TTM Guitars & Lance Benedict: The Worst Customer Service Ever?
Lately, there seems to be a lot of discussion on the web about TTM Guitars and their owner Lance Benedict. The complaints seem to be endless: poor quality guitars, unprofessional customer service, and more. We decided to take a closer look at what’s going on.
TTM Guitars is a franchise guitar company that has been in business for over 20 years. Benedict is the current owner and he took over the company about five years ago. And, before that, he was a successful guitar salesman.
The Franchise Horror Story about TTM Guitars
The complaints against Benedict and his company are many, but they can be summarized into three main points: poor quality guitars, unprofessional customer service, and franchisees not being able to make a profit.
“I was offered a franshise opportunity by Lance Benedict to operate a TTM Guitar Franchise. This agreement outlined that I would have the rights to the South Carolina and Tennessee territories. Part of the agreement outlined that I would receive 8 custom built USA guitars and 2 custom built USA basses to be delivered in an estimated 120 days after signing the contract and full payment was made by myself. I wired $7500 to Lance Benedict to his Chase business account for TTM Guitars LLC.
There are additional portions of the contract regarding training, marketing, and promotional items to be received by the franchisee. I never received any of these items including the inventory of custom guitars.
He continuously misled me and every single customer that TTM had a factory in the USA that was fully capable of producing the promised guitars. This never existed”.
Issues After Signing an Illegal Franchise Agreement
Lance Benedict has dissolved TTM Guitars USA LLC in California illegally but is still operating the company and accepting payments from customers and not delivering guitars.
Many people have been waiting 1.5 years or more for guitars that will never exist. And now that Benedict has dissolved the company, he refuses to refund the money. I have a significant amount of additional information as well as the completely Illegal Franchise Agreement I unwittingly signed and trusted. I have reached out to Lance regarding my $7500. He refuses to work with me to come to a resolution”.
Data Source: FTC Online Complaints, South Carolina
Complaint Date: 25/3/2019
A Close View at the Complaints about TTM Guitars
Let’s start with the first complaint. Poor quality guitars. Customers accuse Benedict of using low-quality materials in his guitars, which has led many of them to be unhappy with their purchases. In some cases, the guitars have fallen apart completely.
Benedict provides poor customer service. Customers have reported that TTM Guitar ignores them, belittles them, and treats them rudely. Benedict even hangs up on customers who try to communicate with him.
Finally, franchisees complained that they are not able to make a profit. Franchisees accuse Benedict of charging too much for supplies and not offering enough support. As a result, many franchisees have had to close their doors.
