Everything I have said is based on your replies in this thread. So what assumptions am I making? Did you not attack him about his pictures, motive, etc? Or do you treat all your corporate accounts with the same "tact" you treat the private when they have a problem? If you're going to say I'm making an assumption please state what I'm assuming.

Pardon my ignorance & curiosity, but accepting the above statement, wouldn't it be reasonable to assume that your customer didn't make those scratches when he tried to remove them with that product?

Secondly, assuming that the scratches are indeed in the clear, wouldn't it be enough to just buff the bejeebers out of it? He could for instance take it to a local painter/luthier/car shop and have it buffed? Would that solve his problem?

Also, I would like to offer the following sentiment:
You have several options when dealing with a situation like this. You can fight, curse, rant until you drop. Posting rants like you just did makes for entertaining reading, but it's really poor for business.

You can also try to solve the problem first. Because that is what customer service is about. There is no rule that your customer needs to be intelligent about your product. He could be a raving nutcase trying to set fire on his newly painted body. If you are able to deal with those things, solving the problem first and after that trying to determine who's fault it is, you'll find that the customer is far more likely to take (part) of the blame, while you create a stellar rep for customer service. You may loose once or twice netto on a paintjob, but you'll gain so much more in customers.

B/c it was a false incenuation that somehow I sent him a crappy paint job. If you don't like the way I handle accusations, incenuations, false reviews, personal attacks, assumptions & the sort then don't ever do business with me, its really that simple.

It doesn't really matter what YOU would of done. Until your placed in my exact position & know all the facts you don't really know. If you owned a business & got on a forum of where someone was accusing you of a crappy product that had never contacted you about it & really cant prove that it was anything you did wrong but they still act like it then you would get tired of it after a while to. PM's dont any good when a year later somebody comes & reads that post and BELIEVES I sent him a scratched up guitar and I never even respond to the allegation publicly. I don't tolerate anyone who incenuates that I did anything less than a great quality paint job, especially when they can't provide any concrete evidence that is WAS that way or HAD to be that way when it was shipped....like trash in the paint, bumps, knibs, runs, paint chips, overspray, paint missing on an edge, burn through, etc. Those are all things that could not happen once it leaves my hands...but some light scratches?? Now thats possible...unlikely, but possible. I don't take kindly to someone coming in here & posting on this forum as if it was sent out that way, and they were disappointed with the quality of the finish. Do you really think I would of spent all the time I did wetsanding it perfectly flat & buffing out to a mirror.....but then leaving some light scratches in it & shipping it out when those could be easily buffed out had they been there....

I do own a business and I do deal with customers, but you're right, it's totally up to you.
I was just trying to offer a bit of constructive advice, nothing more.
I've done business with you btw.

J

Reasonable? I don't think so. Possible, yes. Why do I not think its reasonable? B/c it then leaves absolutely no logical explanation as to how they got there.

Yes, that would be the solution to the problem. And you wouldn't have to buff the bejeebers out of it to remove light scratches. Just lightly buffing it should do the trick, shouldn't take any longer than 1 minute to do.

Well I'm glad you find it entertaining. However, I'm a painter & a guitar builder, not a PR rep. And, until my sales plateaus or declines I honestly don't see a need for one. My sales have nearly doubled every year for the last 3 years. Why? Well it sure as heck isn't b/c I'm doing crappy paint jobs. I don't kiss butts & the customer is not always right, regardless of what they would like to think. Sometimes they might be right.....but NOT ALWAYS. I will gladly admit when someone is right, however I'm not going to tell them they are right when I know their not. If they want to instantly become an expert on the subject & know more than I do about it then they can start doing their own paint jobs & guitar builds in the future since their so smart.

That is very good advice. And I agree with you. But my question is how do u solve a problem when the customer doesn't ever come to you about it and therefore you don't even realize there is a problem? But rather takes it upon themselves to trash your work on a forum instead. It makes it appear as trashing your work is more important to them than actually contacting you & making aware their disassatisfaction & inquire on how to proceed. But when they don't do that, and rather find posting here talking down the quality more important then it really makes you question what their saying, and makes you began to wonder the motive behind posting it here for everybody else to know but not e-mailing you about it. Why was it more important to tell jemsite about it, but not mention a word to me in e-mail about it? By doing that, it makes it look like he's simply just out to dog my work. If he had e-mailed me 1st, brought the area of question to my attention, then we could have discussed it & as well as the next course of action, and then I would of had no reason to question his intentions or statements.

Was that directed at me?

If so, how did he not prove there was a problem. All he stated was -

he was expecting better. To which you replied -


He posted pictures immediately, and you go on a page long diatribe about what he must have done to it for it to be in that condition.

I'm as impartial an observer as you're going to find, but I'm not sure I can remember the last nice thing you said in this thread.

Jemsite has moderators. Those moderators can easily remove or edit posts that are determined to be libel, and do so frequently. Besides which, the comment originally posted was not directly negative. It could have easily been a case of him boosting his own expectations after seeing the pictures on your site. You on the other hand flipped the **** out INSTANTLY.

Besides which, you imply that leaving a negative post will bring only negative results, yet at the same time, your reactions to any negative comments about you, your work, or your customer service, very rarely paint you as anything but the bad guy.

I've defended you before in this exact thread, on one of those occasions you've managed to string together enough words without an insult, to actually make some kind of sensible points. I'd be happy to defend you again and again, were I seeing any evidence that you're worth defending.

As it is, you're just damaging your own reputation, and flipping out on your own customers.

Its said that a person who recieves a quality product will tell 3 people about it, but a person who recieves a bad product will notify 10. That applies to customer service too, and is more often than not taken FAR more seriously by anyone who hears it.



You can count me as at least one person who will NEVER, under any circumstances, send any work to you. Which is a shame for you and you only. There are many other quality painters out there. I am in no way inconvenienced by the decision, bar perhaps making a 'reccomendations thread on here.

YOU on the other hand have just lost a couple of hundred dollars at least. And why? I'll freely admit that every time I've gone through your site I've been very impressed. Pictures from members here of your work have impressed me. But I'll be damned if I EVER send jack **** to an arrogant son of a bitch like you, who thinks he is justified in flying off the handle at his own customers, despite the numerous unresolved complaints with your customer service, wait times, excuses, and now even the quality of your work.

You want the right to talk **** to your customers? Then you damn well better be the fastest, most reliable, most impressive, and cheapest in the game. You fail any one of those items, you don't have a ****ing leg to stand on when a complaint comes in about it.

Sorry, I thought your previous reply was addressed to me.

He didn't mail you, obviously he wasn't interested in a solution. That too can happen.
Having spotted the thread, I'd simply post an offer to ship the body back to the shop without any admission or judgement. It would be up to him then.

See, 'bad reviews' on a forum only last so long, just take a look at the legacy one thread for a few years worth of examples of people still wanting to do business with him.

What really solidifies a rep is honesty and a drive for perfection. And have no illusion, you can't win 'm all. You'll always have sour customers because they are just that, but at least you will have the knowledge that you've done everything you could have done to set it right.

What you achieve with your rants here, is that you scare anyone away.
Because god forbid someone might actually have an issue (you can have bad days too), and being chewed out like above on Jemsite? You have to realise that in 90% of these kind of issues, the customer feels just as much 'being right' as you feel.

SCS is no longer a vendor here and this thread has turned into nothing more than bickering.