I took my daughter's guitar in to have a string replaced. I left it there, and later I got a call…read morefrom them. They told me that her guitar had some sort of defect which they could repair by sanding something on the bridge. (I don't remember technically what the defect was, but that isn't the point of this review). This was right after Christmas, and money was very tight, so I asked what the cost would be. They said they would check with the guitar tech, and call me back with his price.
I called my cousin, who had purchased the guitar for my daughter to get his viewpoint. He said that sometimes guitars did indeed have such a defect as had been described, and fixing it would greatly improve the sound and the ease of playing. He said he had a friend who was going to be in town soon who worked on guitars, and he would check with him to see if he could work on my daughter's guitar while he was here.
The next day, I received a call, but it was not to give me a quote, but to tell me the guitar was ready: it was restrung, tuned, and the defect had been corrected. The bill was $83.00. I was flabbergasted. I could not believe that they had taken it upon themselves to do the work without an okay from me. I didn't pick it up for several days, because 1) I was going to have to struggle with other bills after paying this, 2) I was angry at them putting me in a bind like this. I considered refusing to pay. I considered taking them to small claims court. I considered abandoning the guitar there. Finally, I decided to tighten our belts and pay for the work because my daughter was dedicated to learning to play guitar, and the ukulele after that, and I felt it would be imprudent to make enemies with the only music store in our town.
When I picked it up, I received an apology for doing the work without my permission.(They guessed it was a matter of insufficient funds when I took so long to come after it). They did not offer to reduce the bill, but said my daughter could have a free guitar lesson, which we later took them up on.
So be careful when you deal with them, especially if you are on a tight budget. From now on, I will expressly tell them not to do any work not specified by me until I explicitly tell them to. Otherwise, they are nice people and it seems to be a well stocked shop. I am not familiar enough yet with standard prices to know if they are reasonable with theirs, but I do know that Hastings charged me $5.00 more for an identical capo that Tony's offers for sale. They also charge ten cents less for a guitar pick than does my daughter's guitar teacher at the high school.
