The Steel Guitar Forum

It has been 48 hours since Mr. Brown became aware of the mess he's in. I don't believe he intends to accept responsibility for (at least) two reasons:

1. His reply to Rick in post 14 December 2005 06:00 PM;

<SMALL>I am willing to follow up with this matter to confirm my statement.</SMALL>

He will confirm his statement, whatever that means.

2. From Steinar's post of 15 December 2005 07:44 AM

<SMALL>I sent copies to the USPS in Portland to find or confirm it's location. I still am not sure what more I could have done or what you would like for me to do. Sorry for any problems this caused.</SMALL>

I have dealt with the PO for lost and overdue packages, and I have never been asked to send anything anywhere. You go to the post office and fill out multiple forms. They take care of it and report back to you.

I don't believe the man sent anything to Steinar, nor does he intend to. If this is not resolved by noon tomorrow I feel it is my duty to report this seller to the local musicians.

Charlie

my emails continue to bounce back to me.
I would bet his mailbox is overloaded and his computer melted.

no sympathy here.

<SMALL>and if there were to have been any steel,it would likely have been David Lindley on a Bakelite Ricky</SMALL>

Yeah, the &#%¤!&%¤, he gets all the good jobs, doesn't he......

Steinar

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www.gregertsen.com

Steinar, have you reported this to PayPal? It's been a long time since you sent the money but it's worth a try.

If the money was charged to a credit card you should report it to the card company too. They can do wonderful things, like charge-backs .

Charlie

Charles,- the thought has never entered my mind, but you may have a point there. Tomorrow it's exactly two years since I transfered the money (using my cc on payPal), so it may be too late, I don't know.

How do these things work? Can I just contact PayPal, attaching the receipt, and claim that I never got the goods? Sounds a little too easy....

Steinar

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www.gregertsen.com

Howard, yes those things are unacceptable in my book as well. I have had some great guitars built for me from builders who care. What a contrast! Unfortunately/weird is that the two lap style guitars I have had built both came with problems.

In this case I really had no confidence I would ever see my money or the guitar if I returned it to Eric so I bit the bullet and made it into the guitar it should have been from the start.

<SMALL>Can I just contact PayPal, attaching the receipt, and claim that I never got the goods?</SMALL>

It wouldn't hurt to ask. Maybe if you explained the situation you would get some help. I don't know if there's time limit on Paypal claims, but custom built instruments are often paid for in full long before they are delivered so the time factor can be explained. Just tell them you thought he was honest so you trusted him and waited for a long time. If nothing else, your complaint will be registered with Paypal.

I wonder how much it would cost for a Skywriter plane to fly over Farmingdale Maine every day for a couple of weeks with a series of messages warning people about him . .

Or how much would you have to pay a couple of kids to distribute handbills all over the region . .

Or how much would it be for a special page on my web site about him - Hey, that's free!

How about special Eric Brown notices on every Steel Guitar web site??

What if everybody emailed every Steeler, Guitar Picker, Bass Player etc that they know with a link to this thread??

We could even have T shirts made up . .

Rick ...I love the way you think...I would love to have a T-shirt with something like "Free Steinar's Guitar" on the front & that picture of Steinar on the back with the wild look in his eyes!!!

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'49 & '51 National Dynamics, Harmos Model One, Lazy River Weissenborn, Mesa Boogie DC-3, SRV Strat.
http://community.webshots.com/user/keefriff

We could send a few dozen Ts to the hot radio station in Farmington to give away to the locals.

My wife used to live in Maine, and she was telling me about how folks are up there. Farmington is a small city where everybody knows everybody. If you tell one person something in the morning, the whole town knows about it by nightfall. They don't like dishonesty one little bit either (I live in S. Florida so I find that refreshing)
Well, a few people in that area have now been told about this.

They want their T-Shirts!

David says:

<SMALL>Though with the long wait, assorted "promises" made and not kept...</SMALL>

Between what David and Steinar says,
IT SOUNDS LIKE A PATTERN!

Aloha,
Don

Steinar, sorry about the late reply.

The PayPal transaction has an ID code. If you don't have the original confirmation e-mail you can get the code from your invoices on their website. Once you find it log in, select "Resolution Center" and punch in the numbers.

I've got my fingers, toes, knees and eyes crossed. Hope it works.

Charlie

Charles,- I checked PayPal, all claims has to be filed within 45 days of transaction. So I guess that excludes me by 1 year, 10 months and 15 days.......

Don,- indeed.. Here's a quote from a user review I found on Harmony Central, dated 5.9.00 and in regard to one of his Telecasters:

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica">quote:</font><HR><SMALL>Customer Support: 1
Eric never followed through on a single promise to mail replacement switches, string trees or anything. I sent him a note that I know was delivered to him by hand about th eproblems with the thinline tele and he never even bothered to try and contact me. Eric you are worthless!

Overall Rating: 1
Eric could build a decent guitar if he followed through and didn't cut corners on components. I gave him $650 and have invested another $250 in repairs trying to get a decent playing tele. I got ripped off! DON'T GO THERE!!!!</SMALL><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Whole review here.
There are also favorable reviews there...

Steinar

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www.gregertsen.com

Dang!

You made a prepay on an exotic custom job and PayPal's 45 day policies don't cover that. I recommend you appeal to their Customer Service Dept and at least get a clarification on their 45 day rule.

Re: the Harmony Central review, this Eric guy is looking more flakey by the minute.

Charlie

I'll do that. I think 45 days is an unreasonably short limit,- sometimes I've waited that long to get the goods over!

Steinar

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www.gregertsen.com

Eric Brown, why don't you just give Steinar his money back?

It would be the right thing to do, and it could make all of this fade away.

Save your breath Rick, he has most likely stopped checking his emails and shut down the computer, you know - "If I can't see it then it's not there"...... I can hardly think he's such a masochist that he still follows this thread.

I am preparing an email for him (just in case), to give him one last chance of making things right. If he doesn't reply to that during the weekend then I give up and he's all yours.......

Steinar

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www.gregertsen.com

I was hoping you'd say that.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica">quote:</font><HR><SMALL>I wonder how much it would cost for a Skywriter plane to fly over Farmingdale Maine every day for a couple of weeks with a series of messages warning people about him . .

Or how much would you have to pay a couple of kids to distribute handbills all over the region . .</SMALL><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Yikes!!!!!

Just for the record, I have now sent this email to Eric, and will try to enjoy the rest of the weekend.....

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Hi Eric -

I have now heard from Joyce Grondin and she claim that all info regarding the update to that story was provided by you,- which effectively mean that what you wrote to me and other members of the Steel Guitar Forum was not correct. She has promised to remove the article from the web, and print my email to them in both their printed and online version.
So I guess that means that story has been taken care of.

Then there's the issue regarding the missing Lapcaster/money. I notice you have not yet emailed me any copies of the receipts......
Eric, I am asking you, for your own sake and for the last time,- come clean about what has happened here! If you have proof of shipping, then send it to me, and if you for whatever reason didn't ship it, then tell it as it is. I am a reasonable and forgiving person and will be willing to work something out. I realize we're all only humans and sometimes make mistakes, but if there's one thing I can't stand it's false excuses, half-truths, and downright lies. Speak the truth to me Eric, or there is nothing more I can (or will) do to reduce the damage that is being done to your reputation these days. I hope you realize the power of the Internet and 5000 angry steel guitarists.

If I do not hear from you within noon (US east coast time), Monday Dec 19th, I will start investigating what legal actions I can take to get my $390 back.

Sincerely
Steinar

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Steinar

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www.gregertsen.com

Based on the Harmony-Central reviews, Eric Brown is probably too busy repairing the shoddy workmanship and cheap hardware of his other customer's guitars to finish Steinar's. Can you spell ADD. Or maybe bi-polar?

Russ--

Steinar-- your willingness to be fair to this guy is impressive....

<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by Stephan Miller on 16 December 2005 at 08:32 PM.]</p></FONT>

I say keel haul the bastard, or is lynching still in vogue?
Steinar, I know how you feel. I sent $300. away for a Acoustic Black Widow" guitar a few years ago and never got the guitar or my money back. This was through a Harmony Central classified ad.. The seller would actually call me and have every kind of excuse why . I finally just wrote it off.

Well, I've been reading this and thought to let Steinar know that he needs to put a registered letter into Eric's hands. Signature required that he's received it. If he won't sign for it, you'll get a notice that he refused. So that way you have proof that you tried to give him formal, written, unquestionable notice of your intent. If he signs for it, it's automatic within the law that he has received notice of your intent to pursue further action against him. You should spell out VERY specifically (as you did in your email notice to him), exactly how long he has to contact you with a MUTUAL resolution. Mutual is in the eye of the beholder...I personally wouldn't be very "mutual" with him, lol. What would be a fair interest charge for Steinar to receive on his money "lend" to Eric for the last 1.5 years?

Joy...are you a lawyer? That is well worded, like something a lawyer would say.
If you are not a lawyer, are there any lawyers out there that could offer some ideas & maybe shed some light on where Steinar stands...I think it may only be a matter of time before he is going to need a USA lawyer to handle this.

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'49 & '51 National Dynamics, Harmos Model One, Lazy River Weissenborn, Mesa Boogie DC-3, SRV Strat.
http://community.webshots.com/user/keefriff

"The cure may be worse than the illness"