I have a local friend who is getting back into playing guitar. 
 
He just bought a beautiful '76 Guild acoustic six string for $650. I played it. Very nice.
 
He bought on ebay the 12 string version of it (from a pawn shop) for $550.
 
When it arrived it was a Spector Euro LX series bass instead.
 
They told him to send it back. He said; "That's not the way it works. Send me the guitar I ordered and then send me a free return ship order and you'll get the bass. You have 15 days."
 
What would you have done?
 

Stayed off of eBay in the first place? 

craigb
Stayed off of eBay in the first place? 

And you wood not have a $4k bass in yer hand for $550.

Somewhere, there's probably a guy who paid $4k for a $550 guitar too. 

I wouldn't have bought an acoustic (of all things) online. You doan have guitar stores out there?
 

bapu
And you wood not have a $4k bass in yer hand for $550.

Spectors never appealed to me. I have a Guild 12-string jumbo though. I tune it down a whole step and put big strings on it and it makes pretty much all other acoustics sound like wussies.

Sure...I tell you what I'd do and then you'd tell ___and then they'd tell somebody and first thing ya know...
nobody would really know what I did but me - and during all that time I would have learned to play stuff on a guitar and a bass.
 
 
Drew was posting while I was and now I really wish he'd post sound examples one of these days...I'm sure curious how a wussie sounds.

if he paid through paypal he can dispute it through them.  they will put a hold on the money the pawn shop is supposed to get until the buyer gets what he is supposed to get.  this is the case regardless of whether they've moved the money to the bank or not.  if that's the case, paypal will withhold future money to cover it.
 
not sure if paypal/ebay will require him to send it back first or not, but either way the pawn shop doesn't get the money until the buyer is satisfied.
 
 
edit:  just realized you later said the bass was worth more than $550.
 
in that case, never mind what I said. 

*Pfft...* It wasn't even an Alembic! 

Speaking of which craigb (ikiiyrn), I recorded a track with that bad boy last night.
 
Then I gave it to the producer at 9:00PM (as promised).
 
You know what the wanker says to me this morning?
 
"I hope to work on the song tomorrow". Pfffffffft.
 
What friggin' good is Nag<name-withheld> then?
 

bapu
Speaking of which craigb (ikiiyrn), I recorded a track with that bad boy last night.
 
Then I gave it to the producer at 9:00PM (as promised).
 
You know what the wanker says to me this morning?
 
"I hope to work on the song tomorrow". Pfffffffft.
 
What friggin' good is Nag<name-withheld> then?
 

See?  This is exactly what happens when Friday the 13th falls on a Saturday!