Bernie Rico Jr.

xzyryabx

xzyryabx

Well-known member
Any news about him?
I haven't heard anything after his breakdown except that he may be working with some new company that's associated to gear hounds...
I'm curious if any of the SSO guys that were ripped off by him ever got any resolution or actually escalated it to a lawsuit.
 
So people paid for an instrument and did not get one? I'd make it my lifes goal to find the guy and extract every one of his teeth one at a time and then crack him on the forehead with the ball end of a ball peen hammer.

Leme guess, all the cash went up his nose?
 
cardinal":3nt1x68f said:
Being a bad business man isn't necessarily a crime.
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When it involves collecting numerous deposits and not delivering a product, it is a crime.
 
billsbigego":1ln7b4iu said:
So people paid for an instrument and did not get one? I'd make it my lifes goal to find the guy and extract every one of his teeth one at a time and then crack him on the forehead with the ball end of a ball peen hammer.

Leme guess, all the cash went up his nose?
Click to expand...

yeh tons of ppl dished out deposits of around 2K or so and are still waiting....he supposedly developed some kind of mental issues and guitars stopped coming out of the shop.
What's fucked up is that a lot of ppl decided to cut their losses and get back half-built guitars or hardware that they bought and had shipped to the shop and couldn't even get those back.....and recently some BRJ guitars started popping up on gear hounds, some of which were recognized by some SSOers as theirs...and then we heard he was working with some new company that has ties to gear hounds.
Scummy situation...but at the same time, if you're sending your deposit to a small time one or two man shop, then you kinda need to expect the possibility of something like this I guess.

http://www.businessconsumeralliance.org ... -100120144
 
I haven't seen Jr. In over 15 years now and when I knew him he was a stand up guy and also very health conscious so, no, i doubt anything went up his nose. I didn't know he had suffered mental issues or perhaps a breakdown. I was very priveledged to have met his Dad a few times before he passed away and it would not surprise me if his passing did a number on Jr. I hope he can sort out these problems personal and business, as I liked him a lot and the Rico family name should be thought of a lot better than I guess it currently is.
 
Was this the Black Friday sale he did a few years back? The good deals on the hand made guitars?
Havent heard much lately about anything BC RICH.
 
BrokenFusion":b44sywek said:
cardinal":b44sywek said:
Being a bad business man isn't necessarily a crime.
Click to expand...

When it involves collecting numerous deposits and not delivering a product, it is a crime.
Click to expand...

I'm not necessarily an expert in this area, but businesses fail all the time and it's not always a crime. Now, if he was stealing from corporate accounts or lying about the state of his business, that's obviously a problem. But just accepting deposits and not delivering just means his business sucks and people can try to collect on ther debts in various ways depending on how his business was structured and whether he entered bankruptcy etc.
 
I always love hearing what a great guy Bernie is / was from people. He was apparently very nice if you talked to him, but had zero problem taking orders he knew he couldn't deliver to float a failing business. He also had no problem claiming for a long time he built everything himself by hand "made in the USA"... until somebody that was visiting him noticed there was virtually no woodworking equipment in his shop and no guitars that didn't have all the woodworking done. Then he started talking about the mysterious "wood shop". Bottom line is the guy was running a scam selling guitars that were completely built by contractors and billing himself as a master luthier that was building them. The inlay work that the "wood shop" couldn't handle was done by Ron Thorn. Paint was done by a couple of different contractors. Woodworking was done god knows where but again not by Bernie. None of that is a problem if you're a production guitar company, but when you're claiming to be a one man shop building guitars by hand then it comes out you're maybe possibly doing wiring and fretwork (maybe) and nothing else it's just shady.

The Black Friday run was brilliant in that he offered an extremely limited number of pre-built guitars at a stupid cheap price on a sale that was supposed to last two days... and accepted orders from every person that contacted him with pretty much whatever options they wanted and acted like he was a great guy doing them a favor by squeezing them in. Net result he took a boatload of orders and a large amount of cash in and delivered nothing. I feel bad for the guys that got taken in, but honestly with the setup of that run they should have seen it coming. It was also sad as anyone that implied that Bernie was maybe not being completely honest got pretty much attacked by a mob of fanboys. Of course the same rabid defenders now want the guy burned at the stake for ripping them off.
 
From what I understand, the old BC Rich company used two teams of guys in Mexico for fretted body blanks, one was the better "A team" and the other was like their "B team." I believe Bernie Jr. used the "B team." The "A team" BC Rich used had disbanded by that time, I think.

Anyone who thought Bernie Jr. was building anything wasn't very familiar with BC Rich. I saw posts from people thinking that he did build stuff, but I was afraid to say too much explicitly because I didn't want anyone to come after me for libel or something stupid.
 
skoora":2rlsxqpu said:
I haven't seen Jr. In over 15 years now and when I knew him he was a stand up guy and also very health conscious so, no, i doubt anything went up his nose. I didn't know he had suffered mental issues or perhaps a breakdown. I was very priveledged to have met his Dad a few times before he passed away and it would not surprise me if his passing did a number on Jr. I hope he can sort out these problems personal and business, as I liked him a lot and the Rico family name should be thought of a lot better than I guess it currently is.
Click to expand...

He's a complete scam artist. He knowingly took orders he knew he couldn't fill, lied to customers at every turn, and screwed over hundreds of people in the process. Yeah, I'm sorry that he had to be institutionalized and attempted to kill himself, but before it ever got to that level he completely mishandled the situation, for years. The problems started long, long before that incident ever happened.
 
cardinal":3tz75h8a said:
From what I understand, the old BC Rich company used two teams of guys in Mexico for fretted body blanks, one was the better "A team" and the other was like their "B team." I believe Bernie Jr. used the "B team." The "A team" BC Rich used had disbanded by that time, I think.

Anyone who thought Bernie Jr. was building anything wasn't very familiar with BC Rich. I saw posts from people thinking that he did build stuff, but I was afraid to say too much explicitly because I didn't want anyone to come after me for libel or something stupid.
Click to expand...

That's interesting. I had heard from a friend that is friends with one of the contractors that the guitars were built in Mexico.
 
technomancer":3i6a9qij said:
I always love hearing what a great guy Bernie is / was from people. He was apparently very nice if you talked to him, but had zero problem taking orders he knew he couldn't deliver to float a failing business. He also had no problem claiming for a long time he built everything himself by hand "made in the USA"... until somebody that was visiting him noticed there was virtually no woodworking equipment in his shop and no guitars that didn't have all the woodworking done. Then he started talking about the mysterious "wood shop". Bottom line is the guy was running a scam selling guitars that were completely built by contractors and billing himself as a master luthier that was building them. The inlay work that the "wood shop" couldn't handle was done by Ron Thorn. Paint was done by a couple of different contractors. Woodworking was done god knows where but again not by Bernie. None of that is a problem if you're a production guitar company, but when you're claiming to be a one man shop building guitars by hand then it comes out you're maybe possibly doing wiring and fretwork (maybe) and nothing else it's just shady.
Click to expand...
Accurate on every point. :thumbsup:

technomancer":3i6a9qij said:
The Black Friday run was brilliant in that he offered an extremely limited number of pre-built guitars at a stupid cheap price on a sale that was supposed to last two days... and accepted orders from every person that contacted him with pretty much whatever options they wanted and acted like he was a great guy doing them a favor by squeezing them in. Net result he took a boatload of orders and a large amount of cash in and delivered nothing. I feel bad for the guys that got taken in, but honestly with the setup of that run they should have seen it coming. It was also sad as anyone that implied that Bernie was maybe not being completely honest got pretty much attacked by a mob of fanboys. Of course the same rabid defenders now want the guy burned at the stake for ripping them off.
Click to expand...
Is this about Bernie Rico Jr, or a Cameron Amplification? :scared:
 
tlingen":1mvu0l97 said:
Thanks for reminding me of the 2k took from me...
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hahaha...sorry about that!
Did you ever sue?
if not, why not?
Did you try to get your money back via any other avenue?
 
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