Kev Posted July 8, 2021 Share Posted July 8, 2021 (edited) 1 minute ago, Ricky Rioli said: Presumably the shadowy unnamed government(-related) body places the goods at auction. The auction house, again presumably, takes a slice from what the buyer pays and/or what the seller receives. So Parcelforce as an institution takes on the care of the goods, takes a payment for this, transfers ownership of the goods to themselves, and then legimately sells them wholesale. This allows themselves, the auctioneers and the retailers to divide up 100% of the remaining value of the goods. If this action was done by a single person, it would be theft*. Because Parcelforce do it, it's entirely legal. (*I am not a lawyer, this opinion is presented for entertainment purposes only. May contain nuts.) So, Parcelforce steal parcels? Where in conditions of service do Parcelforce tell you that they will claim property when the label falls off, without making EVERY effort to identify who it may belong to, which they would have very quickly identified upon opening? Absolutely shocking stuff. Edited July 8, 2021 by Kev Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Munurmunuh Posted July 8, 2021 Author Share Posted July 8, 2021 (edited) [deleted] Edited October 11, 2021 by Ricky Rioli 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted July 8, 2021 Share Posted July 8, 2021 12 minutes ago, Ricky Rioli said: Presumably the shadowy unnamed government(-related) body places the goods at auction. The auction house, again presumably, takes a slice from what the buyer pays and/or what the seller receives. So Parcelforce as an institution takes on the care of the goods, takes a payment for this, transfers ownership of the goods to themselves, and then legimately sells them wholesale. This allows themselves, the auctioneers and the retailers to divide up 100% of the remaining value of the goods. If this action was done by a single person, it would be theft*. Because Parcelforce do it, it's entirely legal. (*I am not a lawyer, this opinion is presented for entertainment purposes only. May contain nuts.) I wonder if Parcelforce has to pay the VAT on lost items? My suspicion is that it was at some kind of custom/HMRC stage - you can imagine that customs have to check things, look out for VAT fraud, Brazilian rosewood etc - It's not hard to imagine at that stage things falling out the system - whether for good reasons (that probably conceivably exist) or unscrupulous employees moving things off to their mate at an auction house. BUT it's something you imagine Parcelforce being able to at least know about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Munurmunuh Posted July 8, 2021 Author Share Posted July 8, 2021 (edited) [deleted] Edited October 11, 2021 by Ricky Rioli Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NancyJohnson Posted July 8, 2021 Share Posted July 8, 2021 Just scanning through this, it's a pretty woeful exercise in not joining the dots, especially considering the evidence. I also find it alarming that the proprietor of the auction house is a friend of the person who bought the guitars. Jeepers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jezzaboy Posted July 8, 2021 Share Posted July 8, 2021 I would love to hear their explanation of how the bass ended up getting sold. I think the only people who can solve this mystery are these folks. Unfortunately I think they were cancelled several years ago.... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zbd1960 Posted July 8, 2021 Share Posted July 8, 2021 hmmm a sorry tale... I worked in financial services for over 40 years, most of it on the IT side. The anti money laundering and corruption legislation, data protection, GDPR, etc. that has come in - especially over the last 20 years - is draconian. An auction house is going to be covered by them. My employer got fined millions for a technical breach of paperwork that affected a very small number of cases and that was only through inadvertence, not a deliberate or malicious act. There are definitely questions to be asked Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Munurmunuh Posted July 9, 2021 Author Share Posted July 9, 2021 (edited) [deleted] Edited October 11, 2021 by Ricky Rioli 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Horse Murphy Posted July 9, 2021 Share Posted July 9, 2021 Fingers crossed for you 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete.young Posted July 9, 2021 Share Posted July 9, 2021 The thing that astonishes me most about this is that Nigel has your details, can't find a phone number, but isn't able to write to you to say he's got the bass! How hard would that have been? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Munurmunuh Posted July 14, 2021 Author Share Posted July 14, 2021 (edited) [deleted] Edited October 11, 2021 by Ricky Rioli 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tegs07 Posted July 14, 2021 Share Posted July 14, 2021 30 minutes ago, Ricky Rioli said: Hi Mr Bump .... I can confirm we have the guitar safely stored and our intention is to return it to you as the rightful owner ...." That’s fantastic news. Now if Mr Tickle can get his drum kit returned harmony will be restored to the cosmos 😉 Seriously though I am glad that some justice has been done. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Browning Posted July 14, 2021 Share Posted July 14, 2021 (edited) On 07/07/2021 at 22:13, warwickhunt said: "The parcel was moved by some unknown government body from lost property and placed with Peacock Auctions. This unknown body has a long standing relationship with Peacock Auctions and has sold thousands of items via them." ^ This. Standard practice in all agencies, the police too. Quite obviously the wheels came off on this occasion but generally, stuff that comes into the hands of Govt departments (in my day it was H M Customs & Excise) is sold at auction, without reserve. The guy that bought is obviously aware of this and clearly is able to check the auction house to see what's for sale and 'without reserve' means there's a bargain to be had possibly. Nothing shady about the principle at all. I remember a music shop in Worthing being closed down and a load of stock seized to settle a huge VAT debt. I had a bass in there at the time and was able to retrieve it from the auction house. EDIT - I appear to have caused some offence with this. Quite obviously, that would never be my intention. Edited July 14, 2021 by Steve Browning Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NancyJohnson Posted July 14, 2021 Share Posted July 14, 2021 40 minutes ago, Steve Browning said: Standard practice in all agencies, the police too. Quite obviously the wheels came off on this occasion but generally, stuff that comes into the hands of Govt departments (in my day it was H M Customs & Excise) is sold at auction, without reserve. The guy that bought is obviously aware of this and clearly is able to check the auction house to see what's for sale and 'without reserve' means there's a bargain to be had possibly. Nothing shady about the principle at all. I remember a music shop in Worthing being closed down and a load of stock seized to settle a huge VAT debt. I had a bass in there at the time and was able to retrieve it from the auction house. EDIT - I appear to have caused some offence with this. Quite obviously, that would never be my intention. Going a little off-piste here, I put in a retention of title clause into our updated T&C's when I was working in the wristwatch business. We saved literally tens of thousands by pulling unpaid for stock before the administrator/liquidator took the product and sold it at auction for peanuts. Did I get any credit for this? Answers on a postcard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Munurmunuh Posted July 14, 2021 Author Share Posted July 14, 2021 1 hour ago, tegs07 said: That’s fantastic news. Now if Mr Tickle can get his drum kit returned harmony will be restored to the cosmos 😉 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sibob Posted July 14, 2021 Share Posted July 14, 2021 1 hour ago, Ricky Rioli said: Absolutely wonderful news from Parcelforce in an email they sent to Greg Bump of Rocket Music in Virginia, USA: "Hi Mr Bump .... I can confirm we have the guitar safely stored and our intention is to return it to you as the rightful owner ...." Which means a good handful of people have all done the right thing at the same time, and although some of them might find my sincerity on this point a little hard to swallow* I do thank them all with genuine gratitude. I spent months and months waiting for this bass and I had chosen the specs very carefully — it means a lot to me that it will be sold from an authorised dealer as a totally legit instrument to a real player. It should be an absolute treat for the person who eventually ends up owning it: slim jazz neck, weight just 7.0 lbs, cute sunny looks, and a rowdy MFD split pickup producing a sound just as cheeky as its appearance. * quite reasonably given what I've been up to 😇 So wait, while I understand you got a refund......you're not gonna buy it again? Feels like it belongs with you haha Si Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Munurmunuh Posted July 14, 2021 Author Share Posted July 14, 2021 (edited) [deleted] Edited October 11, 2021 by Ricky Rioli 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
warwickhunt Posted July 14, 2021 Share Posted July 14, 2021 5 minutes ago, Ricky Rioli said: No, the bass is heading where it needs to go. Let Greg know if he doesn't want the grief of returns through customs etc, I'll buy it... that way it'll come back through BC one day! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sibob Posted July 14, 2021 Share Posted July 14, 2021 10 minutes ago, Ricky Rioli said: Fresh starts all around. Greg Bump offered to start me over with a fresh order but for the time being I'm just exhausted by the whole thing – I placed the order 10 months ago. Maybe one day I'll have another go at buying a G&L, but right now I can live without having a reminder of all this nonsense hanging around me. In any case, after what it's been through, no retailer would be happy standing behind this product without having had the opportunity to inspect it. No, the bass is heading where it needs to go. Yeah, that seems understandable given everything! Si 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Munurmunuh Posted July 14, 2021 Author Share Posted July 14, 2021 (edited) [deleted] Edited October 11, 2021 by Ricky Rioli Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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