RE: [Harp-L] Harrison Harmonicas - Give Them A Break!



I think this is a great post.  

I understand all sides of the HH issue as one who ordered a full set of B-Rads in Feb, 2010.  My experience with the customer service was great.  I know I've emailed individuals privately who were very upset that they were never contacted by HH and relayed the contact info I used.  Hopefully this mystery was solved with the discovery of the "no-reply" debacle.  Here are the stats for my communications with HH: 9 total emails.  8 replies from HH same day.  1 reply from HH next day.  I don't believe this is an aberration because these emails were sent over the course of 10 months and between two client relations managers.

Now... did my deadline get pushed back... and get pushed back...  You bet.  It was a frustrating process for me so I can sympathize with those that don't have their B-Rad yet.  Heck, I waited a year for one B-Rad in C and I ordered every key!  I understand that customers are upset.  I just think there was an honest, and misfortunate set of circumstances at work here.  Does that make any of you feel any better?  Probably not.  And if I felt I was blown off or taken advantage of it wouldn't change my mind either.  I just wanted to throw my hat in ring and say that they were really prompt and forthright with me.

Here are some main points as I see them:
Pro: Brad and his employees work very hard.  No one is slacking off.
Pro: My customer service has been great.
Con: They've had supplier issues, production issues and quality control issues.  Is this their own fault?  Some appear to be, others appear not to be.
Con: Obviously, some correspondences slipped through the cracks.  Is this their own fault?  Perhaps.

Thanks,
Noah


> From: robertpcoble@xxxxxxxxxxx
> To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
> Date: Sun, 24 Apr 2011 13:03:55 -0400
> Subject: [Harp-L] Harrison Harmonicas - Give Them A Break!
> 
> 
> I don't have any "skin" in this game, one way or the other. That won't stop me from commenting.
> 
> The B-Radical is just that: a "radical" departure from the "same old, same old." Anyone with any
> knowledge of Brad Harrison and his reputation for excellence would know that. I do not know Brad
> personally, but his reputation preceded him. I am impressed with the quality and innovation he has 
> brought into the market with his product. I have every confidence in his integrity.
> 
> New companies often struggle during the launch phase. There are myriad issues, not the least of 
> which is a strain on cash flow, especially if the product succeeds beyond the expectation of the
> owner. It's exceedingly difficult to scale up operations quickly from essentially a one-man shop
> and maintain every aspect of the business to the complete satisfaction of the buying public.
> 
> When Brad explained that he had thought about the expressed lack of communication and then 
> discovered that many people had tried to reply to a "no reply" message, that was NOT an excuse
> on his part. It was an honest attempt to explain why those people had not received a reply. I'm
> sure Brad had to scratch his head and wonder why or how miscommunications had occurred. I
> worked for many years as a software engineer. I was continually amazed at how clients could
> find a way to misuse something I had designed. I thought it was "bullet-proof." (I started to write
> "idiot-proof", but that wouldn't sound very nice). It was only after a system was fielded for beta
> that assumptions would be exposed as fallacies. I'm sure the developer of the "no reply" message
> system ASSUMED that it was "bullet-proof," and that no one would attempt to communicate back
> to the company via that channel. That's what "no reply" messages mean! That is NOT a copout
> but a simple reality of software design. Obviously, Murphy's Law strikes again. Or, as I used to hear 
> regularly while working for the military, "assume" means to make an ASS out of U and ME!
> 
> I am intrigued by several of the innovations in the B-Radical harmonicas. Profiling along the reed
> instead of across the reed is not a new or unique idea. There is at least one patent concerning that
> very idea that I am aware of; I first saw the patent information on Mel Bay's Harmonica sessions, 
> Kinya Pollard's column. Reshaping the covers is another idea which has been done before, perhaps not
> quite as ergonomically as the B-Radical. The idea of replaceable reeds (NOT reedplates) is another
> idea that has been kicked around. The point: NO ONE ELSE PUT IT ALL TOGETHER IN ONE PRODUCT.
> No one else put their money where their mouth was.
> 
> I'm hoping at some time that Harrison Harmonicas will be able to resolve the backlog and get into a 
> more normal (responsive) product cycle. I have dreams of getting a "customized" B-Radical using
> Circular Tuning. I know how to use two Richter Tuned harps to make a Circular Tuned harp. I can
> do it with a B-Radical and appropriate reed substitutions. I'd rather have it done at the factory, if 
> possible, because then it will be tuned and setup by acknowledged experts; I do not claim to be an
> expert. All of Brad's innovations appear to make a Circular Tuned B-Radical at least a possibility, even 
> if not presently a reality.
> 
> So far, everyone who has gotten a B-Radical seems to love it. That should be a good indicator of
> the pride of workmanship that Brad and his company exhibit. Yes, it's a P.I.T.A. to have to wait,
> and wait, and WAIT some more. <SHRUG> That should have been expected by the initial customer 
> base; apparently, it was not. The fact that Brad took the time to uncover the reason many customers
> had not received a reply indicates that he DOES care about his customers and DOES care about keeping
> information lines open. If he took an all-too-typical "big business" approach to customer NO-SERVICE,
> he would not have tried to investigate it PERSONALLY in the first place. 
> 
> My suggestion: give the man a chance to work out the kinks. It looks like he is a man of honor who
> will (eventually) deliver the goods.
> 
> My two cents, FWIW, (and I've already overspent my opinion budget)
> Crazy Bob
> 
> Standard disclaimers: I don't know Brad or any of his employees personally. I own no interest in
> his company. I just think that the man should be given the benefit of the doubt when he explains
> what has happened.
>  		 	   		  
 		 	   		  


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