Arrh...my first Reverb.com purchase is terrible

[alaskaleftybass]

What does mint actually mean? To me, mint means "as new". Excellent, great and good mean something different. This neck is clearly not mint. I really don't understand how this can be looked at differently.

Mint. I like chocolate mints. York mints. Mmmmmm. The other day wife made me eat a Lean Cuisine for lunch. so I went and bought TWO York mints from the office candy machine! I also like the little chocolate mints you can get during Christmastime.

Back to your regular programming.....

 

[57pbass]

I would categorize those nicks as normal wear with minor checking and a few minor dings. I do agree that the seller should not have listed this bass as mint..
When I buy online I always ask my questions up front and if something looks “off” I’m requesting additional pictures or information..
Reverb is a good resource...

 

[porterbass]

Mint. I like chocolate mints. York mints. Mmmmmm. The other day wife made me eat a Lean Cuisine for lunch. so I went and bought TWO York mints from the office candy machine! I also like the little chocolate mints you can get during Christmastime.

Back to your regular programming.....

Damn you...now I have chocolate on the brain and there's leftover Christmas candy downstairs. So much for the great workout today. Off I go....

 

[Ghastly]

Yes, a Paypal claim is the best way to go. He's a fool to cop that attitude.

 

[CGremlin]

EB has oiled necks , they finish the back of the headstock in poly if it's a colored headstock face.

Not always, though. I have two BFR StingRays made a few weeks apart in 2010, one 4 string, one 5 string, both with natural headstocks, and both necks are gloss poly.

 

[Iridescentone]

Reverb got back to me. They will send me a return shipping label, but a full refund of $575 won't be issued. I'll receive only $525 ($575 - $50 original shipping). What is this???

Welcome to Reverb. Consider yourself lucky that you don't have to absorb shipping costs for both ways. It happened to me with a crooked seller. He granted me a refund on a bass with a ruined neck, then somehow convinced Reverb that the neck was fine. I was refunded the cost of the bass only ($380), but not any of the shipping costs. I got beat out of $121 in two-way shipping costs on a $380 bass.

I left the crooked Reverb seller a neg feedback, but that was deleted from the crooks feedback history soon afterwards. Reverb goes to great lengths to protect sellers, and apparently they're even willing to "scrub" feedback histories to lure unsuspecting buyers. Unbelievable.

This would not have happened to me on ebay, where I've run into some crooks over the years, but have always been fully reimbursed for all of the shipping costs. The reason was that Paypal covered the return shipping themselves as part of the ebay/Paypal buyer protection policy. They then debited the seller's account for the original shipping cost along with the sale price. Thus, crooked sellers on ebay have something to lose when they get caught misrepresenting items....the original shipping cost.

The difference as I see it....ebay and Paypal are one and the same outfit and are willing to offer better buyer protection, whereas Reverb is just another vendor doing business with Paypal, same as a million other vendors worldwide.

Bottom line for me; Buying off Reverb is riskier than buying off ebay. Mucho riskier.

 

[Polk Salad]

I've had bad deals on both eBay and Reverb but for the most part, I've ended up o.k. I've had to go to GREAT lengths to prove my side of it with Reverb but I received 100% of my cost back both times (even after the sellers told me "F.U."), they were really good to me.

When a deal drops in the toilet I evaluate the situation:

1. It is obvious that I was f****d by the seller? If so, it's on B*TCH! I will fight to the end for my $$$.

2. If the screw job is relatively minor and I can get most of my $$$ back without a giant hassle that will end up not being worth it in the end, I'm happy to cut bait and move on. I know I could have gotten worked over even worse and honestly, we are buying instruments that we can't see, touch or hear in person ahead of time from people living in their parents basement - we always hope for the best but I for one know full well that each purchase is uncharted waters.​

The only thing I would say going forward is to be smart and try to do your homework. Ask more questions if need be and like someone else said, ask for more photos. I'm at a point where if I can't get the info I need from the seller easily, forget it. There are other instruments like the one you really want out there (most of the time of course).

YMMV.

 

[fourstringdrums]

I don't understand why people are basically telling him to quit whining about it. Mint means like new. Dings mean the bass is no longer like new. Dings on the body I'd be annoyed with and I could possibly live with, but on the neck I'd never be able to, especially if I could feel it while playing. If he was complaining over 1 ding, I'd say he is making a bigger deal out of it, but 7? He asked if there were dings on the neck and the seller said no. The seller lied. End of story.

 

[porterbass]

I don't understand why people are basically telling him to quit whining about it. Mint means like new. Dings mean the bass is no longer like new. Dings on the body I'd be annoyed with and I could possibly live with, but on the neck I'd never be able to, especially if I could feel it while playing. If he was complaining over 1 ding, I'd say he is making a bigger deal out of it, but 7? He asked if there were dings on the neck and the seller said no. The seller lied. End of story.

^^^^This.

 

[Thwack]

I sell buy and stuff on Reverb and Ebay often. I ALWAYS describe and photograph EVERY flaw on anything I list so there's zero confusion or disappointment. The last thing I want to have to do is process/pay for a return and I prefer people who buy from me to feel like they got what they were after.
I've been on the receiving end of some pretty poorly represented items too and it's super frustrating that people don't have more integrity.
The term 'Mint' doesn't allow for a lot of wiggle room, especially when the next choice in the dropdown is 'Excellent'.

 

[40Hz]

I've had problems with pedals purchased through Reverb lately.

I've always been pretty happy with what I got off Reverb until recently. But I've gotten two obviously defective used pedals from two different sellers in the last six months. Which was a first for me. I'm not overly fussy about cosmetic issues since most of what I buy is vintage gear. I'm even pretty good about things like cracked or damaged knobs or most other things that are easy to repair or replace. But when I receive a pedal that doesn't work correctly (although knock wood I've yet to get a DOA) i get a little annoyed if it's been advertised as being in excellent or very good condition. Especially when the problem wasn't anything that could even be remotely related to shipping damage.

On both I ended up doing a return and getting a refund. One went very smoothly although I did end up paying return shipping on that one in the end. The other involved some annoying back and forth with the seller. (When I told him some of the controls weren't functioning he immediately responded with "What did you do that you broke it?") At one point he even asked if I had an oscilloscope so I could "check something for him" before he "authorized a return." I told him to get real at that point and he grudgingly agreed to a refund. But only after I threatened to take it up with Paypal.

Talking to a few music friends I'm hearing similar stories. I hope it's all just a coincidence or a temporary state of affairs.

 

[andruca]

As much as I'd be a little frustrated about those nicks, I would save the hassle to both parts by asking the seller to refund me some 100$ (or whatever discount you consider reasonable) and be happy with it. No big deal, I've bought and sold basses with harder nicks than those and they didn't remotely hurt my love for them, which depends more on other things (as long as the bass is structurally OK and in proper working condition). Also, about the neck finish thing, it might come like this from factory (many MM do), but in the case it comes glossy someone did this bass a big solid by turning it matte, glossy necks are a BIG no-no for me. It's not dangerous for the bass at all, usually done by masking the limits and rubbing a Scotchbrite light abrassive pad (removes just enough lacquer to kill the gloss). I do it on any lacquered bass I own that might go glossy over time because of thumb rubbing.

 

[AngryHammer]

Well I'll tell ya, the thing I take from this is that I'm never going to list anything as mint when selling online, because there is a chance I wouldn't have even noticed those little dings.

 

[scootron]

Well I'll tell ya, the thing I take from this is that I'm never going to list anything as mint when selling online, because there is a chance I wouldn't have even noticed those little dings.

Truly.

Of course, mint doesn't mean perfect without any flaws. Guitars fresh from the factory will have some flaws, and guitars from the showroom floor will often have the odd nick here and there. That's the nature of the beast. It's a matter of degree. Here the degree seems extremely minor, difficult to see these two flaws even with a close range photo.

I'd like to see the other five (5) dings which riled the OP so. This might not be as easy a case to win as many here seem to think.

 

[DavidEdenAria]

Some of my fav guitars have neck dings......BUT, they were bought for stupid cheap....so.

If the guitar speaks to you i would ask for a $100 refund.......off topic but, i absolutely love my real 59 Danelectro DC59....$35 and refinned, dings all over the neck, missing tuners no less!

Really clean "under the bed" versions are from $500 to $1000.....i installed a set of old Grovers, new strings and despite the dinged up neck, it had little to no fret wear (someone played slide).

I never even notice the neck dings now, it does everything i wanted this guitar to do.......if it had new tuners and i plugged it in for $200 i would have still bought it....it sounds and feels that good to me.....it "speaks to me".

I bought a Japan Ibanez SR800 for dirt cheap on GC used online, described as rough but excellent electronics and playability.....it came with a near minty neck (go figure) and belt bucking all over the body back but almost no dings on the neck...however, i spent hours on setup and rust on the bridge saddles and it is now stellar overall....couldnt touch this type of bass for twice or 3 times what i paid.

Good thing about GC used online is the return policy is great.

Hope this works out....seems like a real hassle though!

 

[Joybass]

I think the finish of the neck is original. The headstock is gloss, and the neck finish from the nut down is matte. Due to playing time the matte finish 'glossed up', making it seem as if something is 'wrong' behind the nut. No worries there, I would say. The dings? Mwah, big deal. But, if you are sensitive to things like that, be wise and buy new gear. Then you can ding it yourself.

 

[SteveCS]

Strategically placed nicks. And someone tried to degloss the neck behind the nut?

View attachment 2872637

Difficult to see on this image, but the transition from matt to gloss on my Ray34 is the same as OP, and is normal for these instruments...

 

[Mr.Ace]

I don’t like nicks in the neck. Were they intentionally scribed into the neck?

 

[scootron]

It’s funny to see some folks being ok with buying items not as described.

2 of my current basses (2004 MIA P and 2005 MIJ Geddy) were bought on eBay. Both were advertised as mint and they were delivered in mint condition. There are honest sellers.

I just went back and looked at the original post again. It appears the listing described the condition of the bass in question as as "excellent", not mint. Your subsequent conversation with him about the condition of the neck didn't change the terms of the original listing.

In most every contract situation situation, the written terms govern over any subsequent verbal assurances. That is precisely why there are written terms. If you got him to change the listing for you, it would be a different matter.

It seems to me you are stuck with the issue of whether the bass, with these few very minor dents, is "excellent" or not. It looks to me that it does fall into that category.

When I have had people want out of a transaction this badly before, I have ususally found they just didn't want the bass regardless, and I have given them their money just to be done with them. My recommendation to the seller would be to do just that, and my recommendation to you would be to not buy used basses anymore. My guess is that you will too often disover something about them you don't like.

 

[Avezzano]

OP: excuse me for asking, but... sincerely do you like this bass?

1) Yes: then drop with a toothpick some "nail polish" on every little ding, then sand those flush with 1000 grit. End of the problem: guaranteed. Any untrained kid could do this, no problems: you will see.

2) No: so, send it finally back, accept the 50 usd loss and move on with your life. Having a clean mind, seeking for another axe. Maybe not via web... Small losses must always be taken into account in life, you know that, uh?

have the best either way!!! V.