Avoid Richards Guitars - Incredibly Rude

PengaMax

I tried taking the pedal apart btw but it was constructed in such a way that you’d need to break the pcb to get to the circuit so couldn’t actually see who the OEM was. I ended up selling both pedals on eBay and got my money back. 

PengaMax

JAYJO said:

Didn't he offer to give you a free pedal?. Ask him if that's still on the table.

Yeah he offered to send me a fuzz pedal as well. It didn’t arrive with the flanger / phaser (can’t remember)  so had to email him to remind him of what he said and he did then send it a week or so later 

they both got new homes via eBay and I recouped the cash and moved on

GoldenEraGuitars

PengaMax said:

I recouped the cash and moved on

I don’t think you have

PengaMax

GoldenEraGuitars said:

PengaMax said:

I recouped the cash and moved on

I don’t think you have

That’s up to you I guess

drofluf

Sammy said:

PS Has anyone been to Richards Guitars to try out any guitars and were they helpful and were the guitars set up and as good as Richard implies! 

@Sammy probably way too late to be helpful but I've bought trwo guitars from Richards and both have been well set up. I also visited the shop and found him very helpful; even staying late to accomodate me. The guitar I tried that time was well set up but it was a Faith, which in my experience come well set up from the factory, so doesn't help either way on the state of his "display" instruments.

CharlieShaw

Having seen numerous examples of rude and aggressive behaviour from him I’m reluctant to use Richards. Problem is he is the main Furch dealer in the UK and I think my next guitar will be a Furch.

maharg101

FWIW I've purchased several guitars (Burny LP, Cort M600, Gordon Smith Classic-T) from Richards over the years, and not had any of the problems others apparently encountered.

darthed1981

CharlieShaw said:

 Problem is he is the main Furch dealer in the UK and I think my next guitar will be a Furch.

Well as long as he doesn't tell you to Furch off...

drofluf

CharlieShaw said:

Having seen numerous examples of rude and aggressive behaviour from him I’m reluctant to use Richards. Problem is he is the main Furch dealer in the UK and I think my next guitar will be a Furch.

I bought my Furch in October from Project Music so there are other dealers. Can’t fault the service I got from them. 

Sporky

Personally, I regard Richard as a stand-up gents. 

BillDL

Aye, comedian.

Sporky

Gents was plural on purpose! 

darthed1981

Sporky said:

Gents was plural on purpose! 

Yeah I got it, you regard him as a urinal.  An interesting insult to be sure.

Would it be worse to be a toilet bowl?

chrisj1602

Seems he’s great as long as you’re happy with the guitar…

Sporky

It was mostly just for the joy of the funny.

maharg101

chrisj1602 said:

Seems he’s great as long as you’re happy with the guitar…

I actually had a couple of admittedly minor problems with a couple of purchases, which were sorted quickly, and to my satisfaction. All my purchases have been in person, rather than online. Perhaps that's where some have had adverse experiences ?

digitalscream

maharg101 said:

chrisj1602 said:

Seems he’s great as long as you’re happy with the guitar…

I actually had a couple of admittedly minor problems with a couple of purchases, which were sorted quickly, and to my satisfaction. All my purchases have been in person, rather than online. Perhaps that's where some have had adverse experiences ?

I could well be wrong (haven't kept up in recent times), but that does seem to be a lot of the issue. Totally nice chap in person, by all accounts, but it all goes wrong when it's not face-to-face.

BillDL

maharg101 said:

..... All my purchases have been in person, rather than online. Perhaps that's where some have had adverse experiences ?

Bang on.  There are a few issues.  Discounting any "custom" orders or instruments from makers that build to order or have a backlog, the first is that when most people browse any website and see that a new guitar is available to buy i.e. the "buy now" (or equivalent) button is available to click on or it says "in stock", they reasonably expect the guitar to be physically in stock at the shop or at one of the shops if it is a larger retailer with multiple stores.  A lot of the negative feedback centres on this issue and highlights the fact that in many instances the item is not actually in stock at the guitar store in question here but still has to be ordered in from the main supplier (example "Vintage" guitars from JHS). 

The second issue is that he offers a setup on every guitar he sells and values this free service at £100, you can't opt out to get the guitar immediately.  That is an excellent idea but the problem is that the details of this are buried away on his website and it says that this can take up to 14 days.  Given that many people believe the guitar to already be in stock and that the 14 day wait starts from receipt of the order, they become annoyed when the waiting time is extended well beyond this because the store still has to order the item from the supplier, and if the supplier has the item on back order the wait can be annoyingly long.  There is a pattern to the owner's excuses when somebody queries the waiting time or the ordering process.  It's always that it was on the lead-up to Christmas, or they were in the process of moving shop, or some of his staff were off sick, or their dogs had to go to the vet, or that the guitar tech was very busy, and he frequently makes nasty backstabbing defensive retorts that get peoples' hackles up.

We live in a world where we are used to instant gratification.  We do a search, choose the cheapest one, click a button on a mobile phone, the order is placed, and the item is despatched on the next working day.  The owner worked hard with search engine optimisation so that Google searches often included his shop in the top 5 results.  The problem is that the search result is sitting amongst other retailers that have standard business models and cater to our instant gratification desire.  The fact that he has chosen to separate himself from large-scale "box shifters" and provide a different service that involves a lengthy wait is not something which is immediately apparent to internet buyers that are just looking for the best price among a list of stores with the item apparently in stock.

dindude

How does that insistence on set up work as a walk in customer to R Guitars? I assume you can pay’s ur money and walk away straight away? I’m fairly local and I do like some of the brands they stock. 

maharg101

dindude said:

How does that insistence on set up work as a walk in customer to R Guitars? I assume you can pay’s ur money and walk away straight away? I’m fairly local and I do like some of the brands they stock. 

I purchased a GS Tele in 2018 and took it there and then. With the previous two (Cort M600 and Burny LP in 2009) the deal was that the guitar was set up on purchase (as the GS was..) and there was a free 6 month service. The Cort was chosen on the day by my son, and the Burny was fresh from the shipment so pre-arranged for collection. I would still have all 3 guitars around but I stupidly sold the Burny to a friend.