Warburton USA online store…

[iMav]

Not exactly quick on shipping orders to you.

STILL waiting on tracking info for an “in stock” mouthpiece order placed on the 8th of this month. (Oct 2022)

[iMav]

I hate how most company's customer service works these days. Wait for the squeaky wheel, then oil it.

My order sat two and a half weeks. Email, no response. Tag Warburton USA in a tweet, get an email that the shipping label for my order has been created.

[MichaelSchott]

Many companies are still very short handed as a long term pandemic issue.

[spkissane]

From what I understand, Warburton is a pretty small company with a very small staff, and they have a large volume of orders/business, and they were likely affected by the recent hurricane as well. Did you try giving them a call?

[rgorscak]

I've been there once to have them make a custom mouthpiece to fit my Conn Constellation 25i. They do have a small staff and they had just moved all tooling to a new location at that time. They get many orders for customized horns, customized parts for horns, custom mouthpieces from various famous artists and manufacturers. One of the workers, possibly the owner's son, told me that once Herb Albert told his father that the father was more famous in the industry than Herb was. With all the testimonials he has on the wall, he is obviously well sought after. I have bought a trombone mouthpiece or two from them and yes, it took a few weeks. They probably make the mouthpieces when they are ordered.

[iMav]

I had emailed them with no response. It is on the way now, so that is fine.

I’m a fan of honesty and transparency…so, some verbiage about their limited staff and typical turnaround time on the order page would be great… instead of eluding to the “in stock” items being available to ship immediately.

[davewerden]

I’m a fan of honesty and transparency…so, some verbiage about their limited staff and typical turnaround time on the order page would be great… instead of eluding to the “in stock” items being available to ship immediately.

In an ideal world, yes. But maintaining the website to that level takes time away from the other stuff they do - I suspect their load varies greatly from week to week, so a generic message might sound more discouraging than necessary. Cimarron Music is a very small operation with an amazing list of charts. I know of others in the same situation - valuable to us, but working with small staff.

Without small operations our brass-playing life would be duller. Some of the items I use daily are from small shops/makers. Even some of our historically well-known lines are from small operations. Hirsbrunner comes to mind. Back when they were in "full operation" it was a small operation, but it had a big impact on the market and was loved by some big-name players and students alike. Sterling is a small operation. 3 guys from the Coast Guard Band started Monster Oil, which offers good products (synthetic oil and grease). Etc.

In the earlier days (I'm kinda old, see) the only quality euphonium and tuba mutes were made by single-person shops. Altieri Bags started with Donna Altieri. Today there are still single-person innovations coming to life.

Heck, even Amazon has let me down a lot lately with shipping times not meeting promises.

[iMav]

Fair enough.

Speaking of Hirsbrunner, that one nice horn is still available on eBay. I’d love to pick it up…but don’t think I should start collecting pro horns…at least that is what my wife tells me!

[franz]

Speaking of Warburton and how small the world is: Johan Warburton married the daughter of my childhood friend with whom I started studying music, who then was the director of my band for over 30 years. She is an excellent oboist who works at La Scala in Milan (not as a musician).