i've not had the best of luck when it comes to buying basses on the old classifieds here on Talkbass.com. to be clear, i'm batting .500. if this were baseball, that would be awesome, but it ain't. it's me paying people money for a bass they have advertised "For Sale" and not receiving them half of the time*.
1st time:
TB'er "Buckminster" (banned as a result of this BS) made 1,000,000 excuses as to why he wouldn't/couldn't ship the bass after i paid him. seven months later has only paid me back $100 out of a $315 dollar payment. Sacramento PD says it's a Civil issue and they can't help me. awesome.
2nd time:
TB'er "acphipps" hooked me up with a great fretless G&L Lynx, shipped it quickly and was a pleasure to deal with. Thank you, Rocky!! faith in the system restored.
3rd time: - not factored into the statistical analysis
this just happened today, so i'll not mention the guys name. was stoked to find a G&L L-1000 put up for sale yesterday morning. with uncharacteristically good luck, i was 1st in line and jumped on it right away. i've wanted one of these for years. i went through communication with the guy, questions were answered, contact information exchanged and i sent him the money yesterday afternoon, looking forward to receiving the bass by the end of next week. well, he called me up today and said he had a change of heart and would i consider accepting a refund. it was kind of awkward and it totally caught me off guard. as we were talking, i honestly felt bad for him and, should i ever find myself in the same situation, would want the same treatment, so i told him it was his decision and i'd live with it either way. he immediately refunded my money.
that last one i realize was kind of on me, since i had the option of straight up telling him "screw you, send me the bass", but that's just not what i'm about. i want it to be a mutually beneficial transaction, which in this case, it was not.
word of advice to all you would be sellers out there who have a closet classic or bedroom beauty: before you advertise it for sale, take it out and play it first! you may change your mind. that's what got me on #3: he took it out to play it "one last time" and got all sentimental.
word of advice for buyers: if you are purchasing something from somebody on the other side of the country, you are essentially rolling the dice. there is not a lot of recourse you can take if someone decides to scam you over the internet. there just isn't. yes the Admins here will ban someone's account, but big deal. they can make another one with a different username. your local police will direct you to the police in the seller's jurisdiction and vice versa. at the end of the day, it's cheaper to just forget about it. or you could get a lawyer and spend $1,000 trying to collect the $200 owed you. i'm stubborn enough to do it, but i can't afford to.
i don't know, is it just me? i read the "how to not get ripped off on the internet" sticky and abided by it and still got ripped off.
that concludes my rant. thank you for reading.
*original post said i was 1 out of 3, but since the 3rd time was really my own doing, i edited this post to reflect that.
1st time:
TB'er "Buckminster" (banned as a result of this BS) made 1,000,000 excuses as to why he wouldn't/couldn't ship the bass after i paid him. seven months later has only paid me back $100 out of a $315 dollar payment. Sacramento PD says it's a Civil issue and they can't help me. awesome.
2nd time:
TB'er "acphipps" hooked me up with a great fretless G&L Lynx, shipped it quickly and was a pleasure to deal with. Thank you, Rocky!! faith in the system restored.
3rd time: - not factored into the statistical analysis
this just happened today, so i'll not mention the guys name. was stoked to find a G&L L-1000 put up for sale yesterday morning. with uncharacteristically good luck, i was 1st in line and jumped on it right away. i've wanted one of these for years. i went through communication with the guy, questions were answered, contact information exchanged and i sent him the money yesterday afternoon, looking forward to receiving the bass by the end of next week. well, he called me up today and said he had a change of heart and would i consider accepting a refund. it was kind of awkward and it totally caught me off guard. as we were talking, i honestly felt bad for him and, should i ever find myself in the same situation, would want the same treatment, so i told him it was his decision and i'd live with it either way. he immediately refunded my money.
that last one i realize was kind of on me, since i had the option of straight up telling him "screw you, send me the bass", but that's just not what i'm about. i want it to be a mutually beneficial transaction, which in this case, it was not.
word of advice to all you would be sellers out there who have a closet classic or bedroom beauty: before you advertise it for sale, take it out and play it first! you may change your mind. that's what got me on #3: he took it out to play it "one last time" and got all sentimental.
word of advice for buyers: if you are purchasing something from somebody on the other side of the country, you are essentially rolling the dice. there is not a lot of recourse you can take if someone decides to scam you over the internet. there just isn't. yes the Admins here will ban someone's account, but big deal. they can make another one with a different username. your local police will direct you to the police in the seller's jurisdiction and vice versa. at the end of the day, it's cheaper to just forget about it. or you could get a lawyer and spend $1,000 trying to collect the $200 owed you. i'm stubborn enough to do it, but i can't afford to.
i don't know, is it just me? i read the "how to not get ripped off on the internet" sticky and abided by it and still got ripped off.
that concludes my rant. thank you for reading.
*original post said i was 1 out of 3, but since the 3rd time was really my own doing, i edited this post to reflect that.
