So I decided that the best way to spend the bonus money awarded me by my employer was to buy a new guitar. After looking around some, I decided on this.
Sweet huh? It's a Yamaha RGX A2 with dual alnico humbuckers. The body is of a new design which Yamaha calls an Alternative Internal Resonance body and which by all accounts makes the axe very light and resonant.
I ordered it on January 1st from Musicians Friend. The deal was great, $499 included shipping and a Yamaha Magicstomp Stereo Effects Pedal. Cool!
But it was back ordered.
First I was told it would ship on the 6th. When that didn't happen I was told it would ship on the 16th.
When the 16th came around, the order status went from "backordered" to "being packed". Cool!
On the 17th it went from "being packed" to "shipped" and I was given a UPS tracking number. Cool!
The UPS status said it was being shipped 3 day select and was on schedule to arrive on January 20th. Cool!
I anxiously tracked its progress from Kansas City to Missouri to Kentucky to Clemsford, Mass where it arrived at 8:28 AM on Thursday the 19th. Seeing as how I live in Vermont a mere three hour drive away, it should easily be here on the 20th.
But then my guitar disappeared. No departure from Clemsford, Mass was ever recorded nor has it been recorded to date.
When it got to be a 6pm on the 20th and it still hadn't arrived, I called UPS and told them what was going on. They said drivers deliver until 7pm, it'll arrive. I was dubious, no UPS delivery had ever come to my house after 5pm. And, of course I was right.
At 9pm I called UPS again and they said I would have to call Musicians Friend and get them to put a tracer on it. I said, doesn't it have a tracer on it? The status says it arrived in Clemsford, Mass and never left. What does putting a tracer on it do, send out a posse?
So I said OK, and I called Musicians Friend and explained the situation to them. They said they'd put a tracer on it but it may take 5 to 8 days to resolve. I said so I'm out 500 bucks with no guitar for another 5 to 8 days? And then after that what? I wait another month for the guitar which is now backordered until at least the 31st?
They said yeah. They didn't lose it, UPS did.
Yeah, but I didn't order a guitar from UPS. And UPS is busy rounding up a posse because they don't trust their tracking system.
It seems to me both UPS and Musicians Friend should be able to resolve this in something less than 5 to 8 days. I mean it's either in Clemsford or its not! Simple. I mean if it got on truck to someplace else, it would have been scanned, right? It would appear on the tracking page as heading to Fairbanks, Alaska or something, right?
So either its tucked in a corner somewhere at the Clemsford, Mass depot or someone stole the thing, right?
And it shouldn't take 5 to 8 days to figure out which it is.
I'll keep you updated.
UPDATE: So I called UPS this morning and they said I would need to have Musicians Friend put a tracer on it. I said that Musicians Friend had informed me they had done that on Saturday. The UPS customer sevice agent said they had no record of it. So I called Musicians Friend and asked them. They said they had started the trace but nothing had been done yet.
What? I don't get it.
More later.
UPDATE II: Against all odds, the guitar arrived from UPS on my lunch hour. UPS tracking still says it never left Mass. Go figure.