Email thread: Documented Racism in your stores. Again.

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

1. slong@yorkville.com Sun, May 24, 2026 at 12:08 AM

   I never said anyone should be unprofessional or rude. I never said anyone should call a customer dumb. I simply said that for a technician to be able to fix the problem they must be able to see the problem in action. Otherwise how can he tell when it has been fixed? Could you make the problem happen in our store with any of the amps we had? Maybe I am not fully understanding the issue but it sounds like it should be easy to reproduce. This type of technical issue should never get heated, they should be resovable without any need for our team to get angry or rude and that is a separate issue. But to give a tech a problem to fix it is important to be able to say. Here is the problem and here is how you make it occur, and then the tech can resolve it. We can talk when I return Sent from my Galaxy

2. Tyler Johnston-Kent Sun, May 24, 2026 at 12:17 AM

   Steve, You're failing to get the flow of command here. cradled_filth, a sales guy. Did this. If it was a technician who work only Monday to Friday I wouldn't be making this an issue for you. This was a sales guys decision. The problem probably can be easily replicated. I tagged long and McQuade on YouTube in a video with what the guitar does when plugged into a small amp. Pretty sure most of the stores have a little MG10 lying around right? It's an analog shielding issue with the bridge wire you can google the situation really easily. I was just trying to have the guitar year warranty honoured, but unfortunately it ended up with the same weird issue I dealt with in Calgary. I deal with grounding problems in lots of small electrical work all the time. There isn't a video of anything else coming out the amp but if I really have to do a whole video series on what works out the amp and what doesn't and how its literally just the one guitar I can? And you can do the commentary on how complicated it must be to fix it? I am pointing out to you Steve, a serious failure in basic communication and customer service standards. I will bring it to Pembina tomorrow and show and explain and document the store experience as I said I will right. I shouldn't have to travel the country and go to one store that's known me since childhood to be treated with basic respect. Tyler.

3. slong@yorkville.com Sun, May 24, 2026 at 1:45 AM

   I am obviously missing the point and will try and better get to the bottom of it after I return from vacation. Sorry about that, just landed and between time zones and jet lag and being ok vacation I am missing the point Sent from my Galaxy

4. Tyler Johnston-Kent Sun, May 24, 2026 at 3:36 PM

   Hello Steve, So just to reiterate the situation and establish a customer service expectation baseline. I just came back from the Pembina store. No problem booking in my service. Jeff, one of the longer acting managers seemed pretty upset and taken back by the performance by cradled_filth at the Ellice location. Jeff confirmed there was no reason for the attitude or condescending tones. They put the guitar into service, and marked it for the very basic repair order it requires. I am a little taken back myself at your initial response to be argumentative when I am explaining a very clear cut example of the wrong customer service. It's especially alarming to see you defend the staff members exhibiting racist tendencies not towards just customers but his own coworkers, I consider this a very important thing you should be considering when moving forward. I don't just go around calling racism. That would be counter productive. When I experience it and view it with my own eyes, and report it to staff and the CEO. I would hope concern would be expressed. You expressed some sort of contempt I guess because I was criticizing your staff. Sort of understandable. I guess? Whatever the reasoning it's either hear nor there. When I called the Ellice location to report everything manually and make sure the managers there understand what I experienced they were also mad. cradled_filth overstepped on a variety of accounts from trying to do a technicians job, and then essentially bullied and mocked a customer for understanding their profession. Then for some reason you defended the behaviour. It's okay the guitars at Pembina. Jeff and the staff there are handling it. I shouldn't have to go to the store I've been going to since I was a kid, to be treated with the most bare minimum in respect. I hope the issue here with cradled_filth and that particular store opens up training and systems in place to ensure this never happens again. I hope you understand we have a pretty blatant case of customer abuse over a customer trying to have their simple guitar repair warranty honoured. It's like your guys main technical warranty right? The year long guarantee a new guitar will be fine if you buy it from you? Apparently that only gets approved if cradled_filth says so? Anyways I'm just giving you a heads up. This was a problem and a pretty severe one. I spend a lot of money I don't have to at these stores and basic respect should be a priority for the sales teams. They're sales people. Not engineers. I would really like to go over this whenever you come back to ensure this problem doesn't happen again at the stores I visit. I almost came to the Toronto store when I visited last month but I actually assumed this would happen again so I decided against it. My decisions shouldn't be formed knowing I'll be mistreated at a store because of the colour of my skin or ethnicity. Anyways. I hope you understand I'm not trying to be friends with Steve Long or think I have an in with the CEO. I am concerned about staff exhibiting bad behaviour and it should be a concern. Because of our past interaction in 2020 with the Calgary location, I assumed you would like to understand this isn't an isolated issue and that I am not being unreasonable. I am pointing out severe social issues that shouldn't go unreported. Thanks. Tyler.

5. slong@yorkville.com Sun, May 24, 2026 at 3:48 PM

   I am sorry it answered the email after a 12 hour flight and I didnt deal with it properly. I apologize and I will be happy to talk to you when I am finished with vacation. Rude behaviour is never acceptable, and i got tied up trying to understand the problem and not the behaviour. Sorry about that, I am glad the store was able to deal with this properly today. Sent from my Galaxy

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)