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  #1  
Old 12-06-2005, 03:08 PM
gerardo1000 gerardo1000 is offline
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Default The Emerald guitar shipping saga continues....

Some of you have probably read my previous story about an Emerald guitar which I bought, and paid, on November 11 directly from Alistair Hay, the owner of Emerald Guitars in Ireland. I live in Micgigan and I was assured that the guitar was going to be delivered to me in one week, therefore I decided to sell my Emerald Fusion ( a similar, but cheaper, guitar in the Emerald guitars range) on EBay and wait a few days for it.
The guitar never arrived. After two weeks, it was "discovered" in France (this is what I was told) and Mr.Hay re-directed to me in The United States ( where I live) with a Two-Days urgent shipment. The guitar was supposed to arrive in two days, but...it never arrived. Finally, after two weeks from my order, I was told that the guitar was back...in Dublin (Ireland) !
In order to amend for this mess, Mr. Hay decided to pick-up a brand new guitar from his factory and ship it to me with a 48 hours express shipping (the first guitar I ordered was not 100 % brand new, it was a last year at a discounted price). He offered me this new guitar at the same low price, and told me that it was going to arrive in two days, i.e. on Monday, November 28. Hopefully, a happy ending ! But the guitar... never arrived. After my complain, I was assured that the guitar was finally arriving last Friday, December 2nd (That is, after three weeks from my order). Well, guess what ?...., the guitar never arrived. Nor I have been able to get a tracking number. The guitar did not arrive even on Monday December 5th. I called and e-mailed Mr. Hay to understand what was happening. How is it possible to mess up with the shipping two times in a row,and with the SAME customer ? Well, it is Tuesday Dec. 6 today, and I finally received an e-mail from Alistair Hay. Here is what I am told of: It seems that there have been ferry strikes in Ireland and the carrier, instead of informing Emerald Guitars that all shipping were going to be delayed, hid the news and lied several times saying that the guitar was well on its way to the States, while instead the guitar was lying somewhere in Dublin for weeks. This has happened both with the first guitar, and with the second one. Apparently, they did that in order... not to lose the business with Emerald Guitars (...!). Mr. Hay even drove 150 miles to Dublin to speak with the manager of the shipping company who looked at the computer and assured that the guitar was already in the USA. After Mr.Hay was back home, he discovered instead that the guitar was still...in Manchester (UK).
Now he has been promised that tomorrow the guitar will fly to.. NY.
I have been reassured that this Friday I will get it.

So, this whole story is about a gang of people who lied repeatedly in order not to lose business ? Well, this is an incredible story. I trust the good faith of Mr.Hay, and I believe his guitars are among the best composite guitars in the world, but you know what ? I am 100 % sure that the guitar WILL NOT arrive this Friday.
If you you use that kind of...people... to ship your stuff, and then you use them again....you cannot expect anything good.

gerardo1000

Last edited by gerardo1000; 12-06-2005 at 04:27 PM. Reason: Grammar errors
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  #2  
Old 12-06-2005, 03:23 PM
gteague gteague is offline
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i guess that's why ireland has that blarney stone ...

/guy
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  #3  
Old 12-06-2005, 03:35 PM
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cotten cotten is offline
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Gerado, I can certainly identify with you. I truly feel your pain. I once ordered an expensive guitar for a birthday present, and it arrived well after the fact. It worked out well for me in the end, and I hope it will for you as well.

However, in the interest of privacy, I have edited out Mr. Hay's message to you. He obviously didn't intend to send it to 10,000+ members of the AGF. Would you mind just summarizing your situation, rather than posting the contents of a private message? Thanks.

Your AGF friends are pulling for you to get that guitar on or even before Friday, and we hope it will be as wonderful as you expect.

cotten
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Old 12-06-2005, 03:38 PM
LarryH in Texas LarryH in Texas is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gteague
i guess that's why ireland has that blarney stone ...
I'd say it's the other way 'round.

The Blarney Stone is the cause, not the effect.
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Old 12-06-2005, 05:25 PM
Tama Tama is offline
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The ferry story is true. Some crew members on the ferries locked themselves in the engine room in protest at being replaced with no notice by crew from Eastern Europe prepared to work at well under the legal minimum wage. This went on for many days.

http://business.guardian.co.uk/story...655146,00.html

I hope your guitar arrives safely and makes up for this unfortunate but seemingly unavoidable series of events...

Rick
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Old 12-06-2005, 05:28 PM
gerardo1000 gerardo1000 is offline
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Latest news. Tomorrow the guitar will not fly to New York. It will fly to... London. Then, the day after tomorrow, it will fly to New York. Then on Friday,
it will start the journey to Michigan. So, in summary, my new guitar left the
Emerald factory weeks ago, traveled to Dublin, was left somewhere in Dublin for a whole week, then it was put on a boat and traveled to Manchester (UK), then after having been left some days in Manchester, it will go to London tomorrow. Then, from London to New York. Then, from New York to Detroit.
The whole trip: weeks and weeks from place to another in freezing winter time temperatures.
Even if it is a carbon guitar, I would be surprised if it will arrive with no damage to the guitar or to the electronics...
I cannot even think about this possibility....to ship the guitar back to Ireland because it requires to be fixed... What a nightmare.

gerardo1000
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Old 12-06-2005, 05:41 PM
gteague gteague is offline
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kinda makes my 500-mile round trip to pick mine up from the collings factory a non-event i'd say.

what a snafu ...

/guy
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  #8  
Old 12-07-2005, 08:40 AM
gerardo1000 gerardo1000 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tama
The ferry story is true.
http://business.guardian.co.uk/story...655146,00.html
I hope your guitar arrives safely and makes up for this unfortunate but seemingly unavoidable series of events...
Rick
Rick, I am not 100 % sure that the events were unavoidable.
The point is: why a guitar which has to be (urgently) shipped from Ireland to the United States has to take a ferry to Manchester (UK) and then be shipped to London ? All reputable carriers, like UPS and Fedex, ship directly to USA from Dublin (Ireland), which is a major city with a big International airport.
If you choose a cheap carrier instead, the cheap carrier will choose cheap and longer routes. If this helps Emerald to keep its guitar prices low, that's fine.
But, If the cheap carrier screws up the first time, losing the guitar in France,
and wasting weeks, I would have shipped the second guitar with UPS, Fedex or DHL.
Anyway, I think that we are close to the end of the story. Hope that the guitar will be so good that I will forget this month of painful wait.

gerardo1000

Last edited by gerardo1000; 12-07-2005 at 08:42 AM. Reason: Wrong name in the quote
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Old 12-07-2005, 11:32 AM
muzz76 muzz76 is offline
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I'd be goin' nuts by now.

At least the guitar might have some songs already in it from its travels
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  #10  
Old 12-07-2005, 12:04 PM
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vanstheman2 vanstheman2 is offline
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This is pretty strange .In the first place I can't understand why your guitar was put on a Ferry to travel to Manchester (Manchester is about 50 klm from the coast)All ferries surely go to Liverpool !And next why take the guitar to London , there are flights all over the world from Manchester. Hope everything turns out OK in the end .
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  #11  
Old 12-07-2005, 12:59 PM
DaveG DaveG is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by vanstheman2
This is pretty strange .In the first place I can't understand why your guitar was put on a Ferry to travel to Manchester (Manchester is about 50 klm from the coast)All ferries surely go to Liverpool !And next why take the guitar to London , there are flights all over the world from Manchester. Hope everything turns out OK in the end .
I don't know about the ferry to Manchester, but whatever shipping company was used probably has it's regional hub in London, which would cause all non-local packages to go through there.

Dave
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  #12  
Old 12-07-2005, 03:29 PM
gerardo1000 gerardo1000 is offline
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Just checked (because finally, after one month, I have a tracking number) :
the guitar is still in London.
So, the first guitar went to Dublin, then was sent by mistake to France, where it was left one week, than instead of being re-directed to Detroit, it came back (still by mistake) to Dublin (unless the carrier lied and the guitar never moved from there).
Then Emerald got the first guitar back, and shipped me another one even better (brand new ) which I really appreciate. This second guitar went to Dublin, was left there for more than two weeks, then went by sea to Manchester, then from Manchester has been directed to London...and there it is.
What a weird saga !
gerardo1000
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  #13  
Old 12-09-2005, 12:44 AM
Jim Soloway Jim Soloway is offline
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Gerardo, I'm also waiting for my Emerald (a 7-string) and I've gone through pretty much the same saga (although according to the tracking information, my guitar actually took a trip to Germany as well). According to the current tracking info on the carrier's site, the guitars arrived in New York last night. I've managed to talk to the depot in New York and all 6 of the Emeralds were released for shipment this afternoon. I was told by the agent in New York that I'll have my guitar by tomorrow and for once I actually believe it.

I feel sorry for Alistair. As an American builder, I have shipped guitars the other direction and it can be a nightmare or maybe it's just my luck in dealing with Ireland. I had one of our electrics sit in the DHL warehouse in Dublin for 21 days last year. It was supposed to get three day service. Needless to say, both the customer and I were more than a little upset. I just hope that the quality of the Emerald makes me forget my worries once I get a chance to play it a bit.

BTW, I bought the Emerald at least in part on the strength of your reviews.

Last edited by Jim Soloway; 12-09-2005 at 11:27 AM.
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  #14  
Old 12-09-2005, 02:12 PM
Jim Soloway Jim Soloway is offline
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And a final update, My Emerald arrived about an hour ago. I'll give a more detailed report later with photos and clips, but the short version is that after playing it for the last hour, it seems like a lovely guitar. As a long term 7-string player, I've wanted a quality 7-string acoustic for a very long time and although the experience has been brief, it appears that I may have found one.
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