Just wanted to share my current Guitar purchase over Ebay experience and maybe get some advice since I am sure many here have purchased guitars over Ebay before.
What really sucks about this is that this was my first Ebay purchase so I can tell you my experience has not been a fond one.
Back on February 16th I won a bid on Ebay for a Les Paul double cut.
I paid, through paypal on the ebay site, probably within 30 minutes. I contacted the seller and he responded quickly.
He told me he would ship it out the next day. So I email him the next day for the tracking number and he says he hasn't had a chance to mail it just yet and he will do it tommorow.
Tommorow comes and I email him again (Feb 18th). He replies with a USPS parcel post tracking number. Now I have 2 problems with this.
1. In his listing, he listed UPS ground, Not USPS
2. Tracking with USPS parcel post only provides 2 updates, the first is when the label is printed(which can be done at home online), the second is when it arrives at the post office it will be delivered from. So I have no visual evidence when he actually drops it off at the post office. Originally I did not know this. I thought the tracking number meant it had been dropped off. I found out later through research this was not the case.
So, a week goes by and nothing. After reading the parcel post times on the internet I was not surprised, especially since I live on the east coast and the guitar is coming from the west coast. So I email on February 26th him letting him no I haven't recieved the guitar yet. He responds that that is wierd but to give it more time as parcell post can take up to 9 days.
Now, another week goes by, and no guitar. So April 3rd I email him again and I ask him when he actually dropped it off at the post office. He responds February 24th. Needless to say I am p!ssed at this point. I am even more p!ssed that he didn't say that when I emailed him on the 26th.
So I reply that I had thought he had mailed it on the 18th, but that I would continue to wait.
If he really did mail it out on the 24th, I would expect the guitar no earlier then the end of this week beginning of next.
With that in mind my plan going forward is this. If I have not recieved the guitar by the end of next week I am going to request a full refund. If he declines I am going to file a claim on paypal. If Paypal give me any problems I will dispute it with my Credit card as well.
I am fairly new with paypal and such. With a refund though, I want to make sure I get every penny back. Is there a way I can make sure that if he does pay me back I am not charged some transaction fee.
If he does give me a refund this will be an obvious sign to me that he never sent the guitar and that he probably just didn't like the price he got for it.
Secondly, let's suppose I do get the guitar. I still want to give this guy negative feedback. But if I give him negative feedback, could he not then make some stuff up on me and give me negative feedback thus hurting my chances when I want to bid on other stuff?
To the guys credit (only positive I can think of), he has been easy to get in touch with. He responds to every email I send within a reasonable amount of time. But this is just infuriating me.
If anyone has gone through similar circumstances and could offer some advice it would be appreciated.
Thanks
