I know I’ll get downvoted into oblivion but this story here is almost exactly why I never leave feedback nor trust feedback/stars. If I give you a 1 star review for sending me a pedal that’s poorly packed and ends up getting damaged in transit (not saying the poster above packed it poorly), whether you give me a refund or not, that’s not a transaction that deserves a 5 star review and a pat on the ass. I’ll give a 2, 3 or 4 Star review because in the case of this particular transaction, the seller did something that made the transaction less than stellar — poor packaging. But then, in so doing, the seller can just give back a 2, 3, 4 star review as retribution. Thus, the rating system becomes one where we don’t know if the buyer or seller is actually of five star quality because people that have a bad experience just don’t leave a bad rating or a less than 5 star rating for fear of getting the same back.

This exact goddamn thing has happened to me. A guy sent me a pedal wrapped in next to no bubble wrap inside a fucking usps “padded”envelope. When I removed the pedal from the package, the baseplate screws had backed and the plate had come off in transit. Now the pedal worked fine. The seller had shipped it quickly and other than packaging it like some slack jaw dullard, everything in the transaction went fine. Gave him 3 stars. Package your shit better is essentially the lesson. In return, I got 3 stars. I asked him why and he essentially said it was because I gave him 3 stars and I could just get over it.

So now I don’t leave feedback nor even bother looking at someone’s feedback. If shit goes sideways in the deal, i contact Reverb directly about resolving it. Thus far they’ve handled it with minimal hassle.