Pickford Guards

brooom

@TrentGuitars the money I make is hard earned. As I'm sure is the case for @Radiofred or any of Pickford's other customers.

When things go wrong, the right thing to do for your clients is to apologise and potentially agree to either make it better or offer a refund.

John at pickford, alienates his customers when they complain. In fact he did the same to this forum's administration when they asked him some tough questions.

If John really wants to make things better, he can start by refunding us, I will happily send my pickguard back as I received it.

He could also admit his mistakes, this is not about a pickguard not curing, there's an array of things that went wrong here. Everyone makes mistakes, but it's how you deal with them that really matters.

TrentGuitars

brooom said:

@TrentGuitars the money I make is hard earned. As I'm sure is the case for @Radiofred or any of Pickford's other customers.

When things go wrong, the right thing to do for your clients is to apologise and potentially agree to either make it better or offer a refund.

John at pickford, alienates his customers when they complain. In fact he did the same to this forum's administration when they asked him some tough questions.

If John really wants to make things better, he can start by refunding us, I will happily send my pickguard back as I received it.

He could also admit his mistakes, this is not about a pickguard not curing, there's an array of things that went wrong here. Everyone makes mistakes, but it's how you deal with them that really matters.

Hey Broom,

I'm not meaning to address any issues he might have with how he communicates with people, just offering a point of view from the side of someone who makes things. Not excusing bad behaviour or otherwise, more addressing why the product might not be there yet.

brooom

Sure I can understand the product not being there yet. But he did charge me £105 + £20 (shipping) so if the product is not there yet, he needs to own up to that fact. Because when the clients are paying, they are unaware that the product is not there yet.

It should also be stated, that during the process I was sent photos of a pickguard that was supposed to be my pickguard, however all the photos he sent seem to show a different pickguard (literally different even between photos) and it is certainly not the same one I was sent. 

He was asked about this by the forum administration and got defensive. So it is my opinion that this is not a simple "mistake". He is not acting in good faith.

strtdv

Looking through the photos on the Pickford site I can see similar issues to what @broom had with his pickguard. Look at the Kurt Cobain replica page for instance and you'll see the same rough pickup cuts and screw holes with swarf, a rough taper to them, and material from the pickguard sitting proud at the pickup height adjustment screw holes.

Personally I'd be unhappy with that on a £30 Allparts pickguard never mind a £100 one. As @TrentGuitars says this is something that can improved on, but equally as a customer I'd expect that improvement to have happened before I was charged.

I suspect that being a fairly new builder @pickfordguards has taken the criticism quite personally and felt it is an attack on him rather than using the (IMO quite valid) points to improve his product, and has reacted as we all can do at times, which is understandable but not terribly helpful from a business PR perspective.

Something that is just my opinion but I'd offer as a constructive criticism:

The Pickford guards website isn't clear enough on the process involved in making these guards. 
When you really look at the photos it's clear that these are, as far as I can see, standard 3 ply guards that are painted in a tort pattern (hence some of the photos where the paint has run down into the screw holes etc).

While the website states that it's not celluloid it states that they are "a modern celluloid alternative material", which to the average buyer will imply some sort of sheet material, which it isn't.

There's not necessarily anything wrong with selling a painted pickguard (though personally I'd like to see some evidence of durability and priming/keying the existing surface to get a good bond), but I do think you need to be up front about what you're actually selling, as the expectation of most buyers will be something broadly similar to a "normal" pickguard, and when they end up with a painted one that differs substantially from the expectation they won't be happy.

Personally I'd update your website with a "process" page that shows how you prep and paint them and leave them to cure. I assume all of that is a time consuming process and something you can justify charging for, and you can play to that "hand finished" product, but it's something that currently is very unclear and I think needs to be made obvious.

Offset

^^ Balanced and well presented @TrentGuitars - encapsulated my own thoughts on this based on what has been presented.

And on that objective note, perhaps it's time for everyone to move on.

Radiofred

@Offset ; & @TrentGuitars I really hope you two don't have a negative experience using Pickford should you choose to use his services because you're in for a headache and of course financial loss. Just look at the picture I posted of my Pickguard in page 1 of this thread. The paint literally cracked as soon as I put it on and process misunderstanding aside, when I brought this to his attention he ignored my messages and blocked me so I had no choice but to post on his Instagram page and Facebook page making sure people avoid his service and when he finally got back to me I was accused of doing this myself so I could claim back money. Really insulting. Why on earth I would do this to my own guitar.  The pickguard was shitty looking enough without me wanting to damage it myself and I'm now stuck with using it until I can afford to have a new one made elsewhere. 85 quid is a lot of money for me.

Offset

^^ Totally get it @Radiofred - all I'm saying (perhaps badly) is that these types of threads rarely end well.  The point has been made and people can choose whether to use this business or not based on what they've seen here.  I'm not trying to dismiss your bad experience.

Radiofred

I'd also like to add I'm happy to share correspondence I had dealing with John via Instagram,  PayPal and email should anyone want to see for themselves. 

Radiofred

@Offset No probs at all. 

TrentGuitars

Radiofred said:

@Offset ; & @TrentGuitars I really hope you two don't have a negative experience using Pickford should you choose to use his services because you're in for a headache and of course financial loss. Just look at the picture I posted of my Pickguard in page 1 of this thread. The paint literally cracked as soon as I put it on and process misunderstanding aside, when I brought this to his attention he ignored my messages and blocked me so I had no choice but to post on his Instagram page and Facebook page making sure people avoid his service and when he finally got back to me I was accused of doing this myself so I could claim back money. Really insulting. Why on earth I would do this to my own guitar.  The pickguard was shitty looking enough without me wanting to damage it myself and I'm now stuck with using it until I can afford to have a new one made elsewhere. 85 quid is a lot of money for me.

Hey there, again I only offer a balance of the point of view from an outsider, I'm not commenting on how he has handled the comms.

brooom

@TrentGuitars the thing is that one thing doesn't go without the other. Sure we all have to start somewhere and products get progressively better as we learn, but if your starting point is treating your customers like shit and basically ripping them off, then what's the point?

pickfordguards

brooom said:

@TrentGuitars the money I make is hard earned. As I'm sure is the case for @Radiofred or any of Pickford's other customers.

When things go wrong, the right thing to do for your clients is to apologise and potentially agree to either make it better or offer a refund.

John at pickford, alienates his customers when they complain. In fact he did the same to this forum's administration when they asked him some tough questions.

If John really wants to make things better, he can start by refunding us, I will happily send my pickguard back as I received it.

He could also admit his mistakes, this is not about a pickguard not curing, there's an array of things that went wrong here. Everyone makes mistakes, but it's how you deal with them that really matters.

We have yet more lies, as I've explained in my last post. This is why I've completely stopped paying attention to this shit show.

What @TrentGuitars said is totally true. I have made mistakes, my guards are not perfect, I'm the first to admit that! 

I'll be posting this thread on my pages and allow my true honest customers to give their 2 cents on my guards, I'm not afraid of people seeing this like "broooom" thinks, I encourage it actually.

Thanks.

brooom

Again you go with calling your customers liars.

I've already had the opportunity of sharing all comms with this forum's admin and the conclusions were kind of obvious to everyone.

A couple of pages ago you said you weren't given the opportunity to refund anyone. Here you go, here's your opportunity. Show your potential future clients your great customer service.

digitalscream

OK, I'd hoped that there could be some constructive resolution to this, but that's clearly not going to happen any time soon and nothing's going to be gained from continued arguments on the matter.

Until such a time as that seems possible, the thread will remain closed.