Guitar selling horror stories?

fendermadlewis

Hi guys! Just sold my CS Esquire on here and had a very easy transaction. The buyer sent money via friends and family, which was very kind of him to do. I packed it well and sent it via UPS express plus and it arrived with him safe and sound today and all is well. 

However the entire time it was in transit i was bricking it. Just incase anything happened and either of us lost money or a guitar got damaged. It got me thinking about how all the hassles I've had in the past, seeing just how bad couriers, buyers and sellers can be have left me a nervous wreck when selling gear!

Do you guys have any chilling stories about sales gone wrong that have changed the way you look at selling? 

Would love to hear them!

longshins

I drove 3 hours to meet someone to trade with and I packed the wrong guitar.

goldtop

Admitting my gullibility... back in the day, I 'sold' a guitar and all I got to show for it was a fake bank draft.

One of life's lessons. :-/

fendermadlewis

longshins said:

I drove 3 hours to meet someone to trade with and I packed the wrong guitar.

I have not stopped laughing for the last 5 minutes.

RandallFlagg

I'm sure Stephen King could pen one for you

pigface

fendermadlewis said:

longshins said:

I drove 3 hours to meet someone to trade with and I packed the wrong guitar.

I have not stopped laughing for the last 5 minutes.

That is indeed a beauty. Would love to have seen your face when you noticed :-).

Sadly I have nothing to contribute to this thread, for despite now owning 5 of the beasties I have never once sold a guitar nor bought one from any source other than a shop. And thinking more on it, I've only ever bought 3 guitars, two of which I gave away. Of the 5 I have now, one I bought, one is really my wife's and the other 3 were gifts. Strange, really ...

MLten80

saved up enough to buy a duvell (sacrilege I know lol)
 paid for it & waited.... ups 48. nah ok. ups 72 will do

5 days later ups admitted it had been stolen at the depot.
 the seller only just had his compensation 3 month later
 never got an explanation as to where it went & was told bollox when we asked for CCTV & full investigation 

I decided I dint need another fancy guitar now
 if anyone sees a Matt black duvell going on scumtree shout me lol
  (should probably circulate the serial number.....)

MLten80

Hermes...

reluctantly sold my first build.. paid for usually trusty Hermes 48h
 (sig required)

 so the courier left it with the guys neighbour's WITHOUT sig & note.. the neighbour's went away for the weekend not letting the unfamiliar new owner know

the Monday after the guy got his guitar & I could unclench 

from now, I'll be sticking to local trades and/or meeting people in person
 

SouthpawMark

As long as you don’t try and ship it on the cheap (minimal insurance) or with a carrier that will ship it, but excludes musical instruments from their insurance (so that leaves DHL and UPS) there’s nothing to worry about. 

Over the years I’ve sold a load of cricket, then tennis, then golf stuff, before selling a decent amount of guitar stuff in the last few months. There seems to be a much higher frequency of knobular activity amongst guitar/pedal buyers. It’s amazing how many of them have to have it ASAP “as I need it for a recording session at the weekend” or “want to use it at a gig I have tomorrow”. They need to realise that if the dispatch time says 3 working days, then it might be up to 3 working days. If they choose MyHermes, then they can expect it to take a further 3-4 working days beyond that. Selecting the cheapo shipping option, then expecting premium delivery is simply taking the piss. 

robgilmo

Shipping costs a fortune these days.

JerkMoans

Sold a '77 Strat via Facebook 2 or 3 years ago.  Didn't have a hardcase - this was when I learned never to post without a hardcase...  Wrapped it in a crap ton of bubble wrap, inside a cardboard box, more bubble wrap, into a bigger box, all sealed up with gaffer tape.  Dropped off at Doddle (remember them?).  Easy peasy.

3 days later the purchaser is going understandably mental.  The instrument had arrived with neck damage.  But here's the thing - the couriers had removed the outer box, the bubble wrap, the inner box, the bubble wrap, and stuck it in what was essentially a big bin liner.  Oddly unprotective, would you believe.  It's a miracle it wasn't firewood, frankly.

Cue much agitated correspondence and, to cut a long story short I gave the chap the option of either sending it straight back on my dime, or keeping it and getting it fixed, again on my dime.  He chose the latter.  Although I suspect it always left a sour taste in his mouth regarding his dream guitar.

After a few full and frank exchanges of views with the couriers, in which they first tried to deny everything, then alleged I'd wrapped it in their logo'd plastic bag before dropping off, then found themselves sightly snookered by the series of digital photos I'd taken they paid up for the repairs.  Every penny.

What I never got was what I most desired: some sort of explanation.  I can only assume they did it to save bulk/space.  Madness.

SlopeSoarer

longshins said:

I drove 3 hours to meet someone to trade with and I packed the wrong guitar.

You muppet.... did they notice? :-)

So funny!

Chris_J

I sold an SG on here and the courier lost the guitar, worse than that though, they somehow had no record of collecting it. The tracking numbers also were never scanned at any location.

The buyer did receive it in the end, intact, but about 10 days late.

Was a horrible situation to be in as it didn't look like it was ever going to turn up.

JerkMoans

SlopeSoarer said:

longshins said:

I drove 3 hours to meet someone to trade with and I packed the wrong guitar.

You muppet.... did they notice? :-)

So funny!

Hilarious!  I've managed to miss @DrCornelius by going to the wrong services about 5 times, but never the wrong guitar. 

I'd have tried to bluff it out.  'But you said the SG!!'

stimpsonslostson

I've had a few, despite only ever selling in person. Gumtree is a weird and wonderful place. 

The guy who offered 
"I'll give you £100 for the guitar" advertised for £375. 
Next day "I'll give you £110 for the guitar" 
Every day another £10 increase. I
responded each day simply copy & pasting "it's £300 that's the lowest price" 
Eventually he offered £290 & I said "See you tomorrow when you offer £300" which he did. 
He arrived in a vintage Ferrari & proceeded to try to haggle me back to £150. 
I got my £300. 

Then the bloke who came to buy another guitar. I met him at the door carrying my sleeping newborn (he was 2hrs late & MrsLostSon HAD to get out for a walk).
 I'd set up my amp with headphones & invited him to try the guitar with the headphones while I put the baby down. 
He proceeded to unplug the cans & dialled the amp to concert levels. 
I rushed back in & asked him to turn down (& preferably use the headphones as I'd asked)... 
But he'd woken the baby so I went to calm her... And the buyer started up, louder than before. 
I turned the amp off & unplugged it at the wall (crying baby + sleep deprivation = no my most forgiving). 
He paid & left shortly after. 

Lastly the student  who wanted "to hand over a £100 deposit and pay the rest next week when my loan comes in" 
I agreed... He then then got a bit upset that I wouldn't let him take the £500 SG away without paying the remaining £400. Apparently he was "totally good for it". 

JerkMoans

Oh I've had that deposit thing several times, even on cheapish pedals.  They look utterly mystified when I won't part with my stuff for 10% down.

Nightswan

Never had too much probs when selling guitars but I had a memorable ton load of hassle when buying one on ebay. Won the auction for an Ibanez RG770DX and when I went to pay I found out Paypal had frozen our account, which they kindly forgot to let us know, think it was due to several other pricey purchases that month. Had to verify our address by phoning them. Of course we got a robot/automated call and had to speak our address etc over the phone. Of course the system never picked it up despite me speaking as clearly and slowly as I could.

 After 3 failed attempts to verify via the phone Paypal then contact us to say they would be posting out a code to us which we could contact them with and they would unlock the account. This is now 2 days after the auction has ended and I have a seller waiting for his payment. Took another 3 days for the code to arrive in the post. I was out that morning and returned to find that my dogs had eaten the mail including the paypal code. The frayed ends of sanity at that point. I just paid the guy via my debit card and eventually got the guitar a few days later.

scalino65

I had a bloke turn up once to buy one of mine. He said he worked for Prince Andrew and had a business card saying the same. I truly believe that he was who he said he was but i didnt understand why he thought that meant he could take teh guitar there and then but pay a week or so later. Was I supposed to phone up airmiles andy if the money didnt show up?
Anyway, he turned up with money and we did the deal. Very nice chap and "hello" if youre on here:) (p.s. I found teh gibson COA if you want it):)
Any other guitar purchases "vouched for" by royal family members? 

boogieman

I agreed a trade with an ex member on here...my Gordon Smith against his Strat. He’d done loads of deals previously and seemed a solid guy so I was reasonably confident in doing the trade by post. Sent off my GS. Wait a day for the Strat. Nothing. Send him a PM. No reply. Next day, nothing again. I’m starting to sweat now so I rang him.... “oh yeah, sorry. I didn’t have any decent packing for the Strat so I had to wait for your packing box to send it back”. Jeez 

It all turned out fine in the end but I heard from others that he was notorious for not responding to any messages. I love the guitar though and it’s still my number 1. 

Jimbro66

Years ago a guy was interested in an amp I had for sale and wanted to come and try it. I explained that I had young kids so he needed to come over early. He said he'd be with me at 6 pm.

No sign of him at six and after a couple of hours with no word I assumed he'd changed his mind. We were just thinking of getting off to bed when he arrived around 11.15 saying he'd been "held up in traffic" but still wanted to try the amp. I explained again that we, and our next door neighbours, had young kids in bed so he'd need to keep the volume right down. Did he f*ck! He immediately wacked the volume up and started playing really badly. It was a din so I told him to turn it right down but then our neighbour was at our door in his pygamas and not at all happy. While I was trying to pacify him the amp volume was up again so I went back inside and told the guy to piss off which seemed to really surprise him. He went off sulking.

Next day there's a bunch of neighbours gathered in the street talking in loud voices about the din I'd been making late last night. Worst thing was they assumed the godawful playing was me

SteveRobinson

Jimbro66 said:

he arrived around 11.15 saying he'd been "held up in traffic" 

That's the point when I'd have told him to go away.