I don’t get this idea of sending the money first. You’re just as likely to be burnt that way as the other. I had a couple of dealings with some C&Fers over the holidays and the money and whistle were sent at the same time. I think this is the best way all round ~ realizing that you could still get burnt if the other party does not fulfill their part of the deal.
I had a whistle sent to me from Phil Hardy without me paying anything, until I decide whether I liked it or not. This kind of trust only builds goodwill and everyone wins in the end.
I’ve had a couple whistles sent to me for a test run before purchase, with a “send it back if you don’t want it” type thing going on. I’ve had a member send me his Silkstone to try out when I was a newbie on the board (which floored me - he let me have it for a month!) and - the thing that still impresses me - my Low D copeland, I bought it from a board member who doesn’t post much, and he sent it to me before he received my check. (We both put them in the mail the same day.) Now THERE is trust.
In my line of work, I meet a lot of different kinds of people and make an awful lot of deals. And I’ve been burned a few times over the last 20 or so years. When you are in a business like this you kind of live and learn. I like to think that I am a good judge of character as a result of my experience. I am therefore not surprised at all to hear that there have been few if any bad experiences with regard to deals between C&Fers. For example, I remember once not long ago when E=Fb sold a bunch of glass flutes for a good price to anyone with over 100 posts based solely on trust - and as I recall it went off without a hitch. I would have no problem trusting anyone on this forum.
Well, I’ve a different “twist” on the situation. One of our esteemed C&F members bought a Holiday Trio from me, and I shipped it day after Christmas, Second Day, insured USPS. After nearly two weeks of not hearing from him, I got another set ready to ship, in anticipation of him beating me up for not sending his merchandise. The morning I was going to ship the other set, and put in a claim with USPS, he wrote to let me know that he’d gotten the set some time back, but just didn’t let me know, as he had much to do over the holidays.
Moral: I was really in a tiz over not getting acknowledgement of receipt. I can’t afford to do a Return Receipt on every shipment. I, and, I’m sure, other makers, rely on you to let us know you’ve received your merchandise in a timely manner. We’re not big impersonal chains - we know every whistle we send out, personally, and we worry when you don’t say anything.
… just the perspective from the Other Side of the Coin…
Cheers, all,
serpent
I would like to ‘weigh in’ on the notion of whether having posted more or less than 100 messages to the C& F Message Board should be indicative of anything in the wide world of trust in whistle buying. I believe I have 71 or so posts on this version of the C & F Board, though there were prior versions and I have been coming around for about four years–time sure flies when you’re butchering tunes and searching for that perfect whistle. In any event, like many of us, I have been engaged in numerous ‘whistle deals’ with C & F members, none of which involved any issues of ‘truth in advertising’ or timely shipment or payment. (That is not to say that I do not rue more than one mid-range to high-end whistle acquisition I have made. My collection of whistles that I don’t often play–or even like that much–but can’t bear to part with is a lot bigger than the collection of whistles I do play.)
We may, at times, be an opinionated and crochety bunch, but by and large we are square dealers.
Then there’s the story about the whistle package the FedEx driver found behind the wheel when he changed a flat about two months after it was lost.
And the other one when the local newspaper found a weird box in their mail and called the number they found for the name on the return address the same day the customer got the replacement whistle a month later.
And the one where the replacement whistle and the “lost” one arrived at their destination the same day.
From a maker’s point of view, I’ve been burned only twice, and both for some bizarre reason were from Australia. One was one of those occasional loonies who pop up on C&F, create a stink, and dissappear. Since then I have a working ethos: if I know you, I might send you a whistle first. If I don’t, unless I have a check you are simply not getting a whistle. The one or two times I’ve sent a whistle on ‘approval’ they’ve been returned so I don’t do that anymore either. I feel that if you can’t make up your mind based on the wave files I have posted, you shouldn’t buy. I’m sure Glenn Schultz has been burned several times, but he is such a kind-hearted person that other than trying to get his rightfully earned money, he probably wouldn’t make a peep. Although if I ever heard of someone bragging about getting a Weasel for free I’d lynch them…as Glenn is my hero.
