prowla

My latest communication...

He threatened to sue me for slander, so I asked him to point out anything I’ve said which isn’t true. All for ripping me off for £100. He’s said he wants to meet to pay me back, but I’ve responded that I’ve already given him two means of repayment that he’s requested, so why should I believe this time.

Yup - could've been anything.

Actually he gave me the track & trace evidence which only shows the item being in the Midlands.

I'm sure...

I debated starting this there.

That's good advice.

Yep - he said his daughter sent them. He didn't pay the refund last night, so I'm putting the timeline together and will be progressing it today.

He said he posted it, but it didn't arrive, so I agreed that he could try posting it again; after several days with no confirmation of posting I asked for the refund, which he agreed to. He said it had been returned to him and gave me a screendump of the delivery proof; on looking at the tracking number (PN518894078GB), the track & trace info only shows it being in the Midlands (I'm in Berkshire). He's now threatened me with legal action for slander and I've responded that if he points out anything I have written which is untrue, I will be happy to withdraw or correct it.

The seller has apparently seen this thread and is now claiming that delivery of the goods was attempted, but they won’t give me the proof of that, so I don’t know. ive asked them to point out precisely what is untrue in what I’ve posted and I will happily retract/correct it. meanwhile, they’ve still got my money.

I’ve bought and sold several things on FB via groups, but this was just off marketplace. I think this one has been an eye-opener and has shaken my confidence though.

He has assured me he'll be refunding this evening; it's not there yet. (I mentioned I knew about his suspended sentence and he tried to style it out.)

Seems like he's currently under a suspended sentence from January for the caravan thing, so contacting the police might activate that.

Hmmm - not good - someone replied elsewhere with this... https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/local-news/single-mum-pensioners-ingoldmells-caravan-3743529 Someone else I know had another person contact them saying he'd ripped them off. I've just chatted on the phone with someone else who he owes money to.

Plus a selection of other things. https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/1037529046764643/?ref=search&referral_code=undefined

Hmmm - he's got 3 SansAmp items up. Items in Leicester.

He's come back and agreed to a refund; I've given him my bank details, so will hopefully get it back.

No - he never gave me tracking. He said he sent it, then he said he'd had other things go missing, then he said it was returned to him, then he said he'd send it again. Bank.

I arranged to buy a Sansamp pedal on Facebook Marketplace and it didn't arrive, despite vague assurances that his daughter had sent it and that he would try a mate who works for Yodel. The seller is called Mick Mason (https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100010826582679)(https://uk.linkedin.com/in/mick-mason-344b21104), and he plays in a tribute band called Everything Changes (Take That), who seem to be quite successful. I paid him on Nov 20th, which is coming up to a month ago, so I'm concerned that I've been ripped off for my £100. Does anybody know this person or have you had dealings with him? A detailed overview of the scam and some relevant information for those of you just joining us will be added in due course. Here's a picture of Mick to start things off. More to follow tomorrow. Mick's Reverb Store: https://reverb.com/uk/shop/gear-garage-5891 Details of a previous case where Mick scammed pensioners and families out of money saved for holidays. A suspended sentence was all he received, although we hope that'll be un-suspended asap https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/local-news/single-mum-pensioners-ingoldmells-caravan-3743529

Why is US stuff going to get more expensive following brexit?

You're on a sticky wicket with that one!

I have never seen a Tokai branded Ric bass copy, never in my membership of Rickenfaker and other special-interest groups. I have owned several brands of 70s Japanese copies, including Shaftesbury, Vorg, CMI, Diamond (Aria). I have seen many other brands from the 70s, including Westminster, Aria, Ibanez, Greco Guitar, John Birch, and more. I have never seen mention of a Tokai Ric bass copy. I would love to see evidence that they exist.

Tokai Gakki made copy Ric guitars, but not Ric basses. As per earlier comments, there are copies of catalogues showing the 6-string guitars, but not a single picture of one showing a bass has ever emerged. Do you have, or have you seen, a Tokai Gakki catalogue with a Ric copy bass in it? If you do, please share it (genuinely!). As for manufacture, the 1st run of Rockinbetters were made in Indonesia and subsequently they shifted to Chinese production.

Necrothread time... There's a "Tokai" Rockinbetter RG43 up for sale at the moment, so I was looking up some info and happened across this thread. Some facts: Tokai is a place in Japan and/or a translation of "city". The word is not copyrighted. Tokai Gakki is a Japanese guitar maker founded in 1947, who brands their instruments "Tokai" and is commonly called "Tokai". Tokai UK is a UK importer of guitars, including (but not limited to) Tokai. Tokai Gakki did list Rickenbacker 6-string guitars (RG43) in their catalogue, but never a 4-string bass; the fact that they listed is 6-string guitar is no proof whatsoever that they did a bass. Now, with a quick sleight-of-hand, Tokai UK commissioned a run of Ric bass copies, branded them Rockinbetter, and sold them as Tokai (UK) and plant the seeds for people to infer the link. Likewise they a run of 6-string guitars, even calling them "RG43" to hint at continuity, or even to satisfy existing orders? This is not much difference to Rose Morris being the importer of Rickenbackers and also having their own Shaftesbury branded copies (made in Italian or Japanese factories), apart from the suspiciously not-dissimilar company name similarity. To show how easy it is, anybody can set up a UK company for fifty quid and can commission a run of a hundred instruments from a factory in the far-East. So, suppose I don my entepreneurial hat and create a company and called it "Tokai GB"; I could then get a batch of "Ronniebarker" basses made, say £10k for a run of 100, and flog them on. If I planted a few whispers here and there and gave a nonchalant shrug of my shoulders and knowingly tapped my nose any time someone asked if Tokai was involved, then hopefully the myth would perpetuate. As for the Rockinbetters themselves, IMHO, they are adequate instruments but pretty dire copies of Rickenbackers, being the wrong scale, having dissimilar hardware, and being oversized. The irony now is that, once they shifted production from Indonesia to China, the plans got out and everybody started making them (with fake "Rickenbacker" logos on them), to the point that the Chickenbackers became a cuckoo which pushed Rockinbetters out of the nest. And now we have a proliferation of mediocre copies of Rockinbetters (not Rickenbackers) on the market at ridiculously low prices.

Well, I bid on it, but stopped at my limit.