Folk of the Wood

[Keith Erickson]

I'm at a loss for words

[elenbrandt-redux]

Steve -- in light of the fact that FOTW does business consistently across state lines, federal jurisdiciion would kick in and mail (e-mail) fraud might just be one of those things they frown upon. If I were you, I would prefer to not have my product associated with them in any fashion (including as bait.)

[glauber]

Someone please enlighten me..Even if the deal went south, I am still mystified as to why anyone would have even considered buying FOTW in light of its "stellar" business reputation...

It was probably cheap.

[steve V. johnson]

Amazing, this stuff never stops...

stv

[Keith Erickson]

Has anyone ever been to FOTW?
Does the physical place exist?

[beatlenut]

I guess I'm one of the lucky ones. I bought a used electric guitar from them off eBay at a REALLY good price (worth $200 more) and had no issues at all. Answered the phone before I did the "buy it now" and answered all my questions. Came as advertised or better than. I was leary of buying it based on what I had read on this forum.

Hope it all works out.

[arbarnhart]

It's always a #### shoot. I am really pleased with my mando and I always provided the link to Music123, where I bought it, when I recommended it. They were a little slow in shipping it, but I had no reason not to believe their reason (warehouse relocation was the story I was given; shipping was about a week after order). Now I find in another thread that a week was quick and that I was lucky to get the right item and in good condition. Or was I? I bet most of FOTW's customers and most of Music123's customers had no problems. It's just that they have problems too often and don't seem to handle it well when they do. It's hard to recommend anyone.

[Mandobar]

music123 is owned by zapf's out of philly which is a real brick and mortar music store, or at least it used to be.

[J. Mark Lane]

It's hard to recommend anyone.

It is not really hard to recommend some of the very fine operations that many of us have done business with for years -- and that happen to be sponsors of this site. Like Elderly, Greg Boyd, Mandolin Brothers, Mandolin World Headquarters, etc. Those are all top-notch, well-run operations owned by good, honest people, who will actually pick up the phone and talk to you. Why go elsewhere?

[jim simpson]

"music123 is owned by zapf's"
Yes,Zapf's - R.I.P. - I actually bought a Washburn mandolin from them about 20 years ago and they took my Harmony/Monterey in on trade. They had Martin's and assorted electric guitars and operated out of kind of a rough area. I liked to look at there stuff if I was in the area. So many of the smaller guys have gone away. It's too bad to hear they aren't doing the best job online.

[Stephen Perry]

Hard to believe, but my stuff is still listed on the FOTW site. Very odd.

[PCypert]

Hey,
You're stuff's just good. Why wouldn't they list it javascript:%20InstaSmilie()

Never having bought one I don't know what I can contribute that hasn't been said. Will say that I tried emailing them multiple times and never got a timely response. At one point I think I did get one response but it was like two weeks later and I had given up...and it didn't answer my question.

Constrast that with Greg Boyd and Cotten. I've emailed them time after time, asked numerous question, haggled, etc. Never even ended up in a purchase, but they treated me well regardless.

Paul

[DryBones]

well, this is my last word on FOTW. back in July I was looking for my first mando and I needed a lefty. After looking around at several sites I found FOTW(before I found this site)I called and talked to a sales rep(who is no longer with FOTW) who sold me a MK Legacy FS with hard case and starter kit including a complete setup. Well the mando came to me on time but everything else was back ordered. I called to check on the status of my order and they told me about the sale of the company and that they were making a list of things owed to customers and would be making a big order to fill all these and said it would be available in about 2 weeks. the 2 week story went on about 2 months. I finally got to talk to David who said they couldn't get me a MK lefty hard case but were working on getting a Breedlove case instead....2 weeks later no case, back ordered again. Now it's late September so I go looking on the web for a MK lefty F hard case and find 1 on Elderly. I give them a call and 2 days later the case is in my house! I call David at FOTW back and "discuss" the case situation. He agrees to credit me back the retail cost of the case and ship out the remainder of my items. The credit came through on my CC but no tuner/dvd yet(no big deal). so in the end I get an MK Legacy FS and hard case for what I would have paid most places just for the mando. Not sure if the headache was worth it or if I will do business with FOTW in the future but it looks like David at least wanted to make me happy. Just don't understand why they couldn't find a case when I could. Also don't understand how they didn't find the right nut on a lefty mando during the setup. hard to believe I was the first person to bring this to attention. oh well, live and learn and play on!

[Tatoosh]

There is one condition under which a trade up policy can work - that being during a period of rampant inflation. For instance, with 20% inflation, the cost of goods doubles in about 4 years. Undoubtably, recent low inflation rates hurt FOTW's trade in policy.