Hi again everybody. It’s been quite a long time since I’ve posted…how is everyone? Anyway, about 6 months ago I orded a couple Burkes and was told to expect a wait of 6 to 8 weeks. I emailed him last week inquiring about the whistles (possibly my orders were misplaced or something?) and have not yet recieved a reply. I don’t want to be pushy or impatient. I know Mike’s a busy guy and I know he doesn’t compromise quality in order to get the whitsle out on time, and that’s a good thing. But 6 months compared to 6 weeks seems to to be pushing it a bit. What should I do?
Ramzy
If it were me I would simply e-mail him again (and include a copy of your first e-mail). Its quite possible he was out of town or something.
Coincidentally, about two weeks ago I e-mailed a very well-respected whistle maker with a couple of specific questions about ordering a whistle from him and I received no response.
I would just e-mail him again, or call. While we tend to think of e-mail as a “once it’s written it’s in their court” kind of thing, it’s not as trust worthy as a phone call or a real letter. In fact, there was a time when I was sending e-mail after e-mail to the Undisputed only to find out that at one point my name had accidently (?) been added to his trash basket list. So he checked his deleted messages basket and there were my messages.
My recommendation is not to treat an e-mail as read until you receive a reply. It just leads to misunderstandings. It’s very easy to loose an e-mail without ever having read it.
So call him, already 
Erik
Ramzy: I waited around 14 months for my Burkes. Mike was doing some special voicing for me on the whistles, but the time was still extreme, compared to the estimate, which was the same as yours. Time seems to be logarithmic for many whistle makers…
As others have said, Mike is over-extended. A full time job as an engineer coupled with the large whistle business takes its toll on delivery time. The results are worth the wait. Mike will deliver to you whistles that you can truly make music on.
He will answer your e-mails. Sometimes it takes a few tries. I hope you like your whistles as much as I like mine.
Cheers.
Byll
Just give Mike a call on the phone. He’s been nothing but great to me. Also, you might consider buying a Burke from Song of the Sea. They usually have some in stock.
Are you ordering an uncommon key? Each time I’ve ordered it’s been about three months, and he’s met his schedule pretty well. His (relatively) short delivery time was what started me on his whistles, and I’m definitely hooked. He does sometimes start a modification of a particular type of whistle and get kinda carried away.
Best of luck, hope your whistles arrive soon.
Charlie
IMO, People should stop making excuses for Mike’s shoddy customer service. This happens constantly with Mike Burke; several times every year since I’ve been on the message board (2 1/2 years now), we see posts from people whose Burke whistles are unreasonably past due, and we hear the complaints from folks who don’t have their e-mail to Mike returned in a timely fashion.
Personally, almost every whistle I have ever ordered from Mike was very late arriving, and more often than not I had to call or write multiple times in (mostly useless) attempts to find out when I’d have the whistle(s) I ordered. The last time I ordered from Mike, he promised me a certain price on a whistle, becuase he had raised the prices after I ordered, but while I was still waiting, then he charged me the higher price after the whistle arrived (very late) anyway! That sucks.
Mike Burke is a wonderful person. Mike makes some really great whistles. However, the fact of the matter is: Mike’s customer service often leaves a lot to be desired. He has gotten this feedback from the message board and, I believe, from Dale. Mike has admitted to having problems in this area, and has even publicly apologized, yet little changes.
I for one don’t appreciate it when people here make excuses for Mike and paint an overly rosy picture of the situation - It’s not fair to those who are considering ordering from him for the first time. We have many new people on the message board, many who are considering their first expensive whistle purchase. I think it’s a great disservice to them that we often avoid saying the unpleasant but true bits about our favorite whistle makers. Imagine how you’d feel getting all excited about your first big purchase, trusting the feedback on the message board and ordering…only to have to wait three or more times as long as promised to get your whistle…
IMO, if you want a Burke, buy it from a shop that carries them, not directly from Mike - unless you don’t mind waiting for who knows how long for you whistle to show up. Sorry Mike, but that’s the truth. Get your customer service together and I’ll support you wholeheartedly, in the mean time I think people should know that folks don’t always get what you promise, when you promise it, when they order from you.
Loren
Gee Loren,
I just reread our previous responses.
2 or 3 of us said re-e-mail.
2 of us said call.
1 of us said that Mike was over-taxed but didn’t mind waiting.
And another said that he hadn’t had the problem indicated.
Sorry, but I don’t see anyone overly defending Mike (with one possible expection). None, as far as I can tell, is untrue. Say what you gotta say, but don’t belittle those of us who posted our opinion.
Erik
Mike makes reliably good whistles, but the wait time he quotes has nothing to do with reality. Keep that in mind.
Jessie
I’m posting on this because this is a wonderful community of generally apparently honest and caring people who are always striving to draw that line between telling the truth to the newbies or those considering purchases from makers and being careful not to hurt well-intentioned makers who we want to keep with us but who can get over-extended. (I can’t believe that was one sentence.) I agree with Loren that we do have an affirmative obligation to properly inform the community and to offer constructive criticism to makers. However, we do need some public temperance in that regard, while privately aggressively pursuing what’s due us from makers. I’ve had less than good experiences with whistle makers and with custom knife makers as well; overall, both groups of custom makers have been honest, concerned and attentive. Each of us has anecdotal experiences that differ maker to maker. I believe makers when they get overextended tend to forget about the individual customer and then all that human nature stuff comes to play including the squeakiest gear gets the oil, etc. I’ve had nothing but great whistles and customer service from Mike Burke over the last two years, but others due to timing and other situational variables have not experienced that. We have also had differing reports with respect to service from other makers as well. There is one particular maker I’ve never seen anything but praise for on the Board and I’ve had awful experiences with both re service and quality control issues; I followed up privately to an acceptable conclusion. I may not deal with that maker again myself, but I hope to God that maker is still making whistles when I’m long gone, because he’s a terrific gifted guy and makes generally a uniquely rewarding product. IN sum, once things have gone beyond acceptable bounds, i.e., considering the variables inherent in dealing with custom makers who may not be full-time, we should not be shy about following up aggressively with the maker. However, we should exhibit some restraint and tact in how we get the message across to the community. This is my opinion and I offer it because I’m part of a wonderful community here. Best to you all. Philo
Anyone who’s read this list for a few months knows that Mike Burke’s customer service draws comments that are anything from very positive to very negative. I think that Loren’s remark that “IMO, People should stop making excuses for Mike’s shoddy customer service. This happens constantly with Mike Burke” is off-base, at least based on the last six months or so. There have been several discussions in which there have been both positive and negative comments.
I’m not an apologist for him. All I said was that I’ve gotten replies that are prompt for the most part (I have had to email him more than once on a few occasions, but that’s true of most online businesses), and that his estimates of delivery time were both reasonably quick and accurate. I’ve heard other things from other people; they’re welcome to speak up, and they do. I think that it would be no more useful or honest for ONLY the people who have negative comments to speak up than vice-versa.
The first whistle I bought from Mike was a low-D. I’d gotten in touch with all the usual suspects, and one maker with an impeccable reputation returned my message (saying that the wait would be 1.5-2 years) only a few weeks before Mike delivered my whistle.
The next Burke I will buy will be from Song of the Sea, partly based on comments I’ve read on the chiffboard, but mostly because I’ll be in Bar Harbor this summer, and will try before I buy.
Charlie
[ This Message was edited by: chas on 2002-01-20 17:58 ]
My wish is simply for makers to give realistic estimates concerning ETA of their product. I have no problem at all waiting, if I have been told the realistic time frame. I am continually annoyed with short time estimates that turn into a parody of themselves.
Cheers
I’m not inclined at the moment to spend my limited time answering items here point by point and in-depth however:
Erik, I’m surprised by your comments; I fail to see how, by the dictionary definition of the word, I belittled you or anyone else who posted in this thread. How did I make you “seem little or less than”? I didn’t cut anyone down here, I simply stated my opinion that “WE” often don’t paint the whole picture here about the whistle makers.
BTW, I feel you comments re:e-mail are good example of what I was talking about. You divert the blame for Mike’s non-returned e-mail away from him by going on about how unreliable e-mail is, etc. Hey, if e-mail is that unreliable, then why the heck use it in your business?
Look, neither you nor anyone else here is going to make any headway with me on these issues of customer service and here’s why: I’ve been a Customer Service Professional for over 20 years. In addition to having been a customer service manager for large corporations like Capital One Financial, I’ve also managed small companies and I’ve run my own business successfully for over 5 years. In my arrogance, I’m going to consider myself an expert in the field of Customer Service becuase that’s been my primary occupation for longer than some people on this board have been alive.
I know a what makes great, as well as lousy, customer service and Rule number one of customer service is: Make good on your commitments. If you can’t do that consistently, you have major problems and can’t claim to have good customer service. If you’re gonna tell someone they can expect a whistle in 6-8 weeks and it takes 6 months, that’s horrible customer service. If you’re going to list an e-mail address as a means which your customers can use to contact you, then you better answer your damn e-mail in a timely fashion, otherwise customers have every right to say your service sucks.
I’ve purchased a number of whistles from Mike, so I have every right to post opinions publicly, and I will. In addition I have LOTS of off-board conversations with people, and I hear lots of interesting things. I know for a fact that my experiences with Mike are not unique, and I know that his service is still lacking.
Everyone here is welcome to post their opinions. For those who don’t like mine, too bad. I’m an honest person who’s trying to look out for those who are less experienced in these matters.
Erik, I wasn’t belittling you or anyone else who posted in this thread, you’ve seen enough of my posts that you should know that by now. However, if you need a sample of what it looks like when I belittle someone here, just let me know, I’m sure I can whip something up for you.
Loren
[ This Message was edited by: Loren on 2002-01-20 14:52 ]
Let me weigh in on this, so to speak.
Mike is a fine person, as everyone knows, and his whistles are first-rate. Is there anything unreasonable about long waits for good instruments? Of course not. The problem here is in promising what one can’t consistently deliver. My advice to Mike would be to learn from Pat O’Riordan. As you all know, it takes a long time to get an O’Riordan. Pat makes this very clear in his dealings with people, as he alluded to in the email that I excerpted in the last newsletter. No one LIKES having to wait that long, but no one feels unfairly treated because he or she does, as long as the projected and stated wait time is close to the actual delivery time. Mike has plenty of reasons to have trouble meeting demand. But, what he needs to do, and I’ve said this to him so I’m not talking behind his back, is figure out how to accurately estimate delivery times and then give people realistic estimates.
Dale
Man, it seems like I’m having to do this a lot lately [hangs head], but after a short yet protracted behind the scenes discussion with Loren, I want to offer my public apology to him.
My intent was not to detract from his point, which was both appropriate and well reasoned. I was needlessly offended and my words were poorly choosen.
Sincerely,
Erik
[ This Message was edited by: ErikT on 2002-01-21 09:18 ]