Ibanez.com - Customer Support

[wulpul]

I have e-mailed Ibanez so many times I cant even remember but not once have I ever has a response :angry:

WHY OH WHY Does a company who produces such great guitars have such a terrible customer support system?

I DO NOT think there is any excuse in this day and age for this situation. Other companies which I'm not even going to bother mentioning reply to e-mails within a couple of days. WHY should Ibanez be any different?

Excuses like lack of staff is just not good enough.

[Rich]

Ibanez isn't email friendly, but they are phone friendly. If you can't spend a dime, don't waste their time :biggrin: If Ibanez wasn't different we wouldn't get such great guitars!!

P.s. not their words, but it rhymed

[RG550]

How are you meant to phone them if you don't live in the States? They dont have a U.K site and have no contact advice for customers outside the U.S.

I have had nothing but grief and hassle since I bought my Ibanez RG550 (I won't go into detail but if you check out the 'slight flaws' thread you can read all about it) I started a thread to try and get some advice about my options and I'm still in the same position as when I started. I love the guitar and it is stunning to play BUT the cosmetic flaws really really ****
me off and should not be there on a BRAND NEW guitar.

I have been back to the store with the guitar so many times and they refuse point blank to help (I think they are stopping stocking Ibanez guitars but I'm not sure). I also have e-mailed Ibanez and have had no response at all. It is pretty disheartening when the guitar cost me £549 (around $800), this is a lot of money to me and I think for that kind of money you should get a flaw free instrument.

I think Ibanez guitars are excellent and this site is great and has loads of useful info but for goodness sake does everyone have their heads up Ibanez/Hoshino arse.

People ask for some advice and all they get is, "Ibanez are so wonderful, they never do anything wrong, why would anyone have ANYTHING bad to say about Ibanez" or smart-arse comments like, "you should have noticed these things in the guitar store".

If someone has a problem with Ibanez or an Ibanez guitar/product certain people out there in the forum shouldn't take it as a personal insult.

Chill OUT

[Rich]

I don't have a problem, but somebody needs to chill If you're writing to ibanez.com, you're writing to the US distributor, which have absolutely NOTHING to do with your guitar. *They didn't sell it, they didn't build it. Call YOUR distributor, BLT Industries, Newlyn Road, Cradley Heath, West Midlands. (as of 98' anyway, as current as my information gets)

[jemsite]

Lets cut to the chase Ibanez needs a worldwide internet presence with minimal customer support and contacts available via the internet. ASAP.

Sorry, but that is a bare minimum for a business in 2001.

Unfortunately they are not structured for this. Rich explained this above. Given the current setup, Ibanez.com would not want to field questions about a European customer? *I believe right now their feeling is (though i could be wrong) they'd rather have NO online support than online support done WRONG. To that extent i agree.

We all know something needs to change there. IMHO for the savings from not hiring an intelligent employee to route emails and offer assistance, I believe they are being penny wise and dollar foolish. This is costing them business and customer satisfaction longterm.

[Rich]

I couldn't agree more, BUT, there's a little thing called the language barrier. They'd have to have somebody available to answer in how many different languages? Alot. The best solution is easier access to the distributors in the country which the guitar was sold. They're the ones that made the dime on it, they're the ones that would/should have the responsibility to reply. A LOCAL customer support phone # should be included with the little pamphlet you get with each guitar. This way Ibanez.com (US) isn't getting hammered with questions from the 4 corners of the globe, and the questions/comments/complaints are actually directed to the distributor responsible.

[Coolstu]

Quote: from Rich on 9:18 am on Feb. 23, 2001
I don't have a problem, but somebody needs to chill If you're writing to ibanez.com, you're writing to the US distributor, which have absolutely NOTHING to do with your guitar. *They didn't sell it, they didn't build it. Call YOUR distributor, BLT Industries, Newlyn Road, Cradley Heath, West Midlands. (as of 98' anyway, as current as my information gets)

I think the above information is wrong as far as I'm aware the current U.K distributor of Ibanez Guitars is HEADSTOCK.

I don't know there address but their telephone number is (01384) 565 422.

Give them a call and they should be able to help you but what they'll probably tell you is to take the guitar to the shop where you bought it and then they'll deal with it from there. Which doesn't sound as if it will be much use in your case.

[Rich]

That's the current one, thanks Stu, too early for me to be giving *good* advice If you tell them you aren't getting anywhere with the dealer they may give you another alternative.

[darren wilson]

It's not that hard to provide support in different languages from the Web site. They just need an e-mail link for the distributor/Ibanez rep. in each country, and the user can just click the right one.

Ibanez is a global company, but seems to wash its hands of all the local issues and leave it up to the local distributors to handle customer service/satisfaction issues. Not a good way to do business these days.

They need to "think global, act local".

[Rich]

Point being, ibanez.com is the US distributor site, they just happened to register it as the .com, so everybody in the world believes that's THE ibanez site. I know Australis has a site, but I doubt many more of the distributors have a site of their own, but they may. If they do, how dedicated are THEY going to be to customer support by email. Calling is always the best and easiest way to get things done, and every distributor has a phone, of that I'm pretty sure

[jemsite]

Darren hit the nail right on the head. They need a central OPERATOR online. They can simpy route 'calls' (in this case email) to the relevant parties. Even if the support operator needs to simply reply with an email of a phone number to call and who to speak with.

Business 101.

edit - clarifications

(Edited by jemsite at 12:51 pm on Feb. 23, 2001)

[Rich]

If, for example, the Phillipine distributor does NOT have an online presence, much less anyone to answer email, who are the emails supposed to be forwarded to?

[jemsite]

Quote: from Rich on 12:02 pm on Feb. 23, 2001
If, for example, the Phillipine distributor does NOT have an online presence, much less anyone to answer email, who are the emails supposed to be forwarded to?

The central operator who reads the email (ibanez.com obviously) will have the presence of mind to reply with the phone number, or next in 'chain of command' for customer to work with. There needs to be a listing the operator (email answerer) can refer to, along with canned replies, in order to direct the customer along with support.

This is really common busines sense and standard support desk procedure... glen

[jemsite]

also, common sense would immediately have me make ibanez.com a GENERIC worldwide homepage, not the page for Hoshino USA. The current ibanez.com can be put on a subdomain after the person selects what country they are from.

See examples at any global companies website

For example, Hoshino USA (ibanez.com currently) would be a click-thru link off ibanez.com's main 'worldwide' site.

USA *---> usa.ibanez.com (or ibanez.com/usa)
South America --> sa.ibanez.com (or ibanez.com/sa)
Europe
Japan
etc

this is business 101 weeek 2.

[Rich]

Now THAT's your best suggestion yet! :-) But it also requires each distributor to have and maintain a current year website with the models they offer, their own online customer support and with alot of distributors not having a web presence at all, it's back to square 1, leaving Hosh USA with the task of answering the worlds questions. These all should be addressed by JAPAN, when you ask PRS a question, you're asking the manufacturer, when you ask Hoshino USA, you're asking a distributor. The manufaturer would be the likely candidate to bear the responsibilities that currently Hosh USA is blamed for being deficient in.