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Heritage Owners Club

Heritage's doors are closed indefinitely?


Dick Seacup

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Ouch.  I can understand the need to vent, and I probably wouldn't have been nearly as restrained as you were.  Did the dealer give you a reason for not refunding the deposit?  Hopefully the factory will issue some sort of official announcement soon. 

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I agree.    As I said earlier in this post, I placed an order with Heritage 17 months ago for three H150 custom guitars.  I am still waiting and wondering if the order will ever be met.  Back in 05 I placed an order for a H150 and asked Heritage to cut me a neck to the exact specs of my Gibson '54 Goldtop.  They did it and did it well!  Whew!!!!    However the top was vintage sunburst quilt and not the Honey Burst AAAA maple I requested. It took them 8 months to meet that order. BTW, it plays and sounds great!    The point here is that Heritage  needs a special projects manager to oversee all custom orders are being met on time.  Otherwise, they should not offer to make a personalized custom guitar and not deliver when promised.  Hopefully, the new management will address this issue.

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  • 2 weeks later...
I would not order a custom-made anything from those guys and 1)expect them to get it right and 2) expect in a reasonable amount of time.

 

Have you heard any news about your order?  I still think the dealer should give you your deposit back, less any cancellation fee (if there was one in your agreement) and call it good.  It's not your fault that he can't get the goods from the supplier, and I don't think anyone would argue otherwise.  Might make it difficult to deal with him in the future, but...

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I to have asked for my deposit back, both in a letter and e-mail.  Dealer has completely ignored me (it's been at least 2 weeks now).  Guess I'll have to call, though I'm not sure what good it'll do.

 

FWIW I'm fairly certain that it is against the law for them to hold your money (take a deposit) and not give it back upon request (assuming you haven't received the guitar).  This is like you paying for something, not getting it, asking for your money back, and them keeping it.  A trip to small claims court would get your deposit back rather quickly. 

 

Not that i want to do that though...

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you guessed it.  FWIW, here is a copy of the letter i mailed him (over 2 weeks ago).  I also emailed him a copy, but he is completely ignoring me now.  It usually took him about 2 days to get back to me, when i asking questions pre-deposit or patiently waiting.  Completely unprofessional IMO.

 

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(removed dealers name),

 

I'd like to ask for the deposit on my custom ordered H535 back. In light of the stuff going on at heritage right now, I do not want to risk them either (1) going bankrupt and never making the guitar or (2) give me something of a lesser quality than I was initially anticipating.

 

I do not feel like the guitar will be what I agreed to buy, both in the time I will be (and already have) waiting and in the quality of the instrument.  The deposit was never agreed to be non-refundable, nor do I think that it can by law.  I know none of this is directly your fault, but none-the-less I'm going to ask for my deposit of $450.00 back. Please mail it to:

 

(removed my personal address)

 

I'm sure you'll be able to sell the guitar once / if it arrives, so I hope there are no hard feelings.  Please email me ( removed personal email address ) when you send the refund.  I'll let you know when I get it.

 

I feel you are both reasonable and nice, so hopefully this will be the only time i must ask.

 

thanks,

corey

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I hope this dealership behavior isn't becoming status quo. I, too, am currently being ignored by several dealerships (Wisconsin, Florida, & Kansas). They are quick to reply for a price quote, but when asking specific questions about the instruments, they aren't heard from again.

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Corey, your letter was extremely polite.  Hopefully he will do the right thing.

 

BUT...(and there always is a big butt somewhere!)...

 

If the dealer fails to respond within a week, you might want to turn up the heat a bit.  (Give a chronology of the events, demand the refund be received by a certain date, threaten legal action (small claims court) or copy your favorite attorney or TV consumer affairs reporter, at the bottom of your letter.)

 

Good luck!

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Custom orders are a pain in the ass sometimes, sometimes they're not. I got my first Heritage really fast, ordered it through Ed Roman who was putting in regular orders at the time, got it in about three months, no hassles, no worries, perfect as ordered. That was in 1999 I think.

 

The next custom order was for a Callaham Strat, put in a pretty good deposit, at the time I ordered his website said 18 months, the 'buzz' was that it was more like two years. While I was waiting he changed the website to two years. The guitar finally showed up after two and a half years. Work of art, thing of beauty.

 

The most recent one was from Heritage; I talked to Jay about it in January of this year, put the order in and the guitar was delivered yesterday.

 

The quality of the workmanship is entirely first rate; fit and finish, materials are top drawer. I don't think that's a danger, if they stay in business I personally believe they'll keep the quality high.

 

It's sometimes hard to be patient but when they finally show up it's pretty cool.

 

For those of you waiting, good luck. Try to keep the faith.

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  • 11 months later...

Well the bump made me read the whole post. I just became a dealer in 1/08. The service from Lane and the guys at the factory has been 1st rate. Most guitars have been here in 8 to 10 weeks. One was 6 weeks. I talk to guys at the factory every 2 weeks or so to ask questions and they are always helpful and just good guys. I won't even describe my conversations with Gibson at NAMM. Let's say I'm happy to be with Heritage.

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Well the bump made me read the whole post. I just became a dealer in 1/08. The service from Lane and the guys at the factory has been 1st rate. Most guitars have been here in 8 to 10 weeks. One was 6 weeks. I talk to guys at the factory every 2 weeks or so to ask questions and they are always helpful and just good guys. I won't even describe my conversations with Gibson at NAMM. Let's say I'm happy to be with Heritage.

 

Another Dealer Member. Cool!!! :thumbsup: Welcome!!!

 

Not too sure you'll get much traffic from lefties in this forum tho'!! :rolleyes:

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I just spent a lot of time reading this thread.  The bottom line....  I LOVE MY HERITAGE!!!  I just bought another one that looks like it's all beat to hell.  I can't wait to do some work on it!  It doesn't matter if you had extra work done to it to make it play to your liking or if it played great out of the box.  I have several guitars from different companies and I play my 150 the most.  It's just a great guitar.  The guys at Heritage obviously love what they do.  Unfortunately, not every one will be satisfied.  This is life.  If they decide to go with CNC, so be it.  If they decide to keep making them the old fashioned way, then you'll just have to wait for your order.  Just my little opinion :)

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