Klarinet Archive - Posting 000150.txt from 2006/11

From: "Rommel John Miller" <rjmiller@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] WWBW Bankruptcy
Date: Thu, 30 Nov 2006 11:25:06 -0500

Point well taken. But be that as it may, I think getting a "good"
instrument first time out and being happy with it, and having your teachers
and techs happy with it too is a matter not so much of karma, but of luck.

And like the lemon laws which protect us against faulty and poorly
constructed automobiles, there should be similar laws to protect the
consumer against a poorly constructed musical instrument, or at least one
would like to hope that such assurances might exist.

As with cars, clarinets are pretty much an assembly-line process, albeit
very small-scale and very hands-on. The work involved is quick and paced,
especially at manufacturers like BuffetCrampon as shown in a Quicktime film
they once distributed on the web. No matter how many precautions are made,
mistakes and errors can and will be made, every so often a drill will
over-shoot its mark, or a something else may botch the works, and generally
a good eye and Quality Control will catch this, but even an eagle-eye isn't
always perfect.

Its called human error, and it happens. No one is perfect. Not even the
person or company which has to declare protection under Federal Bankruptcy
Laws. Listen, I myself had to declare Chapter 13 four years and that as
well as my being mentally ill are two factors that will always keep me from
ever practicing law for as long as I live. Now is that fair?

And these are rules made and enforced by men, simple hard-working men who
put their pants on one leg at a time and brush their teeth, and break wind
and belch the same way that I do, so what makes us so different? Perhaps it
is the way we think and feel, the way we react to being pushed or to having
been bullied for so many years, or of having gotten a bum deal time and time
again.

I went to WWBW and Music-123 because they were inexpensive, even when you
added on shipping and they were reliable and they had a good inventory, not
always what I wanted or needed, but pretty much everything.

But a funny thing happened when I met and talked to Morrie Backun, and told
him I got my Clarinet from WWBW, eyebrows began to be raised, and a-ha's
abounded across the whole room as if I had stolen a secret amulet that was
sacred and had let the cat out of the bag. And suddenly almost everyone in
the room at the Peabody Conservatory for the Clarinet Symposium had a horror
story to regale me with about WWBW, and my heart sunk, for up until then I
had held WWBW in the highest regard.

So it is funny how other people's experiences can influence our own
impression of something, isn't it? But I had my own first-hand encounter
with the nastiness of WWBW too, especially when they began to refuse to
acknowledge that they were not sending new Clarinets as ordered, but
reconditioned ones in their stead. And I had professional teachers and
techs who told me that the instruments that WWBW were sending each time had
been used and were older run (by the serial number) Buffet's.

I have no doubt that WWBW was trying to pull a shady deal with me, but that
is with me, and that is my experience. Others on this list might and have
expressed different more pleasant experiences, and I am glad you had a good
experience, I really am. I wish I would have had good luck too.

But it goes without saying that my experience was less than admirable and I
had a rotten time. But it was resolved and I am happy now, not so much that
WWBW is in Bankruptcy, but wondering why WWBW had to come to the end is the
real question.

Rommel John Miller
308 Dale Avenue
Baltimore, MD 21206-1219
410-668-4784
410-967-8994 (cell)
rjmiller@-----.net

"More Tears have been shed over answered prayers, than over unanswered
ones."
--St. Theresa of Avila & Truman Capote

-----Original Message-----
From: R. Williams [mailto:rwilliams@-----.net]
Sent: Thursday, November 30, 2006 7:42 AM
To: klarinet@-----.org
Subject: RE: [kl] WWBW Bankruptcy

Although I do not dispute your facts concerning your experience with
WWBW I do dispute your conclusions if for no other reason than they
contain two rather large logical errors.

First, there is your argumentum ad verecundiam which is not
persuasive. I earned a masters in management at a very good school
in Cambridge Mass. There I took a course in law, which I'm sorry to
say does not qualify me to practice law, nor to render judgement on
matters of law. My opinions on law should be judged accordingly.

The bigger issue though is a matter of presumption or specifically an
Accident, that is drawing a general conclusion from your specific
experience. The old saying, the exception proves the rule points to
this. I bought numerous items from WWBW over the years including my
clarinet with no problems what so ever. Is my experience any less
valid and if so what does that prove? In actuality, nothing.

>-----Original Message-----
>From: Rommel John Miller [mailto:rjmiller@-----.net]
>Subject: RE: [kl] WWBW Bankruptcy
>
>
>This is all very interesting to me, and it suggests poor management and
>unethical business practices. And I have studied law at a reputable law
>school in Baltimore, so I know from where I speak.

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