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Hi, Sharon Thormahlen here and just happened onto this thread so I am replying to the return issue. The first thing I’d like to say is that we don’t want anyone to have to keep a harp they dont like. We want you to love your harp, and if it isn’t meant to be one of ours then that’s OK, someone else will love that harp. We have not had to deal with this issue very often, however, on occasion there has been a harp that was not the right one for a particular person and we took it back. If it had been shipped, then just like the Dusty Strings policy, the shipping amount is subtracted from the refund amount. Dusty Strings sells a lot more than harps so their policy was written from the standpoint of guitars, mandolins, harmonicas, etc. Sometimes it is more worth it to try to sell the instrument locally to another harpist rather than pay the round trip shipping (a loss of $700). That could be a good option. The 5 year warranty would carry over to the new customer. Dusty Strings, to my knowledge, does not do that. I’m sorry that we don’t have it stated as a policy, it is something you have to ask about. We don’t really want to be shipping harps out just for people to try out. Bottom line is, “we want you to love your harp and we hope that it is a Thormahlen.” Feel free to email me with any questions you might have about our harps. harps@thorharp.com
I was alerted to this forum and asked to comment.
First I will say that it is a good thing for all the harpmakers that harpists have a variety of tastes in the sound, feel and look they like to see in a harp. There is no definitive “best” harp. The exact feature one person likes in a makers harp, may not be not liked by someone else. There is room for all of the harpmakers to make the harp they think works best and all the harpists to choose what works best for them. What a boring harp world it would be if all the harpmakers made the same harp or all the harpists liked the same harp.
The Ceili owner who was having problems with her harp has resolved her issue. She loves her Ceili and will tell anyone that. Even with the issue, she still loved it more than any harp she has ever owned. She is on the Ceili endorsements page and you can read what she said there: http://www.thorharp.com/pages/endorsementsceili.htm
As far as the Harp Connection goes, we asked them not to rent out our harps. When our harps are in a store, they sell almost immediately. You can ask the folks at VHC about that. Because we couldn’t get enough of our harps in their store, we didn’t want them out for 3 months or more and to possibly come back with dings. If you ask just about anyone who rents harps, that is what often happens.
We sold our harps through retail stores for over 15 years and it was of our own choosing to stop selling harps in most of the retail stores. With our website and conferences to attend, we were selling them easily. With store orders, our build list was getting way too long and the wait time was more than we wanted. We still send a couple of harps to the Virginia Harp Center.
I hope this helps to resolve some of the conversation on this forum. I would also like to congratulate Janice on getting a new Fisher harp at Somerset and Kathy on getting a new Thormahlen at Big Sky. Whenever a harpist gets a new harp, it is something to be celebrated!
Sharon Thormahlen
Thormahlen Harps
