I just recently purchased a brand new American Strat. I have been a Gibson owner all my life and really wanted to own something new. I spend a good deal of money on my musical instruments on a yearly basis. I bought a brand new VG and within a few hours the Rolland system fried itself. To Fender's credit, they are currently warrenty'ing the entire issue with no questions asked. My personal issue is that I am out of my guitar for a minimum of 6-8 weeks assuming the part is installed the same day it is delivered (and that it works.. I am told the motherboard may not be the issue but they are starting there). Fender's customer service call center has been absolutely nothing but professional and they have done everything they can in terms of warranty for me.

I am almost at the point where I will never buy another Fender guitar again. I bought a guitar brand new that retailed for close to $2400, that has crapped out on me in about an hour of use. I am now out of my guitar for minimum 1.5 - 2 months with nothing more than a simple apology from a Fender customer service representative. I am currently contemplating selling it used the minute it comes back from the shop and spending the extra money to buy another Les Paul Standard. I am told that the VG Rolland system breaks often and is completely unreliable: with that being said I am better off selling it while it works (hopefully), and buying another new guitar that has less reliability issues. I think Fender should recall what is left of the unsold 'new' VG's and give owners with warranty issues the option of trading into an American Standard or even a Deluxe (in terms of MSRP the VG is technically still worth more) instead of having us wait months to play our brand new Strats.

I understand the potential cost issue to Fender to making offerings such as this. I have worked in the customer service industry for many years and the primary concern should always be customer retention; especially in an economy such as this. I am not saying I will certainly never buy another Fender, but I expect more out of an American made guitar. The only thing Fender has offered me is their condolences on me not having my brand new guitar to play. Fender is one of the leading guitar makers in the world and I expect something better that an apology for only getting to play my brand new guitar for a day before it is into my Luthier for over a month. I would love to even have the opportunity talk to a representative of Fender with more power to get this issue resolved than their standard call center employee.

I certainly did not mean for this post to be as harsh as it has come off and I truly appreciate how informative the Fender customer service call center has been to me. I just really think that issues like this should be given more options then "I'm sorry you have to wait months without playing your guitar, the part just takes a lot of time to get and ship out to our service centers." Replace my guitar if you guys actually stand by what you as a company say the quality of your American guitars are. These mission statements I copied from your Custom Shop customer service website should apply to all your American made guitars. Please don't let me lose faith in Fender, especially when none of these values have been met for me as a customer. I again do apologize for coming off upset, I am just sad I can't have my brand new guitar in my hands right now.

"Customer First — Our vision and mission statement highlight our desire to create a customer-centric environment. We are here to provide world class customer service and to place the needs of the customer first. In all we do, we never forget that our customers need us to be the experts they expect us to be; and to serve their needs in a polite, professional and helpful way.

Action — We know that our customers are contacting us because they need action. They expect us to be ready, willing and able to quickly solve their problem, answer their questions or provide other forms of support. We will never pass the buck, procrastinate or make excuses. We will take the actions necessary to provide the level of high quality customer support we strive to be known for.

Resolve — Our goal is to resolve problems and provide solutions. We will do all we can to resolve all issues until our customers feel fully taken care of. Our commitment is to follow-up, follow-thru and solve problems no matter what.

Exceed Expectations — We strive to do more than our customers expect and will go the extra distance to support our customers' needs. By putting our customers first and taking action to quickly resolve issues, we will exceed the expectations of our customer every day. "

Hi Phaxtor, Sorry to hear about your troubles. But I'm confused. Are you speaking of the Roland VG99 w/the GK pickup which had been installed on your american standard strat?

dude really, what else do you want? they are fixing your guitar under warranty like they should. replace your guitar? Les Paul damn sure wouldnt in this case.
what do you want, a loaner? look, if something breaks on your brand new car do they replace the whole car? nope. if something breaks on your brand new stove do they replace the stove? chances are no they wont.
replace your guitar over a part like that? are you serious? do you really think any company
would do that? its not like its a warped neck or a cracked body.
pull yourself together and enjoy this forum while you wait, but to come on here swing and punching from the get go isnt cool. yeah sure it sucks to be in your shoes right now, i wouldnt like it either. i would just grab one of my other guitars and get back to jamming while i waited. now pull yourself up by your boot straps and get it together.

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

Once upon a time a guy broke the neck of his brand new american strat. Fender replaced the neck. Not the whole guitar.
If you´re really unhappy with it, take it back to the store for a refund or negotiate it for another model that suits you.

Honestly, if something crapped out on me in 1-hour that cost me that much, I'd be looking for a full monetary refund period. That should always be a warranty option on something that pricey if you ask me.

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well, it wouldnt be up to fender to give his money back it would be the store. if this is the case, the 1 hour deal then hes still barking up the wrong tree.
who buys a guitar from a store, have it crap out, and then expect the manufacture to
refund the money? seriously. you go back to the store it was bought from.
in the first paragraph he gives fender credit as well as the call center, but then goes on to complain that in his opinion, they arent doing enough or fast enough.

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

Now that I know what the VG is, yea, you should just exchange it, but I wouldn't give up all strats just because of this. The first guitar I bought was a Gibson LP, & I was happy. The second guitar I bought was a Strat, & now I'm twice as happy w/both. I see this model was discontinued, apparently w/good reason. So you're just having a bad experience w/this one. Not all strats crap out like this one did. On the contrary.
I agree w/way cool on one point, you should have exchanged it at the shop. Would have saved a lot of trouble. 20/20 hindsight I guess.

i feel the guys pain about the whole mess honestly but, i dont see how you can compliment fender and the call center in the first paragraph, the write a book about how terrible it is and they arent doing enough and all he got was them was an apology from them, yadda yadda yadda. makes no sense to me. what does he want from them?
what else does he expect? what more can they do to resolve this situation?

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

To the OP: Why did you buy a VG in the first place? Do you already have a Roland based system? Did you do any research on the guitar before you purchased it? Did you contact the selling dealer immediately after the failure? If you did, what did they tell you to do?

I agree with way cool jr. Your first course of action when the guitar failed should have been to contact the dealer immediately. In fact, when anything happens, one should always contact the selling dealer for guidance. When your car breaks down under warranty, or even outside of warranty, do you call and complain to the manufacturer or do you contact the dealer? You did not say who you bought the guitar from, but even Guitar Center has a very liberal return policy. If the dealer refuses to help, then turn to the manufacturer. People sometimes forget that they do have some responsibilities with regard to repairs and returns. It is all too common these days for people to have a problem, fail to get the immediate satisfaction they feel they deserve, and run off to the Internet and cry to the world how they have been wronged by the manufacturer instead of following the normal and established procedures.

Bottom line, I am sorry you are disappointed in your Fender experience, but based on your post I do not believe you followed through on your part of the deal.

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Bill

This is not the first time someone has posted here about a problem they have experienced and failed to receive instant satisfaction. This is an all to common problem today in what has become a "me first" society.

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Bill

well, we dont know the whole story as of yet.
there are steps that must be taken to resolve issues, in return there will be steps taken
getting the issues resolved. make sense? the customer takes the right steps and the manufacture takes its steps. in some cases and when there is a 3rd party like roland or a dealer involved, they too have to take their steps. it takes time and unfortunatly,
the customer always seems to come out on the bottom by waiting. i dont care which dealer, manufacture, or whatever you use, it all takes some time and patience.
a company should be judged by the way they handle issues, and as far as this goes, the OP says it all in his first paragraph. fender makes a good product and they stand behind
their products as long as proper actions have been taken. i wonder if this guitar was bought off one of those ebay stores?

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

I'm agreeing with the "back to the store" crowd. I bought a Vox amp and the input jack fell inside the amp on the first day. Back to Guitar Center, and an immediate refund. I don't want to be screwing around with ANY manufacturer's warranty process if I can avoid it.

The motherboard which they are replacing costs $1800 just for the part. It is not as if a switch went bad, or the finish was cracking-- those are actually less expensive jobs for Fender to have fixed. As for returning the guitar, I won't have my guitar to return it under the 30 day return policy that the store I purchased it at affords me. When the part exceeds the cost of the item, I feel a no lemon policy should be in effect (By the way, most companies replace the item when the work and the part meets or exceeds the cost of the replacement). And the reason I didn't immediately return it is because it could have just been a connector issue; which mind you is a quick and cheap fix.

As for the "coming out swinging", this is www.fender.com; and their forum. There is no email address listed that I can send to try to get a different result. I am sure Fender representatives read these forums and by no means am I trying to offend this community. This is just a personal testimony on, and I quote, "My first strat experience thus far". I have expectations as a consumer when I purchase a high end product, and they haven't been completely met.

It was bought from a legitimate music store. Fender only services guitars under warranty if they are bought brand new from an authorized Fender dealer. I don't buy guitars online since every guitar plays and sounds a little bit different.

there are plenty of ways on here to contact fender. look at the top menu under support/contact us.
the community is not offended and thank you for making that a concern, seriously.
thing is, why didnt you just take it back to the store? now that we know exactlt what part your talking about and its cost, no wonder its taking so long. i would want to double check it too if i were fender. nothing like replacing a part then to have the company that make it double check it and find that its good. if they go fender has to eat the cost.
why didnt you just take it back to the dealer of which you bought it?

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."