When you place an order with Richard it is important to remember that you are NOT dealing with a faceless catalogue but a specialist who will only provide you with a perfect instrument - even play tested before dispatch! 

As such, if you are expecting a next day delivery service you really are at the wrong place.  

So with that said, here is what happens from the moment you place your order:

* Richard receives notification of the new order.  If you have not already checked for stock availability Richard will do so and inform you if there is any possible delay due to lack of stock on that option.

* Your guitar is allocated its position in the "workshop queue" for its initial quality control, followed by the setup service.

* If your guitar falls below our own high standards either geometrically or cosmetically it will be rejected and replaced.

* Following successful QC and setup Richard play tests your guitar to ensure it meets the original customer criteria

* Your guitar is packed to ensure it arrives with you in the same high standard as it leaves.

* Delivery is arranged.  We use TNT (http://www.tnt.co.uk) which is a next day service.  You will receive an email confirmation that the guitar is leaving with tracking details which you can use at the TNT website.

* We prefer not to ship guitars on a Friday so as to avoid lengthy periods in storage at the TNT depot.

This process on average takes 7-10 days from day of order through to delivery to your door *

It is very important to note that if you have an urgency for the guitar we can still accommodate by prioritizing your specific order.  Just chat to Richard online who can give you an ETA. 

Please remember that ANY online service providing guaranteed next day delivery is NOT doing what we do!!  It is IMPOSSIBLE to carry out the work we do and provide the quality control and testing and ship on the same day of order (as standard).

* Godin guitars do not have a UK distributor.  They operate what they call "Godin Direct".  Their stock is dispatched directly from their workshops in Canada.  We carry a regularly updated stock sheet from Godin to provide stock availability.  Deliveries from Godin to the UK range in time between 1-4 weeks, averaging 2-3.  When ordering a Godin guitar please be patient.  Richard has specialised in Godin guitars for 20 years and you could not be in safer hands but we can only provide a more specific delivery time scale once the guitar is in our hands.  Thank you for your understanding.

 

 Need an update?

Every problem that occurs with one guitar effects the time the next guitar in line will take to get to their customer.  For a small selection of historic issues found with guitars visit our customer saves blog.

For this reason it is impossible to provide an exact date of delivery until the guitar has completed its setup.  In order to save ANY confusion about what level of communication you should expect regarding your order I make the following promise...

Once your guitar has been set up and is ready for dispatch I can provide a very specific delivery date as per your requirement.  This date WILL BE MET with 100% certainty.  You will receive an email with tracking information notifying you of the delivery.

Until the guitar has been set up and passed quality control no such promise can be made.  We can estimate, provide as honest a view as possible but due to the nature of the workshop environment a promise cannot be fulfilled 100% of the time. 

I will not (purely because it is impossible to do so) make outbound updates with comments such as "Still waiting for your guitar" or "your guitar is still in the queue" but I do provide LIVE SUPPORT via the website most days and most hours of the day to help provide you with an update in real time.  You can use this as often as you wish - that is what I provide it for so please feel happy to use it any time.

The best rule of thumb is IF YOU ARE CONCERNED, CONTACT ME ON LIVE HELP

When you do contact me I can look at the workshop queue and update you or chase the distributor - depending on the circumstances.  I will pass on information that is accurate to that moment.

I am writing this to avoid any misunderstandings

If you need the guitar fast and that is the total priority - PLEASE do not buy your guitar from me.  It will most likely be a mistake.  We are always (thankfully) extremely busy on the basis of my core service ethic and I would rather have 100% happy (but patient!) customers whose priority is a perfect guitar than 5% remain unhappy because it took "too long".

 Please check out my latest testimonials to see if I am making anyone happy this week....