john bange - Posted - 10/07/2013:  09:33:25

he links his banjo sales to our long neck group...he must see this

saulsmanb - Posted - 10/07/2013:  11:19:59

Not to pile on here but I find it troubling that his Craigslist posting suggests that all his customers are happy with their banjos.

Brian Saulsman

Banjelo - Posted - 10/07/2013:  14:27:54

A few people gave him a good rating but if you read the rating, they were only sold a neck. Big difference between reselling untouched stock parts and selling a finished product.

There was another forum (which I discovered too late) and the pics posted there left me thinking, "and I thought mine was bad".

I guess in an ad you can make any claim you want. Noticed his ads now have a two day return period, buyer pays shipping, AGAIN. So if you get it Monday afternoon, spend an hour unpacking, you get to pack it all back up and head to Fedex the next morning. That would be an experience wouldn't it?

Deaf Lester Crawdad - Posted - 10/07/2013:  22:28:46

quote:

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Originally posted by Banjelo

 

I guess in an ad you can make any claim you want.

---

Laws vary from state to state, but false advertising is a crime just about anywhere in the USA.    Proving it and getting someone to prosecute is something else, however.

OTOH, if you sent the guy payment by way of snail mail -or he sent the banjo to you via the USPS-  you might be able to get him for federal mail fraud. 

Helix - Posted - 10/08/2013:  05:03:57

Nograss5150 had the wisest and best comment, I thought.

As noted, I reworked some of this problem for a customer, someone had tried to glue a flange to the wrong type of rim. It was a real mess, I exchanged the rim with one that worked.

I am more concerned that a lynch mob or bonfire is getting built, and that reflects on the mob more than the builder. I say it is easy enough to know us by our fruit.

I see no reason to try and hurt a person, a person's behavior, however can be criticized and gone over, mine is. Any of us would want a fair and proper judgement of our work. It would be difficult to prove intent here. Warnings and testimony here along with reviews are a good way to handle this.

Nels - Posted - 10/08/2013:  05:36:03

quote:

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Originally posted by Helix

 

Nograss5150 had the wisest and best comment, I thought.



As noted, I reworked some of this problem for a customer, someone had tried to glue a flange to the wrong type of rim. It was a real mess, I exchanged the rim with one that worked.



I am more concerned that a lynch mob or bonfire is getting built, and that reflects on the mob more than the builder. I say it is easy enough to know us by our fruit.



I see no reason to try and hurt a person, a person's behavior, however can be criticized and gone over, mine is. Any of us would want a fair and proper judgement of our work. It would be difficult to prove intent here. Warnings and testimony here along with reviews are a good way to handle this.

---

you're correct...I apologize for my earlier post.

thefolkshop - Posted - 10/08/2013:  10:16:33

Yes, Helix, you bailed out an unwise customer of mine, and we thank you again.  You saved the situation and the owner is playing.  Now, the idea of some sort of dementia is interesting and could be correct. But,  I communicated via e-mails with him for months.  He ain't all that stupid, believe me! He knew exactly what was wrong with that banjo and chose his customer carefully.

I think that by now no BHO member will get caught buying a banjo from him, but the majority of prospective banjo customers don't belong to BHO.  I rather see him pull in his horns and give legit, mid-priced builders such as White Mountain (and many others) a chance to get a quality banjo into someone's hands that will encourage playing rather than giving up trying, as my customer did.  Just my two cents.  Paul

BDCA - Posted - 10/08/2013:  12:12:14

quote:

---

Originally posted by thefolkshop

 

Yes, Helix, you bailed out an unwise customer of mine, and we thank you again.  You saved the situation and the owner is playing.  Now, the idea of some sort of dementia is interesting and could be correct. But,  I communicated via e-mails with him for months.  He ain't all that stupid, believe me! He knew exactly what was wrong with that banjo and chose his customer carefully.

I think that by now no BHO member will get caught buying a banjo from him, but the majority of prospective banjo customers don't belong to BHO.  I rather see him pull in his horns and give legit, mid-priced builders such as White Mountain (and many others) a chance to get a quality banjo into someone's hands that will encourage playing rather than giving up trying, as my customer did.  Just my two cents.  Paul

---

Paul,

Just Google Beyer Banjo! He's done!

Cya!

Bob

mikehalloran - Posted - 10/08/2013:  12:56:05

The Classifieds link to some unauthorized web sites that still show the ads long after they expire. In one case, that worked out for me as I was contacted out of the blue for a banjo I still had and the transaction went well. In this case, it can mean that "through" isn't really...

Hopefully, buyers will Google people like this and get the bad news before plunkig down their hard earned cash.

lawdawg1 - Posted - 10/30/2013:  14:27:28

I sent a note to the administrator a year ago about Beyer ... I bought one of his banjos, and had the same experience. He buys cheap banjo kits, and assembles them (use the term loosely), and calls them his handmade products. He is a 100% fraud, and should be removed from this website. He even packed my banjo, using the empty carton material the kit had originally been shipped in to him !!! What a dead giveaway !!!  I was lucky, however. I complained to him, and he reluctantly refunded my purchase money, although I had to pay for the return shipping from Texas to Washington. 

naterdee - Posted - 01/06/2014:  22:31:59

I actually went and MET Jonathan Beyer in his housing community to try out his banjos.

I saw them on ebay, noticed they were affordable, but the pictures were not all that detailed. I happened to be in NW Washington much of last year for my wife's job, so I arranged to meet Jon and play. I shook his cold shaky hands and chatted a while and then played three banjos he set out for me. Honestly, there was only one that I felt had both decent playability and acceptable performance quality sound.  (I'm not into symphony-level standards anyway when it comes to old time music.  Most of the old-time 'stars' in my circles play music extremely coarse, and 'authentic' sounding. But I own two OME banjos and love them.)  That being said, my impression of Jon and his banjos is that he's an old old guy living in a retirement community, trying to make a few extra bucks above any social security or support from his kids he may have. His wife's health wasn't good when I was with him last. Retired pastors of his kind aren't typically well-heeled or laid up well into retirement.  They often have little to no solid business sense. So, I guess you could say he's an old fella excited to have found a new hobby that he can take pride in supporting his family with.  He's a hobbiest. Not a pro. By the looks of his banjos, (as I said, I held and played three and looked em over closely), he's no experienced luthier, but has some common sense with working with wood.  The action was markedly different on all three banjos.  He fixes problems with more glue, shims/patching, or just leaving them. One of his banjos looked pretty nice craftmanship-wise. It really looked like a winner! But it didn't play super well. 

He's getting his fabricated necks and parts from China and Thailand or something to save money. Some are nicely carved, but the quality is what one would expect from an independent China make.

If your banjo of his making isn't to your liking, see if you can send it back. Call him up. Talk decently and straight with the old guy.  Encourage him to accept it back and sell it at a reasonably lower price. Don't ask him to repair it because it will be just more glue, holes drilled, and patchwork.  I wouldn't bother sending the BBB or whatever on him.  I definitely came away with the feeling that if I saved up more money for a different long neck banjo, then I wouldn't be disappointed. I am sorry for your disappointment. I'd be very frustrated too.

Nels - Posted - 01/07/2014:  08:51:33

Thanks for posting naterdee...  .. 

grm405 - Posted - 01/07/2014:  13:45:29

I am an old guy living in a retirement community.  I would not sell what he sells nor engage in his business practices as detailed in several threads on this forum.

Some of the personal attacks on him in this thread are tasteless and uncalled for, but criticism of what he does and sells is not.

Gerry

ban-joe - Posted - 01/07/2014:  21:36:07

He's also vending longnecks on ebay, no? Seems every time I'm poking around banjos on ebay I find Jonathan and longneckbanjo.com products popping up. And he'll make me a lefty longneck! Gotta jump on that!! He seems quite busy.

Sorry about the OP's travails.

Helix - Posted - 01/08/2014:  01:43:24

Thanks Gerry, I am also an old guy. Sometimes our age group gets a bad rap.

As noted I replaced a gooped up rim with a real T & P Iida rim. Seeing this person's work made me feel worse for him, because a torch parade was forming here on the hangout, something we've seen before whether fair or not.

Just judge by our work, and I agree, attacks are emotional.

If one of us pulled stuff like this, I'm sure we would be questioned. If one of us was failing in health, I'm sure we'll be kinder next time.

naterdee - Posted - 01/11/2014:  19:34:00

Yes gentleman, I wasn't trying to jump on the "bash the old fellers" bandwagon. I'm sorry if I echoed any disrespect.  I simply wanted to point out my impressions of his banjos that I encountered, and maybe shed a merciful light on the maker's situation. Any criticism I may have spilt on the page could be doubled in severity and applied to me regarding any craftmanship and business savvy.  I built a banjo once, and found the thing so clunky and unappealing I left it in an alley. All of you greying gents are worthy of a greater respect regardless. I'd love to learn a thing or two from any of you, music or otherwise.