UNPLANNED DOWNTIME: 12th Oct 23:45
Experience of LIFE GUITARS CO in Exeter
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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?
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Comments
But could be different for a retail/business seller.
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 )
"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"
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.
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.
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.
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
Yes, the prices are mad. A brief Google shows you can get a new AmPro from GAK for significantly less than £1600.
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.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson
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
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.
"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.
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.