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Business Profile

Music Instrument Store

Philtone Guitar Company

This business is NOT BBB Accredited.

Find BBB Accredited Businesses in Music Instrument Store.

Complaints

This profile includes complaints for Philtone Guitar Company's headquarters and its corporate-owned locations. To view all corporate locations, see

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Philtone Guitar Company has 2 locations, listed below.

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    Customer Complaints Summary

    • 2 total complaints in the last 3 years.
    • 0 complaints closed in the last 12 months.

    If you've experienced an issue

    Submit a Complaint

    The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

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    Complaint status

    Complaint type

    • Initial Complaint

      Date:03/13/2023

      Type:Delivery Issues
      Status:
      Unanswered
      Resolved:
      The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.
      Unresolved:
      The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.
      Answered:
      The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.
      Unanswered:
      The business failed to respond to the dispute.
      Unpursuable:
      BBB is unable to locate the business.
      On 09/26/2022 I brought a 1950's Gibson guitar (appraisal in Supporting Documents) to Phil ****** of Philtone Guitar Co. for repair (refret/new nut/fingerboard&inlay work - see Estimate 1297 in Supporting Documents). Promise date for completion of work was Sunday October 9th, 2022, 2 weeks from drop-off date. I was dubious about this, having used Philtone twice before for guitar repairs. In our previous dealings, work was delivered past due but within a reasonable time frame. The quality of the work was excellent.

      The morning of Sunday 10/9, I received a text, phone call, and email from Phil stating the job was not complete, but that he'd be willing to drop it off at my residence the next day (see text-string in Supporting Documents). Also on the morning of 10/9, Phil sent three photos of the guitar on his bench with frets/nut/inlays out. In short, he'd done the strip-down, but hadn't started the replacement of parts). I replied that he should contact me when the job is complete.

      After this, communication went dead. No response from Philtone to a handful of my texts, emails, and voice messages.

      I next heard from Phil by email on December 15th, 2022, roughly 2 months after the promise date for a purportedly 2-week job (see email string in supporting documents). He stated that inlay work brought out the perfectionist in him and gave me second completion date of Christmas 2022. This email on 12/15/2022 is the last time I have heard from Phil ******.

      We are now approaching 6 months from the original promise date and 3 months from the last time I heard from Phil ******. This despite three further attempts to contact him by email, the second of which requested that he either finish the job or return the guitar unfinished for a pro-rated fee by March 31, 2023 (original agreement: 2 week job).

      In my last email to Phil on 2/27/2023, I offered a good-faith warning that I'd submit this complaint to BBB if I didn't hear from him. No response to date.

    • Initial Complaint

      Date:02/17/2023

      Type:Delivery Issues
      Status:
      Unanswered
      Resolved:
      The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.
      Unresolved:
      The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.
      Answered:
      The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.
      Unanswered:
      The business failed to respond to the dispute.
      Unpursuable:
      BBB is unable to locate the business.
      On October 27th 2022 I shipped my guitar from Wisconsin to Phil ****** ( Philtone Guitars ) in Baltimore, MD for new Frets, and stripping the finish off the back of the neck, as well as some other miscellaneous work. Prior to the start of the project Phil and I corresponded about an estimate of the price and a rough idea of a turn-around time ( of approx. 6-8 weeks ). I confirmed that he received the instrument ( by signed *** tracking # documents ) on Nov. 2nd 2022 ….

      I follow up with Phil in December looking for a status on the project. I send three ( 3 ) different E-mails on December 9th / December 20th / December 27th before he answered me …, saying that he needed to get past the holidays and would have an update for me on or around January 11th ….

      I started E-mailing for the status on January 13th / January 20th / January 30th with no response. I began calling his office phone number ( February 6th & February 8th ), receiving his voice mail saying to E-mail him instead of leaving a message ….

      I have no information on whether ( or not ) the project has even been started or is it just sitting somewhere collecting dust ? I am beginning to question if the instrument is even in his possession any longer ?

      I’m considering reporting the guitar as stolen property and filing a police report w/ the local authorities to see if I can at least recover my guitar that way ?

    Philtone Guitar Company is NOT a BBB Accredited Business.

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