grownupboy
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jun 3, 2009
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hey all, really felt i had to share this story.
i recently picked up a new mya-moe super soprano from empire music in vancouver. as it turns out the uke wasn't listed on their main site but google had indexed the page. i gave them a call and the uke was available but had an early serial number that was manufactured in june 2011 so i asked them why the uke was still in the store after 2 years!
they replied that the uke had been taken to a festival and when they returned the uke case was there but the uke was missing. they assumed it had been stolen and removed it from their main listing. a couple of years later someone ordered a uke case from the store and when he received it he found the mya-moe uke in his new case. fortunatly he was honest and called the store and shipped the uke back.
sounds a bit far fetched, i know, but they had an excellent return policy so i thought i'd have a look at the uke and see if it was a good one. when i placed my order the salesperson informed me that she had discovered a small glue stain on the body that appeared to be super glue. she sent me a pic and said her tech thought it was under the finish (which sounded ridiculous to me as i know gordon and char's instruments are hand made - no way they'd send something out with a glue stain UNDER the finish!!)
i emailed mya-moe with the situation and asked what it would cost to repair the finish. gordon got back to me right away and said he would be happy to fix the issue for no charge but couldn't say how well it would turn out until he saw it in person.
i made the purchase and had the uke shipped to mya-moe. gordon emailed when he received the uke and let me know it could be repaired but he also wanted to dress the frets and get everythi up to their current spec (apparently, he said, they learned a lot in the last 1000 ukes they made since my little guy was made!)
he told me it would be a couple of days longer and i was thrilled. i mean - who gets customer service like that? what is this, the 1950's?
a couple days later gordon emailed me to ask if i had ever returned a uke to empire music in the past. he let me know that he was putting a lot of time into fixing this uke and wanted to be sure i wasn't someone who treated stock instruments as demos. automatically returning things and moving on my way. he said he's rather buy they uke back from me then have it returned to the store.
i explained to gordon that i contacted him before i made the purchase to make sure this could be repaired and while i couldn't guarantee that the uke would be a keeper until i saw it in person, i wasn't someone who returned things like crazy. but couldn't say 100% until the uke was in my hands.
he got back to me right away and said not to worry. he hoped i understood that they had put quite a few hours into the repair and just wanted to be sure it was going to someone who was interested in keeping it.
it was the kind of thing that would normally turn me off a bit except for the way he explained his question - he wasn't accusing me of anything or suggesting. just put the question out there.
in retrospect it seems to me that mya-moe doesn't sell through retailers anymore so it makes sense from a practical point of view. if they uke was going to be returned he'd rather it was returned to him than return to a store. he could easily take the uke to a festival and sell it so why leave it sitting in a store?
a few days later the uke arrived in canada and it's amazing. bright and jangly with a little bit of punch. i'm sure it will continue to grow on me as time goes by but so far i'm loving it!
the refinish? ya, you can see a tiny little spot where the glue had been removed and the finish has been re-applied. but it's sooooooo subtle. you really have to be looking right for the issue to notice it. gordon had mentioned that there might be a little light spot until the finish aged a bit but again, you have to be looking right at it to see the issue.
fit and finish on this uke is amazing. the hand rubbed oil finish is beautiful. sort of semi-gloss like a violin if that makes sense? neck plays like a dream. really happy with my little guy and look forward to playing it for at least a couple more years.
why only a couple years? well i just added my name to the waiting list to order a custom mya moe. one is never enough!
here's a couple of pics of my mya-moe super soprano #531. it's made of common koa and while the wood doesn't have any curl it does sort of shimmer in the light. changes a bit depending on how you look at it.
so basically got a brand new mya-moe super soprano for 2011 prices and it's a keeper!
but what amazing customer service - i mean they repaired a uke that was sold to a store a couple of years back. no questions, no complaining. the first answer from gordon was "of course we can fix that!" the fact that they did the repair for free shows me just how much they care about their brand and every customer's happiness.
we'd do well if everyone treated their customers this way. now if we can just do something about that waiting list!
i recently picked up a new mya-moe super soprano from empire music in vancouver. as it turns out the uke wasn't listed on their main site but google had indexed the page. i gave them a call and the uke was available but had an early serial number that was manufactured in june 2011 so i asked them why the uke was still in the store after 2 years!
they replied that the uke had been taken to a festival and when they returned the uke case was there but the uke was missing. they assumed it had been stolen and removed it from their main listing. a couple of years later someone ordered a uke case from the store and when he received it he found the mya-moe uke in his new case. fortunatly he was honest and called the store and shipped the uke back.
sounds a bit far fetched, i know, but they had an excellent return policy so i thought i'd have a look at the uke and see if it was a good one. when i placed my order the salesperson informed me that she had discovered a small glue stain on the body that appeared to be super glue. she sent me a pic and said her tech thought it was under the finish (which sounded ridiculous to me as i know gordon and char's instruments are hand made - no way they'd send something out with a glue stain UNDER the finish!!)
i emailed mya-moe with the situation and asked what it would cost to repair the finish. gordon got back to me right away and said he would be happy to fix the issue for no charge but couldn't say how well it would turn out until he saw it in person.
i made the purchase and had the uke shipped to mya-moe. gordon emailed when he received the uke and let me know it could be repaired but he also wanted to dress the frets and get everythi up to their current spec (apparently, he said, they learned a lot in the last 1000 ukes they made since my little guy was made!)
he told me it would be a couple of days longer and i was thrilled. i mean - who gets customer service like that? what is this, the 1950's?
a couple days later gordon emailed me to ask if i had ever returned a uke to empire music in the past. he let me know that he was putting a lot of time into fixing this uke and wanted to be sure i wasn't someone who treated stock instruments as demos. automatically returning things and moving on my way. he said he's rather buy they uke back from me then have it returned to the store.
i explained to gordon that i contacted him before i made the purchase to make sure this could be repaired and while i couldn't guarantee that the uke would be a keeper until i saw it in person, i wasn't someone who returned things like crazy. but couldn't say 100% until the uke was in my hands.
he got back to me right away and said not to worry. he hoped i understood that they had put quite a few hours into the repair and just wanted to be sure it was going to someone who was interested in keeping it.
it was the kind of thing that would normally turn me off a bit except for the way he explained his question - he wasn't accusing me of anything or suggesting. just put the question out there.
in retrospect it seems to me that mya-moe doesn't sell through retailers anymore so it makes sense from a practical point of view. if they uke was going to be returned he'd rather it was returned to him than return to a store. he could easily take the uke to a festival and sell it so why leave it sitting in a store?
a few days later the uke arrived in canada and it's amazing. bright and jangly with a little bit of punch. i'm sure it will continue to grow on me as time goes by but so far i'm loving it!
the refinish? ya, you can see a tiny little spot where the glue had been removed and the finish has been re-applied. but it's sooooooo subtle. you really have to be looking right for the issue to notice it. gordon had mentioned that there might be a little light spot until the finish aged a bit but again, you have to be looking right at it to see the issue.
fit and finish on this uke is amazing. the hand rubbed oil finish is beautiful. sort of semi-gloss like a violin if that makes sense? neck plays like a dream. really happy with my little guy and look forward to playing it for at least a couple more years.
why only a couple years? well i just added my name to the waiting list to order a custom mya moe. one is never enough!
here's a couple of pics of my mya-moe super soprano #531. it's made of common koa and while the wood doesn't have any curl it does sort of shimmer in the light. changes a bit depending on how you look at it.
so basically got a brand new mya-moe super soprano for 2011 prices and it's a keeper!
but what amazing customer service - i mean they repaired a uke that was sold to a store a couple of years back. no questions, no complaining. the first answer from gordon was "of course we can fix that!" the fact that they did the repair for free shows me just how much they care about their brand and every customer's happiness.
we'd do well if everyone treated their customers this way. now if we can just do something about that waiting list!