Re: Subject: [Harp-L] RE: Little Guys Going Belly Up?!

[Bill Hines <billhines4@xxxxxxxxx>]

Elizabeth,

"I'VE never had trouble with the items (primarily harmonicas) I've 
bought from Doc at Harp Depot""

The trouble isn't with the items, it's with their customer service and 
taking orders and holding people's money forever without delivering the 
goods.

It sounds like your purchases were all done "in person" at the Harp 
Depot booth at the various conferences. Their trouble seems to stem 
around other types of orders, web, phone, etc.

It's hard to screw up an "in person" order, you pick up a product, walk 
to the register, and buy it. Although in Smo-Joe's case it sounds like 
they did that too, and I have my own experience buying stuff at Buckeye 
a few years ago (my first and definitely last time buying anything from 
them) which was similar to Smo-Joe's. They took my credit card, fumbled 
and bumbled around with it forever, finally wrote the credit card 
number, expiration date, etc on a clipboard with a long list of others 
and I was on my way after about a half hour of this. I was upset a while 
later when I walked by and saw the clipboard laying there unattended 
with a long list of credit card numbers, out in a hotel lobby. I've had 
identity theft in my family, and it's the gift that keeps on giving for 
years and years, a nightmare.

Whatever their (limited) hours of operation, not returning emails and 
phone calls for weeks and months is very hard to defend!

In any case since you seem to know Doc, you might be getting "priority 
service". Sounds like you are the only one, the complaints against them 
dwarf the positive comments each and every time this comes up.

Bill


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