Lost/Stolen by FedEx- Gretsch Masterbuilt Purple (or blue grape) Sparkle & White Penguin

FreddieVanHalen

Wow @ICBM I am happy that even FedEx didn’t manage to do that.

To everyone else, if you were squeamish at my pic do not follow that link !

musicman100

FreddieVanHalen said:

paulnb57 said:

With the benefit of dust settling overnight, I think I would be looking at returning to sender, getting a refund and look for another..... none of this is your fault....let the seller chase for compensation from Fed Ex, its the seller who the delivery contract is with after all....
You really shouldn't have to look for a repairer or have to liaise with Fed Ex

You have a good point, although it’s complicated by the factor that I will likely not find another one like this.

Unless a certain Mr Stern can be persuaded to make another its not replaceable, so I think it’s going to come down to whether it can be made to look as good as when it left his hands.

That’s going to be an expensive and challenging job to say the least.

Obviously he will make you another!!!!
i take that you hadn’t ordered this directly from the custom shop?

i would be going for a full refund and send it back.
A guitar like that needs to be perfect. Resale will be worth but  all if repaired. 

ICBM

musicman100 said:

A guitar like that needs to be perfect. Resale will be worth but  all if repaired. 

Have a look at the Feline guitars link I posted, and see whether you could tell that Les Paul had been repaired afterwards if you didn't know.

TeleMaster

I’m in shock. 

I hope you get it sorted. I’d also be looking at refunds now.

riffpowers

I've really felt your pain on this one.
A similar thing happened to me with parcelforce and a beautiful Tokia UES135. It turned up in carlisle with a snapped headstock (I live in county durham)
I suspect they knew they'd broken it and sent it up to carlise in the hope they could blame another few handlers/employees instead of just fessing up. 
The guitar was insured but they didn't pay up. I got it fixed an dit was a beautiful guitar but was worth virtually nothing and it always bothered me.
I wish I'd sent it back for a refund. 

I think you may wish you'd sent it back for  refund .

Nerine

I'd be asking for a refund all day, to be fair. 

Nightswan

I too would be looking for a full refund. It's up to the seller and the courier to sort this whole mess out.

paulnb57

Nightswan said:

I too would be looking for a full refund. It's up to the seller and the courier to sort this whole mess out.

I agree totally
When we get something desirable and it goes wrong somehow, we try to make it right in our head, as the anticipation of getting the item is so strong, we can't see the wood for the trees, as we are so determined to make it right.....then later we often regret those decisions and wish we had washed our hands of the whole mess.....
Return and refund, move on , its very easy to say and I fully umderstand how the O/P wants to make it work, but deep down, invisbly repaired or not, it's still not waht was purchased, or worth what it was....

ICBM

Easier said than done when it's a unique guitar which was sent from the US.

In my opinion the break is not that bad despite looking horrific if you're not familiar with this sort of thing, and a top luthier can repair it so it's not only invisible, but stronger than it was before as well. Is that not better than going through all the trouble of sending it back and trying to get another one, then potentially going through all the same problems again when the replacement is sent over? Personally I would probably do this on a several grand guitar even if I was covering the whole cost, which will be a few hundred at worst I think. If you can get compensation from the seller or courier to cover that, even better.

TheMarlin

Utterly gutted for you.  

BloodEagle

Its easy to say just send it back for a refund, but as this v expensive guitar has come over from the US there will, I suspect, have been significant shipping and customs fees paid on it already. Its a really dissappointing thing to happen, and all credit to the OP for staying cool about it.

FreddieVanHalen

I appreciate the good wishes and the views on both sides of this particular fence, which is currently painful to sit on!

Remember everyone the challenge with this was that it was not a straight forward dealer sale where I could just slam the case shut and fling it back.

As identified above, there are also issues with shipping back and forth, plus the fact that I got kicked in the nuts for a pretty hefty customs charge - I have no idea how that would work in terms of it being sent back or repairs/replacements coming to me.

Unfortunately, some initial feedback from luthiers is that whilst the structural work isn't so bad, because of all the fiddly binding and bling on the headstock  coupled with the white colour, this is going to be a very difficult job to paint and finish properly and will not be a cheap job at all due to the time involved.

I continue to work with the seller to see how we can best deal with this together - me throwing my toys in their general direction will not help that process :-) 

Wonky

I'm devastated for you buddy, as I'm pretty sure everyone on here is.
When something that's supposed to be so good ends up with the mess you're in right now, it's just awful.  What's happened to you is every guitarist worst nightmare.
Fed-ex are crap though.  Had several emails yesterday telling me a parcel would be delivered today, but I had a meeting, so I used they're web site to arrange delivery for Wednesday when I knew I'd be home.  Conformation emails received and everything seemed fine.  Got back from the meeting just now to find they'd put a card through my door after a failed delivery.  I then had an email, telling me of the failed delivery with tomorrows date as the delivery date!  Had to phone them up to sort it.
If they can't even get that simple thing right, it's easy to see how they messed your guitar delivery up so bad.  Just incompetence.
I really hope you manage to get your guitar sorted though buddy.  I think everyone on The FretBoard is going to be boycotting  Fed-ex for sure.

John_A

Thing is, all couriers are as bad as each other, got plenty of horror stories about other couriers.

Think the OP is doing everything he can do, and hope the seller is being reasonable.  Once had a Les Paul delivered in a bin bag and the seller said 'not my problem I asked them to be careful with it when they picked it up' and other sellers have gone above and beyond when things have gone wrong.

Fed-Ex are ultimately to blame for this but unlikely to budge if it wasn't insured, once had an amp 'delivered' they threw it over a 6' fence on to a concrete patio at the wrong address where it sat in the rain for a week.  There response was 'were not a fragile items delivery service'

Wonky

John_A said:

Thing is, all couriers are as bad as each other, got plenty of horror stories about other couriers.

Think the OP is doing everything he can do, and hope the seller is being reasonable.  Once had a Les Paul delivered in a bin bag and the seller said 'not my problem I asked them to be careful with it when they picked it up' and other sellers have gone above and beyond when things have gone wrong.

Fed-Ex are ultimately to blame for this but unlikely to budge if it wasn't insured, once had an amp 'delivered' they threw it over a 6' fence on to a concrete patio at the wrong address where it sat in the rain for a week.  There response was 'were not a fragile items delivery service'

Funny you say about an amp, but years ago I ordered an amp for my son for Xmas and it came via Fed-Ex, they lost the first one, the second one arrived smashed to bits and the third one had obviously had a bash as two of the knobs had taken and bump and cracked and fallen off.
You are right though, there's good and bad experiences with all these couriers, not just Fed-Ex.

Maynehead

Is it worth taking the complaint to social media? I've heard stories of people being completely ignored by companies until they posted on their facebook/twitter page, and all of a sudden their issues were resolved immediately...

FreddieVanHalen

Maynehead said:

Is it worth taking the complaint to social media? I've heard stories of people being completely ignored by companies until they posted on their facebook/twitter page, and all of a sudden their issues were resolved immediately...

It might be one or two steps down the line. As the seller has the contract with FedEx they have decided they’d rather handle that part than leaving me to do it all myself.

I don’t want to queer the pitch for them if they start to get traction with FedEx. If it all grinds to a halt again then my frustration may boil over very publicly as far as FedEx is concerned.

Musicman20

If you can get a pay out for the damage, try, but for me, I would want a full refund from Fedex to seller to you.

Nerine

The other part of me says, see if you can get some recompense for the damage. Get it fixed, and then accept that this guitar is a keeper and play the living shit out of it. Eventually that headstock repair will become "character" and an intrinsic part of YOUR guitar. You'll just have to accept that if you ever need to sell it, you're possibly getting hosed. 

mburekenge

My beloved White Falcon is currently at CCGX after a horrendous headstock break that looks far worse than yours if that is any consolation?