# Fulltone customer alert



## synop7

Hi guys
Just wanna share the worst ever customer service experience.
Purchased a Catalyst Fulltone in NYC in 2010. The unit stopped working. Tried to get in touch with the company. After 2 weeks I get an angry email by Michael Fuller owner of Fulltone. He boldly wrote I should go F*** myself.

The guys is a biggot and a racist.

Beware of this company. The don't care bout ya when you walked out the door after purchasing what you were told is a great product.

It's not

Don't buy any Fulltone units.


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## sulphur

I'd heard that he can be a dickhead, this proves it.

Thanks for the heads up.


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## mhammer

We ALL know how to be dickheads. You, me, Fuller, everybody here.

While many manufacturers, large and small-scale alike, provide customer support in various forms, their hope is that they have to provide as little of it as possible, because it costs them money and time. Of course, the two best ways to avoid having to provide customer service are to either provide an absolutely indestructible 100% reliable product, or one which is cheap enough to replace, that nobody is interested in going through the nuisance of service ("Dear Sir or Madam, These toothpicks keep breaking on me!"). Failing that, you try to find ways to get around providing costly customer service, like providing schematics so people can fix it themselves or bring it to a repair person, or servicing but imposing some other customer burden that will act as a disincentive and keep service demand to a minimum ("If you pay for return shipping on your amp head, I'll be happy to restore it to working condition.", "We'll be happy to fix it, but it will require 90 days.").

All of that said, every merchant knows that word of mouth and reputation is vital to their success, so while they would rather not have to provide so much customer service, they recognize that ignoring the customer is going to undermine their reputation, and hurt sales. 

I'm not casting blame here, but there is an art to requesting customer service, and sometimes requests just start off on the wrong foot. I find it hard to believe that Fulltone could have as loyal a customer base, and as much sales as they do, if every service request, regardless of how it was presented, was met in this manner. Something must have gone amiss to have sparked such a response. I suspect we're not hearing the whole story here. For example, was there a request from Fuller that the repair itself would be free, but the customer pay the shipping? Was the description of the problem insufficiently clear? Did the customer expect a faster-than-realistic response time and flood the Fulltone inboix with "why haven't you responded yet?" e-mails? Something must have gone off the rails because NOBODY responds to simple civil requests for customer service like that for no apparent reason AND stays in business for more than a year.


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## sulphur

I'd be interested in more on the story from the OP.

This isn't the first time that I've heard negative remarks about Fuller and his "service".

You'd think that with an operation as big as his, you'd hire someone to wade through the customer requests?


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## R.S.Fraser Sr.

I'd be interested in knowing from the OP how one discerns that Fuller is a "bigot and a racist", by way of his response to a customer complaint.


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## sulphur

*Ryan @ Dr Scientist*

Now you want an example of how to do it right?

On another forum, a member bought a used Elements, one of the first 50, it turned out to be.
These first units had issues with the noise floor, so Ryan had tweaked the circuit after those initial 50.
This guy was concerned with the residual noise, so I pointed him towards the ILF forum and told him to get a hold of Ryan.

Ryan, as usual, responded immediately, offered to fix it no charge and pay to ship it back to the guy.
No cursing, no swearing, no belittling, just great service that sets the bar so much higher than most businesses.

News like this also spreads around, just the same as if he were an a-hole.
Service like that makes for repeat customers and a growing following.


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## Ti-Ron

Would love to read the OP email sent to Fulltone.
"The guys is a biggot and a racist." leads me to think we have an incomplete story.


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## synop7

Ok here's the full story
2 weeks ago my Fulltone Catalyst stopped working
I contacted the company by email without succes after filling all the proper online forms describing the problem and my location, where the unit was purchased, etc...

This mornig I tried again
First email read


FULLTONE

Perhaps of you start speaking English and state what it is that you really want you'll get some help.

MY REPLY

Dear Michael
Hope my english is good enough so you understand that this email will be sent to your supervisor.
Hope he treats you as good as you treated me

MY 2ND EMAIL

Don't insult me please
I am located in Montreal Canada and trying to reach you for a week
I am a longtime customer of Fulltone products
See all emails belows
Behave as a would expect from a decent company

FULLTONE

I own the company... Fuck you and your attitude

Michael Fullerwww.fulltone.com

There you go

I won't post my last reply


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## TheRumRunner

synop, sounds like you got the infamous Fulltone bite in the ass - sorry to hear that.

A couple of years ago I needed a new bottom case for my soulbender (long story on how it was lost). I emailed Fulltone asking for the price and shipping charge for a replacement. I didn't hear back. However, a week or so later a replacement was in my mail box - no charge

DW


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## Nork

That's pretty ridiculous. Period. Regardless of language barrier, how you go about asking, or whatever. Fulltone is big enough to be able to properly support it's stuff. Glad I've never bought one of their pedals. And I won't.


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## sulphur

Ya, I have a Clyde Deluxe, but that'll be the last Fulltone pedal for this guy.

There's just too many good builders out there with some decorum and people skills.


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## GTmaker

this is a great thread for this perticular program
Tales of Customer Service | Under The Influence with Terry O'Reilly | CBC Radio

you can download the program and listren to it on your own time or you can stream it from the web site.

G.

if your interested in this kind of stuff, this is a very interesting program that I happen to like a lot.


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## Evilmusician

I had a Supa-Trem that had a broken knob so I email Fulltone for a replacement the knob was gonna cost me 17.00 plus shipping! please for a 30. knob! so off went the Trem and no more Fulltone for me !


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## davetcan

Too many stories for them not to be true yet the one time I did have trouble with one of my OCD's, and was having problems with the first guy I contacted, Mike jumped in and made it right. Didn't cost me a penny. He must have had a good day that day


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## traynor_garnet

I have had decent service and very "curt" service too. The guy probably gets peppered with teenagers asking about "the best" pedal but that is no excuse. Great pedals though. I love my Soul Bender.


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## TWRC

I'm a bit conflicted about this but have only ever owned one Fulltone product, my OCD. On one hand I know that reputation is a huge factor in having a successful business, so it saddens me to hear about their poor customer service because I love my OCD. On the other, I as a consumer have the choice to buy whatever I want and in the guitar realm, that means 'what's best for me'. If the Fulltone team is made up of a bunch of assholes, but make the best overdrive for my gear, I'll still buy the pedal despite their reputation. In other words, the proof is in the pudding; however, it doesn't give them the right to treat their supporters like shit - they need to smarten up.


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## synop7

Battle of the pricks: the final chapter

Hi everybody. Just to let you know I got my Fulltone Catalyst pedal back after sending it for service in California. 'bout 60$ shipping back and forth. No charge for the repair that was still under the legal warranty.

That's the good news. Bad news is I couldn't help my self and write back tho Michael Fuller to owner of Fulltone to rub it in. Mature? Me? Nah.

Here's the emails we exchanged. When Fuller refers to "Jean" he writes about me

Gotta to go. Ticket for the Stones in Montreal will be onlline in a few minutes.

Have a nice week end !

MY EMAIL

Dear mister Fuller

I don't know if you remember me. Here's the last email you sent me on march 16th when I asked for service.

*I own the company... Fuck you and your attitude Michael Fuller **[url]www.fulltone.com*[/URL]After that email, I received a form from your company

Even afetr the way you treated me, I sent anyways my Catalyst pedal to be serviced at your shop, after all it was still under legal warranty.

You'll be glad to know that your company did exactly what I expected: the unit was properly fixed and shipped back to Canada. I had excellent service, thank you very much.

I still believe that Fulltone makes the best stompboxes around.

But I am still very shocked by the foul language that you used on that day. 

Copies of emails we traded that day were forwarded to your canadian retailers and many guitar forums, just to show how exactly your deal with faithfull customers.

Have a nice day

J Sawyer
Montreal, Canada 


AND MISTER FULLER'S REPLY

Thank you for spreading the story, as it helps stop the problem and hopefully 

the next cocky asshole who thinks he's going to bully me or one of my employees will think twice



You are nobody...just like I am nobody.

Yet you emailed with such a shitty, self righteous, impatient, pompous attitude and you promptly got bitch-slapped, like a pimp correcting his ho.



Nice people get treated nice here...delusional assswipes get their asses handed to them on a silver platter.





Now you go and be my messenger post this as well, so I can be spared the next "Jean" who perhaps hasn't been around long enough to know how to behave when talking to me.



Regards,


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## Clean Channel

Never bought any of their stuff, partly due to the stories. Definitely will not now.

On the flip side (as has already been mentioned), Ryan from Dr. Scientist is one of the nicest people in the business.


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## TheRumRunner

After reading that...

I'm going to buy LOT's of Fulltone products. 


DW


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## noman

I've only ever owned an OCD (great pedal) but have heard about the owner being an idiot. Once I got into Kingsley pedals, out went the OCD and Simon Jarrett is the best.........him and his wife run an A1 company with the best products. Love to give my $$$ to companies like this. Also have to mention Brian at Neunaber.........I bought a used WET that I screwed up and fried, he repaired it for free, no questions just had to pay the shipping.


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## Guest

Fuller should be fired from his own company. The market will slowly sink him. He will be a grouchy lonely old man with a small business that could have been a world wide corp.


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## ONFLOOR AUDIO

Wow , i'm shocked at how bad that went down !!

Customer service & product quality should be your #1 priority ... you would think !!

In a time when there are so many great pedal builder's these days , i'm really floored 
by his replies .... oh well , i guess you know where not to get your next pedal from !


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## Budda

You still haven't shown us the first email you sent via the online form...


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## davetcan

I'd like to see it too. I've dealt with Mike on a couple of occasions, both were issues with his pedals, and I wasn't told to fuck off, quite the contrary. I'd love to see what started this thing 



Budda said:


> You still haven't shown us the first email you sent via the online form...


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## georgemg

Looks to me like there were two emails that were omitted by synop7 - the first email the followed completion of the form and then the one the morning of the first post. After seeing Mike's response to the email that was sent after the pedal was returned, I think it's pretty safe to say synop7 wasn't all that polite in at least one of those emails.



synop7 said:


> AND MISTER FULLER'S REPLY
> Thank you for spreading the story, as it helps stop the problem and hopefully the next cocky asshole who thinks he's going to bully me or one of my employees will think twice
> 
> You are nobody...just like I am nobody. Yet *you emailed with such a shitty, self righteous, impatient, pompous attitude* and you promptly got bitch-slapped, like a pimp correcting his ho. Nice people get treated nice here...delusional assswipes get their asses handed to them on a silver platter.


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## sulphur




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## synop7

Some of you guys asked for the 1st email that set Michael Fuller off

You have to know that I wrote to Fulltone on march 7th to aksk for a repair, I got a form stating details on warranties that specified that no pedal will be accepted without the agreement of an authorised repaiperson.

So I waited 

Then on march 16th I sent this other email

Need service now
Been tryin to reach you for a week
No answer but a price list
My pedal is still under legal warranty
Reply swiftly and let me know how to proceed

That's how it started


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## bolero

personally I have only had great service & communication from Mike Fuller


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## Intrepid

Same here. Have never had an issue with the guy. Maybe he had a bad day. We all do.


bolero said:


> personally I have only had great service & communication from Mike Fuller


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