Shop Brand Certifications

[Al Pachter Al’s Guitar Workshop]

I’ve never found it necessary to become certified. I’ve heard it’s a hassle to deal with those jobs, and they pay less from what I understand. If I needed more business then I would definitely become certified. Taylor says they only sell their shims to authorized Taylor techs but I convinced them to sell me a set 🙂

[Mark Eberman EireCraft Guitars]

I don’t know about warranty work and how much value there is in it. I wanted to become Taylor certified because of Taylor service training I got in school (not so I could do warranty work), and they wouldn’t let me in the program because I didn’t have a standalone shop with a dedicated reception area, street entrance, etc. They said they are trying to be more careful about the customer experience and staying with more professional-looking shops.

But even without certification, they’ve been very responsive to me when I approach them professionally as a luthier with specific questions. They’ve been willing to send shims in a small range of sizes based on my needs (I have two full sets already) and have been very generous with guidance and “this is how we handle that in the shop here” kind of advice. I’ve never once been given any trouble about not being a certified tech.

So for Taylor, you definitely don’t need a certification to get technical assistance if you approach them as a fellow professional. But you can’t put up that nice Taylor Certified sign.

[Doug Proper Guitar Specialist]

I’ll jump in on this one. Our shop has been a warranty center for almost every brand that I can think of (Martin, Fender, Gibson/Epiphone, Guild, Santa Cruz, Taylor, Ibanez (Hoshino), Ovation, Gretsch, etc.) for at least some part of the last 35 of the 40 years we’ve been in business.

Each manufacturer has their own criteria, method for consideration, ideas about training, application process and procedures for approving a shop as a warranty center. In very many of the cases in our shop, most of those manufacturers sought us out. Others we applied for, sometimes at the behest of a customer.

Back when we started our shop in the mid 1980’s, there was no internet, no amazon.com, no YouTube – nothing. If you wanted to be able to get factory parts from a manufacture (and at a discount), you needed to be a warranty center or dealer for them or they wouldn’t give you the time of day. The same goes for technical support. Without the benefit of being a warranty center for a given brand, you were stuck calling their consumer support numbers if you had a problem that you wanted advise on. Take Fender for example. FMIC’s warranty support is among the best in the biz as far as I am concerned. If you are a warranty shop you get a dedicated number for tech support which is typically staffed by looths who really know their stuff and can actually help.

So, for us being able to get factory parts and help when we needed it to solve a head scratcher was why we did it.

In every case, i can tell you from a monetary standpoint, it probably isn’t worth it. Warranty reimbursement rates for repair are usually less than half (sometimes much less) than the retail rate you would normally get from the end user of the guitar for those same services

There are advantages and disadvantages to accepting warranty work.

The Advantages:

– Access to factory parts that are sometimes unavailable for public purchase and at a significant discount. If you are in an area that is tough to get your hands n factory parts – this might be a good enough reason.

– in many cases access to dedicated support for answers – the quality of those answers can vary from manufacturer to manufacturer

– All those certifications can look impressive hanging on the wall – they of course don’t mean anything, they’re just a piece of paper and say nothing about the competence of the shop they hang in – but some customers find it reassuring.

– It can drive customers to your shop. Guitar owners, especially inexperienced ones tend to contact the manufacturer (by phone or website) when they need service and look up the nearest warranty center in their area. Even if the service is not in warranty, they feel better dealing with a “Factory Authorized” shop. If a customer finds you because the output jack on their Gibson fell into their guitar or the switch on their Fender started acting up – and they like the service they got from you – they’ll likely turn into repeat customers with other guitars they have once they have found you. without that initial warranty contact – you might have never landed that customer.

The Disadvantages:

– The pay stinks. It varies from awful to bordering on insulting. Some are better than others – but pretty much all warranty reimbursement rates are terrible compared to what you would normally charge for the service on a retail level. The better (and longer) your relationship with a given manufacturer, the more flexibility there might be. In recent years we’ve had some FMIC repairs come through our shop for Fender Custom Shop pieces that needed warranty finish work. They worked with us, very generously, to make sure that we felt taken care of on the money side. It still wasn’t close to what I would have charged a customer outside of warranty – but it was respectable and i felt valued by the folks at FMIC for the gesture.

– In very many cases today you can find almost any part you need on the Amazonian Super Store – and sometimes for less $$ than what my dealer discount from the manufacturer is. So because the availability of parts nowadays is so much more ubiquitous, there’s less of a need to be a warranty shop if this is your reason.

– Warranty Customer can be among the neediest customers on the planet. They can suck up time from your shop like vampires. There are often some very high expectations of what should be covered under warranty – and more often than not – it’s not covered. Martin customers can be some of the most entitled people on the planet, for example.

Sorry if I got a bit wordy – every shop has to make its own decision whether to pursue warranty work. On balance – I would say it’s not a bad thing. We have developed some good friends at many manufacturers and have some good relationships as a result. Many a customer who first brought us in the “Whatever Brand” guitar for warranty service over the years have become lifelong customers of our shop – they may not have shown up otherwise. On the other hand – some of the biggest headaches I’ve suffered as a result of customer service problems usually could be traced back to a customer pounding their fist on my front counter while asserting their rights under some manufacturer’s warranty – and in most of those cases, the manufacturer wasn’t much help.

I will say this – I would highly recommend it if you are early in your career in this biz. In large measure the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. We have been scaling back the amount of warranty work we do over the last ten years, then again – I am much closer to the end of my career than the beginning of it.

I hope this lends some insight.

[Mike Hoenerhoff Elderly Instruments]

Fwiw- If I wasn’t required to do warranty work, I wouldn’t be doing it. For all of the reasons Doug stated above.

[Ian Davlin The Looth Group]

Bottom line: Warranty Schmarranty.

[Jim Glinsky Glinsky Customs]

I’m with Doug on this one. They only value I see in being certified is that it looks good on the wall. It adds a certain sense of legitimacy for the customer. Lets face it. The process isn’t difficult and is not meant to legitimize you as a looth in the looth world. The rates are really unreasonable and like Doug mentioned, you can waste a lot of time with an unhappy warranty customer. Plus, they’re not unhappy with the work that you do. It’s usually about a repair that doesn’t get covered by the manufacturer for any number of reasons. You end up being a representative for the manufacturer. No thank you. I still hold my Fender and Taylor certifications, but I don’t really do any warranty work thanks to there being a few GC’s and other retail stores close by that handle most of that.

Just my 2 cents!