Back in August I decided to purchase my first Duesenberg guitar. Over in America where I am living, Duesenberg guitars are several hundred dollars more expensive than buying one, over in Europe. After doing some research, I was pleased to find out that buying guitars from other countries like this was much more common than I thought and that the majority of people usually never have any problems.
That being said I decided to purchase my Star Player TV from Thomann, one of, if not the biggest music shop in all of Europe. Originally I decided to purchase a Surf Green model that was labeled as a B stock instrument as it was a couple of hundred Euros less than any of the non B stock star player Tv guitars. Inventory with music shops change quite often and to my surprise about or week or so before I finalized my purchase of the B stock Surf Green guitar, I was surprised to see that a brand new vintage White Star player TV was suddenly available and listed on the web site for only about 45 euros more than the green B stock I had initial placed on order.
It seemed like a no brainer, get a non B stock brand new model for just a few euros more! So I contacted sales and arranged to not only switch things over to the new vintage white star player but to also add a hardshell case as well.
To make a long story short, I received the guitar about two weeks or so later, and to my surprise, (and I should know I managed a guitar shop for nearly 10 years), the guitar that showed up was obviously not brand new. At the very least it was either a floor model that had been around the store for a very long time or it may have even been purchased by someone in the past who then decided to return the guitar just before the 30 day return policy was up? Whatever the case may be the guitar was not in brand new condition as I assumed I was getting. All of the shrink wrap plastic that you would normally have to peel off the instruments scratch plate, pickups, and sometimes hardware,(depending on the manufacturer), was already peeled off. Not only that but there was obviously signs of playing wear. All across the back of the instrument there were loads of what they call those player rash scratches that are visible when angling an instrument towards a light source,the pick guard or scratch plate as some call it had a big crack/chip in it that was like a cracked slice across it about as long as half of an average plectrum in size; and not only that but the label inside the F hole looked as if something dark brown in color had spilled inside of it and stained the label slightly.
The guitar was not obviously brand new and again as someone who worked as a manager in a guitar shop myself, I can understand that for every guitar in stock hanging in the shop there isn't going to be a brand new back up sitting in an unopened original factory box out back somewhere. So I know a lot of guitars that have been hanging up in the shop are still considered brand new guitars. But this one that I got was seriously just beyond acceptable condition to be considered new. The thing had been played, the scratches all over the back where everywhere. At the least should have been labeled B stock. I realize that I got a great price,but had I known that the guitar was going to have the issues it did I might have spent a little bit more on a different model, but there was nothing indicating that at all.
I just assumed I was getting a brand spanking new star player,there was nothing to indicate it was a B stock or a returned (been played) guitar. And again yes I know I received a great deal, but as the customer I thought maybe it was a little less than other colors for any number of other reasons like you might have had too many white ones and the white ones did not sell as well so you were marking them down or something?
I almost feel like whoever goes over your guitars in the guitar department before they ship out probably was like, "just send him this one, he's way over in America, by the time he gets it, the cost and hassle to ship it back will be too much, so he'll just keep it".
I did email you guys right away upon receiving the guitar to let you know I wasn't pleased. But in the end I decided to just accept it and do nothing because all you probably could have done for me was apologize and told me to send it back. And if I did that, the return shipping would have cost me way over $100 and the time I would have been without an electric guitar to ship it all the way back, and then have you guys ship it or another one back would have probably been close to at least a month if not longer. So in the end I just had to put up with it. I just know when I ran a guitar shop I would not have sent out a guitar the way this one was sent out to me unless the customer knew the reason for the price being marked down was because of this that and the other thing. But there was nothing that indicated I wasn't getting a brand new guitar. Because the instrument that I did receive was more like a B stock model and should have been labeled as so.
