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Joined:
September 2005
Posts: 133
Location: Studio City, California, USA | Hello,
I know i am new here and all, but i need help from fellow musicians and/or nice people. Here's what happened
A little over 20 days ago I baught a 12 string Alvarez on ebay from a guy in minesota, mineapolis it think. I can get the full address and all. So I paid the guy he emailed me back saying if i wanted to give him an extra 50 dollars he can go buy a case for it to make safer in the shipping. So i said please do, here's the money. 2 weeks later he emails me saying he's having problems shipping the guitar with UPS but he's gonna try again in 5 days and ship it no matter what...ect So i said sure, take your time i don't want the guitar to arrive broken. I even told him to take the strings out...ect And since then nothing. I've left messages on his answering machine he didn't pick up or call me back. I sent numerous emails no responses. I tried to file a complaint with ebay and they say to file it with Paypal. So i did. Still nothing. The guy doesn;t even answer paypals emails..ect
SO i would like to know if anybody lives in Mineapolis and can maybe try to stop by the guy's house, or call him, or anything. Of course i will pay for the person who would like to help me out's time and all. I really don't know what to do. This never happened to me before.
Any sugestions from anybody on how to handle this matter is more than welcome.
Thank you very much for looking |
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Joined:
July 2002
Posts: 1900
| Well, the part about him sayin he's having problems shipping with UPS is suspicious on his part because a standard guitar case is well within the packaging limits for UPS...I wished I lived in Minneapolis...these kind of guys need their butt kicked...but, these kinds of problems are the big risk now with ebay sellers...perhaps someone else on the board can help you more...
Steve |
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Joined:
May 2003
Posts: 4389
Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | I don't like the look of this. Can you stop or challange the payment with your credit card? Or was there a transfer from your bank account to his? Do you know where the money was sent to?
Do you know his address? Send him a letter demanding your money back or the guitar by certified mail return receipt requested. If you don't hear from him, try to file a complaint with the police in minnestoa. Some places let you do this, others don't. Find a friend in Minn to sue him.
That's the thing about ebay, when things are over $100 bucks, and the persons not a store but a human, or I don't know them from prior transactions, I won't buy unless I can drive there and back in 12 hours, about 400 miles from NYC, that's about down to Richmond up to montreal, and then over to Boston. Pretty big area. Just enough time to file a complaint in small claims court and be home for dinner.
Sorry. |
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Joined:
April 2004
Posts: 13303
Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | When I pay through Paypal, I ALWAYS USE THE CREDIT CARD option. Then I don't really give a damn what paypal says....I just call up the cc company and file with them and the money/credit is returned to my account within days.
Once paypal loses the funds back to the cc company, they will agressively go after their money from the seller......otherwise, paypal drags their feet and could care less. |
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Joined:
September 2005
Posts: 133
Location: Studio City, California, USA | Thank you for the infos i'm going to see what i can do. And i guess now i will follow some new rules when it comes to ebay.
The seller had a perfect 100% feedback, replied to the questions...ect
Thanks
Ced |
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Joined:
December 2003
Posts: 1071
Location: Carle Place, NY | Originally posted by stephent28:
When I pay through Paypal, I ALWAYS USE THE CREDIT CARD option. Then I don't really give a damn what paypal says....I just call up the cc company and file with them and the money/credit is returned to my account within days.
Once paypal loses the funds back to the cc company, they will agressively go after their money from the seller......otherwise, paypal drags their feet and could care less. Thanks Stephen. That's the best piece of advice that I've seen in a while. The credit card companies are much better than PayPal/eBay in protecting the rights of their customers.
As for you Ced, don't give up hope as you may still get the guitar. However, do everything required to document and file your claim with PayPal and eBay. |
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Joined:
September 2005
Posts: 133
Location: Studio City, California, USA | Will do. Thank you. I'm so sad, man every time there is a guitar a really really like it gets stolen or something happens.
You can't trust nobody this days.
Thank you |
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Joined:
April 2004
Posts: 13303
Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | Ced, thats one reason it is always useful to ask the OFC if any member has a guitar for sale or something close to what you are looking for.
Many of us have nice instruments for sale but we are too lazy to post on ebay or the OFC forum. |
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Joined:
March 2005
Posts: 12759
Location: Boise, Idaho | Noah has some experience with ebay and shipping problems. I think his was also UPS. He got help through the credit card company, as suggested above. It's getting tougher because of all the credit card scams to let some stranger get your credit card info, but PayPal tries to protect you on that.
I just got a call from someone claiming to solicit for American Red Cross and my wife called the Red Cross and they said it wasn't them. Too many scammers out there. I've been lucky so far with 2 ebay guitars that worked out fine, although I had some second thoughts. I love my Balladeer, which I got off this board and soon hope to have another O from this board. Ebay is just a little too anonymous. |
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Joined:
July 2003
Posts: 1922
Location: Canton (Detroit), MI | I'm 0-for-2 on eBay (both guitars had "issues" that the seller undoubtedly knew about)....no more eBay guitars.
Ced, I hope everything comes out OK for you. I've had a case where a seller just "disappeared" and found later that he had medical issues and was in the hospital. It ended up fine.
Roger |
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Joined:
September 2005
Posts: 133
Location: Studio City, California, USA | Okay. I'll try to be patient and see what happened. There's nothing else i can do really at this point. As for this guitar, i baught it about 5 minutes before i found this forum. I was loking at some guitars and somebody put a link to the forum on their ebay listing.
Anyway, my wife is an attorney so if it comes to that i'll let her handle it. But she's busy enough the way it is, so if i can try to solve this without involving her, all for the best. And in worst case i'll lose 500 dollars. There are worst things that happen in life.
Thank you for your help. |
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Joined:
September 2005
Posts: 133
Location: Studio City, California, USA | This is weird, maybe the seller is a member of this forum. As soon as i ask for help here, i get an email from the seller. Very nice, saying he's been buzy at school and that he couldn't find a guitar case that fit the guitar for 50 dollars. So he baught a more expensive one and that's one him, very nice of him, and that he will ship first thing tomorrow morning and send me a tracking number. I am very happy. I'll post some picture of the guitar here when i get it. I know it's not an ovation, but it's my guitar and i love it. It is a 1991 12 string Alvarez Silver anniversary. I can;t wait.
Thank you so much for all your help. It is greatly apreciated.
Ced |
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Joined:
December 2003
Posts: 1071
Location: Carle Place, NY | Ced:
I told you not to give up hope. The vast majority of eBay transactions work well. I just got delievery of this guitar that I bid on for a friend:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7349788340&rd=1&...
The guitar is like new. I took a bit of a chance because the photo in the ad was terrible, but when I checked the feedback I saw that this seller bought five guitars on eBay within the last two months. |
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Joined:
July 2002
Posts: 1900
| Good News Ced, Maybe the OFC board got his attention, there is 'strength in numbers' as they say and we are over 3000 members strong!
Steve |
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Joined:
March 2005
Posts: 12759
Location: Boise, Idaho | We have to keep believing that the vast majority of people are good, even though it seems more unlikely all the time. Ced, it sounds like a perfectly logical explanation to me. And Mitch, that has to be the worst ebay guitar picture I've ever seen. Glad it turned out better than the picture. |
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Joined:
November 2003
Posts: 11039
Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | This sorta thing happened to me when I won the FD-14. The seller fu@ked up because, he just plain overlooked sending my guitar with a bunch of other stuff he was shipping. When I emailed him, asking for a tracking number, he called me, apologizing profusely for the mistake. Which, made me worry because, I had already contacted Moody to go to Indiana to break his thumbs.
Anyway, he sent the guitar two-day-express on his own ticket, without me asking....
I, however, assumed it would be shipped in a case, when in fact, inclusion of a case was not offered in the description during the sale... whoops.
It arrived, unharmed, in the shipping box without a case (in mint condition...or as near to mint as one could expect of an unseen used guitar) but, had I been more thorough, I would have asked him to ship it differently. |
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Joined:
September 2005
Posts: 133
Location: Studio City, California, USA | Hello,
So the latest news on this affair. So, as you can imagine i was waiting until 1 in the mornig to get an email from the guy with the tracking number. And nothing, so i didn;t sleep well at all. Then, of course i check my email 1st thing when i wake up this morning. And there's two email from paypal saying that he has issued me a refund and that the m oney is pending.
So that's a good news. I'm still waiting for the money to clear, just in case. Now i don't know if i should leave him a negative feedback or just forget about it.
I think i know what happen, if you beleive in that kind of thing. For once i decide to buy and accoustic/electric that is not an ovation and everything goes down the drain. I'm sure if i had won an ovation on ebay i'll be palying it by now. It's Ovation Curse that hit me right in the forehead.
Anyhow, it's a good experience and it looks like it's going to end nicely. So now, i'm gonna take people's advice and ask around here if anybody has what i'm looking for before dealing with Ebay.
So, I am back to square one. And I'm still looking for a nice 12 strings Ovation. It doesn't need to look flawless...ect it just need to sound spectacular. So if anybody could give some infos...ect on what model to look for, plus if anybody can help me find one it would be great. I think this is the perfect oportunity for me to breack away from the Adams and try some other Ovation.
Thank you very much for your help |
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PLEASE HELP!!!!!!
