Bought a Tele on Ebay

I've gotten a couple of guitars over the internet, and never had anything happen to them in shipping. Chances are it was shipped that way. If you're not happy, leave a comment on Ebay.

Dan

Also, not that I really care, but there was a "rub" mark that he said could be rubbed out - it was a flaw in the paint job. :evil:

Little stuff like that, although it may seem trivial, always raises a red flag in my mind. If it's so easy to fix, why doesn't the seller do it before he lists the guitar? Always makes me wonder if they're not being truthful about other things as well.

The general custom on eBay is that sellers don't give buyers feedback until the buyer gives them feedback. That way they can retaliate with negative feedback to the buyer if they give negative feedback to the seller. That makes the feedback system pretty worthless.

I think I would contact the seller by email first and discuss your concerns with him and see what he comes back with before leaving negative feedback.

When I first started buying on eBay just about all sellers left feedback after payment because that is the end of the buyer's part in the process. Now many of them hold off as a kind of blackmail situation.

First response should be going to the seller. Ya never know. This one might work with you? Good luck.

The general custom on eBay is that sellers don't give buyers feedback until the buyer gives them feedback. That way they can retaliate with negative feedback to the buyer if they give negative feedback to the seller. That makes the feedback system pretty worthless. Exactly; this is why ebays' feedback system is flawed & basically just a joke. It will never work when it is set up like this. They aren't interested in fixing it though...why bother when they are just raking in the dough.

I agree with rparker; try contacting the seller with good intentions. Don't be harsh, but a gentle approach. If the "nice guy" approach doesn't work out, you can always turn "nasty" later. :twisted:

I would advise as the others have and contact the seller explaining the situation exactly. It's quite important I think to make sure that phrases like "not as described in the eBay advert" etc. are used, just to clarify that it's not that you didn't want to buy the guitar, but rather than the guitar you paid money for isn't the same as the one you have been sent.

Likewise be wary about the feedback system - I learnt the hard way that even putting a neutral can send the seller into a fury. I got abusive letters and negative feedback, although the latter was far more damaging. :(

I am not expecting anything from the seller, although I believe I will send him a friendly email with what I learned about the guitar. I just handed the telecaster over to my luthier who told me that the neck needs to be tweaked and the springs on the neck pick-up needed to be replaced with stronger ones. Can't imagine he will help pay for this. :(

My gripe is that this guy is making a business fixing-up guitars and reselling them as "professionally" set-up, when clearly he doesn't really know what he is doing. I guess it really is a warning that the buyers need to be on their toes. I don't know what to do about the comments section for eBay though. I don't want to get a black mark next to my name for making a negative comment about the seller but I am not going to give him a positive remark either. :roll:

You could give a "Positive" feedback with lackadaisical, noncommittal comments. Anyone who actually reads the comments could read between the lines. Or just forget the feedback. Post anything negative, though, and you can count on retaliation.

As for "Professional Setup," the guy's getting paid for it, right? Means he's a "professional." Doesn't mean it's expert. Sales world is full of misrepresentations and exaggerations. Buyer beware.

As for "Professional Setup," the guy's getting paid for it, right? Means he's a "professional." Doesn't mean it's expert. Sales world is full of misrepresentations and exaggerations. Buyer beware.Yep, that is how ebay gets themselves off the hook with the "Caveat emptor" that they have posted at various places on the site. Ebay can be a hairy place to buy from, but I must say overall, my experiences have been very good on there.

Caveat emptor >>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caveat_emptor

My love of eBay has already been documented in at least one or two other threads. There are some here who swear by it, but others who have been burned, making the whole thing look bad.

I hope your luthier can get you tele the way you want it and for not much dough. Good luck.

I use feedback to signal the completion of a transaction. As a buyer, I give feedback as soon as I'm satisfied that the goods are as described. If not, I use ebay to contact the seller and try to sort out the problem amicably. 9 times out of ten it works fine - the remaining one is the negative feedback.
As a seller, I don't give feedback until the buyer does. Only then can I be satisfied that the transaction is complete - if he has a gripe, I try to sort it out, before feedback is given.
In both cases, negative feedback is the last resort, after all other avenues have been exhausted. Don't panic that negative feedback is the end of the world - many people, like myself, look at both buyer's and seller's feedback to a particular transaction - that will often tell you who the real guilty party is.
As long as the other party has 98%+, I don't have a problem. One thing to look out for, though, is a sudden string of negative feedbacks - they've gone bad and are probably going to do a runner, very soon.

Blueguy - to answer your questions, I think SOME of the issues could have happened during shipping, but probably not all of them. Was the guitar shipped in a case or just a box? Was the packing good, or lackluster? The intonation and buzzing would have occured during a change in humidity and pressure suring shipping, but the pickups falling out of the guitar - - they were probably like that (or CLOSE) prior to shipping.

These issues don't seem that big of a deal - most buzzing can be fixed with a simple setup - which you can do yourself. Plus, the pickups can easily be screwed back into place. I would mentioned it to the seller and see what he/she says. It can happen.

If you can't get the guitar to intonate or get the buzzing to cease there might be something wrong with it - in which case you have a real gripe.

The guitar, enclosed in a Fender delux padded gig bag, came packed in a single box stuffed with bubble wrap. The strings were loosened for shipping, so there was no additional tension on the neck. I don't know about the fluxuation in humidity and temperature between the two locations but it too could have been a factor. The only thing that I can be sure wasn't caused by the shipment was the "rub" mark.

I guess the lesson learned is to calculate the price of a set-up whenever you buy a new or used guitar or better yet do it yourself, if you can.