Below is a copy of an e-mail I sent to Fender recently to which I received no response. I felt that was somewhat rude. Oh well. I really do like my Stratocaster, it sounds great and I like the way it plays etc... Maybe someone who is considering buying a Highway One will find this and read it first. Would I buy it again? Probably not for the $750 bones (tax included) I shelled out for it. I do like it though. I know the Highway One isn't a high end Strat or anything but you can go buy a foreign made guitar for a few hundred bucks that doesn't have the problems I am talking about below. Anyway, read on. You can tell me I'm out of line or maybe you've had a similar buying experience, whatever. I don't really care either way. Just wanted to throw this out there for other Stratocaster people to read.

Hi,
I've been playing the guitar since I was 13. I'm 36. I've owned a lot of electric guitars. I have never written a letter to complain about anything I have purchased. Ever.
I bought the Highway One Strat with the single coils a month or so ago, brand new. After I got it home I realized there was glue dried to the second fret. No big deal. Polished it off the fret with some 0004 steel wool and life goes on. It's also on the fret board between the second and third frets too but you can only see it if you know it's there and I can live with it. Besides I looked at over 20 or so Strats before I chose this one and couldn't find one with the neck set correctly to save my life. USA's, Mexicans, it didn't matter... What I mean by set incorrectly is that one or the other E strings was very close to the edge of the fretboard, especially near the higher frets. Very disappointing to see. I know I'm not looking at the really high dollar range but you'd think Fender could assemble their mid priced line correctly, I mean, at least just set the necks correctly. So it's not like I want to exchange the only straight one I could find over some glue...
Next, I went to replace the stock strap buttons with some Schaller locking types and found that the screw hole the strap button on the body (not the horn) had been stripped out at the factory. Now my brand new Strat body now has some high quality birch toothpicks in it to hold the strap button in. Better for tone. Lol. That usually happens sooner or later but still...
When I went to make my first truss rod adjustment I was surprised to find that the hex key had an extremely loose fit. I postponed making an adjustment and acquired a "high quality" hex key, assuming that it would fit properly and I would not have to take the risk of stripping a brand new truss nut. No dice. So I put off adjusting the nut until my tapered truss tool came in the mail from stew mac. Now I don't have to worry about stripping the nut because I have a tool that is made for nuts that are already stripped, and it fit's perfectly! Go figure. This point really bothers me because I play my guitar everyday and adjust my truss regularly. If you guys are going to install a truss nut that cannot be removed and replaced, at least put a correctly machined piece in there. Really.
The intonation screw for the high E string stripped out of the saddle. Not while I was intonating it either. I bought a set of replacement saddles from "Callaham Guitars". Never heard of them until I needed replacement parts for my brand new Stratocaster. Got the saddles. Nice parts. Tight and right fit. The stock saddles are so loose and wobbly where the intonation screw fits the saddle that I could probably strip the other 5 by hand if I tried. So, I spent more money on adequate parts rather than ask for warranty replacements of the same quality. Again, disappointing.
The thing that bothers me the most is the rosewood fret board on this guitar. Up near the nut the slab of rosewood is almost 3/16 of an inch thick. Toward the middle of the neck it is thinner, about 1/8 of an inch thick. It plays fine, no more buzz than there should be, but it's just ugly... It's very visible. It looks like someone didn't care that day at your factory and it's a bummer. Especially for a guitar with U.S.A on it.
Other than that I love the Strat. Sounds great, plays great. I'm not asking for a replacement or my money back or anything I just thought you folks at Fender should be aware of these issues.
I am so enamored with the sound and feel of this instrument that I will most certainly be adding another one to my collection. Unfortunately it will be made from Warmoth and Callaham parts as researching these problems on the Internet has pointed me in their direction over and over. At that point I will probably sell the Fender.
I'm a Process Control guy during the day and I can't imagine it would require Fender to raise the cost of it's instruments to correct some of these simple defects from occurring. Just some simple quality checks and a second look at some of your procedures would prevent these issues. Just my opinion.
Thanks for taking the time to read this... hope you did.

My 2009 American Standard Tele ($1,000 version) had some serious flaws in the body---which had been artfully covered by finish material. Once I discovered the gouges in the body, Sam Ash offered to trade for another guitar. But I didn't want to take the chance since this once played well for me and only I know the gouges in the body exist unless I point them out to someone.

We're talking 1.5 inches long. 1/8 wide by 1/8 deep. Not insignificant if there is truly a human inspector at the factory.

My 2009 American Standard Strat had a defective nut and was cutting strings. Also the tremolo cover was cracked. Corner Music in Nashville took care of both for me. Maybe these problems were the store's fault?

Anyway, not what I expect for big bucks. (Notice the following for the Squier models. That should tell you something. I have one. Changed the PUPs and POTs and she's a winner!)

I would think you could return it for a different one, or if you real like that guitar, they would have serviced it for you and made it right...

Bill

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Hey, Boy Blue is back!

Nah... Rather just do it myself.

Fenders are mass produced. When I purchased my 2008 MIA standard, I sent back 2 units until I got the right one. If my Strat was as messed up as the one in your letter, I would have never left the store with it.

As a consumer, you have a right to return the guitar in question to have the problems you have concerns put right, and also the retailer and/or manufacturer reserves the right to have an opportunity to remedie the issue before a complaint is escalated. This is in accordance to the manufacturers warranty, and also this coincides with an express warranty by the retailer (if any) and also other legislation that encompasses this type of scenario in your country.

In NZ, we call this 'The Consumer Guarantees Act'.

What should have happened, is that you should have listed your concerns, and spoken to your retailer about them to allow both them, and Fender to address the issues you have within a reasonable timeframe set out between yourself and the retailer under the limited lifetime warranty- where they would have had an accredited tech to do the repair work to your satisfation. Not only would have both you, Fender and the retailer be sattisfied with the outcome, but you will have closed the issue without a sour taste and without feeling a little buyers remorse.

Doing some simple repair work can be fun, but it could potentially void warranty.

If it was me, I would have done the above- perhaps the information could have been documented and passed on to fender so they can address anything on the production. It also gives a fair chance for everyone to put things right, making the end result a happy one

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So what was their response?

Fender offer a limited lifetime warranty, you should have used it rather than complain. Because you were put off by a perfectly normal quirk of Fender guitars that has happened since 1951 (the string/neck alignment, instructions on how to fix it were included in the 1950's owners books), you got a guitar with more faults than you could have imagined.
I'm not defending Fender in that, and dont really blame anyone for having a go at fixing the problems themselves. But, you should have sent it back and shown Fender exactly what is coming out of the factory. If no one returned a guitar ever, quality would soon plummet. You gotta keep these people on their toes.

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No no and no

What bothers me about reading this is you looked at over 20 or more Strats and couldn't find one with the neck set correctly....really,that many bad ones?

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"Hope is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul..."

-Emily Dickinson

Gee, I never had ANY of these problems with my MIM.

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You dig?

I have an '06 H1 model...and it's flawless. It has none of the problems you describe, and is mechanically and cosmetically fine. The only thing I've replaced are the machine heads (for locking Schallers) and that was only because I wanted to make changing strings easier, due to a medical condition I have called "laziness".

It's a shame you've had these troubles, but as someone else mentioned above, if the flaws were that obvious you'd have been better off not buying the guitar, or returning it ASAP.

Just my two cents worth.

Yep. Some were worse than others. When you find on where the neck is just a little off you can give it the old yank and tweak it into alignment. If you own a bolt on this is just something you do if your guitar gets knocked out of whack or if you disassembled and re-assembled for some reason. There are guitars however that are just never going to be right because they are so far out of whack right out of the box. Between the 4 music stores I shopped for a stratocaster in I observed a lot of those. In Fenders defense, it's not just a fender problem, I just happened to address this letter to fender. My buddy had a USA Jackson with this problem, he didn't notice it till it was too late and could never get the neck to align no matter what.Another frind of mine has an Ibanez with the same problem. The morel is that you need to shop for the pick of the litter. If you are buying off of ebay ask LOTS of questions.
Like I said, I'm just burnt because Fender ignored me. I really do like the guitar and plan on keeping it. In time I will drill out the plug and put a proper truss nut in there. I already replaced the bridge saddles and have an upgraded block on the way. The rest I'll live with.

Off topic but..

Naughtius Maximus that is the best forum handle I have ever seen! I wish I would have thought of that one.

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http://www.facebook.com/UCtheband
2012 American Standard Strat Charcoal Froast
2009 Standard Strat Sunburst Brown
Blues Junior Tweed NOS
2007 Line6 Spider Jam

You should have allowed the dealer, or Fender, the opportunity to correct the issues. To not do so, and then attempt to complain, doesn't allow the system the opportunity to work the way it should.

Every mass produced product is subject to flaws. The true mettle of a company is shown in how it corrects the issues. And with every problem I have ever had Fender has performed flawlessly - up to virtually rebuilding the inside of an amp.

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Ignorance IS bliss - and I am the happiest person here!

The issue here is that you had a guitar with faults and you didnt give fender an opportunity to remedy them at all. Instead you took it upon yourself to fix which might just void warranty, then you complained to them and now you feel burnt?.

Fender did not burn you at all. You clearly did not follow warrantable repair guidelines and you didnt give fender an opportunity to fix what was wrong- that is what the issue is.

I work with this sort of thing on a day to day basis. If I sold a product to a customer that unbeknown to me was faulty, and they took it upon themselves to fix the issue at home without raising it with me, then afterward send me a letter of complaint about how sub-standard the quality is and then go on to say to others that "I burnt them" and the quality control was sub-standard, I would read the letter perhaps I would throw it away. Mainly because you would have voided your warranty, and there would have been nothing I could do about it. I'd feel slightly gutted that I couldnt help (because I wasnt given the opportunity) and I would no-doubt think that you potentially would be spreading word of mouth about the incident.

Im not sticking up for fender, but I know what its like for a retailer to have my knees chopped before we are given a chance to help in a situation like this.

What makes it worse for me is that is personally, I work for a service provider aswell, and people just want compensation for anything... it drives me nuts.

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