Bought a new guitar online from a store (that had photos), and had one with a different top sent

Ben

Right, so a week or 2 ago I saw a beautiful Ebony top on a PRS Tremonti Custom SE, which made me pull the trigger instantly. I wasn't in the market for another guitar, but I fell in love with the top and HAD to have it. Here it is as pictured on both the Rich Tone website and eBay ad:




So I anxiously await the DPD delivery a few days later, book the day off work to open and enjoy it, and to my surprise when opening it I realise that I'd been sent an Ebony model, but nothing like the one in the picture (which is the one you expect when there's 9+ images in both the eBay ad from the store and the store page referring to it:



So I open an eBay return, and they tell me that:

I’m sorry that you have received the guitar with a different top – it appears the new guitar which you received was never photographed and the image listed on eBay was of a previous Tremonti custom LTD run model.

I was offered a £50 partial refund if I wanted to keep it, but the top for my taste is hideous and I'd fallen in love with the one in the pictures, not the one received, so I went ahead with the full return and refund.

I wasn't originally going to open this as I got a full refund, but seeing as the store has gone ahead an re-listed the guitar I *thought* I had purchased (and has been confirmed by them to not be in stock and have been sold before) I thought I'd let everyone here know so they don't get burnt like I did:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PRS-Tremonti-Custom-Ltd-Run-Ebony-/272872358552

Hope that helps someone! And if you're buying from Rich Tone, might be worth double-checking with them before buying that the top that you're purchasing is actually in stock.

JezWynd

So none of the 10 photos they show are of the actual guitar?  What's the point of giving detailed shots if they're not the actual instrument you'll receive. That's a shocker. Makes me very wary of using them for any purchase.

Brize

I've posted about this before. In around 2008 I bought a guitar from RichTone with a flamed maple top and when it arrived it was clearly a different guitar (and much less attractive). When I suggested to the guys at RichTone that they needed to photograph individual guitars they were pretty sniffy about it and made out that I was being unreasonable.

Earlier this year I was looking at another guitar at RichTone and asked them to confirm that the guitar in the photograph was the actual guitar for sale. Sure enough, it wasn't - they said that the guitar in the photograph had been sold some months previously.

This is clearly a problem with RichTone and it's disappointing that they haven't addressed it.

earwighoney

Pictures don't work. 

Ravenous

@Ben thanks for the warning. A few people have complained about this from Rich Tone.

(I have had non-guitar stuff from them before with no problems, but I don't think I'd use them for guitars now after hearing about so many of these cases.)

JDE

What a swizz. That is also against eBay rules, iirc. 

Seating

I have only ever had poor experiences with RichTone. Id rather pay a touch more elsewhere these days or actually travel and look with my own eyes  

DefaultM

Sent them a link to this thread. How come you intentionally mislead your customers, guys?

andrewaward

wonder what the £50 partial refund would have actually looked like when it arrived...........

Brize

andrewaward said:

wonder what the £50 partial refund would have actually looked like when it arrived...........

Probably like this:

Sync

It's a difficult balance to maintain a competitive music shop at retail but retain that local ambiance and service. 

The question is whether they are purposely advertising the best tops from previous but selling from new stock. 

I have always had good service from them.

Brize

Sync said:

The question is whether they are purposely advertising the best tops from previous but selling from new stock. 

No, I don't think that's the intent - I think it's more a case that they can't be bothered to photograph each individual guitar. I get that it's a lot of work, but at least plaster disclaimers everywhere that the guitar in the picture may not be the guitar in stock.

Kalimna

It's not a difficult balance at all to mislead with an advert. It's not far off lying. If there was a large warning that 'these photos are representative and are not the actual item' then fair enough. Otherwise it is pretty shady. And I hardly imagine that a few extra lines of text would eat into the local ambiance or service. In fact it might suggest a better service all round.

adam.

guitarfishbay

I've seen this happen to a number of people buying from Richtone.

My suggestion is to call them before purchase and ask them to confirm before buying, and ask for corret pics as necessary.  At this moment in time I would not trust any of their new stock photos to be correct based on the number of times I've read about this happening.  I think their second hand stock photos are usually correct.

Rigid_Digits

Knew this would be Rich Tone. Had an experience recently that has put me off using them in future. I too thought I was getting the guitar in their photo. Alas not. It was all sorted out fine but I would be wary of ordering from them online again.

axisus

That is outrageous! I will certainly avoid them.

sunshinewelly

I have also had a bad experience with these. Would not use them again

guitars4you

Not trying to defend a dealer for not showing relevant pics of such a guitar - But what do Amazon do with say a Les Paul Standard, based on each guitar having a unique 'finger print' flame top - They look like they show 1 pic and list 5 available or whatever

I would imagine most dealers show the relevant pics of more expensive guitars, but I dare say when it comes to the volume end of the market, whereby they shift 'boxes' then many adopt the 1 generic pic format to cover all stock - fine for say a new white Strat when any generic pic will do, but not ideal with figured tops or even relic finishes like a Roadworn finish 

But I do agree with you @Ben that you choose guitar a) as it looked nice and that is what you expected and wanted

Veganic

Ah, the Rachel-Leah-switcheroo. Oldest trick in the book.  Well nearly oldest, after the serpent and the tonewood apple.

I would guess this is incompetance rather than malice with a tiny bit of remose when it first happened and then followed by the learnt behaviour that it usually has no consequences. 
Simple creature, retailers.

Ben

Kalimna said:

It's not a difficult balance at all to mislead with an advert. It's not far off lying. If there was a large warning that 'these photos are representative and are not the actual item' then fair enough. Otherwise it is pretty shady. And I hardly imagine that a few extra lines of text would eat into the local ambiance or service. In fact it might suggest a better service all round.

adam.

My thoughts exactly.

guitars4you said:

I would imagine most dealers show the relevant pics of more expensive guitars, but I dare say when it comes to the volume end of the market, whereby they shift 'boxes' then many adopt the 1 generic pic format to cover all stock - fine for say a new white Strat when any generic pic will do, but not ideal with figured tops or even relic finishes like a Roadworn finish 

But I do agree with you @Ben that you choose guitar a) as it looked nice and that is what you expected and wanted

That's true, and I expect that from most retailers that use the same exact stock picture that PRS gives them, but for an ad with 9+ pictures in all angles of the guitar, I certainly expect the guitar from the pictures.

I suppose what ticked me off wasn't that whole deal as much as the fact that they have simply re-listed the ad with the same pictures that don't correspond to what they're shipping AND they don't have the decency to include a disclaimer regarding different tops, as I can see by this thread many people have been burnt by them.

It takes literally 1 minute to add 3 lines of text with a disclaimer about discrepancy on tops, and less than 10 minutes to bang out 3-5 quick reference pictures of the actual guitar (seeing as the inside box had already been unsealed by them, which means they knew well what was inside).

So that 3 to 5 minutes they skipped, has lost them a customer for the foreseeable future, and I imagine I'm not alone in this sentiment.

mynamesnotbob

They seem to do this all the time, just use the stock pics and go from there, they do the same on USA models, or used  to at least. I get it with the standard SE models, but these ones are being sold heavily on how the wood looks - from there perspective I can see it's not worth the effort v's return on the lower end instruments.