[Retitled] Tale of an Online Trasaction Gone Wrong

[deakle]

It sounds as if someone did attempt to scam you. It looks like they tried to make $300 bucks off the deal and send the amp right back to you. This unfortunately happens in the online world. There are a whole host of unscrupulous people out there. I once had someone purchase a basically brand new Music Man Majesty off of me then claim that it had "neck issues". He sent me a video which in hindsight did appear curious in that he only showed the face of a tuner as he plucked an open string then fretted a note and showed the note as going sharp. Later I realized that he was merely pressing down on the back of the tremolo to cause the note to go sharp, but that was out of view of the video. At any rate, I refunded his purchase, he shipped the guitar back to me and I checked it out as soon as it arrived and it was absolutely fine. I sold it later to someone who was more than happy with it. I learned from this and am extremely cautious now. If any potential buyer asks for anything outside the norm, communicating off site via email, odd shipping requests, etc. I just move on.

 

[FrankenStrat]

What I am getting ready to say is done with the intent of helping you understand a few points. I am not trying to beat up on you.

The second paragraph of your rundown is where you went wrong. If a buyer contacts you on Reverb, community rules require you to stay in Reverb. It is against community rules to move a transaction off Reverb without paying seller fees. You actually owe Reverb the seller fees, and if they discovered what you did they could charge you the fee and ban you. He also got you into a place where the documentation of the transaction was generated outside of Reverb and PayPal and was thus inadmissible.

From the Reverb Community Rules:

Do not take any transaction off-site.

7. Off-Site Transactions/Void Transactions/Fee Avoidance
No sales may be carried out via private message as a means to avoid Reverb's sales fee. Any other efforts to move sales initiated on Reverb off-site to avoid fees is strictly prohibited and may result in account suspension or termination. Any transaction initiated on the Site, but consummated off-site will not be subject to any of Reverb's policies or protections. Reverb reserves the right to charge its fee for any transaction initiated on the Site and completed off-site. You waive any and all claims against Reverb for such fee.

By stating that he wanted to do this offline in order to avoid taxes and you agreeing to do so, he also made you a party to tax fraud.

If someone tries to get you to move a transaction off of Reverb there is only one response: NO. If it costs you that sale, so be it. Had you refused, you would probably never have had this incident.

He may have had buyers remorse, but there was some deceit going on there. Why did he want you to think that the amp had been worked on by Mesa? Have you verified that he did not swap out tubes, the transformer, or some other parts?

 

[Jape]

@Capt Nasty
Agreed. Karma exacted penance. That's on me.

I am no technical expert and haven't opened up the guts ever, but comparing numbers and previous detailed pictures, everything looks right.

Edit: Not making excuses, but for the benefit of others reading--I was convinced the taxes didn't apply for person to person. I should have researched more. Besides the obvious choice of just walking away from the deal in the first place. Lesson learned.

 

[lauke-lux]

Yup, with selling being the worse option now. You end up with your gear and money gone.

Therefore : do only accept banktransfers and send when the money is on your your account...how many times I wrote this here. If the buyer has any doubts...send him links to your ebay and cs buyer evaluations.

 

[FrankenStrat]

@Capt Nasty
Agreed. Karma exacted penance. That's on me.

I am no technical expert and haven't opened up the guts ever, but comparing numbers and previous detailed pictures, everything looks right.

Edit: Not making excuses, but for the benefit of others reading--I was convinced the taxes didn't apply for person to person. I should have researched more. Besides the obvious choice of just walking away from the deal in the first place. Lesson learned.

The taxation issue comes down to evasion. Reverb is collecting sales/use taxes for states that require them to do so. By moving the transaction away from Reverb for the purpose of avoiding collection of taxes, the buyer is commiting tax evasion.