Lovely way to get my day started. Those of you who have bee to the Squier forum may remember the post I made about the Squier Vintage Modifier Strat that I scored off Ebay. I got a great deal on it and was really excited because it is the same exact guitar my girlfriend wanted for Christmas and I socred it for $150.

The seller listed it as Excellent condition, sent me pics and told me he would sell me the guitar and a gig bag for $150 plus $20 shipping. I even offered to pay more for the shipping to ensure it got here safe and sound.

So the guy took about a week to ship it because he couldn't find a box. I told him to check all the guitar shops and pawn shops and he was having serious problems. Finally he shipped it after 7 days and said he found a box, would loosen the strings and pack the box full of newspaper.

So I got it today, I was all excited when the mail lady drove up UNTIL she took out the box. This guy had shipped the guitar so poorly. It was in a 2 x 3.5 sized box that looked like something a restaurant would receive cups or paper goods in, the box was mangled all to pieces and the guitar was exposed along with all the newspaper that was in it.

So at this point you can imagine how irate I was, but I figured it would take it out of the box and inspect it, if it was in good condition all would be ok and I would have dodged a bullet.

That;s when it got even better, the guitar looked good front and back until i looked at the neck pocket and it had cracks on both sides, one was about 2 inches long and the other about an inch long. Seller never mentioned this and I asked him about it so I can only assume it happened because the thing was so poorly packaged and damaged during shipping.

SO, those of you who have bought offline and had something like this happen, please give me some advice on how to proceed. I sent the seller an email saying I will be sending it back to him and expecting a full refund, that it was packaged very poorly and unacceptable. I offered to him that he could refund 125 of the 170 total that I paid and we could call it even, knowing I can reuse the neck or pups or salvage it and it would be worth the $50 I paid.

I can post the pictures I took of the box so you guys can see how poorly this guy packaged this guitar and pics of the cracks but I don't know if that would lessen my case or anything like that. I've always had good dealings on Ebay. Any thoughts or ideas of what I should do next to deal with this as quickly and properly as possible? Thanks in advance.

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I got a black cat bone, I got a mojo too.

I think you've put yourself in a bad light by immediately asking for a partial refund mate. It makes you look a little bit guilty. Anyone else would have been straight off 'the guitar was packaged badly, arrived damaged, I want a full refund or off to ebay I go'.

Infact if I were you I'd send him an email saying just that now before he responds to your first. Start out hardnosed and let him work at softening you. Kind of aim above what you want and accept no less than what your happy with.

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No no and no

Did you pay with Paypal? If you did they will help resolve this issue.

yes i paid via paypal, they said to first contact the seller and try to resolve it. So should I open a dispute immediately or wait a day to contact the seller?

the reason i offered him a settlement is because i dont want to ship it back, it would cost me another $40 to ship it safely. One look at the box and anyone would know that is was poorly packaged.

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I got a black cat bone, I got a mojo too.

I think he's asking for the partial refund while KEEPING the guitar, but I agree that you should try and get everything back. If the seller is reputable (I'm guessing not), you probably won't have a problem getting your money back from him/her.

If you paid through PayPal, you're covered either way. I think you just file a claim.

yeah i was talking about keeping the guitar, since i know in the condition it is in i could sell it for $75-100 or part it out and use the Pups, neck, electronics, while getting $125 of the 170 i paid back.

seller didnt have great feedback but sent all the pics i wanted and answered all my questions, I think he just packaged it really poorly and it was damaged in transit. the box was literally just destroyed and guitar exposed.

si do i file a dispute or wait to talk to the seller? Ive never had to worry about this before.

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I got a black cat bone, I got a mojo too.

This is EXACTLY WHAT TO DO. First you open a dispute and in a nice way explain to him.I could understand if you never sent a guitar through the postal system but I even helped you out and gave you advice on how to ship it. The guitar was in a box way to small and just was not packaged properly. There are stress cracks in the neck joint that were never mentioned so I am going to be sending back the guitar as it came not as advertised. I do not want to make a Federal case of this and believe we can resolve this like gentlemen and I am not the type to give someone a negative or ruin there feedback rating as I do not believe there was malicious intent but the bottom line is the guitar is damaged. So I am just going to send it back .

Now make sure everything you say and email is trough ebay or paypal because they read it. If you email with him on your private email they cant tell what is going on. Now because of the price of the item I understand you feel you are taking a hit sending it back and having to pay the shipping so if you feel like working a deal out with him that is up to you, but I dont think the guy is going to give you what you want. You are totaly covered by paypal so you dont have to worry about getting stuck with it. If he gives you a hard time just escalate it from a dispute to a claim. Either way Paypal is going to let you guys try to work it out before the time on the claim expires and then they will refund you personaly and deal with him.

Also call up paypal and keep them informed and ask them any questions you want to know. The way ebay is set up these days they are totaly for the buyer which really is not fair as I have a lot of friends who sell and have gotten screwed. You see when someone puts up no returns well that does not go anymore because if something is off you can return anything.

I had found a 14 year old guitar that was bought by a guy as a collectors piece, he never played it once and was just a fan of the player besides a very cool guy to do buisness with. But when it dawned on me he never played and this was the only guitar he ever owned I sent him three sites to google that showed him how to pack a guitar for shipment. Two are on youtube and there is one on ebay and good thing I did as he had no clue and told me he would of just mailed it in the box. Instead I recieved one of the best packaged for shipment guitars I ever recieved. This could of survived a nuclear blast.

Well best of luck and keep us informed, and if I can help you out just give a holler.

thanks for the info, will keep you posted. i made sure to send the guy a link to "how to package" for shipping but he obviously didn't ead it too muh. he looseded the strings and put news paper in but the box was just ridiculous. i'm going to go ahead and open a dispute so everything gets taken care of as rapidly as possible and just explain it to the guy. now i have to go back on the search for a nice Squier again too!

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I got a black cat bone, I got a mojo too.

I will see what leads I can come up with for you.

Like Niki said, play hardball and make them bow to you. A whole lotta wrong. You should be compensated fully bro.

Disgustin.

CC

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Fender Stratocaster (parts build)
Fender Telecaster 72 Custom RI
Fender Telecoustic Deluxe
Gretsch Electromatic Pro-Jet
Gibson Les Paul Standard Plus
Gibson ES-135
Zenith Type-17
Marshall 70's JMP Superbass 100w
Blackstar HT-5

dbr2026 check out this one on ebay. Just put in Fender Squire and the first guitar buy the seller augustusd looks pretty interesting as it has Standard Strat pups in it and is a nice cherry sunburst. It also has a three day return option which is always a plus. The thing is it goes off in an hour. Check it out as there are other cool squir guitars.

Sometimes you have to play around with the spelling like adding the E or leaving it off and it will show different listings or putting the check in the box that says list title and descriptions which will also show more listings. Anyway check this one out and some others on the page.

dang that is a nice deal for $200, with the US Pups in it i bet it plays really nice. Ill have to wait until i get the refund though before i can buy anything else. Bad thing is too I have to return it within 7 days but with it being a holiday weekend you know it wont get there fast.

HAHA, i do the same thing with the "E", you find a lot of nice one because of spelling mistakes!

I know, my guess is it was a teenager who shipped it or just a total dumbaas because the entire packaging job was a total joke, like the lady carried it up to my door and the box was almost in pieces.

yeah i changed my user name too btw if that threw you guys off. sacrificing picks but oh well.

Surely the seller should be made to refund your initial shipping cost and also pay the cost of shipping the guitar back to him. After all thats what he made you do in the first place. You've paid him good money for him to use on a substandard service, I.E the initial shipment of the guitar. You want that money back primarily for that reason. I could ship a guitar 600 miles for £40 and no doubt have it arrive perfectly. Why should you pay for a service you havent received. You paid to have your purchase shipped with due care, it hasn't been. You want that money back too. Its his job to chase the courier up and claim a refund off them. You paid him, he paid them. Your fully entitled to that refund.
Next off if he wants the guitar back tell him to collect it or pay the shipping cost as he initialy made you pay. Why should it cost you to ship the guitar he wants? After all he never paid shipping on the guitar you want. Whats good for the goose is good for the gander after all. Call into question the cost of his quoted shipping and ask him for proof of its cost. You should have a valid case for legal action should the shipping cost you paid not be identical to the penny on whatever receipt or invoice he has for it.

If he gave me a 'no' answer or any kind of twattery to those above points i'd run him through a ringer.

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No no and no