Ngd '71 f20 - not so fast

coreyman97

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There were a few red flags, and against my better judgment, I bid and won the ebay auction (it was also listed on Reverb). Seller is a Pawn shop, price had come way down after an earlier ebay auction, and only 1 other bidder. I was able to get it for a very resonable price. The seller was very helpful with info, photos etc. Figured there was no down side - if it was less than advertised, I'd return it with the guarantee. It was mailed it on 7/1 for a USPS trip of 3+ hours, to arrive on 7/3. But, it never arrived. Somehow the guitar departed Lancaster on 7/2, never to be heard from again. Some things are not meant to be. First time a guitar that I purchased was lost and never arrived!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1971-1972-...LJyVz2fy7Y%3D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc
 

swiveltung

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At this point, it's considered lost - money returned.

Yeah, Some weird Hocus Pocus going on with shipping and tracking lately. I had one guitar disappear that showed on tracking being in town for 3-4 days. It finally arrived. No one really knew what happened. The Driver even called me one day saying, "it's on my list but not on my truck". The previous day he pulled in my driveway, rummaged around and just pulled out!

Recently I bought a small item on Ebay and it never arrived but the tracker showed "delivered". However looking via different places it had 3 potential delivery services: UPS, UPS 2nd Day, and some unknown company. It also had two completely different tracking numbers! I finally insisted on a refund from Ebay not the seller (who was little help) and got it.
 
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geoguy

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A common reason for this type of "disappearing act", is that an old shipping label may have been left on the box.

The package begins its journey on the current shipping label, but someone later scans the wrong label & the package ends up being delivered to an unintended location (i.e., the address shown on the old label).

Also, USPS tracking is the worst of the bunch, unfortunately.

Tracking-wise: FedEx >> UPS >> USPS
 
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Westerly Wood

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does this usually mean an employee for shipping co walked off with the guitar?
 

geoguy

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Not necessarily.

As I described a couple posts above, it may have been delivered to an unintended address, if an old shipping label remained on the box.

At that point you pretty much are at the mercy of the unintended recipient "doing the right thing", & speaking up about something they've received by mistake.
 

Westerly Wood

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Not necessarily.

As I described a couple posts above, it may have been delivered to an unintended address, if an old shipping label remained on the box.

At that point you pretty much are at the mercy of the unintended recipient "doing the right thing", & speaking up about something they've received by mistake.

ah makes sense.
 

coreyman97

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A common reason for this type of "disappearing act", is that an old shipping label may have been left on the box.

The package begins its journey on the current shipping label, but someone later scans the wrong label & the package ends up being delivered to an unintended location (i.e., the address shown on the old label).

Also, USPS tracking is the worst of the bunch, unfortunately.

Tracking-wise: FedEx >> UPS >> USPS

Great point Geo. I couldn't figure out how it just disappeared (except of course if it was not checked in, and stolen). Makes sense that a different label on the box could be the reason.
 
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Guildedagain

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Nuts, I wanted that guitar, still kick myself for not trying very hard (made him an offer) but I passed on account of pulling the trigger on another, which turned out to be a dream so I'm getting over it.
 

kostask

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Not a guitar story, but a few years back, I bought a Skil 77 circular saw. The saw was a special gold painted "anniversary" or some such nonsense model. Only thing I cared about was that it was in great shape and cheap. Anyway, it gets shipped, I track it in, and it was in the local post office. Never got notified (by door hanger/tag). I went down to the post office 4-5 times. Post Office counter persons said they never saw it. Got back to the seller and eBay, after a month of this, got my refund.

The interesting part is, 4 months after I got the refund. I was in the post office picking up another package, and the girl behind the counter asks if I wanted my other package. I only had the door tag for the first package, so never knew there was a second package. I said sure, but I don't have a tag. She said it was sitting in the back for a while, and goes and gets it. Lo and behold, my Skil 77 saw appears. From the looks of it, somewhere along the line, the box was damaged (or completely wrecked, depening on your point of view), and the local post office people couldn't be bothered with it. The girl did happen to read the name on the shipping label, and noticed that it was the same as the label on my package.
 

coreyman97

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The tales of shipping never ceases to amaze. I called USPS 800 number, local post office, spoke to and gave the tracking to my postman, and tried to cover as many bases as possible - still nothing. I figured it would be fairly easy to spot a guitar box.

One time I had UPS tell me that they didn't have my guitar (though tracking said something different), only to have the guy at the distribution center find it!
 

davismanLV

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That's what happened with my JV72, which I eventually got, but only after a long delay, and through a freakish miracle.

The whole grisly story was posted here:

http://www.letstalkguild.com/ltg/sh...s-finally-and-long-story&highlight=guild+jv72
Glenn, I remember when that happened!! That's my favorite shipping story to this day!! And all this time..... you know? And how many idiots had custody of this amazing guitar, before you finally got it!! :encouragement::encouragement:
 

Antney

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Everyone has a story. Seven years ago I did a project for an MLB team. We looked at UPS, FedX, and USPS, and chose the USPS. We had 8 weeks to ship 4000 packages to arrive before Christmas. Due to delays in delivery from China we ended up with only 10 days to ship. The USPS stepped up sending trucks at least 4 times a day to pick up packages. All 4000 plus packages delivered on time. A few were damaged but easily replaced. The key: correct packaging and postal software to create the label. YMMV.
 

mavuser

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postal theft is actually at an all time high, unfortunately. not so easy to lose a guitar box, as posted above.

I wish they would have stolen some of the things that instead arrived here broken...when it comes to guitars, ive had some luck sending/receiving things, but far from 100 percent
 

Guildedagain

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Years ago when I was dabbling in vintage guitar restoration, I got a set of vintage nickel Grovers on eBay, from a fairly reputable seller.

When they got here, there were no tuners in the Priority Small Flat Rate Box, instead there were three audiobooks in their return sleeves, including one from the wonderful Dr. Laura...

Took me a while to figure it out, but all of the audiobooks (which incidentally weighed a pound just like the tuners had) had mailing addresses within 50 miles of our house.

I finally figured it out on my own, only at our local depot could the switcharoo have taken pace. Someone opened the box, stole the tuners (why?) and put the loose audio CD's back in the package so it wasn't empty. As easy as opening a box, emptying it, stuffing another package inside and taping it. Btw, you can very neatly open a Priority Small Flat Rate Box from the side, doing no harm to the box and with a little skill (and a butter knife to push the side flaps back into place) you can put it back together like it was, virtually undetectable.

I shared this with extremely dubious postal inspectors...

The seller sent me another set of tuners on his dime even though it wasn't his fault.

I sent the audio CD's where they were supposed to go, bye bye Dr Laura...

I love her segment on stupid things ;)
 
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