Advice Please Guys. Sellers Hell - My Experience

tele69

Hi guys. 

Thoughts appreciated on this one. 

Kinda quit for a few years in 2016. Worn out with band and a very poorly father so sold off what gear I didn’t really. 

Anyway.. (waffling on) This year my band is getting back together. Started trying out a few things to prepare for the road. Cut a long story short... tried a few things out .. then bought a Jazzmaster. Nice but not for me. Settled now with a Les Paul. Jazzmaster went onto ebay at £1175. Enquiry comes in - buyer asked about described play wear I replied... a few dents. Nothing major. Guitar sold and posted. Buyer not happy. Informs me more dents than described. Bucklerash which I still doubt the extent of his claims.. oh and a missing certificate. 

Nightmare. Search house . Had it upside down. Can’t find it. Offer a return and a partially refund. Buyer wants £200. I counter with £150.. the hassle of waiting in for a return etc. I just let it go . Wish I had it returned now. 

Formal eBay procedure follows. £150 return paid back. Case closed. 

A few weeks pass. He now has guitar up on eBay described with the playwear and dents.. albeit a dressed up his description. Certificate on display (despite insisting it wasn’t present on opening the case and double checking for me) There was no way in my mind you couldn’t find a certificate in a 6”x 6” bag right? Now it’s magically appeared.

Should I bite the bullet, forget about it...put it down to a bad experience and move on. Or pursue this with eBay and maybe beyond that if got nowhere with them? I know it’s a only s certicate but I did pay £150 compensation for that being missing with the extra dents he counted up...but..this is not on to me to put it very politely 

Anyone been there with this problem? 

Thanks for reading
Kind regards

guitargeek62

Well that’s just shit! If you can deal with admin then I’d pursue the claim out of principle alone.

munckee

guitargeek62 said:

Well that’s just shit! If you can deal with admin then I’d pursue the claim out of principle alone.

I accidentally lol'd this, he is absolutely right f#ck him back.

ten77guitar

I know it’s too late now but never offer a partial refund on eBay. Too many people use use this to take advantage. Just offer a full refund if the buyer is not happy and when you relist it add the postage costs you’ve incurred onto your asking price.

To answer your question, I don’t think you’ll get anywhere with it but as already said I would open a case against him on principle, if nothing else than to just piss him off and cause him a bit of hassle.

tele69

guitargeek62 said:

Well that’s just shit! If you can deal with admin then I’d pursue the claim out of principle alone.

Yeah. Disappointing.. particularly when you try and play fair in life guitargeek62

bloodandtears

You've got his address right?

ICBM

You’ve been scammed. Complain to Ebay, but it’s probably too late now if you paid a partial refund.

Who was the buyer? That method sounds familiar...

MikeB

You don't ask you don't get. I did the full refund bit expecting the buyer to help out with a claim for a damage in transit. Once he'd got his money back he just didn't bother so I lost out.

Can't say I have much faith in ebay supporting you but nowt to lose.

Neil

I know it is bloody infuriating thinking you have been ripped off but I really think for your peace of mind it is probably better to let it go.

If you decide on action I would definitely go the ebay route and see what they say.

Good luck with whatever you decide. 

TonyR

On the face of it, it does look like he’s tried to pull a fast one, in which case I would be tempted to pursue this.

In the first instance you could contact him and ask (nicely of course!) where the certificate came from.

Is it possible in the few weeks he’s had the guitar he’s contacted Fender to get a replacement certificate (if they will even provide one)?

tele69

munckee said:

guitargeek62 said:

Well that’s just shit! If you can deal with admin then I’d pursue the claim out of principle alone.

I accidentally lol'd this, he is absolutely right f#ck him back.

Cheers munckee.. I am going to pursue it I think

WeZ84

Has he listed it for more than he paid you for it?

I'd try and raise a case - you've got nothing to lose and you might get some or all of the money you refunded him back.

impmann

Yup... been done like that with pedals. Or rather they tried... twice with different IDs. On both occasions I offered full refund or nothing at all - and stated both were working fine when left me. They soon backed down.

Now I video the pedal in operation before sending, showing all the controls working and the serial number in shot where applicable. I keep that just in case. The twunt involved in this one got reported by me to eBay for having shill IDs and (as I had video evidence of them working) that he was trying it on. I never heard anything more from eBay...

guitargeek62

TonyR said:

Is it possible in the few weeks he’s had the guitar he’s contacted Fender to get a replacement certificate (if they will even provide one)?

They don’t - certainly not to secondhand buyers /owners at least. I think there’s been a few times where a certificate was reissued via the original shop that placed the order to the CS, but I could be mixing that up with PRS’ Private Stock perhaps?

Haych

Man, that is low!

Not only would I raise a case with eBay but I'd send him a small claims before action letter, too!

He's basically committed fraud by claiming certificate wasn't present, used it as leverage to get money back out of you and is now selling the guitar with the certificate he claimed you didn't provide!

Screw the scumbag hard as you bloody can just out of principle!  If you win and get some of your cash back then accept that as a bonus.

shugz

Scam. Really sorry to hear you've had a rinsing. It's a shame that certain individuals feel the need when a dollar is involved.

Absolute top man best of the best is @tele69 - we go back years and all that started as just a simple vintage amp deal. Amazing to think we've had a right good few deals between us and played gigs/ festivals, had some smashing times etc since then. 

Make a fiver and be pals or cause merry hell for a tenner? We know what some will always revert to.  Sorry you've been stitched up and I hope the situation is resolved amicably.

Cheers 
Hugh

musteatbrain

In my experience, dealing with eBay’s customer service is not worth £150 and it’s probably far more satisfying to post the buyer a dog nugget

Neil

guitargeek62 said:

TonyR said:

Is it possible in the few weeks he’s had the guitar he’s contacted Fender to get a replacement certificate (if they will even provide one)?

They don’t - certainly not to secondhand buyers /owners at least. I think there’s been a few times where a certificate was reissued via the original shop that placed the order to the CS, but I could be mixing that up with PRS’ Private Stock perhaps?

You can get a duplicate certificate from Fender.

" Take photos and request to an authorized custom shop dealer and for $75 they can get you a replacement COA. The replacement COA will be dated on the the day the replacement was issued - not the guitar manufacture date."

Easy to check if a replacement cert by the date on it. 

DefaultM

Make a new account, buy it and then cause him a load of shit back.

bgmartinsbridge

Do you have a link to his new listing on ebay? 

andrewaward

@tele69 a 2008 US model, white?