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Green stamps?

I know the copy I still have of American Band by Grand Funk was one of my original CH ordered 12 for a penny plus S&H, whatever that meant, back in ‘74. 😈

I still feel the Insurance denial is 2nd to receiving a damaged item. That comes first and foremost, the insurance issue is after the fact.

By clicking this box or using this service, you agree to be bound by the terms of service. That’s what I was talking about before where the world is really going to hell with the lawyers. How many people download apps on their smartphones and don’t understand the vast majority of those make your phone into super highway tracking devices…because you agree to the terms of service through clicking the box or simply proceeding to use the app. It’s all kabuki. Why do most drive throughs ask are you using our app now? Because by doing so you agree to the terms of service and they will collect anything they can from your phone (browser history and gps location among many other things) to sell you their product and to make you the product by selling this info on the open market.

Reiterating why you are ultimately responsible in this.

See, this is where it gets ugly. I was NOT the shipper nor was the shipping charged to my account. It was a business, not a personal seller. They used THEIR UPS account and paid for the shipping. Again, I feel they should know the rules before shipping. They never asked if I had it on my account. And, more so, there is description, small print etc or check box on my UPS account that states when you sign up for UPS My Choice, you are putting yourself at risk!!! NOTHING! If you can find it, please post a link. I could not and again, I called them multiple times and they could not provide me with a link that states this.

To me it seems like UPS is the villian here. Who broke the amp? UPS, not the seller, it seems. Who runs the collect-all-premiums, pay-no-claims insurance scheme? UPS, not the seller. I'm assuming the seller is more to the "just a dude like me" end of the spectrum rather than the Guitar Center end. The more the seller is making a business out of selling stuff, the more you can expect them to have sophisticated business policies and resources to absorb misfortunes. Just a dude who knows that UPS, FedEx or the post office can deliver packages for a substantial charge, not so much. Position of the seller on the spectrum is not clear here. I'm glad the credit card refunded you - you didn't get what you paid for. Beyond that, it seems like the seller held up their end. Maybe shipping is a force majeure situation rather than a responsible service provider. I'm not sure what justice looks like, realistically, if UPS is untouchable. I'm guessing the lesson to be learned here, as just a dude, is to insist on cash-and-carry for amp sales to strangers. Which pretty much means that I will have a hard time selling amps. I could estimate the reduced revenue from the cash-and-carry policy (or resign myself to selling to a dealer at their "buy low" price) against the occasional (if that's what it actually is) shipping disaster loss, I guess, that that's what it would be - guessing.

The shipper doesn’t know the restrictions placed by your account. Had it been the shippers account causing this issue I would agree, but you were the account causing the issue, you had the check box manually checked and paying for it therefore you need to understand what you signed up for and how it can impact others, therefore you should notify the shipper of this restriction, you didn’t, therefore the onus is on you. You may not like it but this is how this looks and doing a cc chargeback is ultimately not good imo. I’d be interested to know how the cc company handles this.

Very helpful info on this thread, thanks everyone. Also glad Visa refunded you @santellavision. I would guess it is now your amp to fix or do whatever you want with?

I don't know if the tube pedals sound better. I've had two. The Tone Works Blue Tone, which was noisy as hell. And the Ibanez PUE5 tube unit, which was very cool. Should have kept it. But don't get me started on pedals with Surface Mount Technology. The pedals I've had or tried that was built with this technology sounded stiffer and more harsh. It's audiable. Avoid.

Elementary...

I think I would have to disagree. How would the buyer (me) know that's the UPS policy when buying anything? There is no place I can find on the UPS website that tells you if you add the yearly UPS My Choice to your account that you void any insurance claims on incoming deliveries. Trust me, I have searched and even called UPS multiple times to research this for my protection in this dispute. Not one UPS rep or supervisor could tell me where it is posted on their website. (This could be a class-action suit!) Ultimately, I feel it falls on the shipper to know the UPS guidelines before shipping as they purchase the insurance, not me.

Not really anyone’s fault, however, if someone has to be at fault (there always has to be), that would be you since your account was the voiding issue. what an absolutely crap thing for UPS to do. Life is turning into a law firm induced cluster. This is not the sellers fault, you should have the cc take it up with ups if that’s even possible.

As an aside, my wife and I have fallen in love with Pirateship.com for shipping stuff for our businesses via UPS. One of the big reasons is PS's in-house insurance via InsureShield. It's $1 per $100 of insurance (cheaper than UPS on high dollar items), and PirateShip's VERY DEEP discounts for UPS easily cover InsureShield without eating up all your savings. Most importantly, when UPS managed to lose a very custom $600 set of Carondelets I wound a good friend and client this summer, InsureShield paid out the loss 100 percent, within 24 hours of my filing the claim, and with ZERO disputes, issues or hassles.

Steve, you don't have to delete it. You can just ask the shipper (if its a small shop or private person) to make it has 'Signature required' on the delivery. That fixes this 'Insurance cancellation quirk' in the system.

Thank you for the warning. UPS My Choice membership just got deleted from my account!

As many dislike Reverb and Ebay, they do have a great refund policy. They require the seller to pay for return shipping and send a label for any damaged/not as described items. No questions asked. I've never had an issue with them. There is something to paying a few more bucks for that security.

As best I can tell, the only outlet with the Gotoh 510TS-FE1 in stock is Sweetwater at $159.99 (significantly cheaper but out of stock everywhere else I've checked). Sweetwater also has the Gotoh EV510T-FE in stock (and more to the point, on sale) for $97.49. As I understand it, the "TS" description details a "steel block." The EV510T-FE description details a "Chromium Molybdenum block." I'm familiar with Chromoly steel in stuff like piston rings and bicycles, but would the difference in these two trems be worth $60? I do note the difference in the base plates and "traditional aesthetics" of the 510TS-FE1 are of no concern at all. The 510TS-FE1 The EV510T-FE1 If it matters, this would be intended for the partscaster I'm working on and what I am trying to remedy is the stupid wobbly trem arm in the OEM tremolo. I will say (OTOH) I have remedied this on stock Fender two-points with a Callaham Enhanced Block mounted to the stock base plate. That's only $71 but another $20 for the arm puts it right at the price of the Gotoh EV - more considering shipping from Sweetwater is free. Thanks.

That sucks dude. I feel for you. I went through a similar situation this Summer with a Fender Super Sonic. Major difference was shipping by FedX and I bought mine on Reverb. FedX told me to pound sand. Reverb gave me my money back.

No idea what will happen, but sure sorry to hear this!

This is a new one and not a good one. Saw this dude in a 3-piece blues band with a Fender Vibro King. He was just killing it. Huge, what a tone! So, I had to try a Fender Vibro King amplifier. I found a really clean one. They were willing to pack it and ship it. It's a big-ass heavy amp. I made sure they had to include insurance, if something went wrong. They agreed. OK, deal done. They shipped it by UPS. It was about 80lbs. Well, as you are probably guessing... it broke. It was packed pretty well, not up to my MOBW (Master of Bubble Wrap) standards, but decent. Something internal got damaged. Checked all the usual stuff, tubes, cables, etc. No dice. The box had some big, visual damage. It definitely got beat up. So, I called them and they said; "yes, we did get the insurance and it should be fine." But, NO REFUND yet. I did my part for UPS when requested, took all the pics, showed the packing etc and submitted the info to UPS Claims for the seller. Not much else I can do for now. Waiting, waiting, waiting. I get a message back from the seller. "Uh, UPS is denying the insurance claim because... YOU have 'UPS My Choice' on your UPS account." Now, many of you probably have this on your account. You pay a few bucks a year to allow free options for delivery like hold at UPS store etc. Well, if you have this on your account, Insurance is voided, no questions, all shipper insurance is invalid due to the possibility of theft during delivery changes. They don't tell you this or as I checked, there is NO mention of this anywhere on the UPS website. The shipper paid for the insurance, but they were not notified that the recipient has UPS My Choice activated on their end. They had no idea that their insurance would be invalid. They tried to escalate this, but no good. No other avenue to fight it. UPS told them, the only way to over-ride the UPS My Choice is to require a Signature or Select the No Delivery Changes button. The seller now doesn't want to take it back or refund me and is blaming ME for the insurance issue. WTF???? Here's where we are. I paid with my VISA, so I filed a dispute. VISA refunded me. I submitted all my info for the dispute. This should be cut and dry. The item I received was damaged and not working. That should be enough for me to keep my refund. Their claim on blaming me for the insurance issue is a totally separate thing and that's their problem, not mine. I will follow up when I get the final determination (any day now) but I feel I am in the right here. ernie P.S. Here's a question for you all... What do think will happen to the amp? I originally paid $1,400 for it with shipping/Insurance. So, he already paid $270 for shipping out of that plus the 3% VISA fee. It weighs 80lbs and is in a BIG, oversized box. Return shipping would be another $270. Add to that the cost to have a tech repair it. Do you think the seller will chalk-it-up as a loss and let me keep it or send a label for return? I surely (Don't call me Shirley) don't think my VISA will make me pay for shipping it back, do you? Thoughts?

I sit a 12AX7 on top of my modeler du jour and man it sounds great! 🤣 It's like anything else, it depends on how it's done and what you're looking for.

Limited edition.....

I'm down to 2 these days:

No worries! Thank you for replying, I appreciate the info; I think my PayPal is just tied to my bank account (not a credit card) so I might not have had the option to get the charge back if I had used F&F, so that detail is important. Glad you got it sorted, interested to hear what happened to the seller.