Brought in an instrument for service and repairs. The owner quoted on paper how much the repair would be and probably not that much. So, I gave him the go ahead for repairs. After playing phone tag to get ahold of them to see if it was completed I received a price change of quite abit more than quoted on the estimate. I said I have on paper it wouldn't be any more than the price I was quoted and probably be considerably less. The answer I recieved was just to come in and see the work and you'll be impressed. After an arguement with the price change I figured just pay the bill and get my gear and go. After much thought I decided to go to the better business bureau and plead my case. With documentation and papers in hand needless to say after months of deliberation I won. Didn't get all my money back but, still proved a point. Customer service is your bread and butter to any business. Keep your customers happy and you'll have 10 more new customers referred. Piss off one customer and you'll lose 100.

I had the same problem with the folklore guys as Fiona did. I have been seriously playing guitar for ~15 years, and yet it feels like the people working there treat me like an idiot whenever I enter the shop.

What finally turned me off from folklore is the last time I tried to do business with them. I began playing Flamenco on the side a couple of years ago. I'm a student, so naturally I can't afford a $3000+ flamenco style guitar at the moment. However, a friend visited me once who had a standard classical set up with low action similar to what you'd expect for the real deal. "Great!" I though, a relatively cheap substitute. So I spoke with one of the fellows working there and he said there would be no problem having it adjusted and getting appropriate strings, I would just have to wait until the came in. When they finally arrived I was quite excited and ended up taking a cab from school to grab my guitar and take it to them before they closed for the day. I go to speak to their guitar repair guy, Tom. What a d***. Seriously, this guy may be good at what he does... But he certainly isn't good enough to treat customers the way he does. He simply passes the job off, stating that he doesn't have much time and that it wasn't worth it, etc... And really, he was just an arrogant jerk about the whole thing. It wouldn't have bothered me so much if it weren't for the fact that I had already spoken to someone else at the store about the having the work done.

In the end I took the bloody guitar to Music Stop on Cunard and explained the kind of set up I wanted and why. A low action set up is a strange request for a classical guitar so I mentioned that I had played one similar to that and that I would be playing Flamenco, not classical. Luckily, they HAVE a clue and knew what I was talking about. So now I am waiting on them to call for me to pick it up! I really should have gone to them in the first place.

This is probably the reason why Folklore is a business run in a dingy old crap building and has a modest (at best) selection of instruments. If you want a unique antiquity that may have some character to it, force yourself to deal with their s***. Otherwise, just go to the big guys in town, you will get better service.

This place gets tons of hype and attention, but I will never set foot in there again. They were so rude to me - even making jokes behind my back (although I was 2 feet away and there's nothing wrong with my hearing) - and rather than assist me with my instrument, all they did was try to get me to buy another one for $300 (by the way Folklore guys: the repair I needed only cost $20 elsewhere). I hate this place.