Frickin Shady Shops...

Sad story. If you can't trust the local guys who can you trust? I'm assuming this isn't a chain store. If it is then good luck; no sense in trying to get resolution, the chains just couldn't care less. At GC, I bought a Line 6 Pod. The 1st one didn't work, the second one was cracked and the third one's serial number had already been registered to another person on line 6's site. Upon complaining at the store level about buying used product sold as new I was directed to call customer support. I called and sent an email. They just flat out didn't care. I will never shop there again and tell my tale to all that will listen.
Sorry for the rant...I just wanted you to know that I know how you feel.

Howdy DM,

  Sounds like they did indeed try to pull on on ya there!  The good news is that you can file a complaint not only with the Manager of the store, and the Home office of the company they represent (If they are a chain), but here in the States we have those good old folks down at the local Better Business Bureau.  If they also happen to be members of the Independent Small Business Association, you can file a complaint with them as well.  I was a member of the ISBA, and one of the nice things about them is they assist disputes with Binding Arbitration.  You send your complaint to one of their Mediators, and they make a judgement based on fair and proper business practices.... veeerrry consumer oriented, and generally will follow up on complaints with speedy results and a class for the proprietor on Ethics!

  Pitch a Bitch, and see what happens.  If they make it good with you, Right On!  If not, never darken their doorstep again and write a letter to the Editor of the local rag (newspaper) to warn off others.... if it's true you can't be sued for Libel!

Take Care;
Doug

That's not the one I figured you were in. 

I'm glad they're at least willing to put some 10's on.  Darn right they should have told you about a restringing fee.  Any sort of service fee ought to include the cost for all the services related to it.  Something that requires removing the strings, such as installing a pickup, absolutely ought to include the cost of restringing and tuning.  Just like doing a set-up ought to include the price of a new set of strings.  Anyway, at least they're meeting you half-way and seem to have believed you on your claim to have left them a set of Ernie Ball 10s.  Sounds like it could have been an honest mistake. 

$25 for pickup installation is a very good price.  It cost me a fair bit more to have a Bartolini musicman installed in my Ovation Magnum.  Then again, he didn't charge me a separate restringing fee and I didn't buy the pickup from him.  Perhaps I got a discount on the restringing because the bass is a sensible instrument with only four strings to worry about. 

I know a fellow who sold a few instruments through Make 'n' Music on consignment and he says they treated him fairly, so they're not all bad. 

- Zurf

The thing I dont undestand is why you had to supply them with a brand new set of strings to begin with? if all they were doing was installing a pickup they could have used the old set to test to see if the pickup worked if you would have asked that question they might have had to come up with the restringing fee charge or at least informed you of the charge even if they were putting the old ones back

Russel, you're completely right. Every Pickup-changing tutorial I saw on the net last night showed that you didn't even have to take the strings off....just slack them and move them out of the way. Not ONE of the tutorials changed the strings!

Darn...I feel like a soldier complaining about being shot when he didn't wear his bulletproof vest.

These bums scammed me from the start. I almost want to take that pup out and check to make sure it's what I bought.

NELA, I'm going to see if there are any other complaints about them on the BBB website. Thank you.

=[
Dm

Well Russell, I have no one to blame but myself for not doing the work myself. If I had just had a little free time I could have wired in the pickup myself. It comes with diagrams and besides, it would have been soldered in the same way the previous one was. I know how to solder very well and could have done it myself. I just didn't have enough free time to work on it without interruption from the family. It's been the same way with a lot of things lately. I used to change my own oil and do all my own maintenance on the car but since I got married and had a kid time just dropped to zero...

I guess that's growing up for ya...more like growing invalid. Now I have very little choice besides paying someone to do what I know I am capable of because I don't have time....

Youth is wasted on the young...

=[
Dm

What kind of guitar tech doesn't immediately feel the difference between ultralights and lights?  I don't buy that Ernie Ball mixed them up excuse for a second.  Someone afraid to admit his own mistake (probably moreso to himself than to you) and making up excuses.  Not the first time in the history of the world something like that has happened. 

- Zurf