Anyone receive a McHaffie whistle recently?

ScottStewart · Post by **ScottStewart** » Mon Dec 24, 2001 11:12 am

Just wondering if anyone has received a whistle from McHaffie recently or had any correspondence from him. Does anyone know of any news of him? I know he had some difficult times earlier this year, hopefully it hasn't happened again. John, if you read this, drop us a line. Let us know how you are and when our whistles will ship. Thanks.

Byll · Post by **Byll** » Tue Dec 25, 2001 11:03 am

I am one of the lucky ones. John delivered to me 4 whistles (D, C, A, G), many months ago. The G was really out of tune with itself. He replaced the body. That fixed the problem. He gave me a low F - gratis - to get my opinion. One part of my order was not filled. When John ceased communicating with all of us, I was in the middle of a one-way e-mail campaign directed at the filling of that order. To date, I have not received my last item, and he will answer no e-mails. The 4 main whistles are in use by one of my band members. The volume level adjustment via the movable windway works well, when adjusted properly. The adjustment is tricky...Workmanship is average, and consistent from instrument to instrument.

John did go through some really rough times, a bit ago. I remain in support of him, and hope all is well. I have ceased attempting communication with him...

Good luck with your communication attempts.
Cheers.
Byll

EricW · Post by **EricW** » Thu Jan 03, 2002 8:58 am

I think Byll's experience speaks for a lot of us. I am still awaiting delivery of a C/D set I ordered and paid for in April of 2000. Despite numerous emails and even a few letters, I have been unable to elicit any response from John since August. I have been in touch with several other customers that have also been left out in the cold. You can get a flavor by doing a search on keyword 'McHaffie'.

If anyone does hear from John, or gets wind of any news, please share it with the rest of us.

Thanks,
Eric

DaveO · Post by **DaveO** » Thu Jan 03, 2002 10:08 am

I'm still hoping for a response from John McHaffie as well. I heard so many good comments about his whistles that I ordered one too, back in the spring of last year. I was pleased when John sent out the message at the end of August that we would all receive our orders within 90 days. Unfortunately, he has not replied to any of my emails for quite a while now.

Dave

ScottStewart · Post by **ScottStewart** » Thu Jan 03, 2002 4:50 pm

I sent a snail mail (I hate that term - I'm a mailman) a week ago, plus I have sent email with a return receipt request. No response. The lack of a return receipt leads me to believe that he has no email capability, or is just not accessing his computer. I'm going to try a couple more ways to contact him within a couple weeks, just to give him time to respond. I'll let you guys know if I have any result. I was kind of looking forward to having the low C I ordered in early July by Christmas...oh well.

garycrosby · Post by **garycrosby** » Thu Jan 03, 2002 5:05 pm

On 2002-01-03 17:50, ScottStewart wrote:
I have sent email with a return receipt request. No response. The lack of a return receipt leads me to believe that he has no email capability, or is just not accessing his computer.

IMO you can't read anything into the fact that you have not received a read receipt for the e-mail you sent to John McHaffie. Many people who use e-mail (including me) set their e-mail clients to "never send a read receipt".

In any case, it is disheartening to hear of so many who have lost contact with John - I do hope he is okay

ScottStewart · Post by **ScottStewart** » Thu Jan 03, 2002 5:28 pm

I agree with you about setting one's computer to never send the receipt. I have mine set that way. I would rather think that he hasn't accessed his email than that he has read it and chosen not to reply. I am concerned, as you are, that something has happened to him. Until recently he was quick to reply to correspondence. Please do not think I am being critical in any way of this situation. I am only in search of info on John's well-being and some resolution to this situation. I believe that when he is able, he will resolve all orders to the best of his ability.

AKFire · Post by **AKFire** » Thu Jan 03, 2002 6:50 pm

I to would like to recieve word on the whereabouts and/or wellbeing of Mr. McHaffie. Ordered a Full Set through him beginning of summer, recieved word from him in August as did many of you, but have not heard anything for several months now. At this point I am more interested in how he is doing, rather than how my whistles are doing. If anyone recieves any word please let us all know.

John Allison · Post by **John Allison** » Thu Jan 03, 2002 7:15 pm

I've been holding my tongue for some time hoping that John McHaffie would surface but I'm not sure I would hold my breath any longer waiting for a whistle from him.

Late last summer I went back to Missouri to visit family and paid John a visit since he didn't live terribly far away. I've been seriously considering selling a very different kind of whistle and wanted to talk to him about startup dos and don'ts.

After finding his place in the boonies I was able to talk to him and his assistant for several hours. During the course of the conversation he told me that he was working on getting several of the local school systems to switch from recorders to his whistles and was successful with at least one system.

Unfortunately he was having problems successfully batching production of his whistles, which was causing much waste and many delays. He also expressed that he was going to start outsourcing almost all work on his whistles and was having problems getting the details worked out satisfactorily.

Gut feeling tells me not to believe a lot of the delay explanations he has been giving on the board as being true. I truly think he's just gotten in over his head in orders and has probably given up completely since his web site has been down now for several months. (This is all personal opinion though.)

Post by **rich** » Thu Jan 03, 2002 8:18 pm

One thing I'm having difficulty reading into the messages in this thread is whether or not people are owed something by John, whether it be whistles or money -- in other words, have you paid for whistles and not received them, or returned whistles and not received your money back?

I've been waiting for a *refund* for six months, after returning the unplayable whistles that took months to reach me. Of course, I've pretty much given up on ever seeing the money at this point, since he long ago stopped returning my email.

If there are a lot of people who've paid John and seen nothing for it, it might be worthwhile to look into settling accounts as a group.

<ul>-Rich</ul>

Loren · Post by **Loren** » Thu Jan 03, 2002 8:23 pm

Well, I've been holding my tongue too, but I have to agree with John - I think most of you will likely never see your instruments. It's sad to say, and a disgusting thought, but I believe you've been had. I've seen this sort of thing happen many times before (fortuately not here), and I wouldn't be surprised if McHaffie has moved on and is scamming someone else as we speak. I'd bet anything he's done this before.

Loren
P.S. Okay John, maybe we do differ a little in what we think happened, just thought I'd add that to be fair to John.

JessieK · Post by **JessieK** » Thu Jan 03, 2002 8:45 pm

I have been holding my tongue as well. I ordered a whistle from him a couple of years ago. After he said he sent it, I hadn't received it, so he said he was sending "another." I didn't receive it. Again, he said he was sending "another." When the whistle arrived, it was the poorest excuse for a whistle I had ever met - out of tune with itself, fragile mouthpiece, just plain awful. I thought he should be embarrassed. I would not even give it away. I would be embarrassed to do so. Furthermore, I think I threw the bottom part away.

Jessie

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: JessieK on 2002-01-03 21:47 ]</font>

Azalin · Post by **Azalin** » Thu Jan 03, 2002 8:59 pm

It is sad, because I remember quite well the threads about McAffie whistles, and no one would speak quite LOUD against his whistles at that time. It lead to so many orders, I guess because the whistles were so cute looking (borrowed from Microsoft's marketing techniques) and it seems like he had more success than he could have himself imagined... I hope you guyz and girlz arent doing the same with Copley flutes, because I ordered one!

stimps · Post by **stimps** » Thu Jan 03, 2002 9:07 pm

well, I was pretty vocal about having gotten cut by mine. =) I waited about 6 months to get my whistles (which ended up being about as useful as vacuum cleaner parts), sent them back, and only received a refund after many many many discussions and threats of mail fraud on our part. I felt like the first five excuses for the whistles being late might have feasibly been okay (wink wink) but the next three plus five more trying to explain away the lack of a refund/email responses/etc etc was just too much to brush off.

live and learn is all I've got to say. we stick to places like The Whistle Shop now.

stimps

JessieK · Post by **JessieK** » Thu Jan 03, 2002 10:14 pm

Nope, Az...Copley flutes are great!