Right, so a week or 2 ago I saw a beautiful Ebony top on a PRS Tremonti Custom SE, which made me pull the trigger instantly. I wasn't in the market for another guitar, but I fell in love with the top and HAD to have it. Here it is as pictured on both the Rich Tone website and eBay ad:
So I anxiously await the DPD delivery a few days later, book the day off work to open and enjoy it, and to my surprise when opening it I realise that I'd been sent an Ebony model, but nothing like the one in the picture (which is the one you expect when there's 9+ images in both the eBay ad from the store and the store page referring to it:
So I open an eBay return, and they tell me that:
I’m sorry that you have received the guitar with a different top – it appears the new guitar which you received was never photographed and the image listed on eBay was of a previous Tremonti custom LTD run model.
I was offered a £50 partial refund if I wanted to keep it, but the top for my taste is hideous and I'd fallen in love with the one in the pictures, not the one received, so I went ahead with the full return and refund.
I wasn't originally going to open this as I got a full refund, but seeing as the store has gone ahead an re-listed the guitar I *thought* I had purchased (and has been confirmed by them to not be in stock and have been sold before) I thought I'd let everyone here know so they don't get burnt like I did:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PRS-Tremonti-Custom-Ltd-Run-Ebony-/272872358552Hope that helps someone! And if you're buying from Rich Tone, might be worth double-checking with them before buying that the top that you're purchasing is actually in stock.
Comments
Earlier this year I was looking at another guitar at RichTone and asked them to confirm that the guitar in the photograph was the actual guitar for sale. Sure enough, it wasn't - they said that the guitar in the photograph had been sold some months previously.
This is clearly a problem with RichTone and it's disappointing that they haven't addressed it.
@Ben thanks for the warning. A few people have complained about this from Rich Tone.
(I have had non-guitar stuff from them before with no problems, but I don't think I'd use them for guitars now after hearing about so many of these cases.)
The question is whether they are purposely advertising the best tops from previous but selling from new stock.
I have always had good service from them.
It's not a difficult balance at all to mislead with an advert. It's not far off lying. If there was a large warning that 'these photos are representative and are not the actual item' then fair enough. Otherwise it is pretty shady. And I hardly imagine that a few extra lines of text would eat into the local ambiance or service. In fact it might suggest a better service all round.
adam.
My suggestion is to call them before purchase and ask them to confirm before buying, and ask for corret pics as necessary. At this moment in time I would not trust any of their new stock photos to be correct based on the number of times I've read about this happening. I think their second hand stock photos are usually correct.
I would imagine most dealers show the relevant pics of more expensive guitars, but I dare say when it comes to the volume end of the market, whereby they shift 'boxes' then many adopt the 1 generic pic format to cover all stock - fine for say a new white Strat when any generic pic will do, but not ideal with figured tops or even relic finishes like a Roadworn finish
But I do agree with you @Ben that you choose guitar a) as it looked nice and that is what you expected and wanted
I would guess this is incompetance rather than malice with a tiny bit of remose when it first happened and then followed by the learnt behaviour that it usually has no consequences.
Simple creature, retailers.
That's true, and I expect that from most retailers that use the same exact stock picture that PRS gives them, but for an ad with 9+ pictures in all angles of the guitar, I certainly expect the guitar from the pictures.
I suppose what ticked me off wasn't that whole deal as much as the fact that they have simply re-listed the ad with the same pictures that don't correspond to what they're shipping AND they don't have the decency to include a disclaimer regarding different tops, as I can see by this thread many people have been burnt by them.
It takes literally 1 minute to add 3 lines of text with a disclaimer about discrepancy on tops, and less than 10 minutes to bang out 3-5 quick reference pictures of the actual guitar (seeing as the inside box had already been unsealed by them, which means they knew well what was inside).
So that 3 to 5 minutes they skipped, has lost them a customer for the foreseeable future, and I imagine I'm not alone in this sentiment.
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