userid melfaso

[Groove65]

Sorry tale this one.

Bought a 2005 USA Precision, described as "GREAT CONDITION!" from the basses for sale section from user MELFASO. i paid the guy via paypal and as soon as he ACCEPTED my payment he dissapeared for a week without responding to any messages to chase up where the bass was and when i could expect it to be delivered. in the end he didnt give any particular reason for dissapearing and only (i suspect) contacted me due to the fact that i lodged a paypal claim against his ID for non-delivery and contact.

He reluctantly agreed to refund me but told me that in the time he's been away he'd moved my money to his bank account and bought another bass with it !!!

he then said i'd probably have to wait till he got paid on 25th Jan (25 days after i'd paid him) to give me my money back. in the end, i couldnt wait this long as i didnt have a bass and reluctantly agreed for him to send me this one. after all the crap i'd heard i thought i'd have more chance of getting a GREAT CONDITION Bass than ever seeing my money again.

i wish i'd held out for the refund........

All i can say is NEVER buy from this joker - the bass finally arrived today and i wish it hadnt.

he simply posted it parcelforce in its fender case with an address label on the outside and a couple of bits of brown tape over 2 of the latches. WTF !!!! didnt even bother trying to protect the case with even brown paper... bear in mind this had to come from BELFAST to Windsor !!!!!!!!!!

RIDICULOUS

the bass itself has a ruddy great chip off the wood near the neck join and the pickups are misaligned - the tone knob fell off as i took it out of the case and well the rest needs a good setup. its got buckle rash on the back and scratches on the top and bottom. the upper pickup was lodged down and i had to remove it to clean off a lot of what looked like congealed cola on the screws (at least i HOPE to god it was cola! - yuk!!!)

I knew is should have checked more for decent pics before i paid this guy but i didnt - its my fault i know but all i can hope for is the old saying "what goes around comes around" and im sure he'll get his one day.

so - watch yourselves with this bloke and dont make the same mistake as i have by going anywhere near him.

i feel totally gutted and p'd off with myself for being so foolish as to trust him.

Edited January 16, 2008 by Groove65

[GreeneKing]

From the experience you relate I think this deserves a name and shame thread here.

Sad to see and is there no way you can go back via Paypal again for goods not as described?

A pretty sh*tty bit of behaviour it seems.

Peter

[Muppet]

Hmm, that's really bad news for you. Not much help now, but looking at the id, it shows the user has only two posts, both which are items to sell. It's maybe far too easy to assume that ALL Basschat members are above the sorts of behaviour regularly seen on ebay, though we do have a feedback system of sorts so that you can mimimise the risk from buying on here.

In any case, I hope you can get it back in to some sort of useable condition.

[Toasted]

I'm sure that there's some members nearby that might be able to help you out.

If I was close I'd come 'round and help you fix the bass up. I have a few parts laying about - I'll find if any's good for a P bass and let you know.

[Waldo]

Remaining completely neutral here - There's two sides to every story, I think the other party should have a chance to have a say, if they wish to that is!

[kevbass]

Sorry to hear you've been stung on the basschat forum, If you are unhappy with the bass then dont try and convince yourself to keep it, my advice to you is this, give it a good clean, a good set up and put it back up for sale on here, ebay, gumtree etc with decent pictures and just accept what you feel is a fair offer, cut your losses and move on to something else. I think it will put your mind at ease.

[pete.young]

It seems to me that you should consider taking this guy to the small claims court in order to get your money back.

[gafbass02]

You know what as a long time bassworlder (chatter now) things like this really hurt me. I have had nothing ever but total utter dependability on here my 1st transaction through bassworld was a swap and a guy just sent me his bass through the post with me having sent nothing to him at all, just total trust, and id hate this place to end up full of 'new guys' (usually a good thing) or 'one offs' just taking the doodah. This is such a warm and unique community, id hate to loose it.
Loves to you all! (aaah!)

[Groove65]

[quote name='gafbass02' post='122334' date='Jan 17 2008, 05:44 PM']You know what as a long time bassworlder (chatter now) things like this really hurt me. I have had nothing ever but total utter dependability on here my 1st transaction through bassworld was a swap and a guy just sent me his bass through the post with me having sent nothing to him at all, just total trust, and id hate this place to end up full of 'new guys' (usually a good thing) or 'one offs' just taking the doodah. This is such a warm and unique community, id hate to loose it.
Loves to you all! (aaah!)[/quote]

Cheers mate - well its not bassworld's fault - we weren't to know this guy would conduct himself as he does when he joined so my faith in the site remains.

ive bought other stuff from here and this is the very first time ive ever had any sort of issue. all the other things ive bought (bass or amp or effects) have been nothing but pleasureable experiences.

anyway, ive just got to get a setup and strings and maybe some paint to cover up the worst of the chips and then i can try to enjoy it. I wouldnt try and sell it on to anyone else here as i'd just be passing on the problem knowingly and thats not my desire at all.

just try and make the best of it i think.

anyway, thanks to everyone for the kind words - really makes a difference y'know

Iain

[Thunderthumbs]

I've only been on here a few months, and had stuff to sell fairly quickly, so I added extra clauses in to help me out. I offered to sell a bass, and let him keep it for a week to see if really was the bass for him. If not, he could bring it back and I'd give him his cash straight back.

I just wanted to be as honest as possible, so I didn't earn a bad reputation.

And although limiting sellers to a minimum number of posts at first seems a good idea, that poster could just flood threads with meaningless drivel just to reach the required level. I think if sanctions were to be imposed on selling, it has to be from a financial point of view, something that hits a scammer right in the pocket. I'm sure most genuine first timers would be happy to shell out to make a sale, if they knew they would get it back if the buyer(s) was happy. Almost like a sale deposit.

I can honestly say all the guys I've had contact with on here through sales, advice, etc. have been great, and a wonderful change from some other forums I've been part of. This really does feel like a community where everyone's prepared to help one another out.

It'd be a shame if the entire forum (and other newbies) was/were tarnished by the actions of one low life.

Really sorry to see it's happened to you. It's also one reason why, with all the gear I've sold or bought recently, it's all been either delivered or collected by hand. I'd rather we meet face to face, as I think people are going to be far more genuine in those circumstances.

Edited January 21, 2008 by Thunderthumbs

[Kev]

i still think an idea i said a few weeks back should come into action..

members are only allowed to post new threads in the basscaht marketplace once they have a certain number of posts and/or have been a member for a certain amount of time, eg members with 50 posts and have been a member for at least a month

no doubt it would stop this from hapening at least to some degree

[Beedster]

Hey Groove55
To repeat what I said above, sorry to hear about your problems. Not wishing to make you feel any worse about things - and I'm not addressing this to you but really to BCers generally - I think that the best way of policing sales on the site is through the buyer. That is, check the seller's feedback AND their posts. If there's none of the former, you get a very good idea about someone from the latter. I've bought basses on here without even seeing them, let alone playing them, because posts by the sellers (e.g., gents such as Mike, Dr Dave, Marcus and many more) demonstrated not only that they knew their stuff and played quality instruments, but had been regular posters and had done deals on the site previsouly without problem. There's alot of goodwill on here and I hope you get your bass sorted. I have a huge pile of spare PBass parts so let me know if there's anything specific you need. The poor PUP aligment you mention for example might simply be the result of a crap/poorly fitted pickguard as much as anything substantial with the bass per se, so a few quality parts might sort things. As for the dents etc, mate, that's what Precision owners call Mojo - leave them .
Cheers
Chris