My Return, Buy-back, and International Shipping Policies

I seldom sell on eBay at this time. If you buy directly from this site, my policies are the same, and if you need further buyer protection, it will come via Paypal.

Shipping to other countries than USA and Canada:

If I were to ship to another country, and the buyer claims that the package never arrived or is damaged, how can I be sure of the insurance claim? Or how should I respond to people who ask me to not declare the true value on customs forms? So here is my advice to buyers of other countries: Most of you who bid in eBay auctions have friends or relatives in the USA. Please only bid or buy if you have such a trusted contact. I will ship to your contact in the United States, who will ship to you.

My Return Policy:

If a clarinet you receive from me seems not to play freely,

• Make sure that it is evaluated by a competent clarinetist or woodwind teacher. We need to know that the problem is not just your child's tiny fingers not sufficiently closing a hole. We also need to rule out a poorly formed embouchure (which is the position of various parts of the mouth in relation to the reed and mouthpiece).
• Make sure you have a good reed and a good mouthpiece. I always include a usable mouthpiece and two new reeds— unless noted in the listing. However I cannot guarantee that the mouthpiece and reeds included with your new clarinet will work for you. Personal preferences for these vary widely. Please see the linked pages for more on those two topics!
• Make sure your beginning clarinet student knows how to assemble the instrument without causing damage to the bridge key and trill keys.

Important info: I guarantee the item to be as described. If you believe the instrument differs from the description, please contact me immediately within the first four days in your possession. Please wait for my reply before shipping the clarinet back to me. (Some problems can be resolved by reading the information at this site, or talking by phone. I normally respond immediately unless I am out of the country.) Any refund will be for the cost of the instrument itself. The buyer will be responsible for all shipping costs. For return shipping, the instrument must be packaged carefully and shipped to me with Signature Confirmation. If these instructions are not followed, or if there is damage that is clearly not of a kind caused by shipping, I may not give a refund.

If there is any problem, feel free to contact me after your purchase via the “Send a question to Phil” links found on this site (such as on the home page).

For information on Spa treatments for Phil's clarinets, see this page.

My Buy Back Policy:

For clarinets that still play well and are over the 4 day return policy, I suggest you sell the horn during July or August on eBay. Your horn's serial number should be listed on this site, and you can put a link to that page on you auction. However, if you don't want to do that, I will buy back wood clarinets if the original purchase price was $200 or more. Take 8% of the purchase price and multiply that by the number of months since the clarinet was purchased. Subtract the total from the purchase price. I will pay the remainder, or at least $45. You pay shipping.