Doeringer Guitars

A note on Ebay issues


I am very sorry for the confusion. Ebay says we broke their performance rules but we feel that the new feedback rules left the door open for malicious attacks that leave a vendor powerless to do anything about. We started on eBay in 1997 and our feedback from the start would be 99%, over the last 12 months 98.6%, but now they only look at the last 30 days to make a determination on how you run your business. Luckily for us, we found out years ago that ebay is only an advertising tool and most of our customers use our website www.doeringerguitars.com . But advertising is still very important to us and this whole situation is quite upsetting. Buyers are well aware that the rules heavily favor them and many are leveraging this to bully vendors or to just cause chaos.

1 We had a competitor have 5 friends buy a small $2-$3 item and leave a negative even though the transaction went through perfectly. Ebay refused to do anything about it and would only suggest that we respond to the feedback left with our side of the story.
2 We had a customer order an item near midnight on Friday night, we received a negative on Tuesday morning (6:00am) stating that he never got it. He received tracking info on Monday but didn’t check the progress or contact us before leaving his negative. Item arrived Wednesday, the earliest possible time of arrival for an order placed then. Ebay refused to do anything about it and would only suggest that we respond to the feedback left with our side of the story.
3 We had a Canadian customer whose order got held by customs for a couple of days. Again this customer had the tracking information but choose to post a negative before tracking and before contacting us. Again we requested that ebay remove the negative and provided all of the information and again they suggested posting a reply to the feedback and everything would be rosy.
4 We had a customer admit to damaging a product because he installed it without reading the clear instructions on a product we have sold over a hundred times and have never had 1 problem. We offered a replacement at our cost, a partial refund, a discount on the next order and his reply was, “if you don’t do what I want and replace it for free I will leave a negative because you can’t do anything about it”. He even stated this in an email. I turned it in as Feedback Extortion and ebay disagreed, again sating I could reply to the feedback that he left.
5 Another customer received a padded envelope that was torn open and empty, that had a $12 part in it. Instead of making a claim to USPS or contacting us, he assumed that after 3500 ebay sales, I was out to cheat him out of his $12. He posted a negative and a claim for non receipt and sent a threatening letter on how he was going to kill my entire family and that he was a state trooper and had the means to do it. He is now in jail but we are still stuck with the negative. Ebay would do nothing even after being sent the threatening letters and after the State of Indiana filed charges. USPS agreed to pay the claim…
6 I have had 2 separate customers that left a neutral and stated that they were perfectly happy with the transactions. After an email enquiring why, they both responded that they thought that was what a neutral was for obviously not realizing the ebay sees a neutral nearly as bad as a negative.

I will never say that we have never had a dissatisfied customer and the blame for this dissatisfaction was not our fault. We do make mistakes and take every effort to rectify them, our overall record show that for over 10 years. We have some of the greatest customers in the world, they exist in all 50 states, all US territories, and dozens of countries around the world. I consider many of them my friends now. If you ever have to question my integrity, my businesses integrity, don’t hesitate to ask, don’t hesitate to investigate, don’t hesitate to do whatever you need to do to find out, because we will be found to be a very good business. I understand that opinions are not verified by words but by actions. We have proved it in the past and will continue to do so as long as we are allowed. I can verify everything that I stated above and would be glad to supply anyone with all of the details that I am legally allowed to give. Gotta protect criminals rights too.

Other interesting details that I have found since gathering all of this information. 85% of the people that left a neutral or negative feedback did not make an attempt to contact us before leaving their feedback. 82% of the Negative or Neutrals came from Ebay’ers that had less than 25 feedback score. 75% had a feedback rating lower than ours. After being banned from shopping with us, 32% have sent a note asking why they were banned and then protested the response. Ebay recently lost a vendor that for years was their #1 client and this client publicly claimed that they left because of the new rules. I personally know of 2 vendors that sold guitar products that are no longer on ebay that had over 20,000 feedback each, and 3 others that had over 2,000 feedback score that are no longer on ebay, all 5 of these left in the last 3 months. I am nowhere near Ebay’s top selling vendors but my invoice to ebay is between $600-$1300 each month so imagine what these others had been paying. Ebay says they changed their rules because their growth has slowed but a closer look at the numbers reveals a different story. They can call it growth because their enormous price changes allowed them to make a tiny bit more, but their average daily visitors have dropped dramatically, their new account signup has slowed, their retention of existing vendors is the worst it has ever been, and the biggest change…is their satisfaction rating among customers. Now also keep in mind that ebay did very little advertising until two years ago.

Thanks for taking your valuable time to read this,
Terry Doeringer.

Still handmade, but the tools are professional quality now and we don't have to clear the dishes to find workspace. Decades of designing and re-designing jigs and templates have helped us to duplicate quality and streamline the building process so you know when you pick up a Doeringer guitar, you are playing quality. Now we not only build for ourselves but we build for some of the country's best boutique builders.

We help guitar builders stay on time by supplying them with bodies and necks in various levels of completion so they can pick up the building process and complete their orders. Let us know what we can do for your business and of course a non-disclosure agreement is never a problem (ghosts are supposed to be invisible right?)

Neck Blanks Body Blanks

Bolt On Body Wings

Set Neck Unfinished Bodies

Neckthru Finished Bodies

Art – A blend of interesting woods combined with design and enhanced with color and finish, create a work of art. If you are passionate about your music you are usually just as passionate about the tools you use to make your music. The personal choices you make all combine to define your persona and your image. Art plays a major role in design and throughout the build process.

Tone – Knowing how the type of wood affects the sound and matching the right pickups to the wood and to your playing style is all part of the process of our designing the best guitar for you. Do you want a bluesy tone monster? Do you want a metal screamer? How about a guitar built for endless sustain? Or maybe a studio version with a seemingly endless array of switching options and sounds.


Playability - It has to feel right! Right? A “Smooth Transition” from neck to body creates easy access to the higher frets. A neck shape that fits your style. Comfort while sitting or standing promotes an unstressed playing experience and almost nothing beats a good fret job.