Impressed by customer service

[carbohydrate kid]

I hope this doesn't cone off sounding like a sales pitch. Just wanted to share my story. Be warned its a bit long.

My pedals on my main kit are a set of axis A21 lasers. On my auxiliary kit I have a set of roughly 20 year old pearls that finally just wore out beyond repair. I decided I like the axis pedal enough that I wanted another set but couldn't afford it so I got real lucky and scored a huge deal on a used axis x pedal. I realized it had been tampered with, and called axis. The person who answered said his name was Darell and was an engineer and could help out. I told him the issue with the pedal and he gave me a few tips and said if I couldn't fix it on my own they would either send the needed parts or I could send it in for reconditioning and they would go over everything and send it back with a new warranty. I told him I wanted to send a picture to get his advice and he told me to text it to his phone. I did , and Darrell said he thought reconditioning would be a good option, but I told him I'd have to check shipping costs. He told me he understood, and said if I was ever in the area to bring my pedals and he would personally tweak them and give me a tour of the place. I thanked him and ended the conversation.
A day or two later , I get a call from Karen at axis asking if things were taken care of and if I needed further assistance. She told me she was sending out the parts I needed to return the pedal to its original configuration. I asked her if my conversation with Darrell happened to be Darrell Johnston inventor of the axis pedal. She confirmed that it was. The man that invented the axis pedal not only answers calls , but also does pedal repairs, and only refers to himself as one of the engineers. And he gave an invite to see the facilities. I haven't received customer support this good ever. I know that axis pedals are really pricey and you could say that when you pay that much, you deserve great service and support,and I wouldn't argue that. But how often does a company really take care of their customers anymore.

[drummer]

Awesome! There are certainly enough companies out there that don't seem to care. We've got to start patronizing stores with good service.

[pcs90]

That's great! A lot of the smaller companies seem to be better about this.

[Warren Wright]

I too have to weigh on two companies that have stepped up and given me the type of customer support that should be bragged about. Lets start with Yamaha - since 1992, I have been playing Yamaha drums...my first Yamaha kit was an 8 piece Power V Special with twin 22" kicks, extra deep concert toms in 10" - 12" - 14" & 15" plus an 18" FT...which starts the first time I was blown away by Yamaha's support team - from the time I bought this kit to 2000, I had always had a terrible time getting drum heads to stay in place on my 18" floor tom. When I tuned the floor tom up to a medium tuning, the metal ring on the head would pop up from the bearing edge and become unseated and it looked like the head was just too small to fit properly...In 2000, I got on the computer and found a phone number to Yamaha customer support and I called them and was transferred to a customer service rep - and after I told him my plight over the floor tom problem, he told me that for some reason, the original 18" floor tom hoops had been stamped out a wee bit oversized and Yamaha had restamped new hoops that were the proper size and he sent me two brand new 18" floor tom hoops - free of charge including cost of shipping - now this is like 8 years "After the Sale" - then in 2004, my Yamaha hi-hat had tipped over and hit on the edge of the hi-hat cymbals and the plastic cup with the upraised plastic tube that keeps the bottom hi-hat cymbal in place was broken off - I called Yamaha support to get a part number so I could purchase a new one ... they sent me a brand new upper hi-hat tube with the cymbal cup installed -- for "Free" including shipping.

Then going forward to 5 weeks ago; I purchased two Yamaha CYAT-500 E-kit straight cymbal stands with the E-frame clamp - (with Yamaha, their E-cymbals all have an extra hole for their anti-spin adapter post to go up thru the cymbal preventing cymbal spin that is attached to the cymbal male screw with a drum key headed bolt.
I called Yamaha and told them those stands did not come with the anti-spin adapter and I needed 2 of them - instead of giving me a part number and telling me to call a dealer and order and then pay for them, they sent me two of the adapters - retail cost of $24.95 each (Note: those cymbals dont come with the adapters - they are an "Add-On item) and they charged me Zero~! WOW~~!!!


The second company that deserves praise is DW - who now owns Gibraltar - - and Ive been using the Gibraltar 9608HM hydraulic thrones for years - but in 2013 I had my first hydraulic failure - then a few months after it was replaced under warranty, the replacement failed - and then that one failed as well - Last week they sent me a replacement hydraulic cylinder and so far its working ok but this past Friday I talked with a DW customer service rep and he said Gibraltar has discontinued the hydraulic based throne and gone to a pneumatic one and he is sending me one of the only 27 pneumatic cylinders they have made for replacements for the failed hydraulic cylinders.
So not only have they sent me a new hydraulic cylinder but they are shipping me a brand new pneumatic cylinder that will replace the hydraulic cylinder in my throne.

Both of these companies have proven to me that they highly value their customers - - and they will go above and beyond normal support procedures to make things right with their customers.
Hats off to both Yamaha and DW ~!!!

[piratemonkey124]

That's awesome. If I had 2 bass drums I would definitely go axis. I had an axis double pedal, wasn't a fan.

[kay-gee]

I say enjoy it while you can. When a company gets to the place where they're moving thousands and possibly millions of units, that kind of service becomes impossible.

all the best...

[jedi]

I too have gotten excellent service from Yamaha . Not only from the drum department but from the guitar/bass department as well .
The tom mounts on my kit had gone bad , the threads that hold that big wing nut on top stripped out . I emailed them in the morning and by noon I had a reply that they were sending me three new ones ...no charge . By three that afternoon a shipping confirmation email came in with the the tracking number .
I had an RBX bass that was eating up the batteries in the preamp while it was sitting in its case . Again I sent a email and that same day I got one back telling me that there had been a batch of basses with the wiring reversed on the output jack . Which meant that the preamp was always on . There was a diagram on how to rewire it if I wanted to do it myself or instructions on where to take it locally to have it fixed at their expense . I opted to fix it myself .
This is a BIG company (Yamaha) yet their customer service is by far the best .
Rudy .

[SpazApproved]

Now that is awesome!! You got to speak directly to him and didn't even know it!

How cool.
I love my axis pedals and when I called and ordered mine a couple of years ago the sales guy was super funny and awesome.

[Warren Wright]

I say enjoy it while you can. When a company gets to the place where they're moving thousands and possibly millions of units, that kind of service becomes impossible.

all the best...

Kay-gee; You bring up what used to be "normal business practice" for a lot of companies but I believe that now, the major music companies have realized that with the internet - poor customer service is a sure fire way to lose a lot of business and with so much competition, they just cant afford the negative reputation so I dont look to see any change in excellent customer service for Yamaha nor DW - and Im sure the other major music companies have the same awareness...of course, there may be some companies with poor customer service attitudes that Im not aware of.

[late8]

Great service from Axis! Thanks for sharing!!

[kay-gee]

Kay-gee; You bring up what used to be "normal business practice" for a lot of companies but I believe that now, the major music companies have realized that with the internet - poor customer service is a sure fire way to lose a lot of business and with so much competition, they just cant afford the negative reputation so I dont look to see any change in excellent customer service for Yamaha nor DW - and Im sure the other major music companies have the same awareness...of course, there may be some companies with poor customer service attitudes that Im not aware of.

Great customer service for sure!...but what I mean is...It is highly unlikely that you are ever going to have a phone conversation with the CEO of Yamaha. I would imagine he'd be a little busy to talk to you about the $2 spring on the bass pedal that you broke!

all the best...

[gdmoore28]

My customer service experience with Yamaha simply echoes the experiences of others. I was still employed at a music store when I bought my brand new Recording Custom drum set at clearance prices on a particular color - I paid about .35c on the dollar. During this time, Yamaha produced a large number of defective tom mount arms with the screw-stripping problem noted above. The company replaced dozens of these arms both for me and my customers without a single protest. That sealed my devotion to the brand, and led me to sell a number of Yamaha sets on my testimonial alone. Great job, Yamaha!

GeeDeeEmm

[markdrum]

I can add three more names to this list. Pork Pie, Mapex and Aquarian. I just emailed Pork Pie looking for an air vent grommet and who should email me back but Bill Detamore himself! This isn't the first time that I've gotten fantastic service from Pork Pie. I guess that has something to do with the fact that always look at Pork Pie drums first when I'm in the market. I've gotten similar service from Mapex and from Aquarian. Of course I didn't hear back from the big kahuna but they made sure that the problem was taken care of. This is the only industry that I've seen this kind of service in. The folks at Pork Pie make great equipment and they back it up with even better service. The same can be said for Aquarian and for Mapex.

[Ricardo]

And he gave an invite to see the facilities. I haven't received customer support this good ever. I know that axis pedals are really pricey and you could say that when you pay that much, you deserve great service and support,and I wouldn't argue that. But how often does a company really take care of their customers anymore.

I had a similar experience last July at the Gretsch USA assembly plant in SC.
The plant manager took an entire hour from his schedule to give me a tour.
The whole operation was the manager and 13 highly trained drum-makers.
I was so impressed with the care and courtesy that everyone displayed, I bought lunch for the entire crew.