Bad Experience - Lindy Fralin Pick Ups

I wanted to share a less than stellar experience I had with Lindy Fralin Pick ups.  I had a meet and greet with Joe B back in November in Louisville.  I have a 91 Gibson Flying V that I wanted Joe to sign. In June, I noticed my bridge pick up was not as good as my neck pick up so I decided to order a new bridge pick up for the V.  You know the meet and greet with Joe is a once in a lifetime experience and was the first chance I have ever had to meet one of my guitar heroes. And, just in case Joe might actually want to hear the V plugged in,I wanted a killer bridge pick up.  So after some research I ordered a 9K Lindy Fralin bridge pick up from Mass Music in Kansas.  I got the the pick up in early June and installed it. After playing the V for about 15 minutes, the pick up cut out.  Basically with the volume on ten, it sounded like the pick up was on about one.  I took it back apart checked all the wiring, put it back together, plugged it in and it cut out again.  I took it to a friend who is very good with electronics.  He rewired it.  I took it home plugged it in and it cut out again after about fifteen minutes.  I called Lindy and he assured me it was not the pick up and to re-check the wiring.  I live in rural Indiana and there are no actual techs nearby.  So I waited awhile until we had a trip planned to Evansville and I left it with a guitar tech in Evansville.  Made another trip to Evansville after the guitar was rewired again.  Brought it home and it cut out again.  I was frustrated and I let it set for awhile.  A couple weeks before the Louisville show, I took it to a tech in Owensboro.  He did some extensive testing and he said he was absolutely sure it was a cold solder joint in the pick up.  Mass Music wanted $30 to quick ship me a replacement pick up.  I called Lindy Fralin again and he was pretty cold and seem to think I was just trying to get another pick up out of him.  He gradually agreed to send me a replacement pick up.  I pulled the pick up out of the guitar and immediately shipped it back to him.  In the meantime, his tech called and apologized for the problems.  I got the replacement pick up the morning of Joe's show, installed it, and it has worked ever since.  (And sounds very good).  Well I was still frustrated with Mr. Fralin but was just happy to have a working pick up.  Joe signed my Flying V that evening and I was a happy man.  I sent Lindy's tech a copy of the picture from my meet and greet with Joe, and he offered me a discount on a pick up if I ever needed one in the future.  He said they had received my pick up back but had not had a chance to check it yet.  Well a couple days ago, I get a call from Lindy at my work, who basically said I owed him for a pick up because I had never returned my original pick up.  I told him I had, and I would check through my previous e-mails and let him know which of his techs I had talked to.  When I got back with him, he had talked to the tech and the pick up was in the tech's work area.  I was upset, and I told him politely that I was.  We talked some and he kind of apologized.  I let it go.  When I got home from work I found out he had called my wife at home to get my work number.  My wife remembered the situation and told Lindy that I would not pull anything underhanded on him at which point he laughed at her.  If I had known that, I would have had a more serious conversation with Mr. Fralin. 
      In summary, the new pick up sounds good and Mr. Fralin's tech was an absolute pleasure to deal.  Lindy Fralin, on the other hand was accusing, sarcastic, and a bit arrogant.  I will buy no more Fralin pick ups nor will any of my friends.  Sadly, with all my trips to techs, gas money, tech fees, shipping charges back to Fralin, I ended up with close to $300.00 in one bridge pick up. Another pet peeve, why do I have to pay shipping fees when I was sent a faulty product?  Sorry about the rant but I wanted to let others know of this experience.