Email thread: Documented Racism in your stores. Again.

Email: RE: Documented Racism in your stores. Again.

1. Tyler Johnston-Kent Sat, May 23, 2026 at 8:50 PM

   Hello Steve. So we've had a discussion in the last about your staff, managers and open racism. All coming from your sales teams. There is one member at the Pembina location I'll have to get his information. In particular here were focused on a cradled_filth from your new Ellice store. We're not even going to touch the racism aspect until the end. Steve, is this good customer service? When a customer with engineering experience comes in to have their newly purchased toy to be fixed. Is it common for the sales staff, to act as technicians and reverse a repair order, because they assume the customer is lying? That's what happened. Now I can't really say, what cradled_filth was assuming here. I do understand I told him the guitar had a grounding issue. So he doesn't ask how I know, or why I think that. He tries to correct me. Fret Buzz? No. It's a grounding issue. So he refuses to listen to me from the beginning. He takes in the guitar anyways. You can see the service order on my account. Skepsisdrumandbass@gmail.com. Anyways. He calls me a few minutes later. He checked it on one of the in store amps, so it's good. He checked it on a digital amp. I have an old MG10. So he bypasses all the technicians checks. And tries telling me it's all good. In that moment I asked him, so how does it go from grounding issues at home, to working at the store? He just shrugs his shoulders and keeps telling me good thing it isn't broken. Unfortunately this is a very common issue with these Ibanez's there is some sort of shielding issue to where the thing is having problems with analog gear. It won't present itself in a fancy digital amp. Anyways. So he made some comments of me needing to check better and tells me "maybe you should document it." Guess what Steve? I still have all those emails of the Calgary staff doing this exact same issue. So why is it staff all treat me with contempt and malice, when it's not my home store? I should be treated with respect, everywhere. Not because I'm anyone who feels they deserve more, but because basic human decency requires respect. Now the Pembina staff are great, I can't remember now the GMs name, glasses, moustache, really nice gentleman. I talk with Lou about my account through email all the time. General, basic respect. Always. Now cross to now, I try to open a repair slip order at a location closer to my new apartment. Now all of a sudden, I'm an idiot, nobody can trust what I say and cradled_filth can just do everything from sales to technical work? He showed quite explicitly he doesn't know anything beyond how to play the guitar. The sales teams in these situations need to have it emphatically imprinted in their titles, we do sales. I am not a technician. Or else you're always going to run into these issues with a sales dude trying to act like he understands more than engineers and people who deal with grounding issues more problematic than a guitar. I can forward all the previous emails if you prefer but these issues really have to come to an end Steve. I must note when I came back to Winnipeg and tried buying gear, there was a huge disclaimer on the account don't deal with customer all flagged from the Calgary incident. That also should be discussed. That in particular would be banning a customer for, telling the establishment explicitly how we dealt with racism and have it documented the way I do. We can now talk on the phone about this Steve. Video chat would be preferred honestly. These issues of systemic racism being pushed through music sales is some level of absurdity that should be in movies. Tyler. Please check out our website at www.long-mcquade.com

2. slong@yorkville.com Sat, May 23, 2026 at 11:44 PM

   Tyler I am sorry that you didnt feel you were getting much help with your issue. While true our sales staff are not technicians they do see a lot of the same problems, which often have specific solutions and it is important to get to the bottom of the problem before we do involve the tech. Standard comment in tech world... I can not fix the problem if it cant be demonstrated. Intermittent issues can be a nightmare. I am away in a Europe for a week but I am happy to discuss this in more detail with you when I return if you feel that the issue can wait, otherwise I could direct you to someone else in management. Our goal is to make happy customers and I am sorry thatvwe failed in this situation. Steve Long Sent from my Galaxy

3. Tyler Johnston-Kent Sat, May 23, 2026 at 11:53 PM

   So Steve, The fact a sales guy explained and did what he did unprofessionally and quite rudely, is what you expect from your sales team? It wasn't his job to do the check on the guitar. It's not his job to do the technicians checks or whatever they would ask the customer. You would expect help to be what you experience, respect. Treating the customer like they're dumb, and then doing a mockery of the technicians jobs trying to rush customers out the door is wild. So the process here is documented as I have the past emails and situation from Calgary fresh in memory. Similar situation. A guy of my stature can't possibly understand the technical aspects of the situation. I can wait for you but this situation here, cradled_filth said document it. So it's being documented. Any conversations with staff and groups, recorded and documented. Interactions with anyone related to long and McQuade gets documented. Noted. That's what we're doing. I shouldn't have to go to a particular location to be treated with respect. Respect should just be given first before anything else. Thanks. Tyler.

Sources (5)

• email: May 23: complaint sent to Steve (2026-05-23)
• email: May 23: documentation notice to Steve (2026-05-23)
• email: June 8-9: complaint escalation and Steve's response (2026-06-09)
• email: July 1: anger characterization and acknowledgement (2026-07-01)
• email: June 19: Steve's response to the racism complaint (2026-06-19)