"I will investigate this issue and get back to you as soon as I get the facts. Since its Friday it will probably be early next week [hopefully Monday].

I will tell you that Don Pitts is no longer with Gibson and has not been with us for some time.

I have no personal knowledge about this issue and I personally approve all promotions for the company. We have a formal system where any agent of Gibson needs to present a promotion, its benefits and its cost. This then needs to be approved by a least two people before it comes to my desk. We do take these commitments seriously, and we have very strict internal processes to insure we deliver on our promises.

Regardless, I will get to the bottom of this and we will get you what was legitimately promised.

I do not know who you talked to other than attempting to contact Don, but we do have people on the phone 24 hours a day, seven days a week to solve any Gibson related issue [1-800-4-GIBSON]. While they do not have the authority to send you $10,000 worth of gear on the spot they are literally less than a minute from my office and should/could have resolved this in a very short period of time. If you had an unsatisfactory conversation with anyone else at Gibson, let me know so we can insure that this will not happen in the future.

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to address this problem."

Henry E. Juszkiewicz
Chief Executive Officer
Gibson Guitar Corp.
309 Plus Park

(Thanks to Mosten!)

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"Gibson Screws Musician Out Of $10,000 Worth Of Equipment"
(Photo: Getty)

When Tonedeff finally reached Gibson (they never called or emailed him after he won), Pitts told him to go online and pick out what he wanted. He picked out a Baldwin piano. Pitts wrote back, "Baldwin is the only division that's not part of the deal..." So Tonedeff picked out a list of guitars, using Sam Ash and Guitar Center to check prices because Pitt/Gibson wouldn't provide a price list. Pitt responded with revised prices that were at least 50% higher, reducing Tonedeff's prize list by half. After some back and forth on "suggested retail price" versus "actual price," Tonedeff gave up and opted instead to pick a single item, the most expensive he could find that came in under the $10k mark. Pitt just stopped talking to him at that point.

We're not sure if Gibson thinks it's okay to bail on their promise because Tonedeff doesn't play rock music (suspiciously, they never followed through on a promised promotional photo shoot either), or if they never intended to give any winning artist the prize package. But it's clear that they're doing everything they can to give the middle finger to the winner of a contest they supposedly "sponsored."

(Thanks to Chris!)

"[RANT] Gibson Hates Hip Hop." [QN5 Blog]