Feedback profile - tangripper

I wanted to take a minute before responding to buyer's negative feedback on this deal, as I was pretty angry about this. I strongly recommend anyone looking to do a deal with the buyer in this case to carefully review his comments on this deal.

First - in the strictest sense, I DO deserve at least a neutral if not negative feedback on this deal. To explain: Prior to shipping the instrument, as is ALWAYS my process when shipping expensive instruments, I took all tension off the neck and detuned all the strings. This is general practice and something most people do, in order to prevent possible stress and/or damage during shipping... which we all know is anything but gentle.

During this process, the wrap on the B-String at the nut clamp came unwound. I notified the buyer of this, and he requested I proceed and ship the instrument as-is, with the understanding that I would compensate him with a set of new strings, which I would order online later and have sent to him. I completely forgot to do this. In this sense, and in the most severe possible view, I do deserve the negative rating. He does state at least once that he could see I had not logged in here since the transaction and could not have seen his one reminder message to me, but also stated he had my phone number and had chatted and texted plenty before the instrument was shipped.... I strongly feel a follow-up reminder before posting negative feedback would have been the right thing for him to do, but that's you, the reader's call to make, not mine. The buyer was aware that I'm extremely busy and would have gladly send him TWO sets of strings and a partial refund for the delay if I had just been reminded. This was not a case of my trying to skip out on $25 on a nearly $3,000 deal. After receiving this negative feedback, I did refund the buyer $50 via PayPal because, even with the negative feedback, I make every effort to be as good as my word. Proof of the refund can be seen HERE.

However - as the buyer states repeatedly, the strings issue was not his primary concern. His primary concern was the neck not being perfectly set-up when he received it, which he describes in a number of odd ways and despite my notifying him that I had relieved all neck tension for shipping... something he seemed to have never heard of before. He had also mentioned at this point that he had never completed one of these transactions and this was his first time ever using classifieds. He goes to great lengths to describe what all amounts to the bass simply needing a neck setup on arrival, on how this negatively impacted him....

Reading his post - he makes some very strange comments - most of these relating to the neck not being "right" without some effort on his part (once again, he was aware prior to shipping that the B-string was bad AND that I had relieved the neck of all tension prior to shipping as a safety measure and he directed me to proceed).

He goes on to describe how traumatic it was having to restring and set up the instrument himself in advance of a gig... and states emphatically that, due to the extreme emotional trial of having the bass not be 100% perfectly set up on receipt, he "cannot even look at the (bass) and doesn't want it anymore".

Even more bizarre; he states that he "wonders if the bass was even mine..." which is a really irresponsible and odd thing to say... as if what? I stole the instrument? Sold it for someone else? Who knows.... but that was definitely a FIRST for me here in nearly 20 years.

He goes on to say how he's "sure no one will ever read this..." which proves to me even further that he doesn't really understand how these transactions work and how incredibly damaging a negative feedback rating can be. For this reason I posted Neutral, as I would never post negative feedback for someone here unless they REALLY earned it... something that has never happened to me yet. The very brief communications I had with him after the fact lead me to be 100% certain he had no idea how any of this works, or what the impact of his rating, or his odd comments, might be in the long term.

In SUMMARY - At the very least, I recommend that anyone doing business with the buyer should take extra time to explain things which more active classifieds users may take for granted, and do not count on follow-up communications on his part. I accept full responsibility for my having failed to get him his strings in a timely fashion, and I have made good even after the negative feedback by sending him a partial refund nearly double the original agreed value because I keep my word... but a follow-up reminder from him would have definitely made for a better experience for all involved. I also strongly recommend you follow up with him after any transaction to be sure there aren't any ... I guess we could say less objective reasons he might be dissatisfied with the deal... such as no longer wanting the item due to bad vibes, or random, unsubstantiated ponderings about how you came to own the item or whether you owned it at all....

:-/

Hope you enjoy the neck

Great buyer and a very nice person to deal with. Highly recommend!!

Amazing communication, fast payment, and all around great guy.
It's unfortunate what happened with UPS because they literally drove it from the border and back twice! Not lying! Enjoy that amazing bass in good health my friend!

Enjoy that Gorgeous Roscoe Koa Bass