Music Store Bosses...

[David Edward Helmer]

Hey all. I am a new member to frets.net. Glad to be here. I work at a music store that mainly buys off the street and then re-sells to the public. I did both years at southeast Tech in Red Wings for education and I am one of two techs for the store. My deal currently with my boss is that for off the street repairs I do for customers at home he takes 15% and I give him a 30% discount for store instruments. I am a salesman here full time. The repair stuff is extra cash and I am glad to get the experience and the cash. Ok so, the store recently bought a Fender DG20CE and it was missing the last fret! Weird... So, I took the guitar installed the fret and set it up. It has a slight rise in tongue combo-ed with un-even frets after 12. Bass strings are dead. Discovered all of this at home. It is a beginner level instrument and with what my boss will pay me for my work I do not believe it will sell at the price my boss thinks it should and I don't want anyone of my co workers telling people I worked on the guitar and it is buzzing like it is... Any advice on how to deal with my boss or co workers? I don't want anyone to think I do bad work and the guitar is what it is. My boss only cares about RETAIL!! ????????? He wants to pay me the least possible,,,

[harrison phipps]

No advise on dealing with boss and coworkers. Do everything that is needed to make the guitar play and sound its best and charge a nominal fee. Its good advertising for you. The more people who know that you do good work at reasonable rates, the more likely they are to give you a good recommendation. It can take a lot of time and practice to be able to accurately and quickly access all issues with an instrument. It also takes a lot of time to build reputation and clientele.

[William F.Eden]

Harrison has given you the best advice take it and be carfull in the future .Bill............

[nathan clark]

That's a tough gig you have, I know because I had a similar job early-on in my career.  At the risk of sounding like a jerk (again!), I think that the best thing to do is satisfy all parties involved via whatever repair work it will take at whatever price it will take.  The next step is to figure out how you got into this position and take the steps necessary to ensure that it doesn't happen again.  Think big picture!

Ultimately, we need to do the quality of repairs that we feel comfortable with on the types of guitars we feel comfortable working on for the types of people whom we feel comfortable working with (not "working for" which is an important distinction).  David, I don't know how much experience you have as a repair person, but as you may or may not know, it can take years to figure all of that out.

We had a similar discussion sparked by Gary Fried.  Fellow frets.net member, Hesh and I (as well as some others), had a lengthy back and forth on this very subject:

http://fretsnet.ning.com/forum/topics/customer-service-question

[Mark Wallace]

David, does someone at the store typically inspect the guitars people bring in to sell? I would just let your boss know what is wrong with the guitar, what is needed to fix it (correctly), and how much that is going to cost the store. Let him make the decision whether or not to make the investment. Discounting your work simply because it is an entry level instrument will only cost you in the long term.  

[David Edward Helmer]

They are inspected by 1 of the 3 of us that do the buys. I am not there for all of em. The Fender DG20CE was bought for 27 bucks. They don't wanna do stuff like fret dresses on stuff that is only gonna sell for $150 or so. I was not able to inspect it when it was bought. As far as experience I have built two Dreads and and am almost done with a 17 inch Benedetto style arch top w/ Oval SH. I have done about 25-30 dresses and about 10 refrets. Thanks for the advice. I am thinking I just won't do repairs on these instruments that are basically throw away guitars I guess...

[William F.Eden]

David I would have to say you are a smart man Good luck Bill.............