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Regrettably post this to apprise all of the poor service received from Octopus wood dealers.
In August 2019 I ordered over 3400 € worth of goods and still have not received the most important part of my order, a large quantity of Spanish Cedar neck blanks. The order for spruce tops for guitars and violas was received about two weeks after ordering, which is normal, but the shipment did not include the necks I ordered, for which a substantial payment was made. I wrote immediately to ask why the necks were not included and that this dissatisfied me greatly and the response was that I had a bad attitude as a customer for asking about this, and that my 30 kilogram limit for shipping was met.
I thought about canceling then, but wrote back asking that necks please be shipped as soon as possible, and was promised they would be shipped within days with the added gift of a snakewood fingerboard. The tracking information was not forthcoming. I waited a month, knowing how the guitar business can be slow moving, asked again. Was told there was an oversight and that my necks would be processed and shipped in one week without fail.
The same thing has happened twice since October after sending a gentle reminder. I’m still waiting for necks. The last time I was told they would be shipped before Christmas, as if that really matters, but this deadline has again passed with no word of contact about tracking or shipment. I sent an email to Octopus asking for the neck payment to be returned immediately, and that I’ll never do business with them again.
It’s on this Foro where I got such assurance that Octopus was a reliable, but slightly quirky vendor. Quirky is one thing, but being lied to four times about the shipment date of goods paid for is different, there’s another term for that, incompetence. I wished I had simply continued to do business with LMI, Allied, International Violin, or even Madinter. Or given the money to the private wood cutter I know in Austria, or Florett.
The goods I did receive were ok, but didn’t think the quality was there in the #1 grade tops, half of them were marred by either very difficult to work around pitch pockets or twisted grain turnaround that should never ever be given a first grade rating. If LMI had send me materials like that I would have returned them.
So I’m deeply unsatisfied by the experience and the stress of wondering if I’ll ever see either necks or my hard earned money from making instruments.
And I thought you all should know it’s not a good organization as far as my experience. I would never have been treated like this by any suppliers I have relationships with and I regret not ordering from them as usual.
RE: Octopus Wood Supplier UNRELIABLE (in reply to estebanana)
quote:
Octopus Wood Supplier
Steve, I checked one octopus supplier in Turkey and their prices for cypress and Spanish cedar necks were reasonable but not very high quality. Necks were like 11.70 euros.
Would it help for you to identify the exact supplier?
I buy much of my wood from LMI now, simply because they are USA and guarantee their product, shipping, etc. If I were in Europe I would buy from Madinter. (Personal preference).
RE: Octopus Wood Supplier UNRELIABLE (in reply to estebanana)
Wow. I’m sort of not surprised to hear this based on what I’ve read about them and the other Turkish supplier - Akustik or whatever they are called. I emailed them about two months ago about buying cypress and never heard back. LMI is just so damn expensive. I also get what I can from international violin since they are only 15 min away from me but he doesn’t have much for guitar wise except for tops. Man I hope you get your money back. How long have you been doing business with them?
RE: Octopus Wood Supplier UNRELIABLE (in reply to estebanana)
I’ve requested a refund of the payment for the necks I ordered, but I’ll be amazed if I am compensated and not fed more ****. Even a refund request had made the effort expended on the whole mess a brain drama I wouldn’t recommend. If you’ve purchased from these guys before and had good business relations lucky for you. My experience has been that I dropped 3500€ in good faith and have been treated like an aggressor asking for something I didn’t pay for. Good luck to you if you decide to work with this company. There is no accountability except to request a credit card fraud investigation with the email documentation I saved. If it comes to that it’s probably a formality that my credit card company will pursue, but it doesn’t promise success.
As for writing further here, I miss the simple days of fighting with Anders, but I think both of us have moved on. My intention in posting this note is to give buyers of whatever goods you seek a heads up on this companies attitude issues. I hope you all have better luck.
RE: Octopus Wood Supplier UNRELIABLE (in reply to estebanana)
At this point we are trying work something out. I let them know that independent builders rely on a good support system of suppliers and that we comprise a good amount of business for large and small vendors alike. And that instrument makers like communication about goods and services. I’m very much hoping I will be writing further on this matter and give it a positive ending that benefits all buyers wanting to purchase flamenco guitar making supplies.
RE: Octopus Wood Supplier (in reply to estebanana)
Happy to report I’ve received all the stuff I originally ordered back in August. A little quirky, but not anything bad.
The wood I received for necks is all fine quality, one is too soft out of a three dozen but that doesn’t matter because it’s suited for a veneered neck should I ever make one.
I took ten new sets of cypress which is also lovely and quite stiff. One set is swishy across the grain, not a big deal because it will make a nice tenor uke, should ever go Hawaiian.
It’s business as usual now, but I did work a bit too hard to gain the reset in the relationship. I’m thinking it’s water under the bridge. I’ll probably do some business with them in 2020
Something about this post.... Do you have some kind of affiliation with octopus woods!??
I’m not seeing it…seems to be a trifle speculative, Stu… … but still…you might be onto something. If only there were some way to establish a connection, however tenuous…
RE: Octopus Wood Supplier (in reply to estebanana)
This video outlines the problems with the neck blanks I ordered. Make your own judgement. My order was for 40 standard neck blanks. I was perfectly happy to not get into this again, but the insinuation I was a difficult customer gets my nose bent out of shape, because I was a patient and carefully moderate customer in language and manners.
RE: Octopus Wood Supplier (in reply to estebanana)
Watched the video. Wow, that's terrible, sorry that you got treated this way. You are pretty calm; it would drive me up a wall to have so many compounding issues and having to accept it as is and move on.
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Joined: Jan. 30 2007
From: London (the South of it), England
RE: Octopus Wood Supplier (in reply to estebanana)
Yeah what the heck! 😄 watched half the video but had to go save l save my family from the rain
Do they even offer pre scarfed necks as a product on their site?? I mean I know some places offer pretty much finished necks apart from the personal bits.
Maybe they thought they were doing you a favour to make up for the initial blunder?! 😄
RE: Octopus Wood Supplier (in reply to estebanana)
Why did you put up with this? You should have initiated a return. Instead of saving time this company created work for you. Who would want an instrument where small pieces of wood were cut from one end and glued to the other?
On another note, I have a table saw, bench top planer, hand planer, etc., and I rarely do any woodworking. It doesn’t seem like processing raw wood into the dimensions you require for neck blanks would take that much effort. You could make parts for other builders and sell them.
RE: Octopus Wood Supplier (in reply to Pgh_flamenco)
They kind of had me at a disadvantage power wise. They had all my money, and the goods I paid for, so I tread as carefully as I could so I could get my materials. I’m in Japan and this vendor is in the Mediterranean area, it’s not as if I could simply walk into an American big box store like Home Depot and demand to talk to the manager.
Anyway this was a caveat emptor flag. I’ve heard others have had better luck. Do what you will.
On the note of make parts for other builders:
Yes it is difficult to undo the pre scarfed necks. And no the little piece glued at the heel end doesn’t detract from the instrument, because it’s laminated into the heel stack and is under the top. As for making parts for other luthiers…why would I waste my material needed to fulfill my commissions on some other makers who already know how to make a neck?
Here’s another point, if I had wanted to make Vee-Joint necks where the headstock is created with the kind of joint used by Hauser or Romanillos, there isn’t enough wood left in the neck blank to make that kind of joint.
RE: Octopus Wood Supplier (in reply to Pgh_flamenco)
quote:
On another note, I have a table saw, bench top planer, hand planer, etc., and I rarely do any woodworking. It doesn’t seem like processing raw wood into the dimensions you require for neck blanks would take that much effort. You could make parts for other builders and sell them.
At a near by molding company, An employee used a big forklift to get out a massive pile of Spanish Cedar for me to look through. I brought my block plane with me to plane the end grain of boards looking for straight grain wood. Out of that huge pile I found one really nice 10 foot board. Surfaced 4 sides and cut around knots. After all that I got 2-3 neck blanks and some brace wood. In the end I thought if I were a pro builder my time would be better spent elsewhere!
RE: Octopus Wood Supplier (in reply to estebanana)
I dealt with Octopus a number of years ago had an almost identical experience as you did concerning the delayed shipping time. Thing is, I was sent a photo of the prepared shipment within days of placing the order, so I’m not sure where the hold-up was. It’s possible the delay was at the post office. All I know is after a couple of months I indicated I had to open up a PayPal request for refund before the deadline ran out and one week later the material arrived, postmarked just about the day after I indicated I’d be filing the refund request.
On a positive note, and in their defence, the wood I received was OK, it was pretty freshly cut but once aged it was good. It was also priced very fairly for what it was, so I have no complaints about the product itself, save that some of the dimensions were so tight I had pretty well zero wiggle room in how it could be used.
Hopefully they’ve upped their game in the years since. I don’t wish ill on anyone and like to give the benefit of the doubt, but fairness has to run both ways.
That being said, I wouldn’t be happy if I was sent pre-scarfed necks, I’d want either my money back or a substantial discount. In general, I don’t like it when wood is overly processed by the seller, although I do understand the need to be reasonable and to have some degree of flexibility. But things like cutting backs or tops into “coffin” shapes, pre-thicknessing to the absolute minimum usable dimension, calling anything from 45 degrees or up an acceptable definition of quarter, what you experienced with the scarf jointed necks, shorting dimensions, the list goes on, none of that stuff is acceptable unless it’s pictured and disclosed up front. It’s almost always a transparent attempt by the supplier to squeeze a bit more profit out of the raw materials, but it’s at the expense of usability for the customer, who is essentially robbed of their discretion. It sucks. I’ve experienced everything I just listed and more (except the pre-scarfed necks). It’s hair-pullingly frustrating at times.
As an aside to the non-makers who are wondering why this stuff is an issue…
When buying across borders the purchaser is pretty well at the mercy of the honesty, conscientiousness, and skill of the supplier. If the product doesn’t meet expectations the customer is disadvantaged not only in the ability to return or negotiate a discount, but in how (or even if) they can use the materials in crafting the end product. I’ve had numerous bad experiences when purchasing wood across borders (with the company referred to in this thread being responsible for only one of them).