Experience of LIFE GUITARS CO in Exeter

RevMatt · September 2023

Anyone else have any experience of dealing with Life Guitars Co in Exeter? The company is only about 3 years old and now resides in the former Manson's building.

They have a good and interesting used stock which appears to be fairly priced, BUT...

Here's my experience - I bought a guitar from them (via eBay), bought and paid for a week last Tuesday and delivered last Thursday - so far so good.

On unpacking,the guitar was in worse condition than described, missing the trem arm, with tarnishing and wear to the frets and a lacquer crack in the neck pocket/ treble cutaway. Now I totally get that used guitars are used, I also get that condition can be subjective, but none of these things were mentioned in the description and as fairly tangible things, I would expect to know about them.

Anyway, these things happen, so I contacted Life Guitars who replied the same day and provided a return shipping label, again so far so good.

The returned guitar arrived back with them on Tuesday lunchtime and having no contact from them I messaged yesterday (Wednesday) to query the refund process. They apologized for the delay which was due to being short staffed and assured me they'd deal with it today. Again, after another email from me, they replied today saying they're still understaffed and would prioritise this tomorrow.

I get that staffing pressures can be difficult, but here's my frustration... they've had the guitar for 2 days and they've relisted the guitar for sale on their website and on eBay, so they've accepted the return and had time to relist it for sale, but they haven't had time to click one button which issues the refund...

Anybody else had similar issues with them?

Penn · September 2023

No but I think I’d feel annoyed to.

Dumodal · September 2023

That's strange when I had a return request on eBay and I approved the return eBay automatically took the funds from my account and put it on hold and released when the guitar came back to me.

But could be different for a retail/business seller.

RevMatt · September 2023

The status on eBay says that it's awaiting the sellers inspection

Teyeplayer · September 2023

I’d be contacting eBay and flagging it in exactly the way you have here -if it’s good enough for the shop to relist, then it is good enough to refund.

Dave_Mc · September 2023

I've never dealt with them but I'd be annoyed too. I agree with you- yes, it's second-hand, but some things are facts and not just opinions and those things should be pointed out.

Some people act like, "Oh, it's second-hand, what do you expect?"

I expect it to be as described. Not being 100% mint isn't necessarily a problem- but it is if it's been described as 100% mint!

Just out of interest, have they mentioned those things in the new listing? (You don't have to answer this if you don't want

)

Dumodal · September 2023

Teyeplayer said:

I’d be contacting eBay and flagging it in exactly the way you have here -if it’s good enough for the shop to relist, then it is good enough to refund.

Yeah, agree with this, you should contact eBay so they can pressure the seller.

RevMatt · September 2023

@Davemc - relisted with exactly the same description as before

Offset · September 2023

Any chance you can tell us what the guitar is?

RevMatt · September 2023

@Offset - Framus Diablo The description simply describes the condition as:

"This guitar is in fantastic used condition. It has only a few signs of wear or use, none of which impact on the health, playability or tone of the instrument"

Offset · September 2023

Hmmm. That's a bit crap I must say. Leaving aside the fret wear and the lacquer crack, the missing trem arm seriously pisses me off. I really would expect a retail vendor to source a replacement. And having not done so, failing to mention the fact in the description is just lazy. In fact exactly the same bland, uninformative blurb is used for all their pre-owned guitars. Really lazy. If they can't be bothered to properly document their stock I'm left wondering what else they don't bother to do. Bit of a shame as it looks like a really nice guitar.

I really don't blame you for being pissed off, especially given the wait for a refund. A tiny bit of effort on their part could have prevented poor feedback. That's an expensive mistake in the current economic climate.

barnstorm · September 2023

-

sev112 · September 2023

To make things better in the future have you / could you give them exactky this feedback, they might take it on board

barnstorm · September 2023

All you have to do to prevent disappointment (assuming you can't be bothered to write a proper description on the website) is say 'Call for details of wear" or something similar, like Rich Tone does. Retailers make life harder for themselves in so many baffling ways.

RevMatt · September 2023

Update - they have now approved the refund, although will take 3-5 days to clear via ebay

RobG3294 · September 2023

Offset said:

Hmmm. That's a bit crap I must say. Leaving aside the fret wear and the lacquer crack, the missing trem arm seriously pisses me off. I really would expect a retail vendor to source a replacement. And having not done so, failing to mention the fact in the description is just lazy. In fact exactly the same bland, uninformative blurb is used for all their pre-owned guitars. Really lazy. If they can't be bothered to properly document their stock I'm left wondering what else they don't bother to do. Bit of a shame as it looks like a really nice guitar.

I really don't blame you for being pissed off, especially given the wait for a refund. A tiny bit of effort on their part could have prevented poor feedback. That's an expensive mistake in the current economic climate.

I was in the process of writing a comment about laziness of descriptions and that being a bearer on their overall attention to detail in other areas of the sale. I've seen a number of their items for sale in terms of the bits of their stock that I understand the market value of and they do want plenty of money for what they have.

Their feedback rating is particularly poor for a Instrument store of relatively small size. 95.7% is concerning given most people's expectations buying used Guitars means you either have to run in to a Grade A "Karen", or really screw up and be unhelpful in order to wind up receiving negative feedback.

They also have this listed as New:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/394647529921?hash=item5be2d369c1:g:MKgAAOSwnRFkcgmo

Given the fact they are not a Gibson/Epiphone dealer, it is not new. It should be listed as used but yet in mint condition. Another example of the dishonesty and stretching the boundaries of giving them the benefit of the doubt - that seems to be a theme throughout their negative feedbacks.

JezWynd · September 2023

Their feedback rating is particularly poor for a Instrument store of relatively small size. 95.7% is concerning...

Feedback is dropping by the hour...

IME any eBay seller with a rating less than 99% is to be avoided. Exceptions can be made but as a rule of thumb it usually works.

fretfinder · September 2023

Used American Pro II Tele, £1600 plus £40 shipping. Jog on!

Dave_Mc · September 2023

RevMatt said:

@Davemc - relisted with exactly the same description as before

Wow, that's not great.

Glad they've approved your refund, though. Sucks about the guitar, Diablos are really nice (at least judging by mine, the cheaper Pro version)- the one they had looked killer in the pics

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Greatape · September 2023

Always struck me as a place that existed only because of COVID-era guitar availability madness. Cannot see how they can possibly continue to thrive.

Yes, the prices are mad. A brief Google shows you can get a new AmPro from GAK for significantly less than £1600.

Sassafras · September 2023

I notice their guitars are "electrically cleaned", whatever that means.

Grumpyrocker · September 2023

I sometimes look at the website and see they have some nice things in. But the prices are often too high for used gear, when sometimes the same models are available new for not much different.

ICBM · September 2023

From another thread...

https://lifeguitars.co.uk/products/1981-roland-cube-60-electric-guitar-keyboard-amplifier

"This amplifier is in fantastic used condition. It has only a few signs of wear or use, none of which impact on the health, playability or tone of the instrument."

Absolute bollocks. It's very heavily used, and pretty knackered - it may well still work OK as these amps are fairly bombproof, but it's *not* in "fantastic used condition" - in fact, I think it's the worst of any I've ever seen.

OK, they do go on to say "Please look at the photos thoroughly as they constitute part of the product description" - but there's still a big difference between that and an honest written description, which this is not.

It's also wildly overpriced - they don't even go for that in *genuinely* fantastic condition.

Moe_Zambeek · September 2023

They seem to be selling MXR carbon copies used for £175 when they’re only £150 new. That seems odd…

DrCornelius · September 2023

I was sitting in a cafe right next to them a month or so ago and was fighting rhe urge to go in and waste money . Luckily I pulled up their website and saw how crazy the prices were - I didn’t go in after that .

Im sure it’s the same place that was originally about half a mile away in a small shop in a less trendy part of town - they were more realistic price wise then / I’m guessing with the move to the bigger site they need to up their margins a bit but if they need to sell stuff at those prices to survive I’m afraid to say they won’t be lasting very long

CavemanGrogg · September 2023

JezWynd said:

Their feedback rating is particularly poor for a Instrument store of relatively small size. 95.7% is concerning...

Feedback is dropping by the hour...

IME any eBay seller with a rating less than 99% is to be avoided. Exceptions can be made but as a rule of thumb it usually works.

This, though personally, if the seller has less than 99.5% positive from selling, only, not the combined feedback from both buying and selling on eBay, I won't go near them, I've been burned just too many times on eBay.

Offset · September 2023

ICBM said:

From another thread...

https://lifeguitars.co.uk/products/1981-roland-cube-60-electric-guitar-keyboard-amplifier

"This amplifier is in fantastic used condition. It has only a few signs of wear or use, none of which impact on the health, playability or tone of the instrument."

Absolute bollocks. It's very heavily used, and pretty knackered - it may well still work OK as these amps are fairly bombproof, but it's *not* in "fantastic used condition" - in fact, I think it's the worst of any I've ever seen.

OK, they do go on to say "Please look at the photos thoroughly as they constitute part of the product description" - but there's still a big difference between that and an honest written description, which this is not.

It's also wildly overpriced - they don't even go for that in *genuinely* fantastic condition.

I mentioned they were lazy in an earlier post - well I didn't realise they use the same generic description for their amps as well as their guitars!

"This guitar is in fantastic used condition. It has only a few signs of wear or use, none of which impact on the health, playability or tone of the instrument."

"A few signs of wear or use"?! That Roland looks absolutely fucked. I'd say a price of £50 would be optimistic.

RevMatt · September 2023

I'm glad it's not just me that has reservations about the professionalism of the company - in the end it all worked out ok for me, and I'm assured that the refund is in progress but I won't be buying from them again.

Hurling_Fruitmig · September 2023

DrCornelius said:

Im sure it’s the same place that was originally about half a mile away in a small shop in a less trendy part of town - they were more realistic price wise then / I’m guessing with the move to the bigger site they need to up their margins a bit but if they need to sell stuff at those prices to survive I’m afraid to say they won’t be lasting very long

I could have sworn that they were mentioned on another thread quite a while back, and that the original place had sold up and the new owner moved it across town.

Sassafras · September 2023

ICBM said:

From another thread...

https://lifeguitars.co.uk/products/1981-roland-cube-60-electric-guitar-keyboard-amplifier

"This amplifier is in fantastic used condition. It has only a few signs of wear or use, none of which impact on the health, playability or tone of the instrument."

Absolute bollocks. It's very heavily used, and pretty knackered - it may well still work OK as these amps are fairly bombproof, but it's *not* in "fantastic used condition" - in fact, I think it's the worst of any I've ever seen.

OK, they do go on to say "Please look at the photos thoroughly as they constitute part of the product description" - but there's still a big difference between that and an honest written description, which this is not.

It's also wildly overpriced - they don't even go for that in *genuinely* fantastic condition.

They don't mention whether or not it's been "electrically cleaned" like their guitars.

My mistake, it has been electrically cleaned.
Maybe that accounts for it's dreadful condition.

RobG3294 · October 2023

Sassafras said:

I notice their guitars are "electrically cleaned", whatever that means.

Quite obviously means they've used either battery powered or mains powered cleaning equipment!

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