eBay

willshiremusic2020 · ‎06-23-2020

Hello there, we are new seller on Ebay and so far has been having good experiences and we always made sure our items are as described and arrived satisfying for buyers.

We really need ASAP advice on the issue that we get from our buyer who just got the guitar delivered today (Monday , 22nd of June).

He sent us a request for us to refund the guitar that he purchased.

Details: the guitar arrived in excellent condition, no damaged and as described (see 3 Photos bellow).

The buyer wrote statements praising the guitar himself in the return detail. But immediately after he received the guitar, he did some tuning and adjusting the guitar by himself (no professional help noted). He opened the pick up cover and resulting the pickup cover flew off with the saddle ad he said the guitar had a structural issue to begin with.

In our understanding, on our end, we have sold and delivered a completely working, good condition guitar as described (the guitar is not missing and arrived in good condition). The work that he did to the guitar in effort to adjust or tuning it that do the "damaged" to the guitar.

Now, he wants to return the guitar somehow damaged and ask for a refund from us.

The bottom line is he already did some work with the guitar.

This is the photo the buyer sent us: (condition of the guitar now)

the buyer did some work on it and the "damaged" condition now

We are pretty disappointed that the buyer wants to return the guitar after he made the condition of the guitar like this (see photo above).

Please help us read the buyer statement in his return details and help us decide fairly if we should refund his money and accept back our guitar after he did some work on it.

We also listed no refund policy.

These 3 photos below showing the guitar conditions as listed and as how it delivered to the buy

buyer

erhimlisted and what arrived)What we sold, as Listed and the condition he received tIt was sold with its original case too:

Will it helpful if we talked to Ebay and explain the situation first before take an action (decline the return)? they do have the return details from the buyer on their file.

Thank you for your help

retroman_studios · ‎06-23-2020

If he has opened a case immediately call eBay and have them review the messages and they *may* change the return to a buyer remorse, in which case the buyer is responsible for shipping and you are allowed to deduct funds for damages on the product if I recall the new restocking fee guidelines.

I don't know how eBay will look at this. On the one hand, it was "a serviceable" part, on the other hand a customer typically is responsible for actions and consequences that arise from improper servicing, even I doubt the original manufacturer would cover that under warranty.

If push comes to shove and eBay won't see it your way, be sure to accept the return as if eBay has to step in that will be a mark on your account. You will have to provide a return label for them to ship the item back.

willshiremusic2020 · ‎06-23-2020

Hello there, thank you for the advice. We did contacting ebay and ebay represntative reviewed our case in the spot. Good news, they strongly agreed that the buyer had altered the guitar therefore it is outside seller control. Basically, Ebay is really fair in this case. They saw from the photo and the buyer's statement that it is clearly, us as a seller, do not have any control on this case.

Thank you so much for your reply and hopefully, this post will help any seller who encounter similar issue.

pjcdn2005 · ‎06-23-2020

@willshiremusic2020

Sorry, but I've heard of customer service agreeing with the seller before in similar cases but the results are definitely not what the seller expected to happen. Although I agree that in a situation like this, customer service should close the case since the buyer can not return the item in the condition that it was sent, but that is not usually what happens. Generally, if a buyer opens a return request and states that the item doesn't work or is defective, the seller either has to accept the return and send a return label to the buyer OR refund without a return. If neither is done, ebay will likely refund without a return if asked to step in.

What did customer service tell you to do now as far as resolving the issue?

esclyons · ‎06-23-2020

If the buyer opens a case for item not as described, DON'T believe that you are o.k.,, You will more than likely have to accept the return, and deduct an amount equal to the damage from the refund payment once you receive the item back..

Otherwise the buyer may end with the guitar and a refund..

No returns, doesn't mean no refunds, ebay's policies outrank any policy we may have..

intimewithmusic · ‎06-24-2020

Hi. I apologize if I missed something as I didn't read every word. As someone who has shipped instruments for 30 years here is my take on this.

An eBay customer service rep isn't qualified to judge this case. Their judgement could lead to your business getting off on the wrong foot. In this case YOU are the instrument pro. It's in your best interest,if you deal with it in a less confrontational way.

You may know this but for the benefit of others stringed instruments, in most cases, should never be shipped when tuned to pitch. When all new guitars arrive from the manufacturer to dealerships they arrive with almost no tension on the neck. They were tuned at the factory. Then the truss rod, bridge and nut were roughly adjusted. Then the tension is released and the instrument is shipped. During shipping if a guitar like instrument is under tension it is subject to bad things happening. There could be physical shock, vibration, temperature shock in a hot truck, humidity, altitude pressure etc.

When stringed instruments arrive at the destination they need to be properly set up. They are now in an environment with different humidity, temperature etc. All incoming guitars in my guitar shop (new and used) were properly set up on arrival. Some advanced guitar consumers can do this themselves. Many pros prefer having a shop do it. We used to do work on two of Van Halen's guitars owned by a collector who was a pro but didn't trust himself.

As a stringed instrument dealer you can't dictate which buyer is qualified to do a proper set up. It sounds like your customer may work with you. Phone him/her and talk. You have their phone number. I would recommend you learn from this and absorb the cost for him/her to have the instrument repaired by a pro or to simply send it back. Do a full refund no matter what eBay says. The easiest and most cost effective would be to do a Paypal refund to the buyer after he sends you a repair bill. If you wish to keep selling stringed instruments consider this an opportunity to prevent it from happening again or rest assured it will.

First, make sure your instrument is prepared, packed and shipped out professionally with lot's of space between the instrument and the inside edges of the container (even when it's in a case). UPS will not insure anything that doesn't have at least 2" inside clearance on all 6 sides. Be sure to photograph the process of packing. I send my customers a few pictures of each instrument during the packing process. For very valuable items I post a video with sound. It adds value and displays condition. Be sure to include the serial number or you might get a switched instrument returned to you. I send the pictures the day of shipping along with the tracking number and good feedback.

I had my guitar and drum shop for 25 years but I"m not yet selling guitars on eBay yet. If I was I would make a policy for the set up procedure before shipping the instrument out. For example you can choose to ship AS IS for parts. Many sellers prefer to part out guitars to avoid what happened here. I'm not a fan of stripping instruments but they make more money without the shipping issues. You could also ask if your buyer would prefer you to send it directly to a pro guitar repair shop near you where the work can be done. Of course things depend of the instrument value.

What ever you can do in advance to lower the dissatisfaction rate will make selling online easier. It's important to remember every customer is different and not subject to guidance like they are in a shop. It might be a great idea to look closely and the successful sellers on EBay . You can save them in your list of Saved Sellers. You can follow them and whenever they list an item you will get a notification. Watch how they word their listings and the services they offer. The Guitar Nerds podcast out of the UK is another helpful venue as a group of guitar pros and buyers discuss this regularly.

I hope I didn't bore too many of you. I went down the rabbit hole on that one. Just trying to help! Good Luck. Welcome to eBay!

intimewithmusic · ‎06-24-2020

PS. I forgot about Customs. Be sure to label the outside of the box "Do not to open for at least 2 hours after achieving room temp if frozen". Your customers mostly won't know this. It could be a gift. Yes, guitars are left outside, on porches, in winter, by couriers. I worked years as a stage tech working with many of the guitar greats like Hoyt Axton, Glen Campbell and Brooks & Dunn all with massive arrays of instruments. The guitars all survived but I fell off the end of a high outdoor stage once rescuing Brooks and Dunn's axes from a monsoon. Murphys law for sure applies to guitars! All photos are of InTimeWithMusic services in progress.