FMIC (europe) isn't forthcoming with JT580 parts what are my alternatives?

[Morgan Ringwald FMIC]

Not trying to discredit you, but there are always two sides to every story.

Fender IS the distributor in the Benelux territory, and our entire central European warehouse is located in The Netherlands (Roermond). We're able to ship within 1-2 days for most orders, anywhere in Europe.

As for phantom invoices and orders, I just can't believe this, sorry. I'm not calling anybody a liar, but many times (at least over here in the US), dealers sometimes wait until they need to place an entire order for inventory before they place an order for a specific part, and then they tell their customer that Fender hasn't shipped it yet. Again, not saying this is the case because I don't know all the details, but there is another side to this story.

As for Jackson parts, they may not be readily available right now. It takes a few months (yes, months) for shipments to get to Europe sometimes, because they spend time in customs on both ends, time on the water (they are shipped via boat), and then need to get entered into the warehouse inventory system.

With the addition to Jackson and Charvel, our first concern was to get the domestic (US and Canada) structure set up, followed by Europe. It's very possible that we are working out some bugs that will take some time, but this is certainly not something that will remain a constant.

Jackson and Charvel have not enjoyed a major presence in Europe historically, and with our distribution set up over there (direct to retail in most countries), we'll be able to get you better service and more availability. But you have to be patient while we get on line.

Despite the big brand name, we're really a small company in the grand scheme of things. Getting everything right on another continent is not something that we are able to do overnight at the flip of a switch, so please be patient. I guarantee that you'll eventually be happy.

In the mean time, you can contact Fender International in the UK. If your dealer has placed your order, you should be able to get an order number from him and ask that Fender Int'l check up on it for you.

M-

[~K~]

Re: FMIC (europe) isn\'t forthcoming with JT580 parts what are my alternatives?

Morgan ..

How many employees does FMIC have? .. just curious

[Morgan Ringwald FMIC]

Re: FMIC (europe) isn\'t forthcoming with JT580 parts what are my alternatives?

Being a privately held company, that info is considered proprietary and I'm not allowed to discuss specific numbers. That also includes all manufacturing and financial specifics.

We've got a good number of employees worldwide, but as I'm sure you can imagine, the bulk of them are in manufacturing. Our satellite offices in Europe (sales and marketing) pretty small groups.

Keep in mind that everything they do hinges on how effectively we in the US can support them with product and other materials, so when we are still getting things in order here, they are effected.

M-

[Mikeee]

Re: FMIC (europe) isn\'t forthcoming with JT580 parts what are my alternatives?

Originally posted by Morgan Ringwald FMIC:
Not trying to discredit you, but there are always two sides to every story.

Fender IS the distributor in the Benelux territory, and our entire central European warehouse is located in The Netherlands (Roermond). We're able to ship within 1-2 days for most orders, anywhere in Europe.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">My dealer (of which I provided the URL) places orders with Fender Intl. in Germany. They also tell me FMIC EUROPE and USA are a completely different matter organizationally and I'm inclined to believe that as North Americans are culturally more adept at providing good service.

As for phantom invoices and orders, I just can't believe this, sorry. I'm not calling anybody a liar, but many times (at least over here in the US), dealers sometimes wait until they need to place an entire order for inventory before they place an order for a specific part, and then they tell their customer that Fender hasn't shipped it yet. Again, not saying this is the case because I don't know all the details, but there is another side to this story.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">This is exacly what the head man in charge of guitars at Conijn (Richard Laville) told me. With all due respect; perhaps you only know the situation at your end of the pond!? There CAN be a world of difference between 2 franchises/divisions/whateveryoucallit. And indeed, I haven't been to either so I only know this by hearing out the folks at Conijn. According to Richard he "made his grievances known behind closed doors to the highest person for Fender-USA attending the last Frankfurter Musik Messe".

As for Jackson parts, they may not be readily available right now. It takes a few months (yes, months) for shipments to get to Europe sometimes, because they spend time in customs on both ends, time on the water (they are shipped via boat), and then need to get entered into the warehouse inventory system.

With the addition to Jackson and Charvel, our first concern was to get the domestic (US and Canada) structure set up, followed by Europe. It's very possible that we are working out some bugs that will take some time, but this is certainly not something that will remain a constant.

Jackson and Charvel have not enjoyed a major presence in Europe historically, and with our distribution set up over there (direct to retail in most countries), we'll be able to get you better service and more availability. But you have to be patient while we get on line.

Despite the big brand name, we're really a small company in the grand scheme of things. Getting everything right on another continent is not something that we are able to do overnight at the flip of a switch, so please be patient. I guarantee that you'll eventually be happy.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Flip of a switch? It's been 5 months since that order was placed. Is this a normal amount of time according to FMIC? FOR A PIECE OF METAL that I'd guess is readily available as saddles can and will break at times? I as a customer feel this is a disservice.
Besides, whether a company is small or big doesn't matter as long as the communication is present.
My dealer told me they sometimes receive less-than-polite letters from FMIC Deutschland about unpaid bills for stuff they never ordered.
What am I as a customer supposed to think??
And another thing: these "teething problems" you allude to having at the moment with the takeover should have been worked out beforehand in an integrated plan of action by your directors or consultancy bureau.

In the mean time, you can contact Fender International in the UK. If your dealer has placed your order, you should be able to get an order number from him and ask that Fender Int'l check up on it for you.

M-

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Could you then please provide me a contact e-mail at FMIC UK? I'll request ConijnMuziek to give me the order#.
Thank you very much.

[RacerX]

Re: FMIC (europe) isn\'t forthcoming with JT580 parts what are my alternatives?

I think "spares" = "parts"

http://www.fender.co.uk/contact.htm

[Mikeee]

Re: FMIC (europe) isn\'t forthcoming with JT580 parts what are my alternatives?

Thanx RacerX!!! I couldn't have found that one out as I don't install Macromedia Flash on my box and you need it to get to that page. Flash-only webmasters should be shot.

By the way, in between my ranting on I nearly forgot to mention that Mr. Heiko Starke at FMIC Deutschland helped me very well to find out what part# I needed.
I still owe him a bunch of brews if I ever meet him. [img]graemlins/toast.gif[/img]

[ September 19, 2003, 03:57 PM: Message edited by: Mikeee ]

[RacerX]

Re: FMIC (europe) isn\'t forthcoming with JT580 parts what are my alternatives?

Spares:

All spares enquiries should be directed to our Spares Department:

Tel: 020 8457 6885
E-mail: [email protected]


Service:

All service enquiries should be directed to our Service Department:

Tel: 020 8457 6880
E-mail: [email protected]


Fender UK is a division of:

ARBITER GROUP PLC
Wilberforce Road
London
NW9 6AX
Telephone: 020 8202 1199
Facsimile: 020 8202 7076

Find out about all of the other musical products distributed by Arbiter at:
Spares:

All spares enquiries should be directed to our Spares Department

[email protected]

[Morgan Ringwald FMIC]

Re: FMIC (europe) isn\'t forthcoming with JT580 parts what are my alternatives?

Hold on ... Arbiter is the Fender distributor in the UK only, so you probably shouldn't go to them and expect to get your part. Again, we are the direct distributor in the Benelux territory.

And I fully agree, I only know our side of the story (or what I perceive it to be) and am just trying to offer some insight.

I know that parts shouldn't take 5 months to ship, but the sale of Jackson and Charvel was a pretty fast moving deal, so there was no time to get all of this worked out before hand. We're still getting inventory worked out, and I would imagine that replacement parts will come after actual guitars. With parts, you have a ton of smaller pieces and much more SKUs, so it takes much longer to get them all input and shipped. Not saying that it will always be like this because it won't, but we're working on getting everything up to speed.

M-

[guitar geek]

Re: FMIC (europe) isn\'t forthcoming with JT580 parts what are my alternatives?

spare parts have been a disaster for all brands for as long as I can remember (ok, is not really long [img]graemlins/images/icons/wink.gif[/img] ). small examples: screws for my old performers lock nut: 4 months and then we cancelled. Studs or what do you call it, the screws to which a floyd is floating for my ibanez: 4 months as well. A schaller floyd 3 months and counting (early june ordered). so spare parts are big disasters and I am sorry, but one has to live with that. Problem is that europe is not interesting enough for a lot of manufacturers, clear cut.

harrald

[Mikeee]

Re: FMIC (europe) isn\'t forthcoming with JT580 parts what are my alternatives?

Originally posted by Morgan Ringwald FMIC:
Hold on ... Arbiter is the Fender distributor in the UK only, so you probably shouldn't go to them and expect to get your part.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Ok, you're telling me they'll REFUSE to ship stuff to me based on my address? Your company might have their reasons for this but I as a potential customer must say this stinks. You (the company not "you" personally) essentially FORCE me to be dependant on 1 single point of sale/service.
This is against the principle of free market (If "A" won't sell then "B" will...)

Again, we are the direct distributor in the Benelux territory.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Who? "you" as in FMIC-USA Arizona?? Or "you" as in FMIC as a whole?? Or what?? Isn't FMIC-UK as much Fender as every other?? What's the difference when they're called "Arbiter".

And I fully agree, I only know our side of the story (or what I perceive it to be) and am just trying to offer some insight.

I know that parts shouldn't take 5 months to ship, but the sale of Jackson and Charvel was a pretty fast moving deal, so there was no time to get all of this worked out before hand. We're still getting inventory worked out, and I would imagine that replacement parts will come after actual guitars. With parts, you have a ton of smaller pieces and much more SKUs, so it takes much longer to get them all input and shipped. Not saying that it will always be like this because it won't, but we're working on getting everything up to speed.

M-

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">*sigh*

[Morgan Ringwald FMIC]

Re: FMIC (europe) isn\'t forthcoming with JT580 parts what are my alternatives?

Okay, here's the story that I've been able to get ...

Let's start with Jackson/Charvel pre-FMIC - not the actual builders, but the parent company. Appareantly, AMIC had a very casual system when it came to replacement parts in that there were no formal parts lists in place at the vendor from which they ordered.

Jackson/ Charvel is about to be sold to FMIC, and dealers and consumers around the world start stocking up on replacement parts, which diminished existing inventory once the sale was final. After that, we quickly fulfilled orders for replacement parts and our inventory went to zero.

As I mentioned, the vendor supplying parts to J/C didn't have any formal parts lists that they could give to us so that we could see what we needed to order for replenishment. That means we had to start from scratch on both ends, a process that is still going on.

So, you place the order for a replacement part (in this case, 6 new saddles), and your dealer takes your order. He sends it to Fender, who enters it into the system. At this point, there should have been more communication on both sides, because a simple question on availability would have revealed that we are out of stock.

Now for the bad news ... we don't expect to have any replacement parts available to us for another couple of months. We gotten done what we needed to do, and we are now waiting for the vendor to make the parts and send them to us.

I found all of this out because I was going to get the saddles and have them sent directly to your store, but they just are not available. My best suggestion would be to find a dealer that has this in stock and order it from them, either in Europe or in the US. The folks here seem to have some good parts dealers that they are fond of, and I would start with that route.

I know this is absolutely what you do not want to hear, but it is an honest answer. I wish it were different and that I could do more to help, but we are stuck in a holding pattern until the parts are made available to us.

M-

[Morgan Ringwald FMIC]

Re: FMIC (europe) isn\'t forthcoming with JT580 parts what are my alternatives?

Fender is not Arbiter ... Arbiter Group is a seperate distributor based in the UK, and they handle retailers only in the UK. All I'm saying is that they will not be able to ship to any retailers in your country. They don't sell directly to consumers, nor do any other distributors throughout the world ... they all sell to retailers.

Fender UK is not a sales or distribution office. Their function is to oversee other Fender sales and distribution offices in Europe, and they are based in the UK because (I think) it is an English speaking country.

M-

[Mikeee]

Re: FMIC (europe) isn\'t forthcoming with JT580 parts what are my alternatives?

Good grief [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img]
I haven't a single good word for this situation but...OK, fine...you say the parts will become available then I'll just have to believe that. What a choice huh?
BTW, I'm curious do you work at Arizona or at Roermond?

[Morgan Ringwald FMIC]

Re: FMIC (europe) isn\'t forthcoming with JT580 parts what are my alternatives?

I'm in Arizona.

Listen, we don't like the situation any better than you do, and I can name at least 5 people over here in the parts department that are going crazy on a daily basis. Their job is to get these parts out there, and when their hands are tied waiting for them, it's got to be frustrating.

Believe me, they know how you feel and are doing everything they can to get this taken care of as quickly as possible.

M-

[sully]

Re: FMIC (europe) isn\'t forthcoming with JT580 parts what are my alternatives?

Originally posted by Mikeee:
Good grief [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img]
I haven't a single good word for this situation but...OK, fine...you say the parts will become available then I'll just have to believe that. What a choice huh?
BTW, I'm curious do you work at Arizona or at Roermond?

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">hey mikee, no one expects you to put on a happy face, but at least right now, there's someone who has answers and rationale behind the situation for you, which is something you didn't really have. i know that doesn't get you replacement saddles, but morgan doesn't have to come here and post about it.

....does anyone have some saddles they can send him? i'll hook you up with the item of your choice from the jcf store.

sully