Does Reverb’s “buyer protection” amount to anything?

Yes, apparently. I bought an Epiphone Les Paul last week. Guy shipped it in a hard case, and I thought it was fine when I first opened it. I even pulled the strings off and was getting ready to work on it a little bit, and I felt a long crack on the treble side of the neck. Crap. I just immediately put in a return request and waited. The guy had purchased the additional protection, so he told me he would let them make the determination how it was going to be handled. Reverb did reach out to me and offered me a partial refund, or to pay for a repair, both of which I passed on. Yesterday, the Reverb guy tells me that it was covered under the buyer protection, and I would get a return label emailed. Today, I get notification that I’ve already been refunded, and he reaches out to tell me they’ve decided that the best course of action is to give me my money back, and let me keep the guitar. How about that? Anyway, I guess it’s time to take a closer look at this crack, see just how serious it is.

Truly "inspired by Gibson"...

That's pretty cool..
It could have been one of those nightmares we have seen happen on here..

More pics of the guitar..

electric head said:

That's pretty cool..
It could have been one of those nightmares we have seen happen on here..

More pics of the guitar..

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Guess what I found upon further inspection, it’s cracked on the other side of the neck as well! Anyway, I’m just going to try to see if I can sell it for something. Anything would be pure profit, so I’ll see how that goes. I pulled a little bit to see if it came apart at all, and it didn’t. With strings on it at proper tension, it would probably be fine for someone to play around the house forever. It’s one of the 50s standard models, but he sent it in one of the brown cases that the more high-end ones usually come with.

How do you DO that to a guitar?

Was it damaged in handling, or is it simply a shitty piece of wood for a neck?

Leee said:

How do you DO that to a guitar?

Was it damaged in handling, or is it simply a shitty piece of wood for a neck?

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It was in the case, but he really didn’t put much protection around it. I think it bounced around in there, which is never good.

UPDATE- I sold the guitar for $225, kept the case.

Woohoo!!!

Glad it work out for you. I can only speak on the shipping purchased through reverb. I’m always a buyer and never sold on reverb. I bought an sgr1 1980 model. UPS scanned that guitar as in town and scanned on the delivery truck yet they lost it. I think it was the driver. Anyway seller said it’s all handled through reverb. They make you wait certain amount of time after the last ups update. Reverb made good. $2,800 refund. And no one had to deal with ups. I was impressed.

Well, well, well. Fast-forward to June, and here I am again, but on the opposite end. Shipped an Epiphone Les Paul to a guy, and he just sent me a picture of it upon opening it, and the headstock is broken clean off. Started the claim with reverb tonight, we’ll see if it goes as well as it did when I was the buyer. It was in a hard case, in a very sturdy box, with that custom made air padded stuff that you put on each end, StewMac sells it. It was secure as hell, so UPS must’ve really gone out of the way to break the damn thing. Not the kind of news I was hoping to get this evening.

DANG!

It looks like a clean break, honestly. I’m sure they will offer him the option to take a partial refund towards a repair, which I assume he will refuse. If it ends up back with me, I will probably look into having it repaired.

fry said:

It looks like a clean break, honestly. I’m sure they will offer him the option to take a partial refund towards a repair, which I assume he will refuse. If it ends up back with me, I will probably look into having it repaired.
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Truly "inspired by Gibson"....

How did you ship it - Reverb’s shipping label and protection? Or you went through UPS directly?

Out of habit I usually buy a label through Reverb when I sell stuff there, thinking that if the worst happens it’ll be the best option for a good outcome re: coverage/reimbursement…

It is a clean break. Shouldn't be all that expensive to fix.

Zr.King said:

How did you ship it - Reverb’s shipping label and protection? Or you went through UPS directly?

Out of habit I usually buy a label through Reverb when I sell stuff there, thinking that if the worst happens it’ll be the best option for a good outcome re: coverage/reimbursement…

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I always by the label directly through reverb along with their protection. The beginning of this thread was about me receiving a broken guitar a couple months ago, and getting a full refund because the seller used the protection. I’ve been on the receiving end of a couple of bad situations that got covered because of it. This will be my first experience having something go wrong when I am the seller.

fry said:

I always by the label directly through reverb along with their protection. The beginning of this thread was about me receiving a broken guitar a couple months ago, and getting a full refund because the seller used the protection. I’ve been on the receiving end of a couple of bad situations that got covered because of it. This will be my first experience having something go wrong when I am the seller.

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Right on. Hope it all works out.

fry said:

It looks like a clean break, honestly. I’m sure they will offer him the option to take a partial refund towards a repair, which I assume he will refuse. If it ends up back with me, I will probably look into having it repaired.
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Nightmare material.

Every time I've bought a Gibson online I'm shitting a brick it's going to arrive with the headstock busted off.

Kamen_Kaiju said:

Nightmare material.

Every time I've bought a Gibson online I'm shitting a brick it's going to arrive with the headstock busted off.

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I’ve shipped a bunch of them, never happened to me before. I did receive one with the headstock snapped off, one time.