When I bought the Epiphone Sheraton II Pro, I wanted to buy a nice hardshell case like the one which came with my Casino. Unfortunately, after several days of searching, I discovered that there was no stock at all anywhere in Canada (that I could find); there was some in the U.S.A. as well as in Europe.
I tried to place an order with an on-line supplier in the U.S.A., but apparently they couldn’t ship across the border, among other concerns. I was able to place an order with Long and McQuade, but apparently there was no way to know how long this would take nor, apparently, could this be queried up the supply chain, would you believe. That was in March.
As of July, no news on this. I did another internet search and discovered that the items I’d seen in Europe were now gone, as were some of the ones in the U.S.A., though the on-line supplier referred to above still had stock. This suggested to me that for the foreseeable future, at least, there wasn’t going to be any new stock.
As it happens, friends from the U.S.A. who live near to us were returning to New York and Vermont for a month, so I had the bright idea of having a case shipped to them while they were there. I contacted the original sales person … and the email bounced. I guess he was no more ….
However, they put me on to a new salesperson who said it would be no problem to ship to me (??), so I placed an order with him and cancelled the one with the Canadian supplier. The original cost was USD 129, the shipping USD 56, and the customs and brokerage fees another CAD 32.00. But all told, this was still in the ball park of what I’d paid had I been able to buy one here, and in any case, I couldn’t get one here!
Ironically, it took 2 days from the U.S.A. supplier to the FedEx depot nearest to me (about 1.5 hours’ drive), and another 5 days to get it the rest of the way, following a theoretical delivery attempt which somehow never happened and 3 delays after that. But it’s here now, and the Sheraton is safe and sound in its new case!
