Moral dilemma…should I send this 12 string guitar back?

Avoriaz

I bought a 12 string guitar on ebay for £50 plus £15 delivery.

It arrived well packed by courier and at first glance appeared OK. I cleaned and polished it, replaced a missing string and tuned it up (a lengthy process with a 12 stringer). It sounded awful. Closer examination and a trip to my local guitar shop confirmed that it is unplayable as the top surface has been pulled out of shape by the high tension of the 12 strings over the years. This is a common 12 stringer problem. The action (string height) is so low that it buzzes even on open strings.

I sent an email to the seller (100% rating on over 300 items) but received no reply or acknowledgement. I sent a few more chasing emails and also did a contact search on ebay which will have been copied to her.

Just as I am about to open a dispute I get an apologetic email saying she had not seen my emails. She said it was her son’s guitar and she would check with him. The next day, yesterday, she emailed saying she had refunded my £65 (she has) and would I tell her when she could arrange to collect the guitar.

Today, less than 24 hours after refunding my money, I received a stroppy email demanding that I respond and arrange for her to collect the guitar.

I am !!!!!! off that she can ignore my emails for a week but her emails require an instant response. I am also !!!!!! off that I have wasted hours of my time for nothing. I am also concerned that her son will just resell the guitar to some other unsuspecting buyer. The damage has happened over time. It could not have happened over a few days with the courier. The son must have known it was unplayable.

Should I?

Email her and agree that she can send a courier to collect it.

Ask for some compensation for my time, say £15 and then allow her to have it back.

Offer her £20 to keep the guitar. I can probably raise the bridge saddle and make it playable. But this will take a fair bit of work.

Ignore her and let her and her son stew and learn a lesson.


Edit, she has already left me positive feedback. She did this after I had paid. She has an excellent ebay feedback record so I do think the fault does lie with her son. I have not yet left her feedback.

mishkanorman

I personally would wait a day or so, let them both stew a little as she was so quick to jump on you (probably at realising her school boy error of refunding you ) Then respond with an apology that you missed her email and arrange a time. I wouldnt offer to keep the guitar as it makes you seem like you are out to scam them.

Compensation for your time will also just aggrivate the situation, but do make sure your feedback includes something like "had refund as guitar was unplayable peice of tat"


mishka

aqueoushumour01

i don't think you'll get compensation. At least you won't have to pay to send it back. Some sellers would require you to send it at your own cost. Probably best to just put it down to a bad experience and move on, making sure feedback reflects the poor state of the guitar while at the same time acknowledging that the seller refunded you + 0/1 star for comms!

FloFlo

They have refunded your money, you should return the item. They could have been difficult and asked to inspect the goods but they haven't they have refunded you in good faith.

rose_sparky

I think you were very lucky that she refunded you before you'd returned the guitar. I expect she's getting a bit iffy because she's realised her error and frightened she has refunded and (at this stage) has no item.

Sugar_Coated_Owl

Reply to the sellers email and arrange a convenient time for collection. There isn't really any need to start being difficult about it. The seller has refunded you in full, what else do you want...?

ben500

razorbladekisses wrote: »

Reply to the sellers email and arrange a convenient time for collection. There isn't really any need to start being difficult about it. The seller has refunded you in full, what else do you want...?

I agree, the seller has done the decent thing and refunded your payment without question, any decent buyer would be appreciative of this and accommodate the return.

pinkgem

let them have the guitar back

it was good of her to refund before they had it back

if you had done a paypal dispute you would have had to pay to return it yourself

mishkanorman

i think you have a pretty conclusive answer there !!


mishka

Contains_Mild_Peril

Admittedly the seller shouldn't have been so impatient with you after keeping you waiting so long for a reply, but she probably just panicked a bit when she realised she'd given you the opportunity to keep the item and the money, especially since she was selling on behalf of her son, so she might have been anxious to have the situation fully resolved before he realised she'd refunded prematurely.
I'd just arrange a suitable collection time asap, keep communication polite, and if no further problems, leave positive feeback (though neutral would be fair enough) but mentioning that the guitar was faulty and had to be returned.

fablad75

I think she's been pretty decent about it, so if it were me I'd just send the guitar back, leave a positive yet ambigious feedback like 'Very helpful and honest seller' and close the matter.