Bad Trader Alert

[J Moose]

Well no dice on a message back.

"FrankFalbo" really needs to get me my things back! For someone living his dream and working for SD. You would think he would be humble enough to make good on a 2yr old deal where I have been not only understanding, But I have been amazing to deal with!

Where should I proceed from here guys? I mean its not hard if one has the knowledge to cut a nut and do a fret dress and solder a JB and put it back in its case and box and drop it at the UPS store and use the enclosed $20 to send it.

maybe a month job max? not nearly 2yrs. I'd appreciate any help anyone can give!

JB_From_Hell has already been a great help!

Wow.

Just wow.

Staggering.

He should be fired.

Inexcusable.

I'd start with a phone call or email to Evan Skopp.

[ParameterMan]

The original for sale thread.

[LoFiBrian]

Wow.

Just wow.

Staggering.

He should be fired.

Inexcusable.

I'd start with a phone call or email to Evan Skopp.

See thats what i dont want. I just want my things back! noone whould lose their job! or have this interface with their wellness!

I'm not a vengeful person. Maybe just too good of a Christian IDK?

[theodie]

Yeah, this dude needs to make this situation right. I dont see how someone can do this if they have any kind of a conscious.

LoFibrian, if you get it back and you still need a nut, fret dress, and a pickup install. I will do it for you no charge (just cover shipping). Considering this situation and how patient you have been with it, you are deserving and this impresses me.

Yes, I have a good reputation and the skills to do this.

Oh, I should be able to turn it in under a week.

[LoFiBrian]

[QUOTE=theodie;1641165]LoFibrian, if you get it back and you still need a nut, fret dress, and a pickup install. I will do it for you no charge (just cover shipping). Considering this situation and how patient you have been with it, you are deserving and this impresses me. QUOTE]

See, Honor is a virtue! Thanks for the kind offer. If i ever see a SG in my grasp again I'll ring you up and take you up on it!

[frankfalbo]

Whoa you guys, it'll ship today and I'll get in touch with lo-fi brian off-line. Rest assured the lo-fi brian will be made more than whole acoss the entire situation.

[LoFiBrian]

That is all I require. thank you Frank.

-Brian

[frankfalbo]

Thanks brother, I'll send you my phone number in an email and I'd like you to call me if you're up to it.

[SnakeAces]

a tear comes to my eye!! I love successful trades

[frankfalbo]

Yeah I wouldn't call this one a success, although it should end well.

I have this knack for letting side jobs fall out of my field of vision when things get busy, and this is the worst of them all. I now literally never trade anything without forewarning. I make the person wait until they receive my piece of gear before sending theirs, and I don't take any money for refrets until the person has received their guitar. It's the only way to cure my disease.

[SnakeAces]

No doubt, at least you are honest.

[Pink Unicorn Horsey]

Group hug.

[theodie]

Good deal Frank.

[LoFiBrian]

I talked to Frank before work yesterday on the phone. We sorted out our issue and talked a bit of shop. Frank as always is honest and it was weird speaking to someone who knows more about gear and pickups than I do.

I'll let you guys know when I get my guitar and Frank will too. I'm stoked!

-B

[alex1fly]

Lewguitar. I wanted to buy some bass pickups, thought I'd go through a forum bro rather than a mainstream site. But every time I messaged him it took him multiple days, sometimes even a week to respond, often vaguely. I did not detect a hint of sincerity in any of our dealings; it was more like I was a nuisance to him rather than a customer for his business. Here's a timeline of what should have been a legitimate business deal - pay close attention to the dates!

Middle of September - inquire about bass pickups and prices. Many days go by.

Sep 29 - Lew gives me the prices after a few weeks' wait. I send money via Paypal. More days go by, and I learn that Lew doesn't have the pickups in stock, something that would've been nice to know prior to paying him.

Oct 29 - Lew informs me that I need to send more money - odd, because he first said they were 1/3 off and then gave me the actual prices, so I needed to send him the extra 1/3 of the money. But a respectable businessman would quickly ask his client to send more money - maybe a few days later, not a MONTH later.

Nov 22 - Lew "ships the pickups" to me, though when I receive the package its postmarked for Nov 27. A week between "shipping" and actual shipping.

Nov 29 - receive the pickups, though one was the wrong model. He tells me he'll ship the correct model right out.

Dec 6 - Lew tells me he's waiting for me to return my pickup first, even though he said he'd ship mine right out, so I go ahead and ship the pickup to him. Lew doesn't offer to reimburse me for shipping.

Dec 13 - My package is returned to me. Lew's business address on his website is apparently incorrect. Ship the package to him again with the "corrected address", and again Lew does not offer to reimburse me. I tell him I want a refund for the pickup.

Jan 6 - Lew wants me to go through my Paypal records and find the payment so he can refund me. I just need the amount for the one pickup - shouldn't he know his own prices? We'd been corresponding through email, I'd given him this information multiple times, copied and pasted his SDUGF messages with his prices, tried to be as helpful as possible.

Jan 9 - Lew asks me to again go through my Paypal records. I send him the exact same information, my email, the amount he owes me. He finally gives me my refund.


As you can see, this process took just under 3 1/2 months. I know he's a forum favorite and others have ordered from him with no problem, but he consistently treated me as though I was at the bottom rung of his priority list. Worst online business I've ever done.

[theodie]

Lewguitar. I wanted to buy some bass pickups, thought I'd go through a forum bro rather than a mainstream site. But every time I messaged him it took him multiple days, sometimes even a week to respond, often vaguely. I did not detect a hint of sincerity in any of our dealings; it was more like I was a nuisance to him rather than a customer for his business. Here's a timeline of what should have been a legitimate business deal - pay close attention to the dates!

Middle of September - inquire about bass pickups and prices. Many days go by.

Sep 29 - Lew gives me the prices after a few weeks' wait. I send money via Paypal. More days go by, and I learn that Lew doesn't have the pickups in stock, something that would've been nice to know prior to paying him.

Oct 29 - Lew informs me that I need to send more money - odd, because he first said they were 1/3 off and then gave me the actual prices, so I needed to send him the extra 1/3 of the money. But a respectable businessman would quickly ask his client to send more money - maybe a few days later, not a MONTH later.

Nov 22 - Lew "ships the pickups" to me, though when I receive the package its postmarked for Nov 27. A week between "shipping" and actual shipping.

Nov 29 - receive the pickups, though one was the wrong model. He tells me he'll ship the correct model right out.

Dec 6 - Lew tells me he's waiting for me to return my pickup first, even though he said he'd ship mine right out, so I go ahead and ship the pickup to him. Lew doesn't offer to reimburse me for shipping.

Dec 13 - My package is returned to me. Lew's business address on his website is apparently incorrect. Ship the package to him again with the "corrected address", and again Lew does not offer to reimburse me. I tell him I want a refund for the pickup.

Jan 6 - Lew wants me to go through my Paypal records and find the payment so he can refund me. I just need the amount for the one pickup - shouldn't he know his own prices? We'd been corresponding through email, I'd given him this information multiple times, copied and pasted his SDUGF messages with his prices, tried to be as helpful as possible.

Jan 9 - Lew asks me to again go through my Paypal records. I send him the exact same information, my email, the amount he owes me. He finally gives me my refund.


As you can see, this process took just under 3 1/2 months. I know he's a forum favorite and others have ordered from him with no problem, but he consistently treated me as though I was at the bottom rung of his priority list. Worst online business I've ever done.

Hmmm.........., I should not say what I want to say. I am sure many are in the same boat. I am sorry this happened to you bro.

I have had NOTHING but great dealings with martin6stringcustoms and I have heard the same about Wymore on here.

[Lucid_Lunatic]

Hmmm.........., I should not say what I want to say. I am sure many are in the same boat. I am sorry this happened to you bro.

+1

[Lewguitar]

Alex knew this would be a special order right from the get go. He wanted a Stacked Jazz Bass pickup and a Quarter Pound Jazz bass pickup and I don't stock the stacks...they're not good sellers for me.

I sometimes hesitate to do special orders and often suggest a buyer try to find an item in stock from another dealer as special orders can sometimes take forever to fill and the small profit isn't worth the potential hassles and bad feelings. But Alex was persistant so I told him I'd special order the item for him.

When the Jazz Bass Stack came in, I shipped it right away but I did make a mistake on the second pickup he wanted and shipped him a Vintage Jazz Bass pickup instead of a Quarter Pound Jazz Bass pickup. I was in a hurry to get his order to him since he'd been waiting and just picked up the wrong box...they look identical.

Mistakes happen...I'm human. I've shipped thousands of items and if the odds are one in a thousand that you'll make a mistake, do it a thousand times and you'll make a mistake.

For some reason Alex didn't want to return the pickup right away but did want me to send a replacement right away and I told him I couldn't ship him a replacement until he returned the pickup he'd received. When he finally did return it he sent it to an old address, not the address on my website or on the box I sent him the pickups in. When he sent it a second time, he still sent it to the same old Boulder address, but fortunately this time the post office forwarded it to me.

Once the pickup was returned to me and I had it in my hands I went to Paypal to search for Alex's payment so I could send him a refund. I couldn't find anything with Alex's name or the amount of the sale and asked him again for the date he'd sent the payment through Paypal. He remembered that he hadn't ordered it under his own name and had also paid for the item in two parts, the second payment being made on another date.

When he'd paid the first time he'd given himself an additional 33% discount by mistake. He discounted another 33% from the already discounted MAP price on my website. He also ordered it under a completely differant name...a woman's name. So the payment was difficult to find since it was made under a woman's name and he'd paid in two installments. Soon as I found it I refunded his payment.

And that's about it. He got his Stack pickup and got his refund for the other pickup. End of story.

[alex1fly]

Would've been nice to know that it was a "special order" - Lew made no mention of this. I did return it to the address on your website, which was wrong - triplechecked it when it was returned to me. If the "old address" I shipped it to wasn't on your website or the package, then how would I have gotten it? You make it sound like I didn't give you any information, which is untrue - many times throughout this whole process I gave you the price, the paypal name, the email it was associated with, but you seem to have ignored it. It's funny that you're defending yourself when what you say is untrue, and since in the 45 minutes that this post has been up I've received 3 seperate private messages from people saying that they've had the same kinds of problems with doing business with you. I saved all our emails and messages if you want to keep the debate going, but if I were you I'd just try to move on and learn from your mistakes, or at least make the same mistakes in a timely manner next time.

[LoFiBrian]

I'll let you guys know when I get my guitar and Frank will too. I'm stoked!

-B

Guitar Arrived this morning. I took a shower and let the box warm up for a awhile since it is nearly freezing on my enclosed porch where the delivery guy left it. "Signature Required" staring me in the face and he still leaves it out in the open and cold.

I opened the case to find Frank had installed a few suprises! The bone nut and fret work are perfect and really I do not even really notice the issues that made me send the G400 to him to begin with.

I have been playing it for about an hour before I decided I should post that I recieved it.

It has been 1yr and 10mos but I must say i am completely happy with the result and Frank Falbo is maybe the nicest and most informed person I have met on these forums in reguards to Pickups. But the wait however was just uncalled for. I recommend Franks skills but if you do buissness make sure he sends you your part of the deal first off.

Though there is just one problem, over the last 2 years I've found my sound and it is not the JB or any 44 awg pickup. so that is prob going to go next time it needs strung and setup. Hello Chrome Custom 5 or maybe a Jazz Bridge!

Thanks fellas for your help and a big thank you to Frank for fine work and for making the situation square again.

-Brian