Another Reverb scumbag

[BatUtilityBelt]

Picked up what I thought was a pretty good deal described as "No dings or scratches with the exception of small mark in pickguard (just visible in pictures)". Looked decent.
It arrived last night and had trouble staying in tune, more trouble than a typical guitar settling into a new environment. The neck pocket felt rough, then I saw it, a neck pocket crack. Some of those are superficial, but the roughness in the finish covered a lot more area than the visible scratch. This morning in good sunlight, I saw what was really going on. Someone attempted a repair to that area, and left very rough, unbuffed clear coat there. So I don't know the extent of the damage, or the repair, whether filler was involved, or how bad the job really is, and I'm not taking the neck off to look.

The neck crack is easier to see. The sloppy added clear coat just looks weird in the image, but you can make it out. It feels rough. But what I really don't like is that I think sideways movement of the neck would explain the tuning stability issue I'm seeing with the guitar. So I requested a refund, and it was quickly denied without explanation. I thoroughly described the issue, and the seller tried to play it off as shipping damage. UPS doesn't unbox a guitar, attempt a sloppy repair, then deliver it. So yay, I have an open reverb complaint against the guy now. I didn't really need more guitars, and I can wait for the refund, but scumbag liars piss me off royally.

[SamIV]

Sorry you are having an issue. I closed my Reverb account due to a buyer claiming there was an issue with a guitar I sold him. Gave him a refund and I paid return shipping as well as refunded his shipping. The guitar did not have the issue as described by him and came back with an extra dent and missing a screw. Hard to trust an anyone you don’t know these days. I was out of pocket about $100, and Reverb sided with the buyer. More than likely, Reverb will take your side. Not because you are fully correct in your claim, but because you are the buyer

[BatUtilityBelt]

Sorry you are having an issue. I closed my Reverb account due to a buyer claiming there was an issue with a guitar I sold him. Gave him a refund and I paid return shipping as well as refunded his shipping. The guitar did not have the issue as described by him and came back with an extra dent and missing a screw. Hard to trust an anyone you don’t know these days. I was out of pocket about $100, and Reverb sided with the buyer. More than likely, Reverb will take your side. Not because you are fully correct in your claim, but because you are the buyer

I'm sorry about your Reverb people issue too! You're right, it's hard to trust any faceless person anymore. In my case, I just can't see how anyone thinks such an obvious damage and attempted repair would go unnoticed, or that anyone would accept it was just damaged in shipping. It's as if gaslighting is a new norm.

[tobijohn]

I must have missed you posting about buying this one. What make/model is it?

[honyock]

Reverb "Customer Service" after the sale from CME has basically turned into the eBay model of customer service.

1. Make it impossible to communicate a human.

2. Always side with buyers, screw over sellers.

[BatUtilityBelt]

I must have missed you posting about buying this one. What make/model is it?

Haha, yeah, I wanted to wait. I only got it last night, but I did hint about it. It's a G&L S-500 Tribute. The pickups are great, as is the neck. If it could stay in tune for more than half a song, I probably would have tried to work out a partial refund for the undisclosed damage, but no. I can't use a guitar that can't hold tune. And I know it's not G&L's fault. I tried Nomad Tune-it on the nut and tree, and the tuning wraps are fine. The neck is tightly screwed on. I have to guess that crack repair hides a more hideous damage that somehow lets the neck slink around a bit. Crazy, but I'm not taking the neck off a damaged guitar I am returning, so it is a bit of a mystery. None of my other 125 guitars act this way.

[BatUtilityBelt]

Reverb "Customer Service" after the sale from CME has basically turned into the eBay model of customer service.

1. Make it impossible to communicate a human.

2. Always side with buyers, screw over sellers.

I'm doing my best to communicate well to Reverb. They've asked for a video of the problem. Other than showing a blacklight of the area, I'm not sure how a video demonstrates the problem better than good pictures. But as you say, it seems to be bots handling the communication, so I'm talking in what I can only describe as a 4th grader professional manner.

[BatUtilityBelt]

I did some research and found my seller had bought this guitar in January 2023 from Rayhill Audio via Reverb as a B-stock guitar. I reached out to them with the above image and the serial number, and they looked it up. They said they would have definitely disclosed that area's issue in their listing if it existed back then. I have no reason to disbelieve that, as they were quick to respond and much more professional than my seller. So it seems seller damaged the guitar, had it repaired by someone who didn't really fix it entirely, and tried to pawn it off as shipping damage to the first offer that came along (mine).

[honyock]

Reverb "Customer Service" after the sale from CME has basically turned into the eBay model of customer service.

1. Make it impossible to communicate a human.

2. Always side with buyers, screw over sellers.

I'm doing my best to communicate well to Reverb. They've asked for a video of the problem. Other than showing a blacklight of the area, I'm not sure how a video demonstrates the problem better than good pictures. But as you say, it seems to be bots handling the communication, so I'm talking in what I can only describe as a 4th grader professional manner.

Not talking about this situation directly was agreeing with Sam's comment above.
However,
Reverb will likely take care of you.

The seller does seem shady as that is not shipping damage, they are probably trying to take advantage of the Reverb Shipping insurance sonce it is only a couple bucks.

[BatUtilityBelt]

I never had to do this before, so I crossed my fingers and ordered a UV flashlight from Amazon last night. It just arrived, and wow, I am amazed at how clearly you can see the damaged (and retouched) area under UV. I might have to check my other guitars, but it's astonishing how clearly this repair is seen on a guitar that's only a couple years old. Under normal light it was nowhere near as apparent, but I could feel the brushed clearcoat.

[tobijohn]

I never had to do this before, so I crossed my fingers and ordered a UV flashlight from Amazon last night...

That looks like a good tool to have around. Is one UV flashlight as good as any other? If not, which one did you buy? TIA...

[BatUtilityBelt]

That looks like a good tool to have around. Is one UV flashlight as good as any other? If not, which one did you buy? TIA...

I took a wag (wild a$$ guess) and got this 395 nm many LED version for a whopping $11. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01A5KLUG2?re ... sc_as_ri_0

Takes 3 AA batteries, and I'd say it works well.

Now I might need to shop some blacklight posters. incense, and other stuff, and find my Pink Floyd CDs.

[mozz]

We used ultravoilet lamps where i worked to show damage/repairs on circuit boards. Some of the major used guitar dealers will state" shows no damage under UV light". Especially good on showing Gibsons headstock repairs.

[tobijohn]

We used ultravoilet lamps where i worked to show damage/repairs on circuit boards. Some of the major used guitar dealers will state" shows no damage under UV light". Especially good on showing Gibsons headstock repairs.

Another thing I've heard that it's good at is showing cat urine stains which is why I've been hesitant to buy one. I don't want to know...

[andrewsrea]

I hope you get it remedied, @BatUtilityBelt ! Like @honyock said, in my experience Reverb favors the seller so you may be in luck.

The worst situation on a Reverb sale and bone-over, was when my best friend from Philly sold an unopened NOS Marshall 45/100 (one of 400) head. After two weeks the buyer said it hissed much louder than the one he already had and sent a phone recording. My buddy asked him to talk to me and i would fix it for free. Reverb made my friend issue a full refund. I visited my friend a few months later and we opened the box (he is a business mand and had no time to waste on instrument sales). Low and behold, the guy had removed and stolen all the 'mustard' blocking caps and replaced them with Orange Drops and the amp was badly under-biased, killing the expensive KT66 output tubes.

Reverb didn't care, until they were contacted by my friend's corporate lawyer. He recovered a small amount.

[BatUtilityBelt]

The worst situation on a Reverb sale and bone-over, was when my best friend from Philly sold an unopened NOS Marshall 45/100 (one of 400) head. After two weeks the buyer said it hissed much louder than the one he already had and sent a phone recording. My buddy asked him to talk to me and i would fix it for free. Reverb made my friend issue a full refund. I visited my friend a few months later and we opened the box (he is a business mand and had no time to waste on instrument sales). Low and behold, the guy had removed and stolen all the 'mustard' blocking caps and replaced them with Orange Drops and the amp was badly under-biased, killing the expensive KT66 output tubes.

Reverb didn't care, until they were contacted by my friend's corporate lawyer. He recovered a small amount.

It seems to always boil down to one party being dishonest. And maybe that's what triggers me the most. I try to respect peoples' time, like your friend, I remember being incredibly busy just trying to keep things moving in a good direction. Now that I'm retired, I don't mind making an effort to go after some of these scammy folks. But it seems lately they don't cave when they're caught anymore. It's like gaslighting is a new normal for them.

[SamIV]

It is a shame what Reverb has become. I am sure there are more positive sales than bad. In my case it’s no longer buyer beware, it’s seller beware. The OP here should be ok. I have had less new guitar days as the result of me closing my account though.

[Tonray's Ghost]

The worst situation on a Reverb sale and bone-over, was when my best friend from Philly sold an unopened NOS Marshall 45/100 (one of 400) head. After two weeks the buyer said it hissed much louder than the one he already had and sent a phone recording. My buddy asked him to talk to me and i would fix it for free. Reverb made my friend issue a full refund. I visited my friend a few months later and we opened the box (he is a business mand and had no time to waste on instrument sales). Low and behold, the guy had removed and stolen all the 'mustard' blocking caps and replaced them with Orange Drops and the amp was badly under-biased, killing the expensive KT66 output tubes.

Reverb didn't care, until they were contacted by my friend's corporate lawyer. He recovered a small amount.

It seems to always boil down to one party being dishonest. And maybe that's what triggers me the most. I try to respect peoples' time, like your friend, I remember being incredibly busy just trying to keep things moving in a good direction. Now that I'm retired, I don't mind making an effort to go after some of these scammy folks. But it seems lately they don't cave when they're caught anymore. It's like gaslighting is a new normal for them.

Dishonest sellers ruin it for all other buyers and sellers. Here in Thailand unscrupulous sellers are rife on Facebook marketplace and because of it, selling anything is a chore with a thousand questions and requests for videos, sound clips, etc etc ad infinitum. I always invite people to try things out for themselves, especially a larger item like an amp, but here they like to send a GRAB (our version of Uber) driver for pickup and transfer cash once the driver gets here and verified the item exists. Just a lot of hassle because a handful of people are scumbags.

[BatUtilityBelt]

Wow. On another forum, there are several Reverb sellers mad that I bought the UV flashlight to expose the repair. One reacted pretty violently as if I was the bad guy invading seller's privacy or something like that. I'm finding this fascinating, but in a bad way now.

[Tonray's Ghost]

Wow. On another forum, there are several Reverb sellers mad that I bought the UV flashlight to expose the repair. One reacted pretty violently as if I was the bad guy invading seller's privacy or something like that. I'm finding this fascinating, but in a bad way now.

I wonder if I should get upset when the teller at the bank.counts my deposit before crediting my account ? The nerve !

[thepezident]

Another thing I've heard that it's good at is showing cat urine stains which is why I've been hesitant to buy one. I don't want to know...

I bought a Bacchus guitar on Reverb a few years ago. As soon as I opened the box...it stunk.
Got a UV light and sure enough......there was "stuff" on the guitar.
Seller gave a nice discount and said the dog mustve peed on it the night before he boxed it up.
Thankfully - I got the smell out.

[BatUtilityBelt]

There's no trace of my 2 refund requests and my 1st Reverb support ticket anymore. Yikes, they just disappeared as if they never happened. So I opened a new support ticket for this, still within the 7 day window, and we'll see. It seems Reverb is either suffering from stream based processing data loss, or just don't know how to handle this case. Either answer makes them less than professional. All I have are screen shots and emails. I might be done with Reverb after this unless they start respecting their own loudly proclaimed policy.

[BatUtilityBelt]

It's been a couple weeks, but it's getting handled today so I thought I'd follow up. Reverb finally sent me a return shipping label, so I packed it up today. I don't know whether all that time was Reverb trying to talk to the seller or what, they didn't say. But bottom line, they agreed with the return and it doesn't look like they're claiming shipping damage. Since the seller was trying to claim he knew nothing about the damage/repair, I have to guess the UV pictures and/or video helped them see it was sent by the seller that way. I liked the guitar except for that tuning stability issue, so it's just too bad the guitar didn't match the described condition. Closed case when I get my refund, probably next week. Still glad I bought that UV flashlight to see this damage.

[BatUtilityBelt]

Another follow-up because yikes. I apparently titled the original post right. After about a month of Reverb drama, and Reverb sending me a return shipping label, the package got to the seller's house today, and he refused it!

I'll never understand why people play that stupid game, and this is the 3rd time they've done it to a guitar I've bought, but this is my first return fiasco via Reverb. The other 2 were Ebay. The first of those came back to me, and Ebay paid to send it yet again to the seller before I got my refund. I had to give that one a new box because the original box was torn apart in the drama. The second Ebay case, the guitar came back to me and Ebay gave me a full refund and said to keep the guitar, so that was a good one. On the Reverb return label, the return shipping address is a Reverb location, so that's probably not what Reverb does. I'm betting they get me my refund after they receive it, and who knows what Reverb does with the guitar.

But why do people do that? They can't come out ahead and it probably ruins their reputation with the listing company.

[Tonray's Ghost]

Another follow-up because yikes. I apparently titled the original post right. After about a month of Reverb drama, and Reverb sending me a return shipping label, the package got to the seller's house today, and he refused it!
Seller refused return.jpg
I'll never understand why people play that stupid game, and this is the 3rd time they've done it to a guitar I've bought, but this is my first return fiasco via Reverb. The other 2 were Ebay. The first of those came back to me, and Ebay paid to send it yet again to the seller before I got my refund. I had to give that one a new box because the original box was torn apart in the drama. The second Ebay case, the guitar came back to me and Ebay gave me a full refund and said to keep the guitar, so that was a good one. On the Reverb return label, the return shipping address is a Reverb location, so that's probably not what Reverb does. I'm betting they get me my refund after they receive it, and who knows what Reverb does with the guitar.

But why do people do that? They can't come out ahead and it probably ruins their reputation with the listing company.

Some people are just destined to be idiots all the way thru the process...