Should I be suspicious?

[Andromeda]

I recently purchased a guitar on Reverb. I've never had a problem so far. However, after I purchased the guitar, and generally after I buy any guitar, if I go back and look at the listing it will say "this item has sold."

But this guitar is still listed as an active sale. It says there's only one guitar and that one person has it in their cart. So despite my buying the guitar the sale is still active.

I contacted the seller to mention that the item is still listed as being active and not sold and his reply was "it was a new listing". That didn't make sense but I didn't want to get into an argument with him to tell him that after a guitar is purchased the listing will indicate it has been sold.

Two days ago the seller sent me a tracking number, the listing is still up, and when I go to track the guitar via FedEx this is what it says "No record of this tracking number can be found at this time."

I am a bit suspicious and not sure what to do at this point.

[mcduffnw]

Contact Reverb ASAP and let them know what is up!!!...and contact FedEX by phone and give them the tracking number and see what they come up with, and let Reverb know what FedEX says as well.


duff
Be A Player...Not A Polisher

[Andromeda]

Originally Posted by mcduffnw

Contact Reverb ASAP and let them know what is up!!!...and contact FedEX by phone and give them the tracking number and see what they come up with, and let Reverb know what FedEX says as well.


duff
Be A Player...Not A Polisher

Thanks! I called Reverb and they are going to contact the seller to discuss this issue. I have not been able to reach FedEx this evening it's too late so I will call them in the morning.

[RP]

I think you've got reason to be suspicious...

[Guitars44me]

Originally Posted by RP

I think you've got reason to be suspicious...

Yep. Wishing you the best on this!

Paul

[Methos1979]

It's the "No record of this tracking number can be found at this time." that would have me concerned. It is not uncommon for Reverb sellers to have multiples of the same guitar and so they just clone the ad to post and sell the next one. Assuming you actually bought the guitar through Reverb then the ad would automatically show as sold once you bought and paid for it. So he must have cloned that ad to sell the next one.

But once shipping has been paid for and a tracking number generated then at the very least the tracking should instantly show up as 'Label created'. "No record of this tracking number can be found at this time." means that either no label was created or the number he gave you has a typo in it. But as long as you bought through Reverb (and not 'offline' to avoid costs) then you are protected and everything should be fine.

I'd reach back out to the guy and have him check the tracking number he gave you. I'm assuming you also did your due diligence and checked his Reverb rating to make sure he has positive reviews? The good news is that the money you paid (again, if done through Reverb) is not 'released' to the seller until the guitar has actually shipped meaning it is on the move. I just sold a guitar and created a label immediately but the buyer asked for delayed shipping of a week as they were on vacation and my money was not released until the guitar was actually on the move.

[67goat]

I have not seen this with individual sellers, but I have seen it with music stores that are selling on reverb. It's not even a clone, they just update the old listing. In my case, the SN was different and I had purchased a discounted demo, but after I bought the listing was for a new, non-demo guitar.

As for the FedEx number, depending on how they generate it, I have seen it take a couple days for it to show up in the FedEx system. I don't ship, so I don't know what the difference is in how the tracking tag is generated, but sometimes it says not in the system for a couple days and other times it says "package not yet picked up" immediately.

The seller won't get the funds released from Reverb until delivery. So a fake tracking number won't help them.

[pagedr]

Originally Posted by 67goat

The seller won't get the funds released from Reverb until delivery. So a fake tracking number won't help them.

This is true if you are a new seller, but if you have enough successful sales (I forget what the threshold is, maybe 5?) you are paid out once you upload a tracking number.

[gr81dorn]

Originally Posted by Andromeda

I recently purchased a guitar on Reverb. I've never had a problem so far. However, after I purchased the guitar, and generally after I buy any guitar, if I go back and look at the listing it will say "this item has sold."

But this guitar is still listed as an active sale. It says there's only one guitar and that one person has it in their cart. So despite my buying the guitar the sale is still active.

I contacted the seller to mention that the item is still listed as being active and not sold and his reply was "it was a new listing". That didn't make sense but I didn't want to get into an argument with him to tell him that after a guitar is purchased the listing will indicate it has been sold.

Two days ago the seller sent me a tracking number, the listing is still up, and when I go to track the guitar via FedEx this is what it says "No record of this tracking number can be found at this time."

I am a bit suspicious and not sure what to do at this point.

Making a label and the item getting into the posession of the shippers are two different things - making a label and posting the tracking number triggers payment for experienced sellers but that doesn't mean it's actually shipped nor in posession of the carrier. Once it is, you should see activity in the tracking, but I've noticed that FedEx does lag a bit from UPS and USPS. Could be that it's just not yet picked up or dropped off.

[gr81dorn]

Is the seller a store or a private party? care to share the listing?

[dilver]

You have reason to be suspicious, but sometimes, FedEx takes a couple days to show a package in their system. Usually no more than 3 days, though…
Sounds like you’re going through the proper actions. Hope everything turns out okay.

[rmp]

More than FISHY at the moment

A good friend of mine got slammed with scam that played out a lot like what you are saying. And the guy in question had that add up for months after it was supposedly "sold"

the guitars never existed. This joker found some old photos on Ebay or reverb and used those to post up the reverb adds.

The mistake my buddy made was when he agreed to use "Friends and Family" to "Avoid the fees" as was suggested by the seller.


He had multiple conversations with this guy, the guy seemed totally legit, he felt he was getting a "Smokin deal" (I told him if the deal was too good to be true too... "Dude Be careful"

but he said he thought he was ok, until he realized he wasn't.

He called me a 2 weeks later "I really should have listened to you"

He was out about 600 bucks. Once it posted to his credit card, that's all she wrote.

Reverb told him the "Friends and Family" transaction how these guys get around Reverb coming after them.

Good luck and these scammers really take a lot of ones faith out of human kind, but do give it time to play out.

Unleash the hounds if he's played you.

[fpuhan]

It's weird, for sure. But since you have the guitar in your possession, I don't think it's something to be overly concerned about. The wonders of modern technology...

[jdinco]

Did you pay thru Reverb?

[negriljerry]

Originally Posted by rmp

More than FISHY at the moment

A good friend of mine got slammed with scam that played out a lot like what you are saying. And the guy in question had that add up for months after it was supposedly "sold"

the guitars never existed. This joker found some old photos on Ebay or reverb and used those to post up the reverb adds.

The mistake my buddy made was when he agreed to use "Friends and Family" to "Avoid the fees" as was suggested by the seller.


He had multiple conversations with this guy, the guy seemed totally legit, he felt he was getting a "Smokin deal" (I told him if the deal was too good to be true too... "Dude Be careful"

but he said he thought he was ok, until he realized he wasn't.

He called me a 2 weeks later "I really should have listened to you"

He was out about 600 bucks. Once it posted to his credit card, that's all she wrote.

Reverb told him the "Friends and Family" transaction how these guys get around Reverb coming after them.

Good luck and these scammers really take a lot of ones faith out of human kind, but do give it time to play out.

Unleash the hounds if he's played you.

How did the convo re friends & family payment occur? Because it sounds like scam-Seller convinced buyer to go outside the Rverb messaging platform, then got all "Hey bro, do it this way and we both save money!". Now if he suggested it in the Reverb system, then they are at least partly liable - those terms should have been automatically flagged.

But wait - posted to credit card, not Paypal? Confused. As long as it's credit and not debit the buyer has protection.