Walker and Williams- Surprise disappointment

[vindibona1]

One of my favorite straps is from Walker and Williams, a G-13. After breaking it it is super comfortable. So when I saw a G-513 on sale on Amazon I thought it was a great opportunity to pick up another W&W.

In the picture it looks luscious, well designed and built with lots of padding bulging from a nice thick finely detailed top leather. But when I received it was almost stunned. It's kind of emaciated looking and feeling. Upon examining it, it looks like they took a 1" leather strap and attached some padding underneath. It was inexpensive so I thought to see how comfortable it was if on a guitar. It took all of 5 seconds with a guitar hanging from it that I could feel that 1" piece of leather pressing on my shoulder blade with the padding doing absolutely nothing.

It took 10 minutes from unboxing to repackaging and ordering a return from Amazon. I'm sad because I'd always thought so highly of W&W before and this one strap has ruined their image in my mind. This strap is nowhere near as nice as the one I bought from them 2 years ago though the same retail price and same category. I know that Amazon and W&W have good return policies, but I didn't buy it to return it. But I guess that's what will have to be. Will I ever order another W&W strap? I don't know.

[Tony Burns]

Someone else had this same problem a month or two back -
seems the company had some defective stuff out their and was making good on it.
Try contacting the company before sending it back

[Wade Hampton]

Right. There was a batch of padded straps where they unwittingly used a leather veneer that was too thin, and on many of the straps that layer that covers the padding has deteriorated. Even though it was two or three years ago that that batch of straps was manufactured, Amazon still has some in stock.

The best thing you can do, Vin, is contact the folks at W&W directly, and they will replace the strap straight across at no charge to you.

The other suggestion that I'd make is from now on to always deal directly with Walker and Williams. Don't fool with getting any more of your W&W straps from Amazon. You might save two or three dollars on a strap over the price on the W&W website, but it's a false economy. Many of Amazon's warehouses are unheated in the winter and not air conditioned in the summer, and while that won't have any deleterious effect on most modern hard goods, acoustic guitars made of wood and guitar straps made of leather stored in those warehouses might not survive that treatment nearly as well.

You wouldn't have had this problem with the strap had you ordered it directly from W&W, as they have long since gotten rid of all of the defective leather veneer and deteriorating straps. In direct contrast, Amazon has not gotten rid of all of them, and will probably keep selling those straps until they're all gone, blithely unconcerned about the whole thing.

Hope this helps.


Wade Hampton Miller

[colins]

Sorry to hear about the strap, but glad to learn it wasn't Kim Walker and Laurie Williams you were writing about!

Col

[SalFromChatham]

Where are these straps made?

Go Sullystraps.

Buy once smile once.

[Wade Hampton]

Themissal asked:

Originally Posted by themissal

Where are these straps made?

If you’re asking about Walker and Williams straps, they’re made in the United States.

If you’re wondering how an American firm can sell leather straps at those low prices, it’s because Walker and Williams is a very large company that deals mainly in large quantities of leather and hides and animal byproducts, mostly for industrial purposes. Their musical instrument strap department is a very small part of a much larger company.

So they can sell their straps for much less than their competitors because their materials costs are literally pennies on the dollar compared to what other strap manufacturers have to pay for leather.

Hope that makes more sense.


Wade Hampton Miller

[vindibona1]

Originally Posted by Wade Hampton

Right. There was a batch of padded straps where they unwittingly used a leather veneer that was too thin, and on many of the straps that layer that covers the padding has deteriorated. Even though it was two or three years ago that that batch of straps was manufactured, Amazon still has some in stock.

The best thing you can do, Vin, is contact the folks at W&W directly, and they will replace the strap straight across at no charge to you.

The other suggestion that I'd make is from now on to always deal directly with Walker and Williams. Don't fool with getting any more of your W&W straps from Amazon. You might save two or three dollars on a strap over the price on the W&W website, but it's a false economy. Many of Amazon's warehouses are unheated in the winter and not air conditioned in the summer, and while that won't have any deleterious effect on most modern hard goods, acoustic guitars made of wood and guitar straps made of leather stored in those warehouses might not survive that treatment nearly as well.

You wouldn't have had this problem with the strap had you ordered it directly from W&W, as they have long since gotten rid of all of the defective leather veneer and deteriorating straps. In direct contrast, Amazon has not gotten rid of all of them, and will probably keep selling those straps until they're all gone, blithely unconcerned about the whole thing.

Hope this helps.


Wade Hampton Miller

You're probably correct Wade. My G-13 is fantastic and resides on my Taylor 814ceDLX. I was hoping to find a nice padded strap for my 4 string jazz bass and the G-513 appeared to be more robust than the G-13, but it was the opposite. I ordered the new one because of the price- $22 rather than $28 through WW as I just wanted an extra strap of what I thought would be the same WW quality. I really didn't need another strap, but thought I'd be getting a bargain. With Amazon on some things I get same day delivery as I did with this strap, so at the time it didn't make sense to order direct which I did previously.

The strap was advertised as "sold by Walker and Williams" and probably should have been listed as "B stock". If these are still around they should remark them as B stock and blow them out at $15 to purge the bad ones.

[Wade Hampton]

I am correct, Vin, not probably correct. When I first heard about this happening, two or three weeks ago, I spoke to W&W’s strap department operations manager and got the background on this batch of defective straps. The situation is exactly as I’ve described it.

Amazon plays fairly fast and loose with this sort of thing, and as I wrote in in my first post in this thread, Walker and Williams hasn’t had those defective straps in their inventory for a couple of years now. If anyone should be labeling that batch of straps as B stock it’s Amazon. But W&W will honor their warranty and replace that strap free of charge.

The toll free number you should call is 1-800-354-5351.

Hope this helps.


Wade Hampton Miller

[CaptRedbeard]

Bought my second W+W strap a month ago. It has the same top quality and padding that the one I got three years ago has. Seems to me that they have solved that problem and of course they always honor their warranty. Will I buy another W+W strap? You bet.

[Wade Hampton]

Captain RedBeard (as opposed to his scapegrace, piratical brother Captain Blackbeard,) wrote:

Originally Posted by CaptRedbeard

Bought my second W+W strap a month ago......Will I buy another W+W strap? You bet.

Same here, should I ever need another. But I won’t be buying it from Amazon.


whm