Problems with Pipe Dealer
Timothy T. Lee
A close friend of mine recently ordered a set of McLeod (Glasgow) pipes
from the British Shop in Kenmore, NY. The dealer said he wasn't very
busy that day and would set up his pipes right away and that it would
arrive by the following Tuesday. Tuesday came and passed (more than a
week later). Upon calling, he discovered that the British Shop hadn't
even shipped the pipes! The dealer said: "I wanted to take my time
seasoning and tying-in your bag for you," to which my friend replied:
"I ordered a GoreTex bag--it doesn't need seasoning and tying-in!"
"Oh, right," was the response he got. Upon threatening to cancel his
order, the dealer agreed to send it out as soon as possible.
Both of us have been calling the British Shop trying to buy Naill
pipes, which are understandably hard to come by these days. My friend
happened to call the same day as I did and we received two conflicting
stories about their availability:
Story #1: "We don't have any DN3's, and we're not expecting any for
several months."
Story #2: "We're expecting a shipment next week, but I don't know
what's going to be in it."
So I call next week, and guess what? No new pipes. This has been
going on back-and-forth for more than a month. I finally concluded
that this individual simply doesn't know when his pipes will be
delivered and has been quoting fictional shipping schedules.
Am I being unfair? I expect that a dealer will be, well, honest in
telling if he doesn't know when his next shipment of pipes will come.
I realize that working with overseas manufacturers is quite challenging
and production and transportation problems happen frequently. And as
far as taking someone's credit card number and then failing to ship an
in-stock item within 7 days, and then making blatant excuses...this
simply isn't right. I understand that many piping supply stores have
limited staff (often no staff at all) and can be very busy. Would any
other dealers out there please comment on our experiences and offer
some insight on what it's like dealing with overseas pipe
manufacturers?
Sincerely,
Timothy Lee
ASG
Lee ) writes:
>
>Hello,
>
>A close friend of mine recently ordered a set of McLeod (Glasgow)
pipes
>from the British Shop in Kenmore, NY.
<<<< TEXT DELETED>>>>
>Am I being unfair? I expect that a dealer will be, well, honest in
>telling if he doesn't know when his next shipment of pipes will come.
>I realize that working with overseas manufacturers is quite
challenging and production and transportation problems happen
frequently. And as far as taking someone's credit card number and then
failing to ship an in-stock item within 7 days, and then making blatant
excuses...this simply isn't right. I understand that many piping
supply stores have limited staff (often no staff at all) and can be
very busy. Would any other dealers out there please comment on our
experiences and offer some insight on what it's like dealing with
overseas pipe manufacturers?
>
>Sincerely,
>
>Timothy Lee
Timothy:
Although I'm not a pipe dealer, I am rather surprised at the problems
you and your friend have had with the British Shop. Although I have
never purchased a set of pipes from them, I have placed several order
for items ranging from supplies, books to custom pipe cases. I have
also referred them to several friends and family who have purchased
from them and have been quite satisfied with their prices and delivery.
I can tell you that when I ordered my set of Naill pipes 4 years ago
from another dealer who was/is a close personal friend of mine, I was
told that the pipes would arrive on a certain date, and the story kept
changing - similar to your situation. I eventually got my pipes about
7 weeks late (and have been very satisfied with them), and soon
thereafter the dealer dropped Naill because of poor delivery schedules,
broken promises, problems with certain shipments and returns etc. As I
trust my dealer friend's word, I suspect that the problem with delivery
schedules and promises lays mainly (generally) at the manufacturer's
feet, rather than at the dealer level. To be fair, perhaps the pipe
dealers should indicate that overseas manufacturers schedules are
somewhat flaky and unreliable.
Another problem that you may have had is the time of year. Having
several friends in the biz, the period from mid April to mid September
is prime time, so you could have caught them when they were busy...but
this is no excuse.
As far a stocking pipes go, I know that Ian keeps some pipes on hand,
(perhaps more than other vendors), but in order to keep costs down,
vendors generally do not carry a large inventory due to cash flow
reasons, opportunity cost etc. As we like to purchase items at the
lowest possible prices, we sometimes have to pay the price for slow
delivery.
Anyway, I'll get down from the soapbox now. I just thought I'd share
my experiences and opinions with you.
Arthur
Piobmhor
clough?
i don't know if he deals in naill pipes (more than a few dealers won't,
because naill is at best a difficult maker to deal with in terms of
availability), but i've dealt with jim a lot over the years, he's a
friend, and he'll give you the straight scoop on anything. it's a tribute
to his business that he doesn't advertise - people find out about him
entirely by word of mouth. and on top of all that, his prices are good.
his address:
jim clough
the scottish piper
po box 706
rome, ny 13440
good luck.
sean m. breheney
e-mail: piob...@aol.com
Hamish Campbell
bad go somewhere else. Personally i would ditch them right away, your
getting a run around.
A good idea could be to go straight to Naill, and buy direct or through
Murray Henderson in Scotland. I got my chanter direct from Naill sending
all the way to New Zealand so you shouldn't have too many probs.
Haim
Rick C44
ordered a set of Kintail smallpipes from Ross Imports in NJ , and pipe
major's box at the same time. I was told the case would go out that day,
and the pipes would be drop-shipped from Kintail and I'd have them in 3-4
weeks (Yes, I =did= question the time frame on the pipes, and was assured
that was correct). A week later I called about the case, was told they'd
check and call me back-- they didn't call. Two weeks later I made several
other calls and they finally shipped the case overnight. At the end of 5
weeks I called to check on the pipes--same thing, "We'll check and call".
After several other calls, another person at Ross told me that it would be
8 weeks or so and that 3-4 weeks is not a reasonable delivery time for
pipes-- I knew that, but was absolutely assured they would be there by
that time. I cancelled the order, and have given up on being credited
with the shipping they charged for pipes then never delivered. They'll
never see another dime of my money.
In the meantime, I ordered a set of Sloan Bywell pipes from House of
Bagpipes in California. John and Maureen were very pleasant people to
deal with, returned my calls and even played the pipes on the speaker
phone so I could hear them. I had the pipes a little over a week, and one
of the screws holding the belt to the bellows popped out in the middle of
a tune. Although I liked the pipes, I felt I couldn't depend on them, and
I returned them. They expressed their regret that the pipes didn't work
out for me, but were true to their word and were prompt in crediting me.
I then called around and ended up ordering a set of Drumran smallpipes
from The Celtic Piper, George Barton in NJ. He was very pleasant and we
spent quite a bit of time talking about what he had, what I was looking
for, etc. The pipes were about a week late getting to me, but he called
and told me he wasn't satisfied with the drone reeds and was taking extra
time to set them up, and I would like them when I got them. When they got
here,
I was livid-- I don't know what he 'set up', but the pipes were not even
playable-- the drones wouldn't tune to A, were extremely hard to blow, and
the chanter sounded like a practice chanter. Having played Sloan and
Moore smallpipes, I had an idea of what smallpipes should sound like, and
this wasn't even close. I spent a total of about 6 hours "playing' those"
pipes, and never even was able to play one single tune. Needless to say,
they went back the next day.
To wrap up a long saga, I called John Keys at House of Bagpipes, and he
told me of a couple of sets of blackwood Sloan Bywells (new design) that
would be in soon. He called when they came in, played them on the phone
as before, and I said 'send 'em on'. I've had them about three weeks now,
and am very happy with them, and with the service of House of Bagpipes.
I would agree that the best way would be to deal with the maker
himself, but face it, all of us can't drop $1500-2000 on a set of pipes--
so we end up going though dealers.
Oh, and the blackwood chanter of Sloan's has a bit more 'cut' on the
grace notes than the laminated Bywell chanter-- very welcome on A
smallpipes.
Just some observations-- ya pays your money and ya takes your
chances...
Rick Cunningham
Ric...@aol.com
Richard T. Campbell
practice chanters and reeds from the bagpipe maker on james Court in
edinburgh (Joe Hagan), I have yet to receive my chanters and am beginning
to wonder if I've been "had" . has anyone had experience with this
builder,regarding his reliability or the quality of his work. If so
please drop a line.
Richard T.Campbell
rtca...@naz.edu USA