Shipping Damage: Lost For Words

[ELG60]

Scenario:
Buyer has a bass. Has owned it for a while and hasn't taken particularly good care of it.

Sees an identical bass of the same model and color.

Makes the deal.

Claims damage.

Ships you back their beater.

 

[ELG60]

Ofc, if he's very devious. he could swap out the pickguard . . . and the neck/plate for that matter, depending upon where the serial number is located on a modern Elite series bass.

 

[gln1955]

After I denied the refund, he did make a claim with Reverb. All I have are my ad pictures which I took on 11-2-19. Bass was shipped on 11-6-19. Bass was shipping in the original Fender hard case with all the original shipping material. I am so frustrated about this whole situation.

Reverb may call BS on the damage claim unless the buyer can show a damaged package and case. They may say it took a tumble either before or after it shipped. Whether they then side with you or the buyer is anybody's guess. Your good seller rep should swing it to your favor, but who knows...

 

[Allan Allan]

I tape my boxes a weird way.

Is it possible your "weird way" of taping the box let the bass fall out?

 

[Tewest86]

I’m sending Reverb everything I have to show the bass in the condition before I shipped. I don’t what else a seller can do to protect himself in situations like this. I’ve had one return on Reverb and that’s because I thought a Mike Lull I sold was 35” scale. Turns out that it 34” scale. I passed on information from the person I bought it from. I returned the full refund, adjusted my ad to reflect the scale length and resold it.

 

[Pilgrim]

Unless the original packaging material was preserved as the package was opened, and is available to the shipping company for inspection, they will not normally accept a claim for damage in shipping.

And if the shipping carton and materials don't show any damage, I'm confident no claim for damage in shipping would be supported.

If the buyer didn't preserve the shipping material, I would expect that no claim would be honored.

And my experience has been that any claim must be filed by the person who shipped the package, not by the recipient. The shipping company has no contractual relationship with the buyer, only with the person who paid for the shipping.

 

[Tewest86]

I believe the that the bass shipped in great condition as the original poster says, but I do see the one ding on the lower horn in his pictures.

Ding

• BrentD
• Nov 11, 2019
• dings and knicks shipping

That may be a ding I missed. I’m not sure if that was a ding though. My current strap leaves brown pieces all over the place because I need a new one. If I didn’t dust or blow off the bass before taking that photo then it would look like a ding. I can’t really see it in other pictures at different angles. Now the other dings were not on the bass nor my pictures.

 

[Auspuff]

Scenario:
Buyer has a bass. Has owned it for a while and hasn't taken particularly good care of it.

Sees an identical bass of the same model and color.

Makes the deal.

Claims damage.

Ships you back their beater.

That was my thought.

 

[Tewest86]

Is it possible your "weird way" of taping the box let the bass fall out?

No because I use excessive tape and it’s inside a Fender hard case.

 

[Lava]

Was there damage to the case in areas that would correlate to the damage on the bass? If not, then it definitely was not done while in case.
What does the buyer's history on Reverb look like?

 

[skycruiser]

I’m sending Reverb everything I have to show the bass in the condition before I shipped. I don’t what else a seller can do to protect himself in situations like this. I’ve had one return on Reverb and that’s because I thought a Mike Lull I sold was 35” scale. Turns out that it 34” scale. I passed on information from the person I bought it from. I returned the full refund, adjusted my ad to reflect the scale length and resold it.

I guess a seller could make a video showing the bass close-up in detail and continue all the way through to packing along with tamper proof security seals. That would provide solid evidence that the bass was in the advertised condition when it went to the shipper.

 

[gln1955]

Unless the original packaging material was preserved as the package was opened, and is available to the shipping company for inspection, they will not normally accept a claim for damage in shipping.

And if the shipping carton and materials don't show any damage, I'm confident no claim for damage in shipping would be supported.

If the buyer didn't preserve the shipping material, I would expect that no claim would be honored.

And my experience has been that any claim must be filed by the person who shipped the package, not by the recipient. The shipping company has no contractual relationship with the buyer, only with the person who paid for the shipping.

We're talking about Reverb's own shipping insurance. Not sure how that works, who should make the claim or how it may interact with the shipping company.

 

[landrybass]

Damn this is a sketchy deal. I’ve never had a good Reverb purchase. My friend got a guitar (not reverb, or sellers fault) we did an unboxing video. The headstock was completely broken in half and was inside a hard case. UPS obviously dropped it hard! If it wasn’t for the video, he would have been left holding the bag, err headless neck.

 

[Tewest86]

Was there damage to the case in areas that would correlate to the damage on the bass? If not, then it definitely was not done while in case.
What does the buyer's history on Reverb look like?

I’m not sure you can check buyer history on Reverb. I’ll check.

 

[Raw N Low]

you can see the tort pattern matches in both sets of photos, especially if you focus in on the two "stripes" near the horn:
View attachment 3591899

View attachment 3591900

Thanks for pointing that out. Sometimes the thumbs are the full-size pics in the posting. Still seems odd and I wouldn't trust the buyer. I would question the time of delivery vs. the time the complaint was submitted.

 

[BigBigGuy44]

Reverb has treated me well as both a buyer and seller. Be polite, courteous and provide everything they ask for in a timely manner. If you have great feedback with a history of like-priced transactions, you should be fine. You can also be proactive and call or online chat with them to find out what you may or may not need to provide.

The only way I can see damage like that happening is if a knob or strap button fell off in shipping and flopped around inside the case (had this happen several times, twice with a knob, once with a pickup screw and once again with a strap button of all things).

 

[Minimalist]

At work I have dealt with cases where the shipping company destroyed the original packaging and repacked the items. No way for the recipient to know what happened. We usually only find out if the repack job was poor and the receiving department took pictures.

What is very fishy though is that they don't want to take pictures showing the serial number and damage. I'd make sure the insurance company is aware of this. If it is a big enough deal for the insurance company they may go inspect the item. Make sure they have the serial number when/if they do.

 

[Chasarms]

That is very atypical of shipping damage unless there was something floating around in the case in transit. You don't get an impact divot in wood like that unless it smacks really hard on something of roughly that diameter. To do that in shipping, whatever it was would have had to go through the box and the HSC. Not likely.

I believe any reasonably experienced person will come to the conclusion that it is not damage as as result of shipping. With that in mind, it comes down to the ability to prove it was or was not shipped that way. Unfortunately, in most cases, the buyer has the leverage.

It is particularly hard when selling on Reverb, because you don't get your money until they say you can have it.

 

[Groove Doctor]

Send reverb all the info that makes it look suspicious and the fact that the buyer refused to comply ASAP. They need both sides of the story.

 

[Pilgrim]

We're talking about Reverb's own shipping insurance. Not sure how that works, who should make the claim or how it may interact with the shipping company.

True, but that's my experience with shippers. I would be astounded if Reverb honored a claim for damages without the opportunity to examine the shipping materials.

And aside from that, if it was shipped in a Fender hard case, then unless that hard case was damaged and punctured I doubt they will honor a claim. This is buyer damage.

I value my feedback on TB too, but in this case I would gladly let the buyer rant and give me a bad rating.