David Kilpatrick wrote:

> You'd be lucky to be able to do business. They never reply to email 
> enquiries and the phone is unanswered.

I emailed her once asking for some info about a guitar (having a very 
similar myself) and got a quick and good reply even though it was 
obvious I wasn't going to buy anything from her.
Then again, you are able to get in touch with - and even buy stuff from 
- Newtone, David. That's something I've never managed to achieve. 
Perhaps it evens out in the end. ;-)

Anyway, I asked Doc offlist (for obvious reasons) for more details. 
Here's his reply:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 > I'm not afraid to put this on the list, so forward it if you like.  I
 > bought the instrument Rob pointed to a few months back.  She wrapped
 > the instrument in bubble wrap and shipped it in a cardboard box.  The
 > fragile label was covered over by some other label and the instrument
 > was totally destroyed in transit. The damage indicated an end-to-end
 > blow. We're talking small pieces and the top and back broken in two,
 > perpendicular to the grain.  She's sent me only 2/3 of my money and I
 > haven't heard a peep from her for a month.  She says I have to wait
 > until she gets the money back from the insurance company!  She also
 > said that when I shipped it back - at my expense - that pieces were
 > missing.  She plans on having it restored.

Oh well, I've seen worse myself (got a early 20th C. bass lute-cittern 
shipped from Italy to Northern Norway in a softbag once). The golden 
rule I eventually learned was: When buying online, *always* ask how the 
item will be packed!
However, it's worth noticing that in this case the seller in her 
absentmindedness has completely forgotten to mention that this 
instrument has already been broken to pieces in shipping and then 
reassembled. ;-)

I've actually had my eyes on that English guittar for a while but 
decided against buying it. Since it's unlabelled there's no way of 
knowing what quality to expect and I've already done my share of 
restoring old instruments when building a new one from scratch would 
have been quicker and cheaper.


Frank Nordberg
http://www.musicaviva.com
http://www.tablatvre.com
http://www.mandolin-player.com



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