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Resolved: Reverb woes

#453
9c1ny said:
So I've sold probably a hundred basses over the past decade, 100% success rate.
Well my luck ran out.
I sold a 2020 Rickenbacker 4003 SPC in Montezuma glo to a guy in Canada, this was a new, unplayed bass that was limited to 27.

I sold it on Reverb and purchased a label (and insurance ) through them

Bass was shipped in a Rickenbacker factory box that's labeled " fragile glass" and with newspaper as packing which is USPS approved.
Not an ideal packing method but USPS has very stringent size limits and double boxing is not an option.
I estimated $150 , the label cost $167

Fedex and UPS were $400++

The bass took 3 weeks to arrive via USPS , so buyer emails me that the box was penetrated , the case penetrated and some finish damage on the end of the neck where it meets the body.

I don't know how the damage to the bass would have happened but it did and my listing pics confirm it was not there prior to shipping

I'm assuming a fork lift did the damage



Long story short the buyer understandably wants a refund so I contacted Reverb to file a damage claim

This was their response

" I was able to speak to the buyer, and due to their location, they're not able to seek repair for these damages. They have requested to proceed with a full refund.

I can offer to cover the repair costs for the guitar and a replacement case. If you would prefer to have the guitar shipped directly to your preferred luthier we can make that happen. Can you let me know if this is an acceptable outcome?"

So you want me to issue a full refund, wait 3 weeks for it to ship in a compromised case, hope it doesn't suffer further damage, find someone willing to " fix" it , wait weeks or months for it to be done and then try to recoup my money on a repaired bass.

Yeah, not going to happen.

I emailed him back and told him there's a thing known as diminished value nor do I even want it back in the first place let alone the weeks and months hassle of dealing with it


So far that's the proposed resolution after 3 days of back and forth with them.

Very disappointed thus far and if they forcefully refund my money I'll never do business with them again

Pics for your viewing pleasure
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The trouble with doing sales by mail is you have no relationship cultivated so you’re dealing w a stranger. Awful and I agree with the chorus: insurance should pay for it. Had an awful experience with PayPal like this. I’m permanently done with PayPal and Reverb.
 
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#455
Thanks for posting and making the TB community aware of this drawn out BS you went through. I hope Reverb is paying attention. They recently raised their fees, so it's certainly not like they can't afford to cover what they are supposed too. Regardless, they finally did what they should have done in the first place: reimburse the replacement value, and sorry you had to wait so fricking long. Unfortuneatly, this is also a reminder why I am only selling CONUS these days. The nightmare is compounded when you are dealing with issues such as this internationally.
 
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#456
Polkatronixx said:
It's a shame that whoever was responsible for the damage is likely to not be held to account.
Click to expand...

Well, from my reading of the thread, Reverb is responsible. They didn't commit the damage, but took responsibility for it via their safe shipping policy.

As for whoever directly committed the damage: accidents happen, stuff regularly gets broken during shipping. If it was the forklift operator's umpteenth violation then maybe they'll get axed, but that's irrelevant, it's up to the shipping company to get that sorted if necessary.

As others have said, Reverb collects a lot of money for their self-insurance. I'm sure the corporate bean-counters have put measures in place to make claimants jump through X number of hoops before paying out that policy, in hopes that the claimant will compromise or give up entirely. Sadly, this appears to be SOP across many industries.

Congrats to the OP for persistence. Also, props to Reverb for finally doing the right thing.
 
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#457
Fuzzbass said:
Well, from my reading of the thread, Reverb is responsible. They didn't commit the damage, but took responsibility for it via their safe shipping policy.

As for whoever directly committed the damage: accidents happen, stuff regularly gets broken during shipping. If it was the forklift operator's umpteenth violation then maybe they'll get axed, but that's irrelevant, it's up to the shipping company to get that sorted if necessary.

As others have said, Reverb collects a lot of money for their self-insurance. I'm sure the corporate bean-counters have put measures in place to make claimants jump through X number of hoops before paying out that policy, in hopes that the claimant will compromise or give up entirely. Sadly, this appears to be SOP across many industries.

Congrats to the OP for persistence. Also, props to Reverb for finally doing the right thing.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's not what I meant.
 
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#458
9c1ny said:
So I've sold probably a hundred basses over the past decade, 100% success rate.
Well my luck ran out.
I sold a 2020 Rickenbacker 4003 SPC in Montezuma glo to a guy in Canada, this was a new, unplayed bass that was limited to 27.

I sold it on Reverb and purchased a label (and insurance ) through them

Bass was shipped in a Rickenbacker factory box that's labeled " fragile glass" and with newspaper as packing which is USPS approved.
Not an ideal packing method but USPS has very stringent size limits and double boxing is not an option.
I estimated $150 , the label cost $167

Fedex and UPS were $400++

The bass took 3 weeks to arrive via USPS , so buyer emails me that the box was penetrated , the case penetrated and some finish damage on the end of the neck where it meets the body.

I don't know how the damage to the bass would have happened but it did and my listing pics confirm it was not there prior to shipping

I'm assuming a fork lift did the damage



Long story short the buyer understandably wants a refund so I contacted Reverb to file a damage claim

This was their response

" I was able to speak to the buyer, and due to their location, they're not able to seek repair for these damages. They have requested to proceed with a full refund.

I can offer to cover the repair costs for the guitar and a replacement case. If you would prefer to have the guitar shipped directly to your preferred luthier we can make that happen. Can you let me know if this is an acceptable outcome?"

So you want me to issue a full refund, wait 3 weeks for it to ship in a compromised case, hope it doesn't suffer further damage, find someone willing to " fix" it , wait weeks or months for it to be done and then try to recoup my money on a repaired bass.

Yeah, not going to happen.

I emailed him back and told him there's a thing known as diminished value nor do I even want it back in the first place let alone the weeks and months hassle of dealing with it


So far that's the proposed resolution after 3 days of back and forth with them.

Very disappointed thus far and if they forcefully refund my money I'll never do business with them again

Pics for your viewing pleasure
View attachment 4155071 View attachment 4155072 View attachment 4155074 View attachment 4155075 View attachment 4155076
Click to expand...

Yeah, that does look like a forklift hit. Sucks to hear that about Reverb as I was thinking of trying them out as EBay wants my SS# if I want to continue to sell on their site. Policy change they say.
 
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#459
9c1ny said:
View attachment 4161666
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giphy (5).gif
 
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#460
I got to page 15. This is my view. :p

OP I feel your pain. I dealt with it recently on a much smaller scale and not even because of damage, so I just plain get to eat that cost.

I agree that selling sucks online and isn't worth it. It would also be awesome if the buyer sent you some better pictures. Ask nicely and they might but I know I wouldn't be inclined to help a seller who I felt was trying to stiff me or I just didn't like. Just sayin. The bass was also clearly hit by a forklift. Sadly it's just bad luck and could have happened with any of the shippers with any item.

Reverb does need to get a new case to the buyer though and be very transparent about the responsibility they take for it shipping in the damaged case if they can't get a new one.

People here are right though that while Reverb 100% owes you reembursement to make you whole it is up to you to refund the buyer.

Is that poopy for the seller? Yup, and plenty of small retailers sympathize as well. It's just how things work with insurance though.

It would be different if you sold the bass to Reverb and then they sold it to the buyer like the consignment you brought up. That didn't happen though. Reverb at no point owned the bass so it makes no sense for it to land in their lap. They're just doing what they need to do to process the claim. Your best course of action is to get as much documentation as possible. Become cooperative and just do what you've got to do to get it dealt with.

Best of luck OP. Keep calm and remain resolute. As others have said you could possibly end up better off in the end even, it's just going to take time.
 

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