. They tried their "guitartraq" system, so people could see the progress of their orders. But keeping it updated in real time was an expensive effort, and tended to cause more phone calls and questions than it saved. They tried showing what the finished product would look like in their builder as it was built. Same problem - couldn't get it exact, difficult and expensive to maintain, too many complaints that the image didn't precisely match the finished product.

 

And if there are internal snafus at Ibanez, if their computer is down for a day or if they get in a bad lot of parts or some such, none of their customers has any way to know it, and there's no visible problem at all. If the same thing happens at Carvin, everyone knows it and customers raise hell and Carvin's reputation is tarnished and forums like this fill up with threads filled by everyone who called the day the computer didn't work to say how awful Carvin's support is.

 

And certainly nobody calls Japan or Korea or Indochina to demand to talk to the head luthier at Ibanez about his order, because they don't take orders. They ship a zillion copies of the same identical guitar to every GC.

 

Now, if you think the Jem or the Satch or whatever is precisely what you want, and the price fits your budget, and you can't wait a month or two, then RavenCad is right - buy something else. Carvin's business model doesn't fit your needs.

[Busk]

I sure do think an all koa V220 looks cool with the cream pups with black rings. It's kinda BC Riched out....

 

But I only need one guitar...

[mr.rs]

I agree with Flintc all the way, but then again, the answer to the question is, people are stupid, and they prove it time and time again.

 

I'm not calling the OP stupid, just humans in general.

 

Once you put yourself in someone elses shoes from their perspective, it's enlightening when you're only seeing it from your selfish, self wanting POV.

 

Yes, I'm a philosopher!

 

I own 5 Carvins and they're among the best guitars I've played in 36 years.