Stolen Limelight Precision...

[knicknack]

Watch this space, prices of Pre-ParcelFarce Limelights set to skyrocket...

[knicknack]

16 minutes ago, Pedaltone said:

Hi everyone, this is Mark Morgan-Richards of Classic and Cool Guitars, and Limelight.

First of all, thank you to everyone, this is a great community effort. I contacted the auction house first thing this morning and they withdrew the bass from sale. I now have to try to get it back...🤞

 

I have learnt a few things from this whole episode:

1) I will NEVER use ParcelForce or Interparcel again.

2) I will not be adding any logos to the headstock other than Limelight (or blank) from now on

3) I really appreciate all the help I got from this post (Thanks Paddy)

 

 

Quoting Mark so this doesn't get lost to the last page... 

[fretmeister]

17 minutes ago, knicknack said:

Watch this space, prices of Pre-ParcelFarce Limelights set to skyrocket...

 

I sold my Digitech Bad Monkey about 5 minutes before JSH's Josh Scott did his "THESE ARE AMAZING" video and the prices tripled overnight!

Dagnabit!

[Jason Karloff]

Let's concentrate on the happy ending, and the fact we have a British craftsman making quality instruments.

(Still love mine)

[Steve Browning]

7 minutes ago, Jason Karloff said:

Let's concentrate on the happy ending, and the fact we have a British craftsman making quality instruments.

(Still love mine)

And a thoroughly decent man to do business with. 

[dmccombe7]

100% one of the best shops i've ever dealt with albeit only the once or twice. Always gets back to you when you make an enquiry, extremely helpful on the phone. Just doing things the right way.

This has put me in the mood for a Limelight bass now. Darn it.

Dave

[Reggaebass]

Just wondering if there’s any news on this, hopefully it’s been returned to the owner 

[12stringbassist]

Bump

[dmccombe7]

Would be good to hear an update on this after all the effort that was put in by quite a few on BC.

Dave

[Pedaltone]

Update regarding Wellers Auctions, Guilford and the stolen Limelight bass 00315 - I've still not got it back.

 

When the bass was first spotted on Wellers Auction site I phoned up first thing the following day and it was withdrawn from sale. I spoke to Andrew Snelgar he said he would get the bass back to me. He then emailed a little later and said he wanted to return it to the consignee. As this was the person/company who may well have been involved with its theft, and also trying to sell it, I said no, don’t do that.

 

I heard nothing back. I emailed again stating how uncomfortable I was with his suggestion.

 

Again nothing.

 

Eventually I spoke to him a few days later and he informed me that he had returned the bass to the consignee. He said I would hear from them in a few days regarding getting my bass back to me – nothing.

 

He also ignores all my phone call and email.

 

I recorded both phone conversations with Andrew – The Police have both these recording

 

The Police are now involved and I have a crime number.

[Beedster]

Just now, Pedaltone said:

Update regarding Wellers Auctions, Guilford and the stolen Limelight bass 00315 - I've still not got it back.

 

When the bass was first spotted on Wellers Auction site I phoned up first thing the following day and it was withdrawn from sale. I spoke to Andrew Snelgar he said he would get the bass back to me. He then emailed a little later and said he wanted to return it to the consignee. As this was the person/company who may well have been involved with its theft, and also trying to sell it, I said no, don’t do that.

 

I heard nothing back. I emailed again stating how uncomfortable I was with his suggestion.

 

Again nothing.

 

Eventually I spoke to him a few days later and he informed me that he had returned the bass to the consignee. He said I would hear from them in a few days regarding getting my bass back to me – nothing.

 

He also ignores all my phone call and email.

 

I recorded both phone conversations with Andrew – The Police have both these recording

 

The Police are now involved and I have a crime number.

 

This is all quite bizarre, sounds to me like the auction house and the 'consignee' might have something of a special relationship.......?

[Pedaltone]

This had crossed my mind as well - also would explain why they are so reluctant to speak to me or the police....

[lemmywinks]

That's bizarre.

 

If you have a good reason to believe you've handled stolen property why would you hand the item back to the person/company you got it from, especially if the police are involved?

[Beedster]

1 minute ago, lemmywinks said:

If you have a good reason to believe you've handled stolen property why would you hand the item back to the person/company you got it from, especially if the police are involved?

 

Probably depends on who the person/company you got it from actually is, if it's Parcelforce then perhaps justified as he could argue it was sent to him in error by them and that the owner needs to resolve this with them who he'd paid to deliver it? But why would you not return calls or talk to Police. At present it all smells a bit wrong doesn't it........

[Beedster]

1 minute ago, Beedster said:

 

Probably depends on who the person/company you got it from actually is, if it's Parcelforce then perhaps justified as he could argue it was sent to him in error by them and that the owner needs to resolve this with them who he'd paid to deliver it? But why would you not return calls or talk to Police. At present it all smells a bit wrong doesn't it........

Although it might be there's a process that as an auctioneer has to be followed I guess?

[Reggaebass]

Most strange, why return it to the person who could have stolen it , the auction house obviously know the back story, if anything they should have held on to it or given it to the police while things are checked 

[Pedaltone]

8 minutes ago, Beedster said:

Although it might be there's a process that as an auctioneer has to be followed I guess?

I'd like to think so, but why won't Wellers speak to me or the Police, just to keep us updated?

[Kev]

A very odd development.

 

Given how it was listed at the auction house, and the fact they returned it to the consignee, I'm still convinced there hasn't been any theft and it ending up there was an error, something Parcelforce may have confirmed to them, but the communication issues now don't make any sense.

[tauzero]

It would be worth talking to Parcelfarce to see what the situation is from their end.

[BassApprentice]

Good luck getting a human at Parcel force 

 

Really hope there's a good ending here. The cynic in me thinks the bass now being "somewhere" means it can end up anywhere...

[binky_bass]

@Pedaltone - have you contacted any of yhe executive email addresses for Parcelforce that I posted on this thread a while back? I've had good success several times over the years through those contacts...

[Sean]

There is absolutely no way that a bass guitar gets accidentally delivered to an auction house and then that auction house proceeds to list it for sale.  "Oooh, look! Something got accidentally delivered. Let's list it."

The whole thing stinks. 

 

I'll speculate that someone at the auction house is a fence and uses the business to move on their stolen goods that come in from a network of theives that include contacts in courier companies. The reluctance to cooperate might point towards this incident being just the tip of a large iceberg. 

 

If it's gone back into the Parcelforce system it will have a new tracking number, shouldn't it?

[Beedster]

23 minutes ago, Sean said:

There is absolutely no way that a bass guitar gets accidentally delivered to an auction house and then that auction house proceeds to list it for sale.  "Oooh, look! Something got accidentally delivered. Let's list it."

The whole thing stinks. 

 

I'll speculate that someone at the auction house is a fence and uses the business to move on their stolen goods that come in from a network of theives that include contacts in courier companies. The reluctance to cooperate might point towards this incident being just the tip of a large iceberg. 

 

If it's gone back into the Parcelforce system it will have a new tracking number, shouldn't it?

And now back in ‘the system’ to protect the guilty under the ‘innocent error’ defence.

[lemmywinks]

The most suspicious thing is the short timeframe between the bass going AWOL and it being put up for auction. 

 

I wonder if the auction house works with Porcel Farce directly of if there's a 3rd party buying unclaimed/lost goods?

[Kev]

But I still think that's the mistake.  I would venture that all lost/missing items that can't be identified or returned to sender go to the auction house, and this one ended up in that pile in error.

 

I personally don't think it's helpful to Mark or anyone to keep making public accusations that the auction house is somehow in on industrial scale theft scheme with Parcelforce.  It could be true, but let the police find that out if so.