REVERB RIP OFF and UPS nightmare

Towzer · #1 08-15-2020, 05:21 AM

well folks one ugly day for me in guitar world. First i shipped a guitar from Canada into USA that arrived with a large crack on top . The buyer pulled it out of box and box had NO PACKING in it. I was shocked after packing this myself, double boxed with lots of packing on top , bottom etc popcorn, plastic air pouches
I have never had a guitar damaged like this and i have shipped probably over 40 in my life
There was zero packing in the box so i think they damaged it, knew they had done this , then took the packing out to try to put the blame on me

Now the buyer wants a refund and im stuck with working with the UPS folks which should be fun

On another note the guitar sold for $450 on Reverb and when they paid me out they had taken $50 off this for their charges an admin fee then hit me with sales tax???
Will never ever use them again

lowrider · #2 08-15-2020, 05:25 AM

I hope you have pictures of you packing the guitar.

Why would Reverb charge you sales tax?

Towzer · #3 08-15-2020, 05:39 AM

no i dont have pictures of me packing why is that important? Why would someone , unless im not functioning properly mentally, ship a guitar over a thousand miles unpacked in a box? It was packed as well or better than anything else i have ever shipped . The fact is someone took all the packing and even took the double box out as well

as to the sales tax i have no idea why REVERB charged me this. I have asked them and no answer yet

LeftyKev · #4 08-15-2020, 05:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Towzer

no i dont have pictures of me packing why is that important? Why would someone , unless im not functioning properly mentally, ship a guitar over a thousand miles unpacked in a box? It was packed as well or better than anything else i have ever shipped . The fact is someone took all the packing and even took the double box out as well

as to the sales tax i have no idea why REVERB charged me this. I have asked them and no answer yet

You would be surprised how many people don't have a clue about packing anything to send through the post.

dnf777 · #5 08-15-2020, 05:54 AM

Sorry to hear of your experience. The sales tax sounds like it may be a mistake, but Im not familiar with international sales. Was it a state tax from the destination, or an import duty?

I hope you can work out a satisfactory claim with the shipper (insurance?) but if not, it will be difficult to recover $450 without legal fees eating it all up. And maybe more.

The Bard Rocks · #6 08-15-2020, 06:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Towzer

no i dont have pictures of me packing why is that important? Why would someone , unless im not functioning properly mentally, ship a guitar over a thousand miles unpacked in a box? It was packed as well or better than anything else i have ever shipped . The fact is someone took all the packing and even took the double box out as well

as to the sales tax i have no idea why REVERB charged me this. I have asked them and no answer yet

There was a court case and one state won the right to collect sales tax on internet transactions. Others may be able to share more details. So, now almost all states have jumped onto this bandwagon. Free money, which they need now. And it levels the playing field between internet and brick and mortar stores, which they also need for real estate and payroll taxes.

Regarding your other difficulty - it almost seems as if you sent on guitar wrapped properly and a second that was not and have gotten the two confused. Only it does not make sense that you'd remember one and not the other. Nor does it make sense that someone along the way would remove the packing. If they opened it to play it for instance (or to see how valuable it was, maybe), they'd have the sense to repack it the same way - to avoid getting in trouble or losing their job.

If only you'd taken pictures of your packing job. Did the buyer take pictures of how it arrived?

dneal · #7 08-15-2020, 06:30 AM

I’d hazard a guess that it was opened by customs, and not repacked properly.

Paleolith54 · #8 08-15-2020, 06:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Bard Rocks

There was a court case and one state won the right to collect sales tax on internet transactions. Others may be able to share more details. So, now almost all states have jumped onto this bandwagon. Free money, which they need now. And it levels the playing field between internet and brick and mortar stores, which they also need for real estate and payroll taxes.

?

To be clear, I'm pretty sure the requirement to pay sales tax was always there, in every state that has a sales tax. The issue was how it was to be collected. The court case laid that responsibility on Reverb, Ebay, etc. So now individuals, who probably never had any idea they were technically responsible for paying the tax on their own, think it's the fault of the merchant; it's not.

Scotso · #9 08-15-2020, 06:32 AM

I have heard of this happening...a box gets damaged and UPS or whoever packs the item in a similar new box and sends the item on its way. I was not sure until now if this was internet lore or reality. Maybe you can get a pic of the label and see if it is the one originally issued

jim1960 · #10 08-15-2020, 06:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Towzer

no i dont have pictures of me packing why is that important?

Unfortunately, I fear you're about to learn a hard lesson. I sold a guitar recently. I'd never shipped one before but I've had enough shipped to me that I know how to pack one. I packed that guitar up really well and when I brought it to the little independent shipping store near me, they insisted on opening the box to check the guitar for damage. That annoyed me for a minute but then I realized that those folks were really protecting me by inspecting the condition of the instrument I was handing over to them. They said it was because of the amount of insurance I bought but regardless of the reason I was happy they did that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Towzer

Why would someone , unless im not functioning properly mentally, ship a guitar over a thousand miles unpacked in a box? It was packed as well or better than anything else i have ever shipped . The fact is someone took all the packing and even took the double box out as well

There have been stories here of people receiving guitars without any packing material at all, so it does happen. I recall one story told here of a guitar being shipped in a gig bag. No box, just a shipping label attached to the gig bag. At this point, without any proof, you're going to have to convince UPS to take your word on the packing material having been present. I suspect that's a steep hill you're about to try climbing.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Towzer

as to the sales tax i have no idea why REVERB charged me this. I have asked them and no answer yet

Are you sure it was a sale's tax and not some kind of import tax? There's been a steady ratcheting up of import costs between the US and Canada over the past few years. If the tax is due to that, it's not Reverb's fault.

Good luck with your complaint. I hope it words out for you.

rampix · #11 08-15-2020, 06:44 AM

This is bizarre, I'm wondering if a customs agent opened it for inspection and didn't bother to repack it properly? Absolutely unacceptable regardless of where it happened. I hope this isn't just a total loss for you Towzer.

BTW-taking photos or a video of the packing job including a local paper showing the date you packed it can help during the claim process.

Towzer · #12 08-15-2020, 06:45 AM

yeh it sucks so lesson learned
I will never ship a guitar again
I will never use Reverb again
I have worked on a couple of issues years ago with UPS and it was an absolute nightmare to resolve
Their customer service is abysmal , probably the worst i have ever dealt with in such a large company
If my organization treated their clients like they do , we would have been out of business 25 yrs ago

UncleJesse · #13 08-15-2020, 06:49 AM

Reverb doesn't take sales tax from the seller. They add that money to the buyer's total.

I always take an uncut video of my playing the guitar and then preparing for shipping after showing the entire guitar on camera. I used to take multiple pictures but I figure a video is even better.

jklotz · #14 08-15-2020, 07:03 AM

Had to have been customs who pulled out the packing material. Unfortunately shipping internationally compounds the complications.

Sotos · #15 08-15-2020, 07:14 AM

May or may not have been customs.

Had a similar situation years ago when I received a new damaged monitor (a CRT, remember those?) in an undamaged box with no packing. This was not an international shipment, so no customs involved, and the item came from a computer distributor I regularly did business with. My sales rep assured me it left their facility in it's original packing, I believed them. After a visit to my local UPS facility, I learned that the different UPS depots are graded on their performance, and that it's been know to happen that a facility will damage in an item, and then rebox it in a fresh box an attempt to pass the blame on to another facility.

So, another possibility. Sorry.