UKE Republic

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Hahahahaha! Thanks, Tom! I wanted to lighten the mood a little, and I decided it would be better to make a baseball reference than to comment on how Kim Jung Un ended up in the middle of an ukulele thread!
 
Bill Sheehan said:
Hahahahaha! Thanks, Tom! I wanted to lighten the mood a little, and I decided it would be better to make a baseball reference than to comment on how Kim Jung Un ended up in the middle of an ukulele thread!
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Kim Jung doesn't even play ukes! He prefers Nukes! :D
 
Great idea! I hope somebody gets on that and makes some.
 
Bill Sheehan said:
Hahahahaha! Grandma and Aqua may have come up with a great bumper sticker: "More Ukes, Fewer Nukes"
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Thanks for helping to turn this thread around Bill :D Well done! :D
 
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Mim said:
This.

(Since my name was brought up in the graphic I would like to respond).

I have messed up myself. We all have. We are human.

I think sometimes people perceive business such as mine and UR as larger operations than we are. And sometimes forget that ukuleles are made and then setup by human hands. Real people who can make mistakes, or miss something, or the ukulele is subject to the environment, or as Bill says, sometimes they seem "jinxed". It just all goes wrong. Heck, I had a transaction that seemed super jinxed and luckily the customer was super lovely about it. But everything seemed to go wrong.

Even with returns or swap outs, sometimes with our busy family schedules, simple human forgetfulness, the amount of orders, or just life situations in general something may slip and we are not 100% for our customers. Or sometimes simply communication gets weird. Or there is not another ukulele to swap it out for. Or the customer has a problem that is no longer there when it returns to the shop (sometimes just difference in climate can do that). It is the nature of small business that things go wrong and the system for a return is more personal than Amazon where the items come out of a box in a warehouse. But the benefit of a small business is we actually care about our ukuleles and our customers, you also get a piece of our heart.

Also, I have never had an ukulele that has needed to leave my shop without a setup. I don't offer Kiwaya so I don't know the particulars of that brand, but Mike would know if it does. In my experience, What ukulele doesn't? You would be surprised the issues that even the highest end ukuleles have.

I would hope this thread gets closed because it is getting unproductive. Humans are human and at the end of the day ukuleles are a music making tool, but are inanimate. This is a 2 sides of the story hear say thing. And goodness knows though I strive for perfection, I have messed up every now and then as well. And I hope someone would speak up for me if this ever happens to me. Lets go back to the initial post that was a glowing recommendation. That was the purpose of this thread.
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Well said, Mim, and...

How 'bout them Astros! This may be our best year yet (if we win the WS).
 
prb035 said:
Thanks for helping to turn this thread around Bill :D Well done! :D
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Hahahahaha! Thanks! Actually I borrowed that from a "UAS"-related concept that perhaps many of us can relate to:

Significant Other: "Is that another new ukulele?"

Me: "How about those Cardinals??!!"
 
Getting back to Alan's uke, being an authorized dealer I would think that whatever Uke Republic did to it would be authorized as well as not void the warranty. I can see why they don't want to take it back after Alan changed strings, played around with it, let his friends play around with it for a couple of weeks and put a ding in it. I mean, who knows what was done to it during that time. Uke Republic did try to fix it. But I would think that it would fall under a warranty and if he went to the manufacturer they would stand behind it. It seems pretty obvious that it is defective, and I think that had Alan just sent it back right off I would have a different opinion. But under the circumstances I think that his recourse is to take it up with the manufacturer. But regardless, I don't think that he should be stuck with an unplayable ukulele.
 
Rllink said:
Getting back to Alan's uke, being an authorized dealer I would think that whatever Uke Republic did to it would be authorized as well as not void the warranty. I can see why they don't want to take it back after Alan changed strings, played around with it, let his friends play around with it for a couple of weeks and put a ding in it. I mean, who knows what was done to it during that time. Uke Republic did try to fix it. But I would think that it would fall under a warranty and if he went to the manufacturer they would stand behind it. It seems pretty obvious that it is defective, and I think that had Alan just sent it back right off I would have a different opinion. But under the circumstances I think that his recourse is to take it up with the manufacturer. But regardless, I don't think that he should be stuck with an unplayable ukulele.
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I don't know what Kiwaya's policy is, but I bought a new Kamaka that arrived with problems. Kamaka wouldn't honor the warranty unless the dealer sent it back to them. The dealer refused. (Not one that is mentioned in this thread.) I took it in for repairs, and the repair person tried to get the dealer to cooperate, provided photos and descriptions to the dealer, and the dealer continued to refuse, so Kamaka's warranty wasn't of any help. The repair person also contacted Kamaka, and didn't have any luck with that either.

After an attempt to get it fixed on my own, and still not totally fixed, I decided that the ukulele was only going to annoy me because of the problems, so I sold it to Elderly, giving them the history so they could fix it and resell it. I lost money on it, of course, but it was going to make me unhappy every time I looked at it, so on to other options. I didn't want to sell it as it was to any individual, because they too would have been unhappy with the problems.

Sometimes, you just have to cut your losses and move on.
 
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Joyful Uke said:
I don't know what Kiwaya's policy is, but I bought a new Kamaka that arrived with problems. Kamaka wouldn't honor the warranty unless the dealer sent it back to them. The dealer refused. (Not one that is mentioned in this thread.) I took it in for repairs, and the repair person tried to get the dealer to cooperate, provided photos and descriptions to the dealer, and the dealer continued to refuse, so Kamaka's warranty wasn't of any help. The repair person also contacted Kamaka, and didn't have any luck with that either.

After an attempt to get it fixed on my own, and still not totally fixed, I decided that the ukulele was only going to annoy me because of the problems, so I sold it to Elderly, giving them the history so they could fix it and resell it. I lost money on it, of course, but it was going to make me unhappy every time I looked at it, so on to other options. I didn't want to sell it as it was to any individual, because they too would have been unhappy with the problems.

Sometimes, you just have to cut your losses and move on.
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And that could be the case with Kiwaya as well, but it wouldn't hurt to try.
 
Thank you Rollie.

I am asking it to Kiwaya Japan. Mark shaved the saddle. Mark can do it as a dealer.
 
Joyful Uke said:
I don't know what Kiwaya's policy is, but I bought a new Kamaka that arrived with problems. Kamaka wouldn't honor the warranty unless the dealer sent it back to them. The dealer refused. (Not one that is mentioned in this thread.) I took it in for repairs, and the repair person tried to get the dealer to cooperate, provided photos and descriptions to the dealer, and the dealer continued to refuse, so Kamaka's warranty wasn't of any help. The repair person also contacted Kamaka, and didn't have any luck with that either.

After an attempt to get it fixed on my own, and still not totally fixed, I decided that the ukulele was only going to annoy me because of the problems, so I sold it to Elderly, giving them the history so they could fix it and resell it. I lost money on it, of course, but it was going to make me unhappy every time I looked at it, so on to other options. I didn't want to sell it as it was to any individual, because they too would have been unhappy with the problems.

Sometimes, you just have to cut your losses and move on.
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That's a horrific warranty policy from Kamaka. If it were me, I would have contacted my cc company to dispute the charges and shipped it back cheaply, but insured.
 
yahalele said:
Thank you Rollie.

I am asking it to Kiwaya Japan. Mark shaved the saddle. Mark can do it as a dealer.
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This has NOTHING to do with you. PLEASE leave it alone. Allow those of us who can communicate without resorting to insults to enjoy this thread. If, by some miracle, you have something that ca be useful to Alan S, just PM him.
 
Rllink said:
Getting back to Alan's uke, being an authorized dealer I would think that whatever Uke Republic did to it would be authorized as well as not void the warranty. I can see why they don't want to take it back after Alan changed strings, played around with it, let his friends play around with it for a couple of weeks and put a ding in it. I mean, who knows what was done to it during that time. Uke Republic did try to fix it. But I would think that it would fall under a warranty and if he went to the manufacturer they would stand behind it. It seems pretty obvious that it is defective, and I think that had Alan just sent it back right off I would have a different opinion. But under the circumstances I think that his recourse is to take it up with the manufacturer. But regardless, I don't think that he should be stuck with an unplayable ukulele.
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If the saddle was restored to factory setup, and it still has problems, you may be right that it's defective. Of course, it's also possible that he needs a setup specific to his string choice and playing style which only a personal visit to a luthier can accomplish. I remember when I was getting a Brice Wei setup for my son at USpace, Jason was only wiling to lower the action a little, as my son wasn't there to try it out. Other than fixing problems like sharp frets and the like, action is so personal I'm not sure why any online stores do it And different actions, fret heights and sizes, neck width can play a number on our playing until we get used to them, which can all contribute to a bad experience. I personally believe one should give themselves a few hours when they first get the uke to see how it works for them, and return right away if it doesn't. It's possible that Mike made a mistake setting it up, but if he did, why could he play it without a buzz. It's all sad, but unfortunately an expensive lesson that customers do have a responsibility to be super careful with instruments they are unhappy with and may wish to return - not just use it for a few weeks and let your friends use it too. If you turn it into a used uke, it's yours.
 
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