Otpg game over

[salvarsan]

Sorry, folks, but I have a long standing problem with folks who hide behind handles on-line. It leads to incredibly bad behaviour; it is borderline deceptive; and it promotes a level of bullshit that is just intolerable to me. My friends in the guitar business have no need to prevent others from knowing exactly who they are.

I respect your views on internet anonymity, but think that you misstate the problem by conflating anonymity with privacy.

The bad behavior you mention is generally episodic and most people outgrow it.
It is well-exemplified by the "GIFT" drawing:


When I find the bullshit level intolerable, I absent myself from its place of occurrence. There is a reason that I shifted moderator priviledges+duties to David Schwab in late 2009.

From my point of view, either state clearly who you are or stay off-line. Anonymity does not really help spread truth,

This is sound practice for a business or for someone whose endeavors depend on accurate identification.

One needs a clear idea of the boundaries between self and business. If someone rips off one of your designs and sells it with a forged imprimature, is that a personal attack or is it an economic one? Hint: the personal interpretation is a sign of excessive narcissism, even by american levels.

When someone here replies to you, or Jason, or Wolfe, do they reply to Renaissance Guitars, Lollar Guitars, or Wolfetone Pickups?

Of course not. They reply to the man's words.

My replies would be no sharper had your handle been RenGit or AlembicRetort.
(NB: shoulda thrown a smiley in there).

For the rest of us, anonymity is a sound practice that reduces the spam level and serves as a deterrent to identity theft. In practical terms, there is seldom real anonymity so much as privacy: the ability to selectively reveal yourself to others so as to control access.

Anyone who has wanted to know who I am has contacted me by private message.

Privacy may be a matter of life and death as was shown in news from Egypt. Once the populace rebelled, Mubarak had internet providers shut off general access within and without the country.

as good as it may be for pseudo-mojo...another pet peeve of mine. And I notice that those who use their real names here tend to be the most mojo-resistant and the most scrupulous about searching for real answers.

+1

Mojo is for the ignorant and the weak-minded.

[peskywinnets]

Personally I like the mystery - it served "the Man from Del Monte" well .... I overpaid for his pineapples.

What I can't quite figure out though - if the Stateside seller really is putting a huge markup on OTPG's pickups to the point of outrageous profiteering ...then why continue to supply him?

[FunkyKikuchiyo]

My online handle used to be my social security number, but I had issues with that so I changed it.

[David Schwab]

So what about when the pickups have been sent but not signed for and thus a cheque for the full amount has been sent but not cashed?

I hope the pickups were insured. I've sent pickups to Brazil, and they never got through customs. They just disappeared. That was the only time that happened though.

As far as cashing the check. If you sent the pickups, you can cash the check. No one who does mail order waits for the person to receive the goods before the goods are paid for. You pay for something, and then it's shipped to you. If you don't receive it, that's not the seller's fault.

I have a shipment that's in customs in Canada at the moment. But they were paid for already, though no check (or cheque) was involved. If they get lost I'll file a claim for the insurance.

[ken]

Quote Originally Posted by Spence
So what about when the pickups have been sent but not signed for and thus a cheque for the full amount has been sent but not cashed?

I hope the pickups were insured. I've sent pickups to Brazil, and they never got through customs. They just disappeared. That was the only time that happened though.

As far as cashing the check. If you sent the pickups, you can cash the check. No one who does mail order waits for the person to receive the goods before the goods are paid for. You pay for something, and then it's shipped to you. If you don't receive it, that's not the seller's fault.

I have a shipment that's in customs in Canada at the moment. But they were paid for already, though no check (or cheque) was involved. If they get lost I'll file a claim for the insurance.

I lost a set to Paris last year myself. I sent it US Mail insured as an experiment and poof, it disappeared. I ended up sending my customer another set of pickups as a replacement via UPS. I didn't mind eating the new set of pickups or the 85 USD it cost to ship to Paris, but what did make me unhappy was that even though the pickups were 'insured', and I sent in all the correct forms, still nobody could seem to find them.

ken

[Electricdaveyboy]

...........

I shipped pickups to Australia and the parcel got lost.The buyer opend a case in paypal and got his paymant back.
Then I emaild all my shipping info to paypal and got the money back from paypal.
Fact is: Buyer carrys the risk of shipping.

[David Schwab]

...still nobody could seem to find them.

They were stolen at customs. Because you have to write on the box what's in it, they are an easy target. If they got lost and are insured, after a period of time you can collect the insurance money. When my package went "missing" there wasn't even any tracking info for it after it left the post office.

Now I just write "guitar parts" and "no resale value". Interestingly, when I got magnets from China, they didn't list them as magnets. So I guess they are used to such things.

One guy who lived in Mexico insisted I use FedEx, as that's the only way he had been able to get stuff from the states witout it going missing.

[WolfeMacleod]

They were stolen at customs. ......
Now I just write "guitar parts" and "no resale value". .

I also write "Guitar Parts" and declare a fairly low value - usually what it cists to build them.
In 13 years of using USPS I've only ever had one or two packages go missing - the last to Canada for a dealer's order.

However..FedEx, UPS... different s tory when I've been asked to use them...

[ken]

I also write "Guitar Parts" and declare a fairly low value - usually what it costs to build them.

I'm going to have to try this. I get a lot of inquiries from 'OTP', but usually the VAT and shipping costs turns out to be a dealkiller.

I always go with whatever the customer wants for shipping. I have lost packages with all three shippers, and UPS and FedEx have been pretty good with the tracking. It's fun to watch where it is in the process. However, going to the USPS website to track my package's progress and seeing something like 'Package accepted at 'my' local post office on...' without updating it for over a week drives me batsh... nuts.

ken

[RedHouse]

I write "replacement parts", can't recall loosing one yet.

[Ronsonic]

I write "replacement parts", can't recall loosing one yet.

That phrase seems also to not get checked for RoHS and other CE requirements.

Jus' sayin'

[David Schwab]

I also write "Guitar Parts" and declare a fairly low value - usually what it costs to build them.

If you declare a low value, isn't that what you would get back from the insurance? (since you can't insure them for more than the declared value)

[WolfeMacleod]

If you declare a low value, isn't that what you would get back from the insurance? (since you can't insure them for more than the declared value)

Pretty much. But it measn that I'm not really out anything except some time and the couple bucks the assembly guy takes to put them together. And customers don't get whanged with huge import fees. They really like that.
In fact, i only recently started charging for shipping in the last year...I hated having to do that.