NGD: Strandberg CL7

[Thorerges]

I had a custom shop Jackson that is arriving this week, curious to see how they'll compare.

 

[TemjinStrife]

Yeah the QC on these have been pretty disappointing to say the least. I had been considering one of these previously, but not anymore. I've seen entirely too many QC issues and subpar tops to feel comfortable sending them my money, in addition to thinking it's bullshit that they force you to pay their PayPal fees. Won't go into a long rehashed rant here, but that is something that they should be factoring into their cost of doing business. You don't raise your prices AND add an additional 3% for PayPal fees on top because you didn't know how to price things correctly originally. That's bush league.

Sellers passing the PayPal fee to their customers is also absolutely against PayPal's Terms of Use.

 

[ramses]

Sellers passing the PayPal fee to their customers is also absolutely against PayPal's Terms of Use.

I believe they stopped accepting paypal. Can anyone confirm?

 

[Jonathan20022]

I believe they stopped accepting paypal. Can anyone confirm?

Still Paypal as of the latest email update, 4% fees added on top.

 

[Jebe-]

Sad to see those quality issues on an instrument that is so expensive.
Living in Europe I tried to buy CL7 from Musicstore about a half year ago, but they were sold out all the time or they just didn't have them in stock. Now the prices have gone up almost 500 euros (650$) and I'm still kinda tempted to get the CL7, but hearing and seeing that there still are some issues I think I'm going to pass on the Strandberg and getting a custom.

 

[HighGain510]

Sellers passing the PayPal fee to their customers is also absolutely against PayPal's Terms of Use.

I thought so as well. Could have sworn they specifically called that out I'm their ToS also. If one of their customers has it in writing that they are requiring the customer to add 4% on top to cover THEIR PayPal fees, they could get them in serious trouble.

 

[Blackheim]

I'm just worried about mine... Hope it arrives with no QC issues at all. I've ask them multiple times to double check before sending it since it is going to be a long trip back to them and I really don't want to get in that trouble because of their lack of control. To be honest and without bashing anyone, SG7 had serious QC issues and they were inspected by the same person (people) that do it on Astral AFAIK. Just my
I really hope they prove us wrong and stand as the "innovative" company they intended to be at the beginning and sort out the pricing issues and the PayPal fee they should cover; not the customer(s).

 

[Guitarrags]

Has anyone qestioned the paypal fees with Strandberg yet?

 

[Tom Drinkwater]

I don't know much about the process of buying a Strandberg but wouldn't it make sense to charge the customer for paypal fees if they decide to use paypal rather than just increase the guitar cost another $100 + for all the guitars regardless of how it's paid for? It seems like charging paypal customers the fee makes more sense than charging everyone the fee.

 

[ikarus]

I don't know much about the process of buying a Strandberg but wouldn't it make sense to charge the customer for paypal fees if they decide to use paypal rather than just increase the guitar cost another $100 + for all the guitars regardless of how it's paid for? It seems like charging paypal customers the fee makes more sense than charging everyone the fee.

AFAIK you can ONLY pay with paypal.

 

[Tom Drinkwater]

If that's the case I'd just raise the price of the guitar to cover the fees. Either way though you're paying the fees.

 

[Jonathan20022]

If that's the case I'd just raise the price of the guitar to cover the fees. Either way though you're paying the fees.

The $100 give or take shouldn't be thrown onto the customer, considering they raised the price this year and removed all of the other options for payment. When I went in to order my CL7, I had EXACTLY how much I needed so them throwing on the fee on the order form after you've been on the waitlist waiting to order is what I had an issue with. It doesn't say it anywhere that they only accept Paypal until you get the email to place your order. So I had to dip from that order and get the extra funds, or find the dealer I bought the regular Boden 7 with without that fee thankfully. That and the fact that you have to wait for your "run" to start and then your 3-4 month wait starts makes it far longer than that.

 

[Tom Drinkwater]

The paypal fee is a part of the build cost of the guitar in the same way it costs money to buy pickups and wood. Separating the paypal fee from the price tag ensures that you only pay the fee based on the cost of your guitar with your options. The only other option is to have them include the fee in the guitars price tag and base the increase on some average or maximum fee which means that it wouldn't be as fair for their customers.

 

[revivalmode]

Yeah the QC on these have been pretty disappointing to say the least. I had been considering one of these previously, but not anymore. I've seen entirely too many QC issues and subpar tops to feel comfortable sending them my money, in addition to thinking it's bullshit that they force you to pay their PayPal fees. Won't go into a long rehashed rant here, but that is something that they should be factoring into their cost of doing business. You don't raise your prices AND add an additional 3% for PayPal fees on top because you didn't know how to price things correctly originally. That's bush league.

Yeah totally, I don't use paypal actually so I had to transfer money to my Paypal account in order to pay my first 40% deposit for my Boden 7... Only then to forget about the Paypal fee on top, so I had to transfer money twice

 

[Jonathan20022]

The paypal fee is a part of the build cost of the guitar in the same way it costs money to buy pickups and wood. Separating the paypal fee from the price tag ensures that you only pay the fee based on the cost of your guitar with your options. The only other option is to have them include the fee in the guitars price tag and base the increase on some average or maximum fee which means that it wouldn't be as fair for their customers.

That doesn't make much sense, they've already increased their price based on the "cost of production" so it should already have been included if the person chose to pay via Paypal. If they increased it even more to include the fee it wouldn't make sense, they've already done so. You can clearly see from the guy above me having to even make two payment transfers to even place his order that it isn't efficient to charge your customers the fee AFTER a price increase no less.

 

[BlackStar7]

Another CL7 with build issues on youtube:



I really can't comprehend the business outlook behind certain custom/semi-custom shops. They charge $3500+ for an instrument with restricted options but openly pass on the fees to the customer; half of their production models are niche artist signatures; they crank out prioritized, better quality artist builds while customers get subpar wood selection; they claim to be expanding their operations despite delays for months and months, a waitlist to get on their waitlist, a general inability to meet demand...and on top of it all glaring QC issues and multiple rebuilds.

Even on facebook Astral was admitting to another customer that his CL7 order was delayed because of finish issues. I'm sure these guys are doing their best, but how are they shipping builds with some of these issues?

Sorry to get ranty, but I really wanted one of these, and it's frustrating to see this going down.

 

[Tom Drinkwater]

That doesn't make much sense, they've already increased their price based on the "cost of production" so it should already have been included if the person chose to pay via Paypal. If they increased it even more to include the fee it wouldn't make sense, they've already done so. You can clearly see from the guy above me having to even make two payment transfers to even place his order that it isn't efficient to charge your customers the fee AFTER a price increase no less

It makes perfect sense. They raised the prices because of increased production costs. They still charge a paypal fee separately. You and others don't want to pay for the fee. Is that it or were there other things you don't feel like you should pay for on the guitar? The finish perhaps? Knobs? Strings?

 

[Jonathan20022]

It makes perfect sense. They raised the prices because of increased production costs. They still charge a paypal fee separately. You and others don't want to pay for the fee. Is that it or were there other things you don't feel like you should pay for on the guitar? The finish perhaps? Knobs? Strings?

No I don't want to pay the fee because that fee is the cost of doing business, it's the same as selling on eBay, you get charged the 10% fee as a seller. And if you want to unreasonably raise your price so that the customer ends up covering that for you, you most likely won't see a sale. It's a "seller" fee, for using paypal for business and sales transactions. As stated before it's even against the TOS to pass the fee onto a customer.

And that argument is pointless, I laid down 3000+ on one of their guitars. The least they could do is cover the fee or offer their old payment options so your customers don't have to pay extra. Coming from an actual customer who had to deal with the fee and this, rather than someone who's trying to justify it to me.

In my own business, we offer Paypal payment, and we cover the fee for everything we do. It's just the cost of doing business, that's why I don't want to pay a fee when I'm already throwing down thousands for a guitar.

 

[Tom Drinkwater]

My point is exactly that, it's a cost of doing business. Every cost of doing business has to be accounted for in your product pricing. You can't just wish them away. You can absorb costs and call them whatever you want but in the end you're still accounting for them and adjusting your prices to keep you in business.

The fact that the paypal fee is charged separately in this case is a good thing for the customer. The alternative is for the seller to do a flat increase to the base price based on the maximum possible fee for that model regardless of the options and final price of the particular guitar. That would actually screw over more people than not but no one would be the wiser so would that be right or wrong? At least they are being fairly transparent by separating it out.

 

[thrsher]

from a business aspect, fees suck, but thats why you raise prices, to cover increase in overhead, but to raise prices and still ask for buyers to cover fees? from a customer aspect thats insulting to say the least. it sucks that people are having QC issues but im glad to see all this damn hype subside and bring real criticism to standberg product. he/his products are not the golden shrine