Japanese Mele eBay Experience

Mele HAWAII, not Mele Japan!!!! Unless you like paying alot in shipping to send back damaged, repaired or blemished instruments, and then fighting them to try to get your money back, you should beware of those sellers/ukulele's.

First, I would like to say that I had heard positive things about Mele Ukulele by people who are on the island, so I decided to go ahead and purchase one of their ukes. I guess if you are in Hawaii buying a uke is a different process, but, being stateside it is very hard to get a good production line uke with a cool top because you have to buy them site unseen, and hope you don't get sent blemished ukes. At best you will likely have to settle for what someone else selects for you to play, and generally settle for a uke that you would not have bought if you had seen it prior to shipment.

When I tried to buy a Mele on ebay, they (Mele Hawaii,) bait and switched the auction after I emailed them and they told me the uke I was bidding was the one photographed in the auction. They sent me a different uke than the one promised. Mele Hawaii sent a ukulele that had an obvious neck repair and poor quality finish that was applied with a paint brush, not sprayed, at the neck heel joint. These damages were not disclosed in the auction, nor disclosed when I inquired by email. When I attempted to send it back, they didn't have a replacement and they wanted me to pay a restocking fee. I had to file a paypal dispute. After PayPal ruled in my favor, I still had to pay ship to return. The only reason I didn't leave negative feedback is that I didn't want them to leave negative feedback on me in retaliation. Now, that buyers cannot be given negative feedback, It is possible to leave proper feedback on sellers. Thank the moderators of UU for letting my voice be heard and sharing this with buyers.

Beware of buying a Mele uke off the internet.

WOW, so sorry to hear about your bad experience with MELE. In several dealings with the company I have had over the past 10 or more years I have had nothing but great customer service from them, and I'm ecstatic about my Koa Concert pineapple ukulele I got from them recently online. Cheryl has always shown aloha to me and all my friends who have dealt with MELE. Also sorry to hear about your Pono experiance the first negative I have heard about Ko'olau too they having a solid gold reputation with all I know who have bought their products. You are correct though, buying sight unseen on the internet is a gamble. I recently purchased a ukulele music CD from a seller who had a 98% rating which is low for ebay. He was the only seller who had this CD. A month later and no CD no verification it was ever sent, and seller's being a total anal orifice refusing refund nor sending a CD. I would suggest buying from reputable sellers but both Ko'olau and Mele are reputable so don't know what to say except recommend future purchases from MGM MusicGuyMic.

Man, I hear you on the mainland purchase thing.

I live in NYC and let me just say that even though there are a thousand music stores around here, you are hard pressed to find one that sells a decent uke.
The selection is extremely limited and what is available are production ukes by companies that should not be producing ukes.

The internet is really my only option...unless I am in Hawaii or CA.
I bought my Pineapple Sunday direct from KoAloha (of course I had it customized).
For custom made ukes you are basically at the mercy of the luthier and if you have for example your name inlayed into any part of it...whether or not you like the uke...you bought it.

For ebay sales, you're basically going off of their descriptions and pictures...but it is important to know what questions you want to ask the seller before purchasing.

I have been trawling ebay for ukes for years now. I learned who was reputable just by the volume of sales they make..like MGM.

If I wasn't sure if the uke I was looking at was a good model or not, I would check out UU, UG and EZF for feedback. Even UF on YouTube has great sound files and descriptions.

Coming into the uke world "green" I had to rely on others expertise to guide me through.

That doesn't rule out the fact that there are some sleezeballs out there who just want to turn a quick buck.
It sucks you had to deal with that.

One of my main questions is "Will the uke I get be the exact model that is in the photos."
I know it's a day short and a dollar too late.

I just hope that something i said helps you or anyone else in the future.

Ahnko Honu said:

WOW, so sorry to hear about your bad experience with MELE. In several dealings with the company I have had over the past 10 or more years I have had nothing but great customer service from them, and I'm ecstatic about my Koa Concert pineapple ukulele I got from them recently online. Charlene has always shown aloha to me and all my friends who have dealt with MELE. Also sorry to hear about your Pono experiance the first negative I have heard about Ko'olau too they having a solid gold reputation with all I know who have bought their products. You are correct though, buying sight unseen on the internet is a gamble. I recently purchased a ukulele music CD from a seller who had a 98% rating which is low for ebay. He was the only seller who had this CD. A month later and no CD no verification it was ever sent, and seller's being a total anal orifice refusing refund nor sending a CD. I would suggest buying from reputable sellers but both Ko'olau and Mele are reputable so don't know what to say except recommend future purchases from MGM MusicGuyMic.

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I do appreciate your input; however, I have seen quite a few postings about the quality of Pono's being sometime questionable. All people have to do is read the forums to see that for themselves. Maybe if you are in Hawaii and are dealing with these folks face to face your experiences are different.

As far as Mele et.al. goes; we actually filed a criminal complaint against them. That is something they did to themselves. "Reputable sellers" do not bait and switch their product sir, that is a criminal act.

Yes, ebay, and the internet in general has become a haven for disreputable dealers, so unless dealing with someone like MGM (whom I would buy a high end ukulele from with no problem) and whose reputations is established worldwide, I never spend over 50 dollars online anymore. From what I understand by talking to businessmen and women here, that is becoming a standard now because of the unscrupulous behavior of the sellers.

Productions ukuleles are apparently risky to buy. One of the reasons for this thread is to get some of the others input about bad experiences they have had trying to get a good production uke sent to the mainland, and to warn them about what CAN and DOES happen to those who are not part of a ukulele clique, or get preferential treatment from dealers, like ukulele professionals or moderators of a forum may get.

I am not in the business of, nor do I benefit in any way from, damaging good peoples reputation, I am only stating facts.

And thanks again for allowing this discourse in UU. I appreciate and respect all opinions on this thread.

What is Mele's ebay name? melemaui? I thought they ship from Hawaii. If someone from Japan was selling them, how is that Mele's fault? They don't even have a Japanese dealer on their dealer's list. http://www.meleukulele.com/shopcontent.asp?type=dealers

EDIT: I found their Japan distributor. See Post #31.

I saw this ebay seller based in Japan selling new Mele ukuleles for less than MeleMaui the official ebay seller including a nice Koa soprano pineapple on ebay for I believe $219.00 which is a steal for any solid koa ukulele BUT this seller had ZERO feedback at the time so seemed a tad suspicious so didn't post the deal here. Is this the guy you bought from? http://instruments.shop.ebay.com/it...0176QQ_ssnZxaphmanQQ_trksidZp3911Q2ec0Q2em282
If he is the seller you dealt with I don't see any affiliation with Mele of Maui. Also when did your transaction take place? Had to be over 6 months ago since it's been at least this long since ebay's new policy not allowing sellers to give negative feedback to buyers went into effect. We need more details. Mele has a great rep, just want to make sure you're talking about the correct seller.

I bought my Mele off eBay through http://stores.shop.ebay.com/melemaui__W0QQ_armrsZ1

I had no problems and they even sent it to me at Disney World.

Sorry to hear about your bad experience.

deach said:

I bought my Mele off eBay through http://stores.shop.ebay.com/melemaui__W0QQ_armrsZ1

I had no problems and they even sent it to me at Disney World.

Sorry to hear about your bad experience.

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do you mean you were so impatient that you had it shipped to you while you were on holiday? that's SEVERE UAS!

ukeshale said:

do you mean you were so impatient that you had it shipped to you while you were on holiday? that's SEVERE UAS!

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Yes, Exactly. Even though there was hurricane, they were able to get the uke to me in 2 days.

deach said:

Yes, Exactly. Even though there was hurricane, they were able to get the uke to me in 2 days.

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that's good service and heavy addiction all rolled into one

ukeshale said:

that's good service and heavy addiction all rolled into one

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Extremely good service which they are known for. :shaka:

deach said:

Yes, Exactly. Even though there was hurricane, they were able to get the uke to me in 2 days.

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Did the tremors subside for a little while after you received it? How fast do your UAS tremors return after a uke purchase?

Mine's like....a day.

If you bought it from a Japanese reseller, not directly from Mele, then it's not Mele's fault. D: I don't even see an official dealer in Japan listen on Mele's own website. I'm sorry to hear you had a bad experience, but you should take it up with the eBay seller.

Sorry to hear about the negative experiences. As a mainlander (I'm in PA), I'm right there with everyone else regarding no selection of ukuleles in music shops.

I've purchased a KoAloha and Ko'olau from MGM on eBay, and I can't recommend him highly enough. Tons of pictures of the instrument I was purchasing; no question about what I was getting.

This is turning out to be a shamless MGM "love" post, but there's a reason for that.

-John

I hope I'm not straying too far off topic here, but is there any difference between buying a Mele through their official eBay store and buying one directly from the manufacturer's website?

So...if you bought your Mele from anybody on ebay OTHER than melemaui, you owe Mele ukuleles a huge retraction and apology - their ukes are built in the Philippines and sent to Hawaii for final setup - there is no reason they would then be sent to Japan for shipping. Melemaui is the seller on ebay - none other. Anybody else is a retailer, and whatever they're doing is not Mele's responsibility. Who knows - could even have been counterfeits you were receiving.

If there is a criminal proceeding filed against Mele, you should probably be quiet and let it follow its course in the courts.

Otherwise, you are slandering Mele's VERY GOOD name in a forum that represents a pretty good customer base for them.

(Don't own a Mele...probably won't own one for no other reason than they just don't float my boat. But I really get my hackles up when I see someone throwing one-sided accusations around and suggesting that a company that has nothing but the best of reputations among their customers may be involved in criminal behavior at the expense of those same customers.)

bbycrts said:

So...if you bought your Mele from anybody on ebay OTHER than melemaui, you owe Mele ukuleles a huge retraction and apology - their ukes are built in the Philippines and sent to Hawaii for final setup - there is no reason they would then be sent to Japan for shipping. Melemaui is the seller on ebay - none other. Anybody else is a retailer, and whatever they're doing is not Mele's responsibility. Who knows - could even have been counterfeits you were receiving.

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The fact that Meles are made in an Asian country means that there is a huge possibility that there are "seconds" made, generally blemished or not up to QA standards of that brand(but sometimes just extras by the factory workers or even overruns). These seconds may get taken by factory workers and resold. So these are basically black market goods. If it seems cheap, there's a reason. Ebay is a great place for finding black market goods, whether you wanted to or not, so buyer beware.

Spooner said:

I live in NYC and let me just say that even though there are a thousand music stores around here, you are hard pressed to find one that sells a decent uke.
The selection is extremely limited and what is available are production ukes by companies that should not be producing ukes.

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i just bought a mainland at eastvillage music, they had a great selection. pono's, kalas, mainlands, koaloau, and like some savanah beginner. the guy there is really nice and is always looking for suggestions on new ukes to order. i suggest stopping by. also, since it is a small local store, the guy is very negotiable about pricing

As an example according to Tangi of Tangi ukuleles he has not imported a Vietnam made ukulele in 8 years returning production to Hawaii due to quality issues but from what I gather you can still buy Tangi branded ukuleles in Vietnam for the fraction of the price of a Hawaiian made Tangi the luthiers there still making them for local sale years after Tangi canceled the contract.
I get the feeling these Japan sold Meles are not authorized by Mele, and definitely not set up on Maui by their luthier for final approval. Cheryl has always bent over backwards to please their customers so something doesn't sound kosher.

Sorry the OP had a bad experience but I wanted to chime in. I bought a mahogany soprano pineapple a few months ago from melemaui and had a great experience with them. They responded quickly, shipped right away and arrived in perfect condition (it was well packed).

I really love my Mele. It has an awesome sound, I like the flat neck shape, and was the best solid wood uke I found for under 200. Out of my 3 (cheap) ukuleles it has the best sound and playability for me.