Brian and Jana Smith, dba Hard Rock Hippie Drums ordered six MILLTONE 7G instruments claiming to be starting a business and selling them for retail prices at shows and on his new website hippiedrums.com. They expressed wonderful enthusiasm for MILLTONE instruments, wanted to be the sole MILLTONE distributor and claimed they would easily sell all the instruments we could make on a weekly basis from their South Carolina home. So we supported them with their efforts. After a few weeks, it became clear that things were not what they seemed. Brian, aka, BK, then began making excuses as to why there were no payments for ordered instruments. Long waits for payment, then invoices were cancelled, custom graphics designed for them no longer wanted, emails unanswered for weeks. Then BK explained that he was not able to sell any instruments and would not be ordering any more until he sold what he had. They were out of money. He was released from any further MILLTONE obligation.
Now we see he has copied our eBay listing titles and listed his MILLTONE demo models on eBay for $325. We were not aware of and did not approve this business tactic. We are very sorry for any confusion his listings may be causing. For example he listed a Hammered Copper model and says “hand hammered copper”. Of course our instruments are not made of hand hammered copper thus it can be confusing to those who are new to eBay, and our steel tongue drums. In retrospect BK should not have been sold any MILLTONE instruments and in our opinion is now causing damage to our brand at this point. He is no longer eligible to purchase MILLTONE instruments.
Please understand Brian and Jana Smith are acting completely independent of MILLTONE support and service. Please contact us in the event of any further problems or issues. We are very sorry for any MILLTONE misrepresentation and confusion coming from them as it is out of our control.
Thank you for your understanding and continued support. Larry
Tags: bkcustomdrums, eBay, hard rock hippie, hippiedrums, milltone
March 3, 2013 at 10:46 pm |
Thank you for explaining what is happening with Bryan and Jana and that they are operating independently from Milltone. I bought a drum from them and thought I was buying it from the source (you) because they use your videos and verbiage etc. The drum came damaged and when we contacted them (again thinking it was you) they first wouldn’t respond, then refused to believe the drum could have come damaged. They have become very accusatory and just plain nasty! Like name calling nasty! I was floored and couldn’t believe that a company that made such a beautiful drum would be such a jerk and bad business person. Well now it all makes sense! I am fighting with them right now to take back their broken drum and return our money but thus far they are refusing. When this is all said and done I may contact you to purchase another that is not broken and does not have their bad vibe attached. Just felt good to share this, Thanks, Mike
March 4, 2013 at 10:01 am |
Thank you for your comment. We are very sorry to hear of your experience and have sent an email to you directly.