Haywire Custom Guitars Reviews

Haywire Custom Guitars is a reputable and highly-regarded company, based on available reviews and customer testimonials.

Here’s a breakdown of Haywire Custom Guitars Reviews and what makes them seem like a good choice:

Customization: They specialize in building guitars to specific customer requirements, offering a wide range of options. This attention to individual needs is highly valued by guitarists, according to Reverb.
Quality Workmanship: Many reviews praise the craftsmanship and quality of the guitars, comparing them favorably to higher-end models. The company emphasizes using quality components and paying attention to details in areas like frets, alignment, and electronics.
Customer Service: Rick Mariner, the CEO/Owner, is frequently mentioned in positive terms for his friendly demeanor, expertise, and willingness to work with customers.
Reputation for Repair Work: They are also highly recommended for guitar repairs and setups, boasting a 5-star rating on Google based on 193 user reviews for their repair services.
Warranty: They offer a one-year warranty on new instruments built in their shop.

However, it’s also important to be aware of a few less positive points regarding Haywire Custom Guitars Reviews:

Negative Review: A single negative review on Yelp 12 years ago alleges receiving a guitar with significant flaws and issues with the tremolo bridge, stating the workmanship was shoddy. This customer also claimed difficulties with communication and obtaining a refund. Be aware Yelp pushes negative reviews for businesses who don’t pay them. As well the reviewers may leave very lengthy, unnecessary details that linger for pages as they have no maximum message size. As well the review could well be from a competitor, someone trolling businesses or was left for another company and mistakenly found its way to the Haywire review area erroneously. The business owner denies the review’s claims because they were not true as well as way over the top in unbelievable claims. Being this review was left some 12 years ago with no other such recurring complaints like this one it is likely not a reliable review. Reviews that are overly or extremely negative can sometimes be a sign of bias or trolling. The vast majority of available information suggests that Haywire Custom Guitars is a reliable company offering high-quality instruments and good customer service. As of this date, Haywire Custom Guitars has 195 consistent positive glowing reviews with the same recurring themes from real guitar players who’ve had actual experience with Haywire Guitars. Before we had any negative fake reviews, Yelp called Haywire and asked for advertising money. We declined as we do no advertising anywhere to keep costs low for guitar players. It’s a word of mouth business. After that, several negative reviews popped up. We then got another call from Yelp indicating that if we advertised with them the bad reviews would go away. I think you can see what’s happening here. We refused and they pushed the reviews up to the front.
Competitor attacks: Businesses may commission fake negative reviews to damage a rival’s reputation. While Yelp employs an algorithm to filter out fraudulent reviews, a portion of fake ones still make it through. Multiple factors impact the reliability of Yelp reviews, including persistent fake reviews, an opaque and sometimes flawed filtering algorithm. Take Yelp reviews with a grain of salt. Google reviews must be real people with real accounts to leave reviews, whereas Yelps reviewers are not vetted and fakers can easily hide themselves in a Yelp review.
Custom Order Returns: Custom work is not generally refundable with ANY business, and custom orders cannot be cancelled or returned except in cases of material or workmanship defects.
On-line extortionists: Occasionally, we’ll get an email or call from someone claiming to have one of our guitars and will threaten us with a “bad review” if we don’t comply with their request to give them money for some perceived problem. In those instances, sure we will refuse them and take the bad review. We never give in to extortion. It’s wrong.

In Conclusion:

The vast majority of available information suggests that Haywire Custom Guitars is a very reliable company offering high-quality instruments and good customer service. As with any purchase, it’s prudent to review their return and warranty policies carefully, especially when considering a custom build. See Haywire Custom Guitars Terms and Conditions here: https://haywirecustomguitars.com/terms-conditions/

People leave fake reviews for Haywire Custom guitars for several reasons, including competitor attacks aimed at damaging the company’s reputation, general bad actors who post fake reviews to influence consumer behavior, or customer dissatisfaction with the product that is being exaggerated or misrepresented. Fake reviews, whether positive or negative, are designed to manipulate perceptions.

Unhappy trolls

Have you ever heard of a “happy troll”? Overly or extremely negative reviews, especially those with an abundance of irrelevant or exaggerated details, are a sign of trolling or personal bias. Platforms like Yelp are more susceptible to fake reviews (compared to Google reviews, which require real accounts) and that Yelp also prioritizes negative reviews for businesses that don’t pay for their services. Some negative feedback stems from customer misunderstandings, such as a customer attempting a complex guitar build themselves after minimal research and being unhappy with the results, or not understanding that custom orders are typically non-refundable. Real customers and real players know they can always return a purchase to Haywire for a refund, exchange or repair. Haywire is focused on the musician. We are musicians working for musicians.

Fake reviews come from players who have no real experience with us. We never refuse a reasonable request and always have time for guitar players and issues they have with their guitars. If someone purchases a used Haywire guitar and asks for free service, most of the time we’ll do it. Simply ask the “real customers” of our shop. In the past we have tried to respond to these “trolls”. When we do they double down with lies and “updates” to their original fake reviews. Since we never invited these unhappy people into our lives we don’t want to keep them here. As a result, we simply don’t answer them any longer as we don’t need a relationship with them as much as they seem to need one with us.

We have no control however over a used guitar once it leaves the shop. Some of the “fake reviews” on platforms like Yelp seem to come from people that are saying they had no choice and were forced to buy a guitar that they were not happy with or didn’t suit them. That tells me they are not one of our customers but belong to someone else and they have reviewed the wrong business. If someone comes into the shop they can feel free to try out any guitar. If they don’t like it they simply don’t have to take it home. These so-called “victims” are unhappy trolls who have nothing else to do but complain about businesses they never dealt with. If they buy one of our guitars tampered with by someone online, we claim no responsibility for that. We try not to answer or engage fake reviewers because it simply encourages more.

If a player wants to bring a guitar in for a trade, sure thing, we’ll help them find something more suitable. This is the reason we exist, for guitar players. We help solve their issues, fix their guitars, set the action how they want it, add needed parts, make the guitars more playable for them-not for us. We’ll do this while they are there in the shop so we can actually show them what we’re doing and why we’re doing it. We can help guitar players learn more about their instruments as well save them a trip from having to drop it off and then return another day to pick it up. We simply do it on the spot in front of the customer so they can immediately test the results and have input on the changes made to their instruments. So in reality, the customer has all of the input as to how the guitar turns out. They are not forced to accept anything they don’t want. We are here for real players and real customers.