The 357 Customs / Zakk Wylde Guitar Offer!

[Allen Garrow]

haha lame

"Just to let you all know, all guitars will be to your doors in the next 3 weeks.

EVERYONE BE PATIENT!

If everyone can just chill out and be patient, it will help us ALOT more. We're spending SO much time answering everyone asking 'WHERE IS MY GUITAR?' that we're taking time AWAY from shipping things out!!!!!!!!!!!!

THANK YOU!

-Chad"

***From Chad Dyer, webmaster for Zakk Wylde & 357 Customs

Edit by mod: Bolded out message. Thanks for the update, Jason.

Whoa.,,,, sounds like Mikey,,,errr Chad is getting a little tweaked. That's what they get for working with Epiphone. If you are going to make a kick ass offer one really needs to follow all the way through and make sure that it remains kickass, by being able to deliver. Personally I wouldn't have made the offer unless I had all the kinks and shit worked out. I mean come on,,,what a lame experience for those of you that jumped on this one. Granted end result will be a cool guitar, but still you could have made one in the time this has taken.

~A

 

[David]

That's enough out of you, Mr. Negative Pants.

hahaha, WELL, you know... I could use that $500 right now.

 

[Popsyche]

Problems from Epiphone wouldn't surprise me at all. I've heard some dealer horror stories at the NAMM show...

 

[Jason]

I got that email aswell. No clue why, seeing how I didn't buy a guitar.

me either

 

[Dr.Feelgood]

The longer the delay this the more I am contemplating selling it and upgrading to a real Gibson Les Paul Studio

 

[Leon]

i've managed to keep myself so busy with school, i've forgotten about this guitar on several occasions. every now and then i look over to the toy motorcycle on my desk and think, "oh yeah, i've got a new guitar coming in... someday..."

 

[David]

The longer the delay this the more I am contemplating selling it and upgrading to a real Gibson Les Paul Studio

argh, nobody close this thread for this, I'm trying to help... and Naren might put in his 2 bits about a GLP too.

I had one, in black... and lets just say that it wasn't a very good choice. The neck vibrated like hell, so all the strings would always ring. The neck is painted, and gets pretty sticky (although... I think that's on all of them). It's an insanely overpriced guitar. Not to mention... you can just go buy a $500 Epiphone classic, put the pups from the LP Studio in there, and you'll have the same thing... but better, because it has a sterdy bolt on neck, and isn't painted on the back. Trust me, you can put an Epi with new pups and maybe even some new, but cheap, pots in there, up against a LP Studio, and the Epi will blow the Gibson out of the water.


Sorry for that rant, I just wasted $800 on a LP that I obviously don't have... because I'm one poor ass income fucker.

 

[Jason]

or even better yet don't buy a epi or a gibson, buy a agile from rondo and have the best guitar out of the 3

 

[Scott]

Or even better yet, buy an ibanez

 

[David]

Or even better yet, buy an ibanez

you know, I think that way too, haha, but some people want a guitar that's great for just chords and rhythmic playing.


Rondo's lps rock

 

[Popsyche]

Or buy an older, not particularly valuable Les Paul. They always seem better to me!

 

[Dr.Feelgood]

I've owned a Jackson, Ibanez, Fender and my current Epiphone SG-400 and I like the look and feel to a Les Paul. I may see how the play on this Buzzsaw sounds, and go from there. If I do keep it, It's going to be swapped out with the ZW 81/85 combo or possibly even the KK 81/85 combo for even more output

 

[Shannon]

Here's a link to the official 357 Customs Offer forum. All questions have been answered here.
http://www.zakkwylde.com/family/viewforum.php?f=15

 

[Drew]

Boy...

It seems SO simple to me. If I ordered something and I didn't want to wait for some unexpected delays, I would certainly just simply cancel my order...easy enough right?

These delays weren't 357 or especially Chad Dyer's fault. I am sure Chad feels much more let down with these delays than any of you dudes waiting on some free merch. He has to deal with all of the whinebags...Imagine when he gets a piece of let down news!

He has kept us informed. He is honest. Do yourselves a favor and if you don't like it, I'm sure you could find a hundred people that would pay you double for your package when it comes in...AND IT WILL COME!

Thanks again to 357 for this deal...and to Chad for putting up with a bunch of whiney donkey dick lickers.

sanzyuryu

Let's see... considering that they're already a month late on an order that had an already-high four month turnaround time quote, and that this is from the admin of that forum, that's a HIGHLY unprofessional attitude.

And reading all of the "I don't know why a few bad eggs have to ruin it for everyone" posts from like people's wives there waiting for guitars, with no other posts, you gotta wonder how many of those are from actual customers, too.

Whether or not they finally deliver is besides the point (and, for the record, i believe they will) - this promotion has been pretty much botched from the start and is being handled in an incredibly unprofessional manner. I believe they're not trying to scam anyone, but i also believe they got in WAY over their heads, and are lashing out trying to keep their heads above the water.

 

[darren]

I agree. The whole 357 Customs crew seem like a bunch of amateurs who know nothing about marketing programs or fulfillment. Clearly, they had no idea what kind of logistical difficulties they were going to encounter with a promotion of this magnitude. However, the discussion shouldn't be on the Zakk Wylde site, since it wasn't him (or his people) that ran the promotion, so i can understand why Zakk's forum admin is a little miffed.

In running a promotion they could not deliver on, 357 Customs has actually harmed the brand they were supposed to be building. They say they'll never do another guitar promotion again as a result of all the whining, which is a stupid attitude. They reached out to the guitar community with a very appealing offer, and they've been doing nothing but make excuses ever since.

As soon as they knew there was going to be a delay, every person who bought the gift certificate and die cast model should have been sent a personalized letter explaining the true nature of the delay, rather than waiting until after the shit hit the fan.

I work in marketing, and there is no way we would ever have run a promotion like this for one of our clients, unless Epiphone is giving them the guitars for free (or almost for free). Their return on investment for this promotion is likely to be less than zero, AND they've done potentially irreparable harm to their brand in the process. So they've squandered a load of cash and an even bigger load of customer goodwill.

 

[Shannon]

but i also believe they got in WAY over their heads

True. The news of this promotion spread like wildfire. Hell, look at THIS thread! Either way....everyone one needs to stop whining.

Do yourselves a favor and if you don't like it, I'm sure you could find a hundred people that would pay you double for your package when it comes in...

Well said. It isn't the best set of circumstances, but they are doing the best they can for what they have to work with.

 

[Drew]

True. The news of this promotion spread like wildfire. Hell, look at THIS thread! Either way....everyone one needs to stop whining.

Well said. It isn't the best set of circumstances, but they are doing the best they can for what they have to work with.

Well, let's be honest, Shannon - they were giving away $700 signature guitars of a popular guitarist. Sure, the promotion spread like wildfire, but at the same time you have to accept a certian degree of culpability for not being prepared to deal with that. I'm not saying "they got in over their heads, I feel sorry for them," but more "they're totally out of their league, they entered into a promotion that they were completely unprepared for, and is it any surprise that it blew up in their faces?"

As for doing the "best they can in the circumstances," I CERTIANLY hope this isn't the best they can do. At the VERY least I'd expect them to maintain a more positive attitude - "Quit your bitching" doesn't do anyone any favors.

Sure, the admin has a point, that the bottom line is you're still getting a great guitar that you can probably resell at a profit. But, from a PR perspective, the bottom line should be the LAST thing on your mind - customer satisfaction is your only concern. If you're any good, you can have the bottom line play out against a customer and still keep them happy - if all you can plead is "the bottom line is you're getting a guitar for cheap, if you're unhappy about the delay, tough - sell the guitar," well, I work operations for a financial firm, but even so if i ever told a client that I'd probably be fired. You just don't DO that.


Initially I was kind of sorry that I only heard about this after the promotion had ended - I was offline that weekend - but in retrospect, I'm glad I'm not doing business with these guys. The way they're handling this is disgraceful.

 

[darren]

Heh. These guys are bikers and bike builders. I guess "polite and courteous" doesn't factor into a lot of their personalities.

 

[Leon]

yeah, 357Customs could have handled things better. either way, sooner or later, i'm getting a free guitar

 

[Chris]

I'm glad I didn't bite on this.

What a bunch of BS:

Ok people...let me clarify my stance on the Slick Deals people, since some of you are taking my words and running the complete opposite direction with them.

Again.


This offer was put up as something COOL TO DO WITH THE BLACK LABEL FANS, and create a cool buzz around 357.

Once it got leaked to the Slick Deal board, I wasn't worried. However, the majority of the REAL jerks who I've been dealing with are FROM that forum. Not BLS fans, not Ozzy fans, but people looking to turn their guitar around for a quick Ebay sale.

The best part is...I had people get mad at me because we didn't ship the guitars fast enough, and some of them ALREADY HAD THEM UP FOR SALE ON EBAY.

Need I go on about stupidity, or are you guys hangin' with me here?

Regardless...like I said...this deal was for BLS fans. Not for people who are so inept at life they try and ruin other people's.

HOPEFULLY I SPELLED THAT CLEARLY ENOUGH SO SOME OF YOU DON'T TAKE ME OUT OF CONTEXT...AGAIN.

He fucked up and can't deliver even remotely within the promised timeline, and he says he was "taken out of context"?

If I do a promotion with, say, Ibanez for ss.org members, I won't post a public link and take people's money immediately, which is what 357 did. They should have waited until they had guitars in hand before they so graciously accepted everyone's cash in exchange for a toy motorcycle or whatever else they bundled in. I'm sure you guys will get your guitars in due time due to Zakk and BLS being (even unofficially) tied to it, but I said at the beginning that this would be a clusterfuck. Nobody should be even the least bit suprised that they haven't shown up yet.

Bottom line: Don't take people's money if you don't have what they're buying.