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REVERB: Read This If You Sell There


cynic

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I recently sold a guitar on Reverb.  Within two hours of delivery, the buyer requested a refund, saying "it's a very nice guitar, it's just not for me".  My "shop" return policy at the time was the default Reverb recommended return policy, which left me with no other choice than to accept.  The policy states "buyer receives full refund in their original payment method less any shipping charges".  Simple enough, right?  The buyer agreed so I figured we were all good.

Long story short, although clearly stated in their policy, if the refund is anything less than the total price paid (purchase price + shipping), Reverb will charge their 3.5% selling fee on the refunded amount.  In this case, the total price paid was $1345, with $45 of that being shipping. The refunded amount was $1300, on which Reverb charged me their customary 3.5% selling fee.  Had I not deducted the shipping fee, there would have been no charge.  As it happened, I deducted $45 only to be assessed a selling fee of $45.50.

After forty-five minutes with customer service, they agreed to refund the fee "due to the misunderstanding".  

The easy out is that items listed "as-is" are excluded from the return policy, so buyers have no recourse beyond justifying a "not as described" claim.  I think my approach will be to continue to accept returns, but in addition to not refunding shipping cost, I'll charge a restocking fee sufficient enough to leave me whole when all is said and done.

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Restocking/Annoyance fee.  You’re NOT Guitar Center!

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7 hours ago, cynic said:

"it's a very nice guitar, it's just not for me"

Pathetic reason for a return at a store, much less with a private seller. Petulant man-child.

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58 minutes ago, MCChris said:

Pathetic reason for a return at a store, much less with a private seller. Petulant man-child.

I couldn't agree more.  Had the acoustic voice been other than described or my neck measurements by off a few hundredths I could see it, but it's just not for me?

I'm afraid the worst of the stories surrounding recent Reverb sales is yet to come.  I've always used the reverb return policy, but only in this latest round of sales did I foolishly address returns/refunds in the text of my listing.  Two of seven buyers sent requests for refunds.  The first to arrive had significant damage it didn't ship with that could not have happened in transit.  It was obviously done by the buyer, but he chose to never mention it and cited other reasons for wanting to return.  Of course I provided before and after photos for the resolution team, but it's all circumstantial.  I'll find out this week how Reverb handles a "he said/she said".

For the record, the return mentioned in the OP also arrived with a few new scratches from resting on a 1/4" bit of pickup spring floating loose in the case which I'm certain wasn't there when I shipped it out.  I half-jokingly told my wife "fuck dealing with this nonsense, I'm keeping the rest".

People suck.

 

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14 hours ago, cynic said:

For the record, the return mentioned in the OP also arrived with a few new scratches from resting on a 1/4" bit of pickup spring floating loose in the case which I'm certain wasn't there when I shipped it out.

You probably thought of this already but I'd check to see if this jagoff didn't steal your guitar's pickups and swap in a cheaper set.

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I recently sold my Mesa TA15 on Reverb...but it thankfully came back and I am glad. I was foolish to sell it.

But here is what happened, the buyer said his TA15 that he sold sounded like ass at a certain setting and asked me how mine sounded. Mine sounds,great there, just very low volume.

He was setting me up for the return. I shipped to him, he used it over the weekend, probably for a gig or a recording session, and then said it sounded like his at the setting in question.

I had As-Is checked, but decided I wanted my amp back. On his shipping dime which he gladly provided and it came back packed just like I sent it. Reverb actually told me I was very kind to accept it back and didn’t have to, since “tone” is such a subjective thing. 

I really believe he “rented” my amp for a recording session or an important gig. 

It is disappointing, but I am glad I have that awesome amp back.

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On 6/23/2018 at 6:08 PM, cynic said:

I'm afraid the worst of the stories surrounding recent Reverb sales is yet to come.  I've always used the reverb return policy, but only in this latest round of sales did I foolishly address returns/refunds in the text of my listing.  Two of seven buyers sent requests for refunds.  The first to arrive had significant damage it didn't ship with that could not have happened in transit.  It was obviously done by the buyer, but he chose to never mention it and cited other reasons for wanting to return.  Of course I provided before and after photos for the resolution team, but it's all circumstantial.  I'll find out this week how Reverb handles a "he said/she said".

Follow-up:  The buyer of the returned guitar that arrived back to me with damage stuck with his story that it wasn't there when he shipped it.  Going by his story, Reverb considered the damage shipping damage and put the onus on him to make a claim with FedEx to cover the loss.  Had he purchased the return label through Reverb along with their shipping protection it may have played out differently, but I'm happy to have it resolved from my end and felt it was a reasonable determination.

For the record, Reverb shipping protection is an added cost, but coupled with their shipping discount is within a few dollars of purchasing the label direct from a major shipper.

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It will be interesting to hear more stories about how Reverb handles returns when sold AS IS.  

I recently was forced by ebay to accept a return on a Hamer Sunburst that was sold with no returns policy.  He said that it wasn't as described, because I said it sounded very resonant, but he couldn't hear that.  He didn't like the guitar, had buyers remorse, so he filed for a return before ever contacting me.  He also set me up for the  return. He emailed before he got the guitar and said he hoped that the guitar had good tone because that is what it is all about for him.  That worried me.  He knew he was going to do this before he got the guitar!

Anyway Ebay in knee jerk reaction sided with him. Even though it was obviously, by his own admission, buyers remorse regarding the tone of the guitar.   Total BS.   I'm never selling an expensive item on Ebay again.   I read many stories online that Ebay basically always sides with the buyer.

Thank the Lord the guitar came back to me in good shape.  Damn was I worried what it was going to look like when I got it back.

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2 hours ago, texwest said:

I'm never selling an expensive item on Ebay again.

I'm selling several on eBay now for the first time in years but none are very valuable so I'll be happy to get what the bidders decide they're worth.  What I like about eBay is knowing I will sell nine guitars at 7:00pm Sunday and (barring issues) by Monday evening they'll all be gone to me.

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look I know it sucks.  (Just got a return on a pedal from guy who asked a kajillion questions before hand, had a wierd feeling about that).   Imho it’s the cost of doing business for selling close to retail. I’ve been lucky that it’s only happened a couple times over the years.    I know yelp terrorism is a thing nowadays.  I Have a day job. Don’t need that crap over a stupid pedal 

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Here's another bizarre example of how eBay resolves conflicts and my latest reason why I will never use eBay again as a seller for anything of considerable value or anything that is in good, clean condition.

Client of mine buys a clean (in my eyes) used limited run anniversary yada yada LTD Eclipse for a grand. Gets it and really micro-assesses the guitar because he is convinced it - one of thousands MIK in the "limited" run - will one day be a collector's item, even though he brings it to me to set it up right so he can play it daily. 

Anyway, the "not as described" are some pick scratches on the humbucker mounting rings and some very light discoloration wear to the black TOM's plating. Buyer reached out to seller, wants partial refund, "a few hundred bucks," from seller since guitar isn't excellent condition in his opinion. Seller says no but says if you send guitar back, I will refund your money minus shipping because the guitar was described and photographed accurately (the ABSOLUTE way I would have handled this, no buyer will hold me hostage with that moronica partial refund bullshit my client was proposing).

Buyer refuses return and full refund from seller, cries foul with eBay, says he's proposed a partial discount and was denied and thus he is not 100 percent satisfied with his experience per their guarantee. He says he loves and wants the guitar, but he feels a grand was too much for it for its condition. eBay promptly refunds him the grand and shipping he shells out. Buyer thinks since they made him whole, they're gonna want the guitar back. He's like "oh well, at least I'm whole." He waits and waits and waits for a return airbill to ship the guitar to where he's told - he figures he's been made whole, his grand came from the seller, and so it's either back to seller or to eBay for the guitar so whoever ate his grand can do whatever they do to cut their losses. No airbill comes even though he's got his grand back.

He calls eBay to ask what and why, and they affirm he should keep the guitar! He asks if the seller is out his grand and eBay tells him no, he got to keep the buyer's grand since he was out the guitar. So eBay confirms not only the seller has his grand, but that buyer doesn't have to send the guitar back - and they tell him point blank he can keep it to show eBay's will to make good on their 100 percent guarantee. They told him, I paraphrase the phone call as it was described to me, we want you to be fully satisfied.

Granted no one's out other than eBay (and us indirectly as fee payers, I guess), but I thought my client, the buyer, was HORRIBLY AND HORRIDLY rewarded for being absolutely unreasonable in his expectations. I bit my lip hard enough to draw blood through the whole process, not only just out of principle but also because you can fairly assume this wasn't an anomaly and that eBay would rather just throw money at conflicts rather than truly investigating and fairly fixing them.

After all this, the only thing you will see me sell on eBay ever again will be cheap and clearly beat to shit items, in proudly announced as-is, no returns and absolutely no exceptions. I already sell this way on Reverb. And, oh yeah ...

You NEVER have to be worried on eBay as a buyer. You really can "buy with confidence" because eBay will apparently exceed every buyer's expectations, even the unreasonable ones.

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Whoops, I wasn't clear above ... I was not the seller, sorry about that. A shop client of mine for other stuff bought it from an eBay seller, and then he brought it to me to set it up as he started pursuing 100 percent satisfaction with eBay and the seller.

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I have only had one bad experience on Reverb.  It was a set of tuners, so I wound up refunding the money and not taking the return.  There are some serious clowns out there buying as well as selling.  I have never had a bad experience with the HFC and am glad to be a part of this group that seems to be self policing.  I have also been fairly lucky using TGP.  I just steer clear of anyone who uses the word "calipers".

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3 hours ago, Jeff R said:

Whoops, I wasn't clear above ... I was not the seller, sorry about that.

I knew you were not the seller.  The guy who bought the guitar seems like the type that will find an excuse to beat you out of something at some point. 

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