If you are considering an endorsement agreement with, or purchasing a guitar from, Wintersong Guitars, I strongly urge you to read this page before making any purchases.
In my defense against Wintersong Guitars' recent attack campaign against me for exposing them for building extremely low-quality, unplayable guitars, and hiding the fact that they're built in China until AFTER the guitar arrives with various defects, I have put together this page to document the thoroughly unprofessional manner in which this "company" (individual) conducts business.
To verify that the following screenshots have not been altered, please Email Me and I will forward you the original email so that you can examine the header information, containing the original text.
Defects, Ignored Specs, & Zero Personal Responsibility
Aug 31 - Sept 8, 2009
Following a two-month wait for my "custom Barbarian" 7-string guitar (one month longer than estimated, and conveniently 2 weeks longer than PayPal's Dispute Resolution 45-day cut-off deadline), I received a guitar riddled with defects, which I reported in detail to Wintersong's owner "Randy J. Harrison" (real name: Randall Herman) immediately upon inspecting the guitar, stating at the outset that a few of the issues would require significant repair before the guitar could be fully playable.
Wintersong Refuses to Pay Shipping for Defective Guitar
After initially claiming "Im not sure at the momemt I can pay to ship it here and ship it back, as it cost $100 to ship to you," the owner became increasingly uncooperative and unwilling to take responsibility for the defective product he allowed to be shipped to me in its condition, insisting that it was somehow my responsibility to pay for return shipping.
When I refused pay extra for their mistakes, the owner then claimed that it was their "policy" that the customer always pays for return shipping, and despite having never posted any company policies before or after this anywhere, ever, he claimed, as the sole proprietor of his own company, that there was "nothing he could do about it."
Wintersong's "Hand-Made" Guitars Actually Built in China
In addition to the initial dispute over who would pay for shipping, what turned me off more was that while I had been told previously that his girlfriend is Wintersong's luthier, and he handles sales, after I explained in detail that there were functional problems with the guitar, I was told "My girlfriend said she does not think she will be able to fix the tremelo system."
This seemed inconsistent with someone who was supposed to be building their guitars, so I asked "which issue specifically about the tremolo did she say she can't fix, and why?," and I even took the time to identify the specific actions that would need to be taken to fix these issues.
The owner responded "The reason we most likely cannot repair the tremelo is because I design the guitars but they are hand made in china, so unfortionatly I cannot adjust the tremelo since it may mean redesigning the entire guitar."
My Resignation from Endorsing Wintersong Guitars
Sept 1, 2009
At this point, due to:
- The guitar's numerous defects (both functional and cosmetic)
- Wintersong's lack of quality-control that allowed the guitar to be shipped to me in this condition and without meeting several of my specs,
- The owner's gross misrepresentation of the service and products they offer (and apparently, of his own identity),
- Wintersong's mixed unwillingness/inability to fix the obvious problems with this guitar and to do so at their own expense, and
- The sheer irresponsibility and unreliability of the company's owner when faced with a defective product,
I sent Wintersong Guitars the following email, withdrawing my endorsement of their company and products:
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Sept 1, 2009 Hi Randy, Actually I'm sorry, I've been thinking about this some more and I think it's probably better if I am refunded the $530 and send you the guitar back. I am sorry but I am very unhappy with the level of reliability that I have experienced so far. I understand the hardships that you must be going through with only 2 people doing everything, but I don't think I can stand by you if you offer custom work, approve of doing it, then don't deliver it, and then additionally say in broad, general terms, how you can't fix what I took the time to specifically describe how it handicaps the guitar's playability. I cannot in good conscience continue to refer my fellow musicians, friends and fans to you while these quality and service issues exist. Please refund $530 to my paypal account (artist@jasonaaronwood.com) and send a pre-paid shipping label to me, and upon receipt, I will return the guitar to you promptly. This guitar does not meet the quality level (or detailed written specs that I sent you) and it is not my fault that this problem has come about, and having already paid well in advance it should not be my responsibility to fix it or to cover any additional costs related to fixing it. Jason Aaron Wood |
As soon as the owner realized I wanted the refund he had initially offered, his response was carefully worded as "I am sorry you do not like the guitar," trying to indicate that my issues with the guitar were merely aesthetic as he began trying to back out of that offer.
To stall me, he now flatly refused to pay for return shipping (instead of not being able "to afford it at the moment"), now claiming for the first time that this was their "policy" despite never having posted or otherwise communicated any such policies.
He also generalized falsely (and out of context) about this policy in other companies, claiming "I am not going to pay for shipping. That is the policy for most companies for refunds/exchanges. Just letting you know It actually cost me more money on your guitar, I made absolutely no profit, I actually had a loss of costs making/shipping your guitar."
Obviously, this is not the policy of any reputable company (who actually stands behind their products) in the case of a defective product - the company always pays if they make the mistake.
Wintersong Charges "Discounted Rate" of $530 for Unplayable Guitar
Of course, with any endorsement deal, the company does not generally profit from the guitar sale; they profit from giving incentive to the endorsing artist who spreads the word about the company to others, which I had been doing actively until I realized the quality level of what I had been promoting.
Wintersong Owner = "Einar Sveinsson"
Upon seeing that he had turned off the only endorser on his roster that wasn't himself under a pseudonym (ie, "Einar Sveinsson"), he was now determined to keep the money from this transaction by any means necessary.
This marked the beginning of his blatant denial of the faulty guitar he sent me and his clear intention not to part with the money he had fleeced from my mother (who paid for the guitar as a 30th birthday gift for me), despite my very clear emails and phone call explaining in detail how this guitar was poorly built and how this hindered its playability.
My Response
Due to his ("Randy Harrison's") abrasive and unprofessional manner of dealing with a problem with one of his company's own products and his increasing insistence that I am "making up excuses in order to get a refund" (per his website, and his previous MySpace blog and bulletin posts, now removed 3 times, by MySpace Abuse, who suspended his account for 2 weeks), I created the following video, demonstrating the biggest flaw in the construction of the guitar I received:
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