I, too, have a tale of woe with the "new" Calton company. I had wonderful dealings with Al Williams, the former owner, and just as one of you said, he took a long time to deliver your case, but it was always right (for me anyway) and the customer service was exquisite. He even helped me with suggestions for rebuilding one of my old cases (I am an avid "do-it-yourselfer" and research scientist).

Now my tale of woe:

In August of last year I received a new custom-built 12-string from Master Luthier Bozo Podunavac (Yes, he's still alive and building. Contact me outside this forum if you want info: bhkolner at ucdavis.edu ). This was 2 days before the Healdsburg Guitar Festival and since Jim Laffoley was going to be showing the product line there, I thought I would meet him, give him the body tracings and dimensions and choose the color scheme. I finally got the case in early November. The color was wrong (but it was my initial choice). More importantly, the fit of the case was wrong. So wrong that if I try to close the lid, it could crack the neck. There is NO support along the neck from the tail block up to the nut.

I began sending emails and got no response. On December 9 I wrote
a detailed letter expressing my concerns and included a careful drawing of the problems with dimensions and photographs showing the problems. There was no response to this letter in any medium.
I began calling again and in early January, I was able to catch Jim, live, on the telephone. He had evidently got my letter but claimed that he was having medical problems. OK, this is an understandable situation for a small shop (but who is handling the day-to-day correspondence?). He agreed that the case needed to be made right and that he would send a UPS waybill and customs documents promptly. Well, that was January 20. I still have no such paperwork and I have been emailing and calling ever since with no response. It is now March 23, 2010.

These, my friends, are the facts of my interactions with Calton as it is run today. I sincerely hope that Jim and his company will see that this brand of customer service is destroying the good reputation that Al Williams established for so many years. Jim, if you're reading this, I hope you see the frustration in this customer's travails. I have been reluctant to share this incident with a broader audience but I see that I am not alone. You have the power to turn this around. I hope that you will rise to the occasion. I was thinking of ordering more cases for my other precious guitars but with this kind of service, I don't think I can afford them.

-Brian