Kevin Easton

[shreddermon]

Re: Kevin Easton

Actually, the custom shop had me do this recently, too. I believe it's a very recent practice.

By submitting a quote form to the dealer generated off the Jackson web site, it saves the custom shop some time in processing the official quote back to the dealer. And, in turn, to the customer. It probably makes the initial quote more accurate to the customer's intended specs, too.

Not perfect (nor is the web site generator) but, by reducing time and increasing spec accuracy, it's probably a very good improvement to the process.

And, as neilli mentioned, it also probably has the benefit of weeding out some of the "tire kickers" who aren't really serious about the order and/or keep changing their mind about specs. That's probably pretty frustrating for both dealers and the custom shop. Not to mention time consuming, which probably had something to do past issues with how long it took to place an order.

Again, if it makes the process more timely and accurate, I view it as a positive.

[mattsmusiccenter]

Re: Kevin Easton

Here's the way the process goes. This is per the request of the guys at the JC custom shop. I've put together custom shop orders for many of the guys here and would be happy to assist with yours!

1) Customer visits the price generator form at www.jacksonguitars.com and fills it out as completely as possible.

2) Customer contacts a dealer (like myself) and either faxes or emails the price generator form to the dealer.

3) The dealer reviews it and forwards the form to Jackson.

4) Jackson issues the dealer an official quote, with a quote number for future referance. This can take anywhere from a few hours to a week, depending on JC's workload at the time.

5) The dealer forwards the quote to the customer for review. If changes or corrections need to made, the customer makes them by writing directly on the quote form.

6) Customer again forwards the quote (with corrections) to the dealer.

7) The dealer forwards the corrected quote to Jackson, any items that the customer changed on the form are updated by Jackson. The goal is to get a quote from Jackson that is 100% accurate. Once this happens the customer signs and dates the quote, indicating that all specs are now approved by the customer. The customer forwards the quote to the dealer again.

8) The dealer and customer agree to do business together and a deposit is collected from the customer. In my case, the deposit is 25% of the total price, this deposit is non refundable.

9) The dealer places the order with Jackson.

10) Jackson issues the dealer a work order with a detailed breakdown of all the specs on the original quote.

11) The dealer forwards the work order to the customer for final review.

12) The guitar is built and is delivered to the dealer. The dealer collects the balance due from the customer and ships the guitar to the customer. This process can take anywhere from 6-14 months.

Any dealer that doesn't take all of these steps, is leaving room for error, which is something I'd make sure didn't exist if I was a customer, buying my dream custom shop guitar!

Matt [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[neilli]

Re: Kevin Easton

That's how it worked for me when dealing with Matt - I'm just waiting for stage 12 to be completed and hoping to god it's 6 not 14 months!

[vwall]

Re: Kevin Easton

Agreed.
And in many cases with my clients, i will actually fill the custom shop form out for them over the phone or thru email.
This leaves even less room for error.

[Tetsuo]

Re: Kevin Easton

In my Biz I qoute things that cost far more than guitars and We try to get the customer in all cases to fax us a quote request and in every case make them at least sign off on a final quote and print before proceeding...

[shreddermon]

Re: Kevin Easton

Yeah, I guess I meant to say that Matt had me do that process recently. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] It's not like I deal with the custom shop directly. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

It's worked great! Matt's 'da man. [img]/images/graemlins/notworthy.gif[/img]

[mattsmusiccenter]

Re: Kevin Easton

You rock Pat!

I personally prefer to have the customer initiate the process by filling out the price generator themselves. It helps to speed up a process that already takes too long! Plus it doesn't leave any room for me to make a mistake when transferring the customers spec list into the price generator.

[Deneb]

Re: Kevin Easton

Big thing that bothered me about ording a custom guitar, was I lucked into finding how much the dealer was getting charged, and the over head I was getting charged...I backed out. Not that I didn't want the guitar, I just didn't want to give someone XXXXXX amount of money, for a guitar, that is GUARANTEED TO BE SOLD AS SOON AS IT IS IN THE DOOR! And one they did next to no work for (Sorry, I don't think a few phone calls and faxes justified the mark up.)

For the record, it was NONE of the JCF dealers, I was trying to keep it local, and the one dealer just say green when I mentioned custom shop. Now he's soiled it for everyone, at least for awhile, because I don't want butt molestered.

[Jack Napalm]

Re: Kevin Easton

Just a little thread resurrection. I received my money back from Kevin this morning. The check has been deposited. There was no problem in getting it back. Easton Guitars has been removed from the Dealer listing on Jackson's site. I think it happened this week or last. This part of the mess is over. Now I wait for the guitar to get built and Edel said he would deliver personally. Looks like late October at the moment. Edel is moving the order through Fullers Guitars. Glad this is over. I hope Micha has similar success.

[Jack The Riffer]

Re: Kevin Easton

Glad to hear the news Jack!!! Enjoy your new guitar when you get it.

[micha]

Re: Kevin Easton

I'm still waiting...
but I'm glad to hear you got yours back! [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

easton said he sent my cheque last tuesday, so it should arrive any day I hope. let you know then.

[Spider Riff]

Re: Kevin Easton

Oh you guys are scaring me....I put a larger deposit on a guitar ...a Charvel 25th...I owe a few hundred but I have seen a few of the guitars from his stor popping up on other people's web sites. Is everything OK?

[dinkyjacksonman]

Re: Kevin Easton

I hope your 25th Charvel doesn't show up on other dealer's website...
I suggest you to keep in touch with Easton as often as you can and pay off as soon as possible.

[Tetsuo]

Re: Kevin Easton

[ QUOTE ]
Oh you guys are scaring me....I put a larger deposit on a guitar ...a Charvel 25th...I owe a few hundred but I have seen a few of the guitars from his stor popping up on other people's web sites. Is everything OK?

[/ QUOTE ]

No everything is not OK Contact Kevin ASAP....

[Jack Napalm]

Re: Kevin Easton

Kevin still has a 25th on the wall in his shop. Nice looking guitar. It doesn't say sold though.