Victoria accordions

[knobby]

Also, you can add a little pressure on this, let them know that you are sharing the story on an international accordion forum, share the link here. Them knowing that a potentially international stage is watching them and have it hurt their reputation and sales by inaction can be very serious for them.

I don’t think they care anymore. I believe they had lots of negative reaction from the thread from the guy in Hong Kong, going as far as threatening me with legal action if I didn’t remove the thread from the forum (I didn’t). I tagged them earlier in this thread as they are (or were) members of the forum so should have received a notification of said tag. They didn’t respond.

From what I’ve read here on this forum about Victoria Accordions, I think their business practice and customer service is absolutely appalling! How they stay in business, treating customers this way, I will never know. I‘ve worked for low volume, luxury car manufacturers with waiting lists of 2 - 3 years. A far more complicated build than an accordion, with thousands of parts supplied by companies all over the world, and if they treated their customers a fraction as bad as Victoria appear to do they’d have been out of business long ago!

Victoria Accordions - I wouldn’t touch them with a 10 foot pole!

 

[JerryPH]

Victoria Accordions - I wouldn’t touch them with a 10 foot pole!

Knobby! You so rarely post, and it is a pleasure to see you!

I'd like to think that all companies care about what their public image is, at least a little... but generally speaking, I would not purchase an accordion from any company online or over the phone via transatlantic long distance calls.

If I had that much spare cash to purchase a 5-figure accordion, I'd make it a complete event, including going to the factory, placing the order and picking it up in person to take it home. I bet a LOT of the frustration felt by people purchasing long distance would not be an issue,.. but that is complete speculation. Also paying up front... that is simply asking for trouble. I can see a security deposit, but anyone that pays full price up front is just asking for it.

If I was in the market, I would not be afraid to be looking at companies like Siwa-Figli and Victoria, I've played them both and they are sincerely quality instruments... it is too bad that certain people within a company can cause the loss of sales and reputation, but then again, I'd be placing an order in person, giving MINIMAL money up front and picking up in person... *if* I was going through a factory. Going through a dealer, things get easier and one has more legal options if you are in the USA and ordered through a US dealer... but the costs would be a bit higher (offset by the cost of having 2 vacations to Italy... lol).

 

[debra]

...

If I was in the market, I would not be afraid to be looking at companies like Siwa-Figli and Victoria, I've played them both and they are sincerely quality instruments... it is too bad that certain people within a company can cause the loss of sales and reputation, but then again, I'd be placing an order in person, giving MINIMAL money up front and picking up in person... *if* I was going through a factory. Going through a dealer, things get easier and one has more legal options if you are in the USA and ordered through a US dealer... but the costs would be a bit higher (offset by the cost of having 2 vacations to Italy... lol).

Exactly what I would do as well. Go to the factory, order there, pay a deposit, and come back (several months later) to collect the accordion (and pay the balance). That second "vacation" is not just pick-up because you need to test-ride the accordion and have the factory do repairs as needed. Virtually every accordion from every manufacturer comes with a few flaws that you can detect and have them correct before you take the accordion home.
I have done quite a few accordion repairs by now and often found manufacturing faults that you could detect by testing the accordion. You need to be thorough though: none of the flaws I uncovered (after the owner played the instrument for years or even decades) were noticed by the owner. They range from notes not playing because of misaligned reed plates (so the reed or valve is stuck inside) to misaligned reed tongues (so the reed doesn't go through the hole) to valves getting stuck in the bellows folds (because protection was lacking) to reeds in cassotto hitting the bellows frame (not enough room to vibrate), reeds hitting each other (because reed blocks are too close to each other), etc., etc. All but that last problem is easily fixed while you wait. More commonly discovered flaws that the customer should not miss is notes that choke (gap too tight) or do not start well (gap too large), or large differences in volume between notes (also differences in voicing), and notes that are out of tune... I heard for instance that when you order a Pigini Nova (the highest end professional model) they expect you to stay for three days to test the accordion and fix problems. But you should do that for essentially every accordion unless you are a repairer yourself.

 

[Sisu]

Noted, and thank you. It has been an expensive lesson. Before I ordered the accordion I a trusting American, had all of my questions about timing and warranty service answered to my satisfaction. If I had realized that I needed to go to Italy to buy one, well, I just would not have done it. I had looked online for years to get what I wanted and they were hard to find new or used. So I took a chance on purchasing sight un played. My trusting nature has been tested indeed. I'm still hoping to offer a glowing report.