The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #1

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    Venting alert. I bought an inexpensive bass on that site to make into a fretless. The seller said it would "ship in a Fender gig bag", but it arrived bagless. The seller said there was "finish checking" on the lower horn. The bass had been struck there (and elsewhere) maybe 20 times with a semi-circular object (like a hammer) and the resulting dents go through to the wood. NOT finish checking. Not repairable.

    I asked for a partial refund to cover the cost of buying a used gig bag and as an adjusted value for the damage. Buyer refused.

    I asked the verb for help, and sent detailed pics of the damage. They said the damage was visible in the listing (it wasn't) and the seller was not responsible for a refund. No mention of the missing gig bag. That was 3 days ago- despite multiple additional messages from me, no response.

    There is no phone number or direct email address on the site. Apparently it was sold to Etsy a couple years back. Maybe about the time the selling fees went up. Not even an address.

    I sure wish there was an alternative. I have probably done over $25K in transactions there over the years. Hope you have better experiences!

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    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #2

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    I think your only recourse at this point is warn others of this seller. Your feedback should reflect your experience with this seller. Even before thinking about an item on Reverb I look at the sellers feedback for any "bad behavior". If the seller has a different opinion after the feedback is listed, this happened to me, you can retract the feedback. If they dont care at all, then that's all you and other potential buyers need to know.

  4. #3

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    Wow, sorry to hear that..ive done tons of deals on Reverb..................but not "through" reverb, lol

  5. #4

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    So apparently buying an instrument "through" Reverb provides no protection whatsoever.

  6. #5

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    Would using a Visa,etc or PayPal have any legal recourse?

  7. #6

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    Quote Originally Posted by jads57
    Would using a Visa,etc or PayPal have any legal recourse?
    Amex is the way to go. They don’t fool around and will refund you for any purchase.

  8. #7

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    Reverb.com exists to pocket its fees. Customer service beyond that is a non-thought.

  9. #8

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    You can dispute a charge made with a credit card and/or Paypal. I do both, by having my credit card charged by Paypal.

  10. #9

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    Using both the credit card and PayPal a good idea. "Reverb Protection" is a fantasy. What a drag!

  11. #10

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    As others say, if you paid by credit card or paypal and feel you did not get what you paid for in terms of condition and contents, contact them and report the issue. Paypal for sure will side with the buyer not the seller, regardless, if you wish to return the item for a refund. However, if you want to renegotiate price, that’s another matter and weakens your case which might be why Reverb are not immediately supportive.

  12. #11

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    in terms of issuing a chargeback on reverb, I once bought a guitar on reverb that had a twisted neck. I had to take it to a luthier and pay him to give a repair estimate before reverb would allow me to request a refund. In the early days they were very bad about backing sales on their products but I've found them to be better over the last year. They did warn me once that issuing a chargeback through my CC company was grounds for immediate cancelation of my reverb account...

    OTOH, on one occasion, I had to override ebay's customer service by going through my CC company and ebay handled the chargeback gracefully.

  13. #12

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    This all seems strange to me. Once or twice a year I have someone regret their purchase on Reverb and instead of asking for a return and paying shipping costs (I accept returns for any reason) they decide to claim that something is not as described or doesn’t work when it’s not true. Reverb never even asks them to show proof. They always expect me to take the return and cover all shipping. They don’t even begin to care if I could show that the claim was false. They will usually cave on me covering shipping fees if I press, but not otherwise.

    That said, it may be somewhat different when the seller, as most, says “no returns”. In the end though, I find it’s just best as a seller to just accept a return with no questions, even when a false claim is made. I don’t want to risk someone deciding to create an issue with the guitar that isn’t there.
    Last edited by ThatRhythmMan; 03-23-2021 at 09:28 PM.

  14. #13

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    Quote Originally Posted by ThatRhythmMan
    This all seems strange to me. Once or twice a year I have someone regret their purchase on Reverb and instead of asking for a return and paying shipping costs (I accept returns for any reason) they decide to claim that something is not as described or doesn’t work when it’s not true. Reverb never even asks them to show proof. They always expect me to take the return and cover all shipping. They don’t even begin to care if I could show that the claim was false. They will usually cave on me covering shipping fees if I press, but not otherwise.

    That said, it may be somewhat different when the seller, as most, says “no returns”. In the end though, I find it’s just best as a seller to just accept a return with no questions, even when a false claim is made. I don’t want to risk someone deciding to create an issue with the guitar that isn’t there.
    This has always been my experience as well. Reverb has always sided with the buyer over the seller. The OP's experience seems odd based on my experiences over there.

  15. #14

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    Reverb's strategy to capture market share was to start as a loss leader. I think that Reverb in the early days had extremely generous transaction protection, from shipping to claims and returns etc. Additionally, I think Reverb's fees were quite low and it was possible to sell gear with and come out of a deal satisfied. Additionally, for buyers it made sense because you could skip taxes and buy safely & confidently.

    I think those days are long gone. Reverb now charges taxes, which means that for a buyer you end up paying almost as much as if you bought something directly from an out of state dealer. If you bought something on reverb and paid taxes, then you will be tempted to list at higher than market price to recover those costs. This, in addition to stimulus, has driven a lot of gear prices up on Reverb. The higher seller fees hasn't helped either. Finally, Reverb has pretty much dominated the used gear marketplace. Ebay is still active but Reverb has a more buttoned up look, so I think it gets more volume. One thing I've noticed is that Reverb has become an echo chamber. People looking on Reverb don't realize that the prices of sold gear are not representative of the whole market. Vintage speakers are a great example. Some idiot wanted $500 for a vintage Jensen p10r on Reverb. I "bought it now" on ebay for $150.

    I always list on Reverb because you never know, but I always factor in all the BS fees they charge and list here at a much lower price (same net that I would make on Reverb) because I much prefer seeing instruments go to a community I engage with.

  16. #15

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    It has now been well over a week and no resolution. I asked that I NOT be sent back to a particular "musician" (that's what they call their customer service people) who seemed particularly clueless. I was sent back to that very person, who, after 3 days, said the case would be sent up to the next level. Which is what I asked for a week ago. The "musicians" at reverb (maybe they are drummers?) have only addressed the denting issue, and never responded to the missing case. I don't know why. I tried using bold fonts, and making it super-ultra-clear that there were two issues at hand, but they seem to be ignoring the missing case.
    Oftentimes when a company gets bought out (Etsy bought Reverb) the first thing they do is cut costs and increase fees. If the buyer didn't think that would be possible, they probably would not have purchased the company in the first place.
    I vow to spend less time shopping on line and more time going to garage sales!
    Last edited by JazzDaddyD; 03-25-2021 at 12:22 AM. Reason: typo

  17. #16

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    Quote Originally Posted by JazzDaddyD
    It has now been well over a week and no resolution. I asked that I NOT be sent back to a particular "musician" (that's what they call their customer service people) who seemed particularly clueless. I was sent back to that very person, who, after 3 days, said the case would be sent up to the next level. Which is what I asked for a week ago. The "musicians" at reverb (maybe they are drummers?) have only addressed the denting issue, and never responded to the missing case. I don't know why. I tried using bold fonts, and making it super-ultra-clear that there were two issues at hand, but they seem to be ignoring the missing case.
    Were you using the chat? Email?

  18. #17

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    I have to say I have been impressed with Reverb's customer support, and I do a fair amount of buying and selling there.

    I recently bought a $2500 guitar on Reverb, all original. The bone nut showed up with a crack. Seller wanted nothing to do with it. I started the claim with Reverb and sent hi-rez pics of the crack. They worked it out with the seller that he would refund me $100 and then Reverb gave me a $100 credit. That was enough to have my luthier make a new bone nut.

    As a buyer I sold a vintage $1500 all original vintage MIJ 335 on Reverb. It was mint and I took a zillion pics of it before selling. The buyer tried to claim that the guitar was not as described and opened a claim with Reverb. In my defense I sent all of the pics I had taken to prove that the guitar was mint. They asked if I would be willing to provide any kind of refund and I refused because the pics proved the condition of the guitar. They were fine with that and offered the buyer $100 credit and that was that.

    My fear is that any buyer of anything on Reverb can make an unfounded gripe about a purchase gambling that Reverb will throw them a $100 credit. Reverb's fees on big ticket items is far more than the $100 credit they give away to keep the transaction.

    Humans... what are you going to do?

  19. #18

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    After much travail, uploading photos 3X, and explaining myself over and over again, I did get a refund. I know the seller was very reluctant to pay up- don't know if he did, or if Reverb ate it. Somebody did. So, I am grateful (for my tenacity) and appreciate that it is over. Now I can practice!

  20. #19

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    I bought a Gary Willis bass off reverb. It was in "new condition" but a year old, unplayed, etc. When I got it, it literally sounded like a sitar as you can hear below.

    It had an extreme backbow and a hump at the 3rd fret to the extent that the top 3 strings were touching the fingerboard. The bridge was already adjusted pretty high and the truss rod was already almost completely loosened. I loosened the truss rod another 1/4 turn and raised the action about 3-5 turns per bridge piece and it only got marginally better. I sent the video to my luthier and he confirmed my diagnosis and said it would likely need to be planed but warned me that on the indonesian instruments, ibanez dyes the fingerboard and that it might look like hell unless he re-dyes the fingerboard.

    So I told all this to the seller who said he'd refund me but not pay return shipping because he said he told me it would need a complete setup. I pointed out to him that when he told me that, it was *AFTER* he had shipped the instrument and that the time to have told me that was beforehand and that he should have offered to allow me to cancel the purchase prior to shipping when he noticed the "setup" issue. But he told me he didn't like my attitude and wouldn't be continuing any further conversation so I registered a dispute with reverb.

    It's been 3 days since then with nary a peep out of them. If I don't hear from them today, I will contact my CC company. Once before, reverb's support threatened me with an account cancellation if I did that and I caved but I won't this time. Ebay's support is better than this. Even Etsy (who owns reverb) does a better job IMO...


  21. #20

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    Buying used gear is a gamble. LTBB.

  22. #21

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    Sorry to hear. Thanks for posting, and good luck. Reverb customer service seems very hit or miss.

    Question: wouldn't you tighten the truss rod to get rid of back bow, not loosen more?

  23. #22

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    I have had 100% positive experiences with Reverb. But I engage with the seller and cover all of the "what-ifs" before I open my wallet. Maybe I've been fortunate, but I like to think I do my due diligence and then I'm responsible for my choices.

    Sorry you got a lemon. I hope you get satisfaction.

  24. #23

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    Quote Originally Posted by HeyNow
    Sorry to hear. Thanks for posting, and good luck. Reverb customer service seems very hit or miss.

    Question: wouldn't you tighten the truss rod to get rid of back bow, not loosen more?
    Tightening the truss rod removes "normal" (concave) bow such as when you go from light to heavy strings. To correct for that, you tighten the trussrod. Convex (backbow) happens typically when you go from heavy strings to light strings. To correct the latter, you loosen the truss rod.

  25. #24

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    Quote Originally Posted by Just Fred
    I have had 100% positive experiences with Reverb. But I engage with the seller and cover all of the "what-ifs" before I open my wallet. Maybe I've been fortunate, but I like to think I do my due diligence and then I'm responsible for my choices.

    Sorry you got a lemon. I hope you get satisfaction.
    I did all this. The seller just misrepresented the item in this case and then told me about the issue (AFTER) he shipped it. And I wouldn't consider a fingerboard planing or dye-job as a setup.

  26. #25

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    If you factor in taxes and the expected cost of having to deal with returns and reverb support, I don't think it's worth shopping on Reverb. Reverb is for mindlessly scrolling (the latest opioid), not for buying. If I want to buy something I usually contact a store, not an anonymous stranger online with an utterly meaningless star-rating. Perfect example: I recently got an EH 185 from Retrofret. If you know these amps you know how many loose and delicate parts there are. I should have taken photographs of the packing job because it was the most incredible packing I've ever seen. So for me it's simple: pay a premium for certainty vs purchase something unpredictable for an apparent discount, which is not even a discount after taxes? Buying from an individual on Reverb can be like getting a variable rate loan from a sketchy used car dealer. Build lasting relationships with dealers and you'll find yourself better off.