Now That's What I Call Customer Service

It's one thing to design a good product, another to build it correctly, yet another to stand behind the product you've built, and another still to make sure the customer's happy even if something isn't your fault.

Since the people at Two-Rock have done all of the above for me this week, I'm extremely happy, even if I'm not thrilled with the nice people at Chicago Music Exchange.

Back in March, I bought a new Two-Rock Gain Master 35 at CME. While I always resolve not to visit that particular shop when I'm in Chicago, I always end up giving in to temptation, and I usually end up buying something. This past time, I was literally walking out the door when I saw the Two-Rock in the corner with a "Clearance" tag on it.

I'm not short on amplifiers, not by a long shot, but as some of you know, Two-Rock is a big part of John Mayer's current studio sound and for that reason I've wanted to have one of their amps for a while. Unfortunately they are far from cheap but at the clearance price it just about almost made sense to get it. I didn't play it in the store, just turned it on and verified that it was operational.

Once I got home and read the manual, I realized that I was missing the footswitch. I had a MESA/Boogie footswitch that worked to switch between clean and lead channels but the Two-Rock switch has a second function to activate an effects bypass loop. Therefore, when I had spare time in the following week I called Chicago Music Exchange and was assured that they would find the footswitch for the amplifier.

Over the next five months, I called the store six more times. Each time I deal with a sort of institutional amnesia --- oh, you bought what? You're missing what again? Let me go look for that. No, wait, we'll call you back --- and each time I became more frustrated. I started looking for the footswitch on eBay and at the online music stores. No luck.

I told myself that I would not let myself get to the half-year mark with this amp before taking serious and direct action on this admittedly trivial issue. So after my final call to CME proved no more effective than the previous ones, I called Two-Rock direct. They're now part of the "Premier Builders Guild" in California. That's a topic in and of itself, and since I think there is automotive relevance to the story of PBG I'll tell it separately some time soon. The phone was answered by a very helpful person who put me in touch with another very helpful person.

Two-Rock refused to sell me a footswitch. Instead, they said they'd call CME and straighten things out ASAP. When they called me a couple days later, they told me that nobody at CME appeared to even remember selling me the amp. At that point I started drawing in a deep breath for the purpose of screaming incoherently at the phone as it bounced along the pavement but before I could actually express my rage properly the fellow said,

"So, you know, they're pretty scattered over there sometimes, we'll just mail you one and work it out with them later."

"Okay then, let me pay you for it."

"No way, man. We'll just send it out. Don't want you to be unhappy with our product."

So now I have a footswitch. I'm also completely satisfied. I won't be in the market for another four-grand amplifier any time soon, but when I am, Two-Rock will be at the top of my list. Something like this:

Now if I could only figure out why the company is called Two-Rock. It's not in the brochures or the manual. Maybe it's meant to be a mystery. A little mystery never hurts anything, you know.