Avoid Richards Guitars - Incredibly Rude

BillDL · January 2023

Aye, comedian.

Sporky · January 2023

Gents was plural on purpose!

darthed1981 · January 2023

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 · January 2023

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

Sporky · January 2023

It was mostly just for the joy of the funny.

maharg101 · January 2023

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 · January 2023

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 · January 2023

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 · January 2023

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 · January 2023

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.

Rowby1 · January 2023

I currently have a guitar on back order with him. I will do a post on here reporting my experience once I have the guitar.

roberty · January 2023

drofluf said:

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.

Project are great. They have some decent brands as well. I got my Maybach from them after visiting the shop to look at the Eastmans. Just know that visiting them could be expensive

maharg101 · January 2023

I will add that the GS Tele was advertised as "with GS deluxe hardcase" but at the point of purchase Richard pulled out a gig bag. I said "hang on" and showed him the website listing. He did not quibble at all, said "fair enough, I'll get another case from the distributor" and immediately handed over the deluxe case he had in stock.

BillDL · January 2023

Not sure about the free "value added" inspection and setup for items bought physically at the store. As far as I understand he recently changed to "appointment only", but it seems that this has been relaxed and you can now just walk in, although the "contact us" on the site says that customers with appointments take priority over those that don't. See HERE.

CharlieShaw · August 2023

Rowby1 said:

I currently have a guitar on back order with him. I will do a post on here reporting my experience once I have the guitar.

You’re not still waiting for this are you?!

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Avoid Richards Guitars - Incredibly Rude

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