I’m posting this write-up to Reddit, SevenString forums and UltimateGuitar forums. Didn’t know where else to put it. Just using a throwaway account.
I wanted to write a review of my horrendous experience ordering a custom Ormsby Hypemachine 2016. It’s been a while since the whole thing was resolved, but I just came across a bunch of pictures I’d saved of the process and it bubbled up old feelings of dissatisfaction/anger. I thought it might be helpful to save other people from this headache.
Here’s how the process went:
1) You wait on their website to put in your name. I BARELY made it to a computer in time to put my order in. There were only 17 slots for the Hypemachines. I clicked “order” the second they opened the doors and I was still like 6th in line. First come first served. I was pretty excited.
2) You send an initial payment through PayPal (This was JULY 2015) KEEP THAT DATE IN MIND.
3) You then begin a payment plan to pay in batches as time goes on. This was not renewed to completion, so halfway through the process you’ve paid some random amount and have no idea what else you owe.
4) You fill out a long excel spreadsheet of specs that make you feel really excited and special. I’ve included a screenshot of part of it below with my custom questions/concerns (not one single thing I put into the spreadsheet was questioned – nobody ever asked about my tuning, about a few other unique items I was asking for)
5) You join a private Facebook group where all of your “updates” occur
6) You wait. And wait. And wait…
2016 came and went. 2017 came and went. 2018 came and went. Some people got their guitars by then, but not everyone. Finally mine and another guy’s were last. He got his at the start of 2019 I believe after much badgering of Perry Ormsby, but I was fed up by JUNE 2019 so I asked (multiple times) for a refund, which I FINALLY received.
Now keep in mind Perry is in Australia. So basically I invested in the Australian dollar for 4 years and just ended up losing money, since the US dollar ended up being stronger four years later. I basically just ended up making a NEGATIVE $200+ investment in 4 years. And no guitar.
For some reason and because of my lack of faith in humanity, I had been taking pictures of our Facebook group the entire time whenever people asked for updates or Perry lied about deadlines/refunds/VIP packs/etc. I’ll post some of the screenshots I took. This is not even all of them. I direct messaged other members of the group who were infuriated. A couple people said the guitars that they received weren’t even that and they wished they could undo the entire process. Perry was often rude to people in the group and made it seem like we weren’t asking for updates frequently enough or had left out info from our spec sheets. As far as I know, NOBODY IN THE GROUP has received their VIP packs yet as of MAY 2020.
This was my first custom guitar purchase. What a garbage experience. A few more random things off the top of my head:
1) The only pictures I got of my guitar were pieces of the neck and body randomly. Nothing else…Maybe 5 pics of just parts?
2) During this entire time, people are posting in the HypeGTR group about their AWESOME NEW GUITARS and posting about Jared Dine’s 17-string etc etc. As in – the company is 100% ignoring your backlogged guitars and is blatantly working on other junk and PR stuff...
3) I use a special tuning (perfect fourths) which I specified in my specs. Nobody ever asked me about it.
4) I asked if I could have a blower switch installed. Nobody ever asked me about it.
5) Perry would flat out not respond sometimes. Nobody else at Ormsby would answer you if you messaged them.
6) You honestly had no idea how much the guitar would cost at the end. Our monthly payments stopped in probably 2016, so who KNOWS how much parts were for the final bill.
7) Perry Ormsby used just about every excuse in the book for not getting back to people and not updating us. He had a kid, he got the flu, he was in a dirtbike accident of some sort, his dog ate his homework…LIFE HAPPENS MAN. He is completely unapologetic and doesn’t realize how bad this way of dealing with clients really is.
8) Maybe things at Ormsby have changed in the last…5 years? Doubtful. With guys like this in charge, it’s pretty hard to get past it.
That’s all for now. Hope this helps someone. Pics are below. I obviously blurred names and tried to order by date. Might be a bit confusing, but hopefully you get the gist.
EDIT: I guess I can't create links yet but when I'm able to I will include the link below. In the meantime you can DM me and I'll send you the pics if you're interested.
I wanted to write a review of my horrendous experience ordering a custom Ormsby Hypemachine 2016. It’s been a while since the whole thing was resolved, but I just came across a bunch of pictures I’d saved of the process and it bubbled up old feelings of dissatisfaction/anger. I thought it might be helpful to save other people from this headache.
Here’s how the process went:
1) You wait on their website to put in your name. I BARELY made it to a computer in time to put my order in. There were only 17 slots for the Hypemachines. I clicked “order” the second they opened the doors and I was still like 6th in line. First come first served. I was pretty excited.
2) You send an initial payment through PayPal (This was JULY 2015) KEEP THAT DATE IN MIND.
3) You then begin a payment plan to pay in batches as time goes on. This was not renewed to completion, so halfway through the process you’ve paid some random amount and have no idea what else you owe.
4) You fill out a long excel spreadsheet of specs that make you feel really excited and special. I’ve included a screenshot of part of it below with my custom questions/concerns (not one single thing I put into the spreadsheet was questioned – nobody ever asked about my tuning, about a few other unique items I was asking for)
5) You join a private Facebook group where all of your “updates” occur
6) You wait. And wait. And wait…
2016 came and went. 2017 came and went. 2018 came and went. Some people got their guitars by then, but not everyone. Finally mine and another guy’s were last. He got his at the start of 2019 I believe after much badgering of Perry Ormsby, but I was fed up by JUNE 2019 so I asked (multiple times) for a refund, which I FINALLY received.
Now keep in mind Perry is in Australia. So basically I invested in the Australian dollar for 4 years and just ended up losing money, since the US dollar ended up being stronger four years later. I basically just ended up making a NEGATIVE $200+ investment in 4 years. And no guitar.
For some reason and because of my lack of faith in humanity, I had been taking pictures of our Facebook group the entire time whenever people asked for updates or Perry lied about deadlines/refunds/VIP packs/etc. I’ll post some of the screenshots I took. This is not even all of them. I direct messaged other members of the group who were infuriated. A couple people said the guitars that they received weren’t even that and they wished they could undo the entire process. Perry was often rude to people in the group and made it seem like we weren’t asking for updates frequently enough or had left out info from our spec sheets. As far as I know, NOBODY IN THE GROUP has received their VIP packs yet as of MAY 2020.
This was my first custom guitar purchase. What a garbage experience. A few more random things off the top of my head:
1) The only pictures I got of my guitar were pieces of the neck and body randomly. Nothing else…Maybe 5 pics of just parts?
2) During this entire time, people are posting in the HypeGTR group about their AWESOME NEW GUITARS and posting about Jared Dine’s 17-string etc etc. As in – the company is 100% ignoring your backlogged guitars and is blatantly working on other junk and PR stuff...
3) I use a special tuning (perfect fourths) which I specified in my specs. Nobody ever asked me about it.
4) I asked if I could have a blower switch installed. Nobody ever asked me about it.
5) Perry would flat out not respond sometimes. Nobody else at Ormsby would answer you if you messaged them.
6) You honestly had no idea how much the guitar would cost at the end. Our monthly payments stopped in probably 2016, so who KNOWS how much parts were for the final bill.
7) Perry Ormsby used just about every excuse in the book for not getting back to people and not updating us. He had a kid, he got the flu, he was in a dirtbike accident of some sort, his dog ate his homework…LIFE HAPPENS MAN. He is completely unapologetic and doesn’t realize how bad this way of dealing with clients really is.
8) Maybe things at Ormsby have changed in the last…5 years? Doubtful. With guys like this in charge, it’s pretty hard to get past it.
That’s all for now. Hope this helps someone. Pics are below. I obviously blurred names and tried to order by date. Might be a bit confusing, but hopefully you get the gist.
EDIT: I guess I can't create links yet but when I'm able to I will include the link below. In the meantime you can DM me and I'll send you the pics if you're interested.
That's a new one for me. Love it.
