A Little Roscoe Fun

[SteveC]

Good to hear.

 

[RocketMusic]

Oh, this is just f'ing precious. Credit card fraud in the purchase of the fretless. Thankfully, the bass is still in the UPS system so I stand a chance of recovering it. But I just LOVE when the credit card processor yanks the money back out of my bank account with no warning.

But to put the blame where it belongs: I hate thieves!!

 

[SteveC]

That sucks! This bass has given you a lot of issues.

 

[RocketMusic]

It's cursed, I tell ya. Cursed. LOL

 

[ArtechnikA]

If there weren't a damn fine 5-string built into every Roscoe 6-string I'm not sure I could resist the temptation...
That ebony board keeps it tempting, tho, even as much as I love the Diamondwood.
Fortunately (?) there is no ready cash to indulge such temptations...

 

[SteveC]

Ebony is very tempting.

 

[RocketMusic]

Well, hopefully I get the bass back... that is not 100% assured at the moment. It's halfway around the world, and the wheels within UPS will have to turn correctly and quickly for it to avoid being delivered to the a$$hat who did this. I'm hoping technology saves the day...

 

[SteveC]

I hope it works out for you Greg. You are a good guy and don't deserve this.

 

[mwbonsall]

Oh, this is just f'ing precious. Credit card fraud in the purchase of the fretless. Thankfully, the bass is still in the UPS system so I stand a chance of recovering it. But I just LOVE when the credit card processor yanks the money back out of my bank account with no warning.

But to put the blame where it belongs: I hate thieves!!

Greg, that sucks! Most credit card/bank fraud crimes originate in overseas third world countries, with the victim (account holder) in the USA. This makes it nearly impossible to find law enforcement with proper jurisdiction to investigate and catch the bad guys. I had one of my cards jacked this way a few years back. Good news, UPS is generally very helpful in issues like this.

Mark

 

[RocketMusic]

Thanks, Mark. Yeah, this isn't our first rodeo with this, unfortunately. Shipping overseas is a crap shoot every time, and there's NO protection to the merchant (us). Domestically, as long as we ship to the billing address and can confirm delivery at that address, then we're covered. But there's no such verification system in place for international sales. We have to take the risk, though, otherwise we'd be out of business in a heartbeat. US sales alone don't get us there like they used to...

I have a high school buddy who is an FBI agent in their internet fraud group. We had an incident involving a Singapore shipping address a few years ago. My buddy actually built up an entire case (involving many other online fraud incidents also originating in Singapore) and he took it to Singapore and, along with the US attaché there, presented it to some muckety-mucks in the Singapore government. The Singapore government folks denied it all the way, which initially really bugged my FBI buddy. Until the attaché explained (after the meeting) that the individuals responsible would be found and terminated with extreme prejudice by the Singapore government. These are the same folks who cane you if you spit your gum on the sidewalk.

I felt pretty good with that result. I never heard exactly what happened, but I had pleasant dreams about justice being served.

 

[SteveC]

So if/when you get this bass back, with all the bad luck you've had, I bet you'll be really motivated to sell it. ;-)

 

[RocketMusic]

Like I haven't been already? LOL.

UPS tells me I'll have the pleasure of paying whatever import duties were due in the country it went to. I don't get that, and I'm gonna fight it tooth and nail. But my losses on this bass are adding up. Much as I might like to just give it away, I'm just trying to salvage something over 50-60% of my cost on the durn thing at this point (by the time I factor in all the BS I've gone through with it)...

 

[RocketMusic]

Ugh. The pricing question is moot. The fretless bass was delivered today. Dang, I was hoping UPS would save my bacon. Oh, well. That's 1 for thievery, 0 for Rocket.

 

[Jeff Moote]

Seriously? It wasn't delivered yet when you called ups and they still couldn't stop it? That is one more reason to add to the list of why I try not to use them.

 

[RocketMusic]

Seriously? It wasn't delivered yet when you called ups and they still couldn't stop it? That is one more reason to add to the list of why I try not to use them.

Yeah, I'm a little disappointed. I knew going in it was unlikely, but I was hoping... In any event - if it had been USPS, I wouldn't have even bothered trying. They hand packages off to the local postal service, so recalling one once something has landed in the foreign country is all but impossible.

Sigh... welcome to the joy of online retail...

 

[SteveC]

Sorry to hear that, Greg. I can't believe that UPS can't stop a delivery when they had a day or more notice.

 

[Jeff Moote]

In any event - if it had been USPS, I wouldn't have even bothered trying. They hand packages off to the local postal service, so recalling one once something has landed in the foreign country is all but impossible.

Sigh... welcome to the joy of online retail...

True enough. It still sucks.

 

[mwbonsall]

True enough. It still sucks.

Yes it does. But, what comes around goes around. Maybe the curse on this bass will transfer to the thief who has her now.

Mark

 

[RocketMusic]

Heh-heh. Yeah, it's an unlined fretless. I hope the guy can't do crap with it (play it or sell it).

 

[RocketMusic]

Back to the FUN part of this fun thread! I headed to Greensboro on Monday, and Gard and I put together 6-7 new orders that I'm pretty stoked about. I also picked out a few more fabulous tops that I'll have on reserve and available for custom orders. Here are the first two new stock orders that I've had a chance to get posted on my site. More to follow tomorrow!

Check out the second bass. It'll be HEADLESS!!

Roscoe SKB Custom 5 (Myrtle Burl)

Roscoe LG Custom 5 Headless (Quilted Maple)