WARNING: Lance Burton At MartinMods Will Not Finish Or Return Our Saxophones

frankly speaking I think that paying upfront anybody who has to provide a service almost always results in the person who has to provide the service of not being motivated to finish the service that they have to provide. The incentive in not there and the money has been spent and long forgotten. All it is keeping the deal alive is the integrity of the service provider who would have to have a schedule which would respect the order in which the the work was accepted and paid. What happens is that things get in between, someone comes with some more cash for something quick so the work gets placed onto the back-burner pretty soon it is in the way and gets moved about and after a while you don't know anymore what is what, parts are lost , cases are swapped and you might even forget entirely where you have put what and which items belong to whom. Add to this the moving of an entire workshop with a certain amount of half begun horns and anyone can understand that what you end up with is a complete mess.

In this case, it would take a very big man to say : " Sorry I cocked up, I don't know exactly if I still have all the bits and bobs that belong to the horn that you've sent me and I realise that I've had it in my possession for 2 years , I will make this up to you either in work or giving you back some of the money that you gave me, in case you agree in leaving your horn with me we agree upon an irrevocable date within which I will give you back the saxophone fixed or I will return the parts and pay you damages for all that it is missing"..........

But his would be a big man who is not afraid to admit to have been an *** and would acknowledge and admit the situation and do something to put it right , any other way is making excuse I always say that , in business, but also other things in life, any phrase beginning with " Yes, BUT......." is essentially wrong.

So guys,

for months I've been trying to get my horn back even asking to send me back as it was.. it means... destroyed.
I was in touch with the Admin here ALL THE TIME.
The admin intended/wished to put it clear already in October 2010 but we were agree together with other SOTW members who are not taking part on this debate by now (I don't know why, maybe they are not around, vacation and so on) to not do so giving Lance chance to resolve the situation. WE all were pretty kind to Lance Burton. Every time he answered the customers felt being kid.
I tried until the last moment and I always asked the admnin, PLEASE, GIVE SOME TIME or we will lost our horns.

At last after a long run and with my nerves exhausted seeing that I was about to lost my horn because I was about to move to Africa , I talked to my relative in CA and transferred him legally the ownership of the horn. And don't doubt we did it correctly, Eric is a former member of the Law enforcement and understands well how to do this.

So. Now, Lance was doing with him the same.
No pardon, no more time of clemency, he got enough.

Next time some "friends" in black will be knocking on your door Lance.

Everybody else sending his horn to him should get ready to miss it for a looooong time.
Until Eric and I see the horn again it is being considered as "lost" , by Lance Burton.

The main reason that I posted to this thread about my problems was because of the positive things that could be gained here. I like lists, so here we go:

1. This is a chance to air my problem before an audience of our piers - This allows those with knowledge of instrument repair, industry standards, legal matters and even good manners to judge what is going on.

2. In light of the reaction here, it helps bring both parties closer to one set of expectations. And face it, the most positive motive for Lance is that he had very different expectations than I had. And I will operate on that assumption until it is otherwise indicated.

3. It allows Lance to defend himself. And in fairness, I plan to post anything positive that happens behind the scenes. This way, everyone gets credit for doing the right thing.

4. I and others get our saxophones back in a more timely fashion. If we take Lance at his word, it looks like our saxophones were shelved in order for Lance to finish developing several new procedures and methods that no one has seen before. Once he has these worked at, he would then finish our horns and send them out to us so we could all say wow and sing Lance's praises. The concern with all this is that this process has taken way too long. And at least in my case, Lance gave an original completion date to me because I needed the saxophone back in order to perform with. Those that just donated there saxophones to Lance for experimentation with no expectation of a return, might one day greatly benefit from lengthy experimentation. But on the other hand, it just leaves me without a bari sax to play.

Lance and I have been discussing all of this and I hope he understands. I will keep everyone updated because I believe honest business between honest people can easily withstand the light of day.