I
innogator
Member
Short version:
I purchased a Jackson RR1 from @John4021 back in February and received it with damage. John refused any accountability to make it right and has ghosted me at this point. I had to push a claim through PayPal which took over a month to get most of my money back but I'm still out of pocket $183.
The deal thread with all the context has been deleted but I had it archived here for reference. You can see my pics and initial comments. I can post before/after pics as well if that's helpful: web.archive.org
Long version:
I purchased the guitar with the original case, which John wanted extra for since it was oversized. So we agreed on $2650 shipped as the final price. He said he was good with PP G&S and I asked him send over an invoice. After payment he then noticed he was short because of fees since he didn't build those into the invoice, so I sent over $93 PP F&F to make him square, so $2743 total. He had trouble with the invoice initially so I didn't want to ask him to go through the trouble of redoing it, my mistake in hindsight.
I received the Jackson damaged as noted in my comments in the thread (linked above); most importantly the ebony fretboard was significantly cracked from fret 22 all the way up to fret 5 with an obvious glue repair attempt. This, along with a chipped corner, pretty significant fretwear, and the case being damaged (all of which were explicitly described as mint in the listing) was too much to overlook. So I reached out to John the next day (Feb 14th). He acted surprised and concerned it was damaged but offered no recourse. I asked about a shipping claim which he said was too much trouble in the past. I then asked to just ship the guitar back in which John replied "Dont want it back. No telling how the damage happened", he then proceeded to tell me I got a great deal and should basically just accept it. I pushed back with listing photos showing the damage existed before shipping if you know where to look, but the quality of the pictures were bad so it wasn't obvious. He then told me "Never saw the ebony crack. DONE DEAL" and blocked me on RigTalk.
At that point I opened a PayPal dispute and posted in the deal thread, which blew up. This apparently created some pressure for him to do the right thing. After a few days he then messaged me and offered to trade a 50's Les Paul Standard. It was a nice guitar but I declined as I have too many LPs and the market value doesn't align with the Jackson, but told him I would be open to trades to offset value as long as I came out even value wise. I also told him I was reaching out to Luthiers to inquire about repairing the fretboard and he was good with that and even recommended a guy. The next day I heard back from multiple guitar shops I had reached out to and every single one said that with the crack being so prominent and right above the truss rod that they would have concerns around structural integrity and recommended I return the guitar if it were an option. I then told John I would not be keeping the Jackson as I didn't want to have to deal with the worry of that, but I was still open to working out an amicable deal somehow. At that point John ghosted me and I haven't heard from him since Feb 20th.
The PayPal dispute was longer than necessary because he was not providing them info until the deadlines, but PayPal ultimately decided in my favor to return the guitar for a refund. I had to purchase a $90 shipping label for an oversized package, signature required, and insured for the correct amount ($2833 out of pocket total). He received the guitar March 14 but again let the PayPal deadline of saying he received it go to the last day so I finally got refunded for $2650 yesterday (Mar 25th), 39 days after I told him there was a problem. I then messaged him and reminded that I had paid $2743 and would appreciate being squared up the $93 original payment and that I would eat the cost of shipping back. Still no reply since Feb 20th.
My honest opinion is that if you've had to deal with John4021 and it was smooth, it was just because you didn't have any issues with the gear because he does not stand by making a deal right if there's a problem. The responses I received were condescending to say the least and blocking someone doesn't make your problems go away. The guitar was very obviously not insured when shipped, which was part of the problem as well, although I do believe the guitar had these problems before shipping. I have no doubt that if I didn't have purchase protection that I would be out my full payment price and be stuck with a damaged guitar I'd have to get fixed. I would recommend avoiding deals with @John4021, especially anything high end.
I purchased a Jackson RR1 from @John4021 back in February and received it with damage. John refused any accountability to make it right and has ghosted me at this point. I had to push a claim through PayPal which took over a month to get most of my money back but I'm still out of pocket $183.
The deal thread with all the context has been deleted but I had it archived here for reference. You can see my pics and initial comments. I can post before/after pics as well if that's helpful: web.archive.org
Long version:
I purchased the guitar with the original case, which John wanted extra for since it was oversized. So we agreed on $2650 shipped as the final price. He said he was good with PP G&S and I asked him send over an invoice. After payment he then noticed he was short because of fees since he didn't build those into the invoice, so I sent over $93 PP F&F to make him square, so $2743 total. He had trouble with the invoice initially so I didn't want to ask him to go through the trouble of redoing it, my mistake in hindsight.
I received the Jackson damaged as noted in my comments in the thread (linked above); most importantly the ebony fretboard was significantly cracked from fret 22 all the way up to fret 5 with an obvious glue repair attempt. This, along with a chipped corner, pretty significant fretwear, and the case being damaged (all of which were explicitly described as mint in the listing) was too much to overlook. So I reached out to John the next day (Feb 14th). He acted surprised and concerned it was damaged but offered no recourse. I asked about a shipping claim which he said was too much trouble in the past. I then asked to just ship the guitar back in which John replied "Dont want it back. No telling how the damage happened", he then proceeded to tell me I got a great deal and should basically just accept it. I pushed back with listing photos showing the damage existed before shipping if you know where to look, but the quality of the pictures were bad so it wasn't obvious. He then told me "Never saw the ebony crack. DONE DEAL" and blocked me on RigTalk.
At that point I opened a PayPal dispute and posted in the deal thread, which blew up. This apparently created some pressure for him to do the right thing. After a few days he then messaged me and offered to trade a 50's Les Paul Standard. It was a nice guitar but I declined as I have too many LPs and the market value doesn't align with the Jackson, but told him I would be open to trades to offset value as long as I came out even value wise. I also told him I was reaching out to Luthiers to inquire about repairing the fretboard and he was good with that and even recommended a guy. The next day I heard back from multiple guitar shops I had reached out to and every single one said that with the crack being so prominent and right above the truss rod that they would have concerns around structural integrity and recommended I return the guitar if it were an option. I then told John I would not be keeping the Jackson as I didn't want to have to deal with the worry of that, but I was still open to working out an amicable deal somehow. At that point John ghosted me and I haven't heard from him since Feb 20th.
The PayPal dispute was longer than necessary because he was not providing them info until the deadlines, but PayPal ultimately decided in my favor to return the guitar for a refund. I had to purchase a $90 shipping label for an oversized package, signature required, and insured for the correct amount ($2833 out of pocket total). He received the guitar March 14 but again let the PayPal deadline of saying he received it go to the last day so I finally got refunded for $2650 yesterday (Mar 25th), 39 days after I told him there was a problem. I then messaged him and reminded that I had paid $2743 and would appreciate being squared up the $93 original payment and that I would eat the cost of shipping back. Still no reply since Feb 20th.
My honest opinion is that if you've had to deal with John4021 and it was smooth, it was just because you didn't have any issues with the gear because he does not stand by making a deal right if there's a problem. The responses I received were condescending to say the least and blocking someone doesn't make your problems go away. The guitar was very obviously not insured when shipped, which was part of the problem as well, although I do believe the guitar had these problems before shipping. I have no doubt that if I didn't have purchase protection that I would be out my full payment price and be stuck with a damaged guitar I'd have to get fixed. I would recommend avoiding deals with @John4021, especially anything high end.
