Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

John Hall, CEO has clarified RIC's position on the likelihood of authorized dealers on eBay. His September 7, 2000 post to alt.guitar.rickenbacker reads:

In fact, you can be virtually assured that any dealer offering new Rickenbacker products on eBay is NOT an authorized dealership, as our dealer agreement, similar to all the other major guitar makers, does not permit this method of sale. If warranty is a concern to you, please check this page to ascertain if the dealer is authorized:Authorized Rickenbacker Dealers

John Hall

There would appear to be a few "Authorized" Dealers who have recently used eBay. These dealers are either in honest error in violating the agreement they have with Rickenbacker International Corporation or are tempting fate. I trust that Mr. Hall will be "Johnny on the spot" with this situation.

As I stated before, our dealer agreement does not permit authorized dealers to sell new product by eBay or similar Internet auction. However, we give dealers one chance when they say they made a mistake or forgot or didn't read the agreement, and ask them to withdraw the auction. Otherwise, we delete all orders and close the account.

However, you'll see a few former dealers persist, after they are terminated for whatever reason, and there's really not much we can do, short of taking legal action which we do have the right to do. But usually it's just the final few guitars in their stock anyway.

But in the end, should an end user trust a dealer with their money, if the dealer can't live up to a written contract?