Sweetharp

[susan-ash]

I have been following this post with interest.

[Angela Biggs]

Susan, I completely agree with you. My husband and I both own small one-person businesses. I sing, and I go to great lengths to protect myself from communicable disease, because if I get a cold I literally can’t work. (Sneeze into your ELBOWS, people!!) I also have a chronic illness, and I know that if I find something important enough (or commit to it a year ahead of time, as it seems vendors do with Somerset), I will burn the candle at both ends and do it with a smile. Nobody would know that it costs me three weeks of resting up for the event and a month of recovery. I absolutely believe that’s what happened in this case.

However, as a person in a position worse than a customer waiting for a harp — I *recommended this harp to a student* — I can also say that the business practices here were sub-par (to which I believe Chris bravely admitted). My husband’s one-man-show is a tech business that he runs in addition to his full-time job. He tracks his shipments when he orders parts, and if a part is going to be even one day late, he’s on the phone with his client immediately. He gives estimates of time required to finish a job. If it turns out the problem is more complicated than he thought — you guessed it, he calls the client immediately to update them. When he’s booked up, he tells clients with new jobs that he won’t be able to get to them until “”, then gives them a realistic time frame and offers them the option to wait for him or try someone else first.

That is supposed to be one of the benefits of going with a small company: personalized, detailed customer service. Things go wrong, sometimes lots of things go really wrong, sometimes it simply becomes a living nightmare from the owners’ point of view, but the customer gets taken care of all the way. That hasn’t happened here, and that is what has been so frustrating for many who have tied up hard-earned money for more than a year to reserve a spot in line (and who knows which spot they have in line?) to get a harp that looks like it may or may not appear. Not only has this kind of personalized information not been volunteered, but worse, people who have called repeatedly to try to get information about their harps haven’t even been able to get a basic response. Wouldn’t you be frustrated, scared, and angry that buying a harp, which should be a joyous experience, has turned into such an ordeal?

Most of us here are reasonable people who are frustrated and upset. I choose to send compassion to all who are caught up in this mess.

[aaron-walden]

Okay, I understand now about the parts. He was apparently hiring out the woodcutting to a mass-producer, so that he could then assemble them himself, customize the color and ship them out, but the folks he hired were unable to cope with his design specifications, meaning he didn’t just need to find another musical parts supplier, as it sounded at first, but needed to find a custom pre-fabricator, so-to-speak. And he didn’t want to make this manufacturing arrangement public knowledge, lest other makers take the idea and he lose the marketing lead of his idea.

[Maria Myers]

I don’t own/didn’t order a Caswell harp, but all I can add here is honesty is the best policy, no matter what the circumstances.

[aaron-walden]

This really is an innovative harp design. I’m struck with how reminiscent some of these innovations are to the ones Orville Gibson did to the mandolin a century ago. They both seem to adopt elements of violin construction to their respective instruments. The bent rounded sides and relatively shallow sound box are especially reminiscent of the violin family.

I suppose production is also behind on the Fairy Harp. It seems to be a smaller version of the same thing, so I’m assuming there were the same delays.

[Biagio Sancetta]

WRT Somerset and Kathy…you know, presenters and performers are booked at least a year in advance, well before Chris got hit with a big

[barbara-dixon]

If Chris is really telling people there is a four week wait for delivery then I find this totally disgusting.

[barbara-dixon]

Susan, I had sympathy, empathy and understanding for a long time, but Chris’ lack of communication, and his outright ‘untruths’ pushed me over the edge.

[aaron-walden]

I can’t speak from experience for what he is currently telling others, but the estimate he gave

[karsten-stielow]

Another month is over and the harp was not delivered again. Despite repeated assurances.Waiting time 16 Month! The tragedy takes its course…

[aaron-walden]

I want to clarify. I don’t mean he said it would be delivered in 5 1/2 months, but

[unknown-user]

I have 2 harps in order for 15 month too, no answers, no datas, nada… I’m really pissed off. I’m a guitar maker and have to deal with customers too, If I did what he does, I will be living under a bridge now…

Benoît

[karsten-stielow]

Three month more waiting and the harp was not delivered again.
Waiting time 19 Month! The tragedy takes its course…
No answer, no mail, no harp – only frustration

[robin-mills]

I ordered a Sweetharp w/full set of levers and pick up, and paid for it in full, the summer 2011. I have yet to find Chris less than straightforward about his circumstances with production and/or health issues, and feel no need to contact BBB or the California Attorney General. I cannot imagine being in his shoes, dealing with a backlog of work along with a painful, inoperable, cancerous tumor or holding any of that against him.

Getting reorganized to surmount a backlog takes time and can even have new, unanticipated setbacks, especially in tandem with serious illness. That needed time is something there seems to be little patience for on this forum, as seen by the comparisons made by others who are self-employed.

I realize some replies to this post will include responses like, “I agree/disagree with what you said , and he still could/should have done things better/sooner.” If you are yourself a cancer survivor or have loved ones who are survivors, or you have lost loved ones to cancer, I encourage you to dig down to a deeper place of understanding for what is taking place here.

Currently on his web site is a message that he is no longer taking new orders. He is in the process of contacting his current clients to see whether they prefer a refund or to hang on. I know that to be true, because last week I received an email and follow up phone call from him regarding just that. There are now people in his shared workspace, completing harps. Fundraisers in the Bay Area are already happening for the purpose of refunds and health care. Also grants are being sought by foundations who take up these very causes. Clearly, forward steps are being taken.

If you live in or near the Bay Area/San Francisco and would like to spread the word, here is the next fundraiser:
http://www.eventbrite.com/event/4986516806/eivtefrnd

Those refunds and harps are still going to take time; because, given the circumstances, time is what is needed.

Consider gifting Chris some encouragement and well wishes during this holiday time. It won’t cost a penny extra.

[robin-mills]

Here is some additional information, as of this evening, 12/11/12. You may have already received this from Chris’s assistant, Beverly Riverwood, directly. A few more fundraisers are mentioned, if you live close enough to attend and would like to. Thank you for reading. And thank you for any understanding you can afford him.

Dear Friend of Caswell Music,

Here it is holiday time, a time of seasonal celebrations. Ordinarily this letter would be a simple announcement of a wonderful upcoming concert at the Occidental Center for the Arts. And Chris is indeed scheduled to play “A Harper’s Yuletide” concert there this coming Sunday, December 16 at 4 pm. This is a special celebration concert indeed, and because of that I must take this time to bring you some sad news.

Chris has been ill this last year, but did not have medical coverage, and so was not diagnosed with inoperable stage four liver cancer until September. Then there was time taken to decide on treatment formats as the recommended chemotherapy would have taken his hands and paralyzed them. He could not chose that. So now he and his wife, Roxanne, have chosen some treatments from both Eastern and Western modes of medicine. The pain he was suffering is now handled by appropriate pain medications and he has been playing a few small concerts mostly in the East Bay for small groups of friends.

The news of this illness has been slow to spread as people are naturally hoping for a miracle. But now the word is out.

There are several benefits being planned – one at the Dickens Faire on Saturday, Dec 22 from 7:30 to 10 pm. Go to Eventbrite and look up “Farewell to the House,” a benefit for Chris Caswell. It’s possible to reserve a ticket and/or to make a donation from that site. As you can imagine, this illness which prevents him from working his usual full schedule at the harp shop has plunged the family into a financial crisis.

There is another benefit planned by Danny Carnahan which will be Feb 4, 2013, at the Freight and Salvage, details to be announced soon. Chris, ever the optimist, hopes to be playing a little at these benefits.

However, the diagnosis was made quite late. I have to speak frankly. There is no real way to know the window of his vitality.

This weekend, Sunday, Dec 16, Chris is scheduled to play a concert “A Harper’s Yuletide” at the OCA in Occidental from 4-6 pm. This will most likely be the last concert he will perform in Sonoma County. I have made no further bookings for Chris anywhere for 2013, (althought I still hope for a miracle). I am hoping to help organize a benefit for the family in early 2013, perhaps in March or April here in Sonoma County.

As his assistant and booking helper, I think this means that his 40 year stage career is to all intents and purposes, very near the end. Chris tells me his playing has not been touched yet, and he is looking forward to this concert, not really conceding the above, but to be safe, I want everyone who wants to hear Chris in this life to come on over to Occidental and hear him now.

I think that you may be in touch with many of Chris’ old friends and/or fans, and if so, I hope you will let them know what is happening so that they will not later wonder why they didn’t know or have a chance to step up with help and concern. Many would probably not only want to attend the last concert, but would like to make a donation. I am especially interested in raising money to get him to the recording studio to lay down some tracks of the very great music he has developed since the “Holy Wood” CD. His music is his legacy to the music world and should be preserved. Only 2,000 stands between us and these recording session at Skyline in Oakland, his choice of studios. But that project is for another day.

So, please forward this to your music loving people. We’d like to have a full house for this very special concert next Sunday. I would not like to say this is a “goodbye” concert, but in fact, that is what it may have become.
Here is a verse from Chris’ song, “Farewell to the House” written in 1983.

When I’m weary with road, behind and before me,
When old friends are gone, and young love had died,
May fate and its fortune return and reclaim me
At evening and lay me to bed.

May we find home, home, wherever we roam
Though night and storm lay between us,
Home, home, the morning will come,
With friends to renew us again.

Love and blessing, Bev Riverwood
Assistant to Chris Caswell

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