Bad experience ordering guitar from Japan

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chrisgr

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I ordered this guitar on Reverb from Ishibashi and after delivery I inspected the guitar and noticed there was a crack along the binding of the neck. I thought it was from having too much weight put on it during shipping. I took photos of the crack and contacted Ishibashi asking for a refund. Ishibashi wanted more photos of the crack and pics of the shipping box which I sent them. They sent me back an email with a photo of the crack explaining that the crack was there before shipping and they did not disclose this in the listing. Because of this, they said they would do a partial refund of 3,000 yen. When I did the conversion to US dollars, it came up to $20.78. Seriously?!! Of course I told them no, I wanted a full refund instead. I'm pretty sure they are going to try and deny it but I am in touch with Reverb so hopefully I'll get a refund. I had always thought Ishibashi was very good to deal with from all the feedback with buyers through the years but I guess times have changed.
 

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Think about asking for a bigger discount and be fine with it, as long as the guitar is fine otherwise.
Binding tends to crack, especially when the guitar is exposed to changing temperatures. The wood expands and shrinks, but the binding (plastic) does not. So it’s prone to crack.
 
Man they should know better. I keep thinking of ordering from them but this makes me think twice
 
BesaMoogie said:
Think about asking for a bigger discount and be fine with it, as long as the guitar is fine otherwise.
Binding tends to crack, especially when the guitar is exposed to changing temperatures. The wood expands and shrinks, but the binding (plastic) does not. So it’s prone to crack.
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I would never have bought it if they would have shown the crack in the listing. They did send me another email telling me they would accept a return but I would have to pay for return shipping and also lose the taxes on it. I'm done trying to talk with them and will let Reverb handle it. Really surprised Ishibashi admitted they were wrong but won"t be fair and refund me.
 
I just ordered a used Custom shop Les Paul Junior from them last week, and it arrived with some finish checking that was not disclosed. I tried contacting them about it and potentially a small refund, and barely heard anything back. Thankfully I love the guitar, and plan on keeping it. Just an excuse to send it out and get it aged I guess. They didn’t want to negotiate on price at all, and I assume they are the same when it comes to partial refunds.

I should add, the guitar has continued to check throughout the weekend and has 5-6 visible check lines now. Is what it is I guess.:dunno:

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chrisgr said:
I would never have bought it if they would have shown the crack in the listing. They did send me another email telling me they would accept a return but I would have to pay for return shipping and also lose the taxes on it. I'm done trying to talk with them and will let Reverb handle it. Really surprised Ishibashi admitted they were wrong but won"t be fair and refund me.
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No F'ing way should you have to pay for anything. Period. Do not settle.
 
I've found this over time with Japanese listings - they will grade the condition, but rarely mention the actual issues. Those issues are always in the photos somewhere, but it's up to you to notice them since they aren't generally highlighted with a close-up or anything. It's annoying and I've just accepted it at this point when I want something from over there.
 
chrisgr said:
I would never have bought it if they would have shown the crack in the listing. They did send me another email telling me they would accept a return but I would have to pay for return shipping and also lose the taxes on it. I'm done trying to talk with them and will let Reverb handle it. Really surprised Ishibashi admitted they were wrong but won"t be fair and refund me.
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I had a US custom guitar builder do the same. LEF guitars. He sent a guitar he knew had issues, one of them being a twisted neck. Would not give me any money off really so I said I wanted a refund at that point. He wanted me to pay shipping both ways, kept telling me different sob stories to try to get money out of me for literally nothing in return. When I originally sent him the message and tried contacting him about the neck (among the other issues) he tried ignoring me until I made a public post. Absolutely horrible guy and will never deal with him again. Paints pretty guitars but that's all they are, pretty to look at. I ended up having to pay one of the shipping costs and a bit extra or I would have been left with a POS guitar. Man I remember why I haven't brought this up in a while. What a fucking douchebag.
 
Brootz said:
1. Open ticket with Reverb.
2. Use the following phrase in your complaint: "item not as described".
3. You will get a full refund, no questions asked.
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Not necessarily. I’ve known guys who got screwed. Item came not as described and reverb deemed it minor and gave them a little partial refund.
 
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