“BUYER BEWARE!! I had the misfortune to buy a Yamaha FS3 guitar from Richtone. I bitterly regret it. It played very nicely in the shop. When I got it home I discovered that the nice action had been achieved by sanding the saddle down almost to the bridge meaning that next time the guitar needed any attention to the action It would require a very expensive neck reset! When I took the guitar in, the manager (who's name unfortunately I never discovered; his staff wouldn't tell me) agreed that this was true. However he said it was a second hand guitar (it cost me £575)!! and once I left the shop this was my problem. This company is an AUTHORISED TAYLOR DEALER (unbelievable I know, but true)!
The anonymous manager was quite agressive in his manner and point blank refused to take the guitar back unless I paid a 20 per cent "restocking fee". (In fairness he later reduced this to £75, which I paid just to get away from this horrible shop and its 'customer service').
Rather than customer service, the manager showed open contempt for his customers, conveying the opinion that many of them spent their time lying to him if they had a problem with their purchase. Unbelievable I know but true.
To compound my woes I had spent around £2000 on a Taylor from Richtone at the same time which I found had also had the low saddle shaving treatment (although not as extreme, but still much lower than Taylor's own lowest specified reference point of 1/16" minimum saddle height above the bridge). To be fair the action of this guitar was fine. When I asked for reassurance that this guitar had not had a neck reset, the manager told me his opinion that it most likely had not, despite me pointing out to him flakes of finish near the neck guitar body joint, which the manager said was 'putty' from when Taylor built it. I have owned many Taylors and have never seen this 'putty' before. I have no way of knowing without getting a professional Luthier to remove the neck; I certainly would not trust Richtone with doing this! Fortunately Taylor's neck resets are pretty straightforward so I decided to cross this bridge when I come to it (the guitar is beautiful, a high end 818e). When I got the guitar home I found that the 'putty' was actually varnish that had flaked when the neck was removed. In other words pretty strong evidence that the neck had indeed been removed at least once. The manager assured me twice that he had not carried out any work on the guitar and it was exactly as he had received it in part exchange. Is it plausible that he (a Taylor trained technician) had not noticed this. Apparently yes.
So in summary it cost me £75 to buy a horrible guitar (the yamaha) from this shop. Time will tell what condition the Taylor is in. I am relating this distressing experience exactly as it occurred today. My downfall was that I let my enthusiasm for the guitars and misplaced trust in the integrity of the manager and his shop (and indeed Taylor) prevent me from checking the guitars carefully, much as historically you had to check a second hand car in the seventies for flaking paint etc. (Oh, and watch out for the trick the manager does with the truss rod. He did it on both the guitars, leaving a little bit of relief on the neck so that he can then lower the action further to mollify the unsuspecting customer (me)! Again, I have no way of knowing if this was a coincidence or a deliberate ploy. I also do not know if other customers have had this terrible experience from this manager and this shop, but his remarks lead me to believe that, sadly, my experience of Richtone is fairly commonplace. I also have no way of knowing at which point or by whom the guitars had been set up in this manner.
I will be contacting Taylor UK to give them a copy of this review and ask them their opinion of my experience.”
“Bought a guitar which was not as described, plus the packing was dreadful. Sent it back at my expense, and still waiting for the refund. Have called numerous times, but though they come across as helpful and friendly, no refund as yet. They are quick enough though to take your money, so should be quick enough to refund. Not happy at all. Poor show. Avoid.”
“First of all the musicians who work in the shop are 5 STARS ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
I have given 1 ⭐ for the people who work in the Returns/Refunds Department.
I love God and God loves me.
I wish to make the following statement.
I believe that only angels from heaven should be allowed to sell all musical instruments, and l believe that only angels should be in charge of all the music shops in the world. AMEN!👍😇👍😇👍😇👍😇👍”
“Hi bough a used Bose L1 model 2 off them it stopped working first event as cooling fan not running so tried to return it eventually managed after they threw many hurdles in the way now they have had it back for days and no reply about a refund despite emailing every day , a bad company should be avoided”
“Hi, I had a 280 mile wasted journey today. I went to pick up a used Fender supersonic twin amp which they say had been serviced due to the reverb not working and a lost switch cable. Several phone calls later and the shop confirmed everything was tested and fully working. I insisted they do this due to the distance I would be travelling. When I arrived a guitar tech who was helping out in the shop served me. He was really helpful and plugged in the amp . Both of us were astounded to hear the reverb tank howling even before a guitar was plugged in and obviously still required repairing!
I was very annoyed and asked for my deposit which took the longest part of the whole visit . Other than the very helpful guitar tech who was very understanding,no one else showed any interest in their failings . I won’t be back.”
“don't buy a vintage instrement from this shop,theye dont know what they are doing
if you take there advice you mite end up with a copy or forgery, or one that has been
modified ,be very very careful,they will lie and cheat you,”
“I am a 68 yearly pensioner,i was lied to and misled ,told my 68 sg was a 69,and needed work before selling, and would have to be sent away for work and would take months' was told its only worth £2000, and might not get that, i was given £1400
I took there expert advice[at ripping of pensioners]they fixed a dry joint, polished it and sold for£3000, ten days later, i contacted them they offered a £100 discount on a second hand amp[they offered this the week before ]please dont trust this shop deed to think what would happen if you bought something and it went wrong, please dont shop hear, how would you feel if your grandad, or grate grandad had been treated like this,”
“Worst customer service! Their courier damaged the guitar due to mishandling. So far two weeks to resolve as Rich Tone are asking us to take full responsibility in getting the item safely back using their courier! Nothing but back and forth!!! Never had such a bad experience as this.
So, if they wreck it again it becomes our responsibility? I don’t think so, matey. We’ll see you in the small claims court as you have been so negligent.”
“Parcel was delayed being picked up; so my parcel was going to be delivered 3 days later than planned (Long weekend) No big deal, these things happen.
Parcel was then lost by DPD, Richtone didn't take any interest in contacting DPD to fix the problem, failed to reply for days until i started calling the store.
DPD agreed after 5 days of having a parcel and not being able to locate it that it was lost and Richtone should open a claim with themselves and refund or replace.
Richtone refused to refund me until the parcel was returned to them. Direct Quotes:
"I’m afraid as per my email we need to allow DPD to investigate before we process a refund."
me: "Why? You've requested a return to the sender. The Parcel has been lost. This has absolutely nothing to do with me, it's between you and DPD."
Richtone: "Correct so please allow us time to sort this with DPD."
Also on paypal: "Rich Tone Music Ltd 15 September 2022 at 15:07:16 BST We have requested a return to sender with DPD as per the customers request so as soon as the bass arrives back here we can process a full refund."
Richtone wouldn't consider ordering in advance or even telling me the order period for ordering in another bass(it was the last one) should it have been lost, they didn't want to help, they were rude, obstructive and obnoxious. DPD and Paypal said there was no reason not to refund and it was no longer anything to do with me.
In the end it was resolved by getting paypal to force them to give a resolution or it would have auto refunded. The parcel is still lost in a depot somewhere.
I ordered the same item from Gear4Music and the item arrived within 24 hours.”
“I personally would not use this online retailer again due to their delivery policy and their not caring what happens to your purchase once they have your money. I paid Rich Tone for next day DPD delivery. The delivery courier arrived at the door, and while I was in, just left a card without ringing the bell. No phone call although they had my number.
Although the usual procedure is to re-attempt delivery, they just took my parcel to a distant pick-up point and left it there, while marking it “Return To Consignor”. I however was left with no purchase. Rich Tone refused all responsibility for my delivery after this, saying it was down to the courier - according to consumer law that’s debatable. However, the callousness of the courier company was unbelievable - yesterday evening still in the throes of Long COVID I actually walked a three-mile round trip high over the Sussex Downs to pick up my parcel (about an hour and a half in total).
There was no other way of my getting my parcel from where the courier had left it. This was upsetting for me.
Before setting out to pick up my parcel, when I contacted DPD Chat to see whether re-delivery could possibly be attempted, it sent me the same message twice: already returned. They didn’t give me, the customer, a chance or a choice.
Musicians need their instruments without fuss and without delay as I’m sure most would agree. Also that most would want their instrument rather than no instrument, a refund and having to start again. But this was my experience with Rich Tone Music. Also buyer beware of a certain bullish attitude with them if you ever query anything they do. When they told me over the phone that this situation, the failure to deliver, of my parcel, supplied by them, which I’d paid for, wasn’t their problem, it would have been funny if it wasn’t also serious. Also beware the psycho-narc delivery courier. They are only too familiar to the village shop/pickup point owner, who kindly kept my parcel for me. Which was about the only kind or customer-friendly aspect of this purchase.”
“Massively disappointing, as usual.
I had previously kept away from using Richtone based on prior poor service experience but decided to try again as I really needed a specific cable this weekend. I spent ages finding the right cable, in stock, on the website and placed my order at 10.15am... click & collect... they would email me when the item was ready to collect. No email.
At 3pm I phone the store to be told my order is ready to collect so I drive in.
The store still has a buzzer on the door to request access - you can't just talk in for a look around!
The assistant asks for my postcode, not my name, and fiddles around on the computer then leaves to let someone out of the door, comes back and says he'll go upstairs to look for my order. I wait 10 minutes for him to return without my cable, telling me, he doesn't know how it's possible but the item is NOT in stock even though it shows as in stock on the "hub" - whatever that is. "I don't know what to tell you." he says.
I ask him to go and check that the person I spoke to on the phone hasn't picked it already - a good idea, apparently... But no, it's not to be found.
I ask if he has an alternative... he goes away and comes back with a cheaper, lower quality brand version that's not the length I asked for. I say I'll take it because I really need it. He has to get someone to help him process it on the till/computer.
The guy he asks to help has to have the situation explained to him and then offers me a cash refund. When I say I'd rather have the refund of the excess paid back to the card I originally paid on. "Thats more complicated." he says...
In the end I get the refund to my card and leave.
I really can't see me ever wanting to go back.
The service and product selection (for anything other than guitars) is really poor especially considering this is one of only two instrument shops in Sheffield - Sheffield, the home of hundreds of famous musicians, with hundreds of thousands of residents and this is the best we have.
No wonder people buy online when this is the experience you get in person.
A dreadful, disappointing shame.”
“Con artists rip people off and lie to their faces staff don’t know anything or listen to the information you tell them . Also I’ve seen better beginners (and these guys and these are pro musicians LOL)”
