GHS dGBE strings for tenor

Kimosabe

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I got excited by a discussion of special Craig Chee/Sarah Maisell strings to turn my tenor into a baritone with high d tuning.

I went on the GHS website and ordered the strings for a reasonable price with standard mailing charges. I live in Honolulu, have a great postman and regularly receive mail and packages from Southcoast Strings, REI, LLBean, Sierra Trading, etc..

Two weeks went by and no strings though my credit card had been docked. I contacted GHS and asked what had happened. The woman who answered said she saw my order but no indication that it had been sent out. She said I should call back the next day and talk to the man in charge. He was not there that day. I said, "No." She should talk to that man and have him resolve the issue and contact me by email.

He did contact me the next day and said that somehow my order had been misplaced. Okay. I'm reasonable. Things happen. He said he was sending my order out via some special UPS service with some extras. Sounded nice and accommodating. UPS would deliver to my Honolulu post office and then the post office would deliver to me.

Two weeks go by. No strings. No tracking number. Why couldn't they have just put the strings in an envelope and mailed them by regular mail? Is anyone else experiencing this incompetence on their part? One month and no strings. I have received numerous packages from orders I made after ordering from them. The initial encounter with the woman telling me I should call back was a big indication of service issues and lack of communication.

Now I leave for two weeks on the mainland without the strings I needed.

Can't wait until Southcoast gets their tenor dGBE strings back in stock. Dirk's service is always exemplary and no nonsense about having to call twice because of incompetence. Too much time wasted. Too many unnecessary complications.
 
Ahh! I have had situations when things just don't quite work out so many times in my life... but this is something that I can help with! Please email me (craigchee@me.com) your mailing address and I'll get one out with the next post office run tomorrow. Or if you are leaving too soon, send me an address that you'll be staying at and I'll make sure to get you a set. We have some in stock for our online store on the website so I can prep that for you right now. I'm so sorry about the trouble you had with the order but at least I'm in a position to help!

Aloha,
Craig

I got excited by a discussion of special Craig Chee/Sarah Maisell strings to turn my tenor into a baritone with high d tuning.

I went on the GHS website and ordered the strings for a reasonable price with standard mailing charges. I live in Honolulu, have a great postman and regularly receive mail and packages from Southcoast Strings, REI, LLBean, Sierra Trading, etc..

Two weeks went by and no strings though my credit card had been docked. I contacted GHS and asked what had happened. The woman who answered said she saw my order but no indication that it had been sent out. She said I should call back the next day and talk to the man in charge. He was not there that day. I said, "No." She should talk to that man and have him resolve the issue and contact me by email.

He did contact me the next day and said that somehow my order had been misplaced. Okay. I'm reasonable. Things happen. He said he was sending my order out via some special UPS service with some extras. Sounded nice and accommodating. UPS would deliver to my Honolulu post office and then the post office would deliver to me.

Two weeks go by. No strings. No tracking number. Why couldn't they have just put the strings in an envelope and mailed them by regular mail? Is anyone else experiencing this incompetence on their part? One month and no strings. I have received numerous packages from orders I made after ordering from them. The initial encounter with the woman telling me I should call back was a big indication of service issues and lack of communication.

Now I leave for two weeks on the mainland without the strings I needed.

Can't wait until Southcoast gets their tenor dGBE strings back in stock. Dirk's service is always exemplary and no nonsense about having to call twice because of incompetence. Too much time wasted. Too many unnecessary complications.
 
I got excited by a discussion of special Craig Chee/Sarah Maisell strings to turn my tenor into a baritone with high d tuning.

I went on the GHS website and ordered the strings for a reasonable price with standard mailing charges. I live in Honolulu, have a great postman and regularly receive mail and packages from Southcoast Strings, REI, LLBean, Sierra Trading, etc..

Two weeks went by and no strings though my credit card had been docked. I contacted GHS and asked what had happened. The woman who answered said she saw my order but no indication that it had been sent out. She said I should call back the next day and talk to the man in charge. He was not there that day. I said, "No." She should talk to that man and have him resolve the issue and contact me by email.

He did contact me the next day and said that somehow my order had been misplaced. Okay. I'm reasonable. Things happen. He said he was sending my order out via some special UPS service with some extras. Sounded nice and accommodating. UPS would deliver to my Honolulu post office and then the post office would deliver to me.

Two weeks go by. No strings. No tracking number. Why couldn't they have just put the strings in an envelope and mailed them by regular mail? Is anyone else experiencing this incompetence on their part? One month and no strings. I have received numerous packages from orders I made after ordering from them. The initial encounter with the woman telling me I should call back was a big indication of service issues and lack of communication.

Now I leave for two weeks on the mainland without the strings I needed.

Can't wait until Southcoast gets their tenor dGBE strings back in stock. Dirk's service is always exemplary and no nonsense about having to call twice because of incompetence. Too much time wasted. Too many unnecessary complications.

I'm sorry you went through this, Kim, I really am. But sir, you're leaving out a lot of it, and I take offense to being called incompetent.

Here's what happened.

First, your order originally got caught in the INCOMPLETE ORDERS section of our online store. This happens sometimes with BigCommerce, and every time I've brought this up to them, the best they can tell me is "It happens." So yes, the onus is on me for not checking that, and you waiting two weeks.

When I did talk to you and find your order, I put two sets of strings, a polishing cloth and a number of stickers (worth noting your original order was one set) in the mail, via UPS Surepost. I sent you an email with the tracking number (it's worth noting that when you asked me again for the tracking number today, I grabbed it off my original email to you so you did receive it). UPS Surepost seemed like a viable option, and at the time you seemed pleased.

Apparently it wasn't, as the package is still in transit. I talked to UPS today as well as USPS, and the best I got from them is "Sorry, it happens sometimes."

I offered to ship you another set of strings to wherever you were on the mainland. You declined, stating you would be traveling.

Again, I'm terribly sorry you got caught up in this string of unfortunate events. Like you, I've NEVER experienced any issues like this in regard to shipping to HI, as we do that on a daily basis. Why yours didn't go out, I don't know. I'm hopeful that the package will be there when you get back, but if it isn't, I request that you email me and I'll get another package out, regular mail, as per your request.
 
I will end this thread and take it off the forum if someone tells me how. I never received a tracking number until I asked for one the other day. It was a surprise for me that the second set of strings had been sent UPS Surepost, something I had never heard of. All I had been told was they were sent UPS and I had to point out to Jon that that inconvenienced me as I would have to be home to receive them at my apartment. It was then he told me about Surepost, which is obviously not so sure, not so sure as simply placing them in an envelope and mailing them USPS.

If GHS's orders sometimes get caught up in Big Commerce, as Mr. Moody says, wouldn't it be part of GHS's customer service to check to see that orders were not getting stuck?

No other merchant has ever told me their orders have gotten stuck anywhere.
 
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...UPS Surepost, something I had never heard of.

"UPS Surepost" is basically a way for UPS to offload its unprofitable small packages to the criminally incompetent United States Postal Service. Amazon loves using this "service" for its free shipping.

In my neighborhood (Brooklyn), they literally don't even attempt delivery or leave any notice, but you'll see the tracking say you weren't home. I'm home every day. The first couple times I figured it was my fault, but now I see that it's how they roll. Oh, and several times they've "delivered" packages, but not to my door, and no one at Amazon can tell me where they are...
 
If GHS's orders sometimes get caught up in Big Commerce, as Mr. Moody says, wouldn't it be part of GHS's customer service to check to see that orders were not getting stuck?

No other merchant has ever told me their orders have gotten stuck anywhere.

It is, and as I stated to you on the phone and in this exchange, the onus is on me for not checking it this time, and then getting with our accountant to see if there was any un-accounted for money. So yes, I dropped the ball on this and in an effort to make it right, ended up making your situation worse.
 
It seems Soundbored is suggesting that a company that respects its customers wouldn't use SUREPOST. I have had great service from South Coast and Just Strings using the good old fashioned mail. For apartment dwellers, as there are many in Honolulu, this is much easier than using FedEx or UPS.
 
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It seems Soundbored is suggesting that a company that respects its customers wouldn't use SUREPOST. I have had great service from South Coast and Just Strings using the good old fashioned mail. For apartment dwellers, as there are many in Honolulu, this is much easier than having FedEx or UPS.

This is the first time I've had an issue with Surepost. Obviously, we will not use it the next time we ship anything to HI, or when trying to make something right. Noted.

I take offense again with you insinuating that by me using it, I somehow do not respect our customers. I would hope that the time I've taken to look into your issues proves otherwise.
 
If you're out to win, let me remind you that you only took time because you were forced to. I had to contact you. You didn't contact me. Your secretary requested that I make the effort to contact you, not that she would contact you for me. You did not explain SUREPOST. Did you use it because it was cheaper than regular mail? You did not send me a tracking number as you said. Your tracking number you finally got to me got me to the Richmond,CA post office and that is all. I pointed that out to you. That was my effort that informed you. Yes, I am not pleased but defend yourself more.
 
I don't want to get into the argument, but I am interested in the dGBE string set.

Can you describe them? I've been trying various string sets for dGBE on a tenor and found that I like the tuning and the lower tension. Club tuning is Okay for starting but to experience the full range of Uke voices is even more interesting to me.

I only have one experience with GHS strings, on my tenor. I put a set of your hard tension strings on and in C6 they were like playing glass shards. I scrapped them after two days. Had I known then what I know now, I would have loosened them to G tuning, but I was ignorant of this then.

Are the strings fatter than normal tenor strings? Are they 'harder' than normal? I've noticed that for example Worth Brown Fats are the same diameters in their Baritone sets as in their C6 sets. I'm trying these now but find their intonation a bit off above the fifth fret. Is a special set up required for your dGBE strings on a tenor?

I bought a set of Aquila dGBE for Tenor but haven't tried them yet. They use a red for the D string and I've had breakage problems with the reds, so I'm holding off on using them for now.
 
Can't really tell you because I haven't received the strings. However, Dirk of South Coast strings will soon have a set available. It's the last set in the Ukulele strings section, not the linear section. I believe they will be thicker than normal but the tension should be standard to lower according to Dirk's charts. The set just before the last has less tension. Dirk's sets are more expensive but very well balanced.
 
Can't really tell you because I haven't received the strings. However, Dirk of South Coast strings will soon have a set available. It's the last set in the Ukulele strings section, not the linear section. I believe they will be thicker than normal but the tension should be standard to lower according to Dirk's charts. The set just before the last has less tension. Dirk's sets are more expensive but very well balanced.

They are on my list to try. I've tried D'Addarios Carbons, Fremont Blacklines and Worth Brown Fats (hi G sets) detuned to G, and found the tension acceptable. From the Southcoast chart it looks like they will be looser than a C6 set too.
 
I appeciate knowing about these GHS strings, Kim, and if you ever get your mitts on them, please do review them for us. I'd value our opinion.

That's for clarifying the order and shipping, Jon. Nice of you to add additional items for Kim, and eventually they'll get there.

Craig, you're always tops.
 
I turned Tammy's tenor into a "bari-tenor" with a set of GHS dGBE strings, and she loves them.
We got them at TBUG from Craig in person, so we don't know of the issues with the mail and GHS. I did buy one GHS wound lo G string, online, and it arrived early. I'm very happy with it.
Hey guys, if you want to argue, why not do it via email or PM and keep it off public UU forums, okay?
Peace, everyone.
 
If you're out to win, let me remind you that you only took time because you were forced to. I had to contact you. You didn't contact me. Your secretary requested that I make the effort to contact you, not that she would contact you for me. You did not explain SUREPOST. Did you use it because it was cheaper than regular mail? You did not send me a tracking number as you said. Your tracking number you finally got to me got me to the Richmond,CA post office and that is all. I pointed that out to you. That was my effort that informed you. Yes, I am not pleased but defend yourself more.

That is correct that I didn't reply first as I didn't know there was a problem. You called on 3/3 after I had left for an appointment. My email to you on Friday morning, 3/4 at 8:42am my time (and I get in at 8am) was this:

"Kim,

Thank you for calling in yesterday. I looked through the online ordering system; somehow your order was stuck in the INCOMPLETE ORDERS section.

I'm extremely sorry about this, as well as the delay. I have your strings, and some extras, headed your way via UPS Surepost. The tracking number is below:

*tracking number redacted*

Again, I am sorry for the trouble this has caused. "

No one forces me to do anything, sir. I had your issue resolved (at least, before the whole snafu with UPS/USPS, which incidentally costs twice as much as standard USPS First Class) within 42 minutes. You received the tracking number. Again, it was only on Friday 3/11 that we started talking again, that this whole issue really exploded.

What I take offense with is you referring to my handling of the situation as incompetent or that I somehow do not respect our customers AND THEN putting it on public display so that yes, I have to defend myself. I work damn hard to take care of every artist and builder I talk to, no matter how many strings they buy or shows they play.

I totally understand that you're frustrated. I would be too if I were in your situation, which is why I've tried everything (including a standing offer to get you strings while you're on the mainland) to make this right, as I'd hope if this happened to me, I'd be treated the same way.
 
Kim, sorry for your trouble.

Mr. Moody, here is some good news; this thread has made me interested in some of your dGBE tenor strings. The issue with Kim seems to be an outlier and not your normal customer experience. Your response has been seemingly more than adequate. So I'll be ordering today.

Because of your response this probably falls into the "no publicity is bad publicity" category.
 
Mr Moody, please take this as constructive criticism.

Your point of sale is using a web service you claim is unreliable, and apparently Kimo is not the first it has failed for.
Your shipping is something you also claim is unreliable.

So your business model is unreliable from intake to processing to delivery.

You had a customer report a problem.
Instead of considering the problem resolved when the customer was satisfied, you considered it resolved when you felt satisfied.

I hope you can see the issue with this whole situation, and can improve it in the future.

Although the publicity from this thread may make some sets more visible, it has also made the way GHS handles things more visible.

Personally, the dGBE set has piqued my interest, but I'll be ordering it from Craig/Sarah because I'm afraid of dealing with you directly.

Great customer service is not experienced when everything works, but when it doesn't.
 
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