My Guardala Story 2007
the anatomy of a SCAM
My Guardala SCAM
This all started with an email from Dave Guardala, an icon in the saxophone world for making sax mouthpieces and later saxophones and reeds. Mr. Guardala emailed me on 7/28/06, asking me to call him in Germany and I talked to him by phone.
Dave Guardala had been missing since 9/11 and no one knew his whereabouts. He told me he had left New York and the music business, never to return, but now had a musical situation he was being forced to deal with.
He explained that a friend of the family, from his new wife’s side, had some vintage saxophones they needed to sell immediately. (Please note that everything I know about this sax purchase came from Dave’s lips and now, none of it can be viewed as truth, but this is what Dave Guardala told me.)
He told me they had a Selmer 10G clarinet, Buffet R13 Clarinet, Buffet Bass Clarinet, Selmer Mark VI tenor sax, Selmer balanced action tenor sax, Selmer Mark VI alto sax, assorted classic mouthpieces and classic vinyl jazz records that where found in the dead grandfathers room. This man was said to have passed away years earlier but they never went thru his stuff and left the room untouched until now.
Mr. Guardala said they where moving back to Greece and needed to get money quickly, had gone to the local pawn shop and were offered little for the instruments so his wife had asked if he would get involved to help them out. (Yes, Dave said he was now married and had a little girl to take care of now too.) He emailed me to see if I might be interested, if I could move in the next 24 hours, to help out this family and get them far more money than they could locally, while getting an amazing deal on the old saxes for myself. A win win situation if I could get the money there before they returned to the pawn shop.
I raised the needed funds – and have Western Union receipts for 6255.00 sent 7.29.06.
I spent the night researching Guardala for anything that might tell me this was a scam and all I came up with was stories of the mess he left when he disappeared. It appeared that Guardala’s story was very real.
Because Mr. Guardala was not the seller, but the middleman, the money was sent to the Greek guy selling the instruments – Athanassios Stamos. The address given was Offenbacher Landstr #460, Frankfurt, Germany 60599.
Issues with packaging lead to delays for the right cardboard and then a box maker to make boxes to safely ship the saxes. As a ship date became possible, while packing up the Greek guys house, they found more musical stuff and Mr. Guardala called with part 2 of the deal on 8/18/06.
I was told they found more vintage instruments – King Gold Plated Saxello satin finish, Conn Conn-o-sax Silver Plate, Selmer Jimmie Dorsey Alto Sax Gold Plate and a Selmer Mark VI Sopranino Sax, along with more records, big band charts, more old classicmouthpieces and accessories making this a serious find. Guardala said, if we held the stuff ready to ship and worked the new stuff into the shipment, the shipping cost would be little more and I would be getting an early Christmas this year.
I sent an additional 4175.00, Western Union, on 8/19/06 with the promise of another thousand upon receipt of the saxes and musical goods. The money was sent to Mr. Stamos again as directed by Mr. Guardala.
My only form of contact with Guardala became him calling my cell phone because I could not get thru when I called. I could leave a message but that was it. He said he could not get thru to my home #, and had emailed me with no luck so it started being a game to answer the cell whenever he might call.
My main record of this event is on my Cell phone bills since most of Mr. Guardala’s calls did show with the number and call details, although some did not. Of course, all my calls to him are in the phone records, home and cell.
On 10/12/06 we hit another problem. The shipping company wanted Customs paid coming into the US before accepting the saxes to ship. I knew I would have to pay Customs on the saxes and sent Mr. Guardala another Western Union Wire for 3110.00 on 10/13/06 for shipping undercharges when we first guessed what it would cost to ship and for US Customs.
The additional boxes and packing was finished and now we where waiting for an open flight with enough space for 2 pallets, 78 inches high. The next month of stories had to do with the cheap shipping cost to save me money, but needing available space to fit on a plane, so we waited for a cheap flight with space.
In November, the Stamos family was long gone back to Greece and we hit the big snag. German Customs would not allow the shipment because Mr. Guardala was not licensed to export and this was too big a shipment with 10 instruments, over a thousand records, mouthpieces, music and all, to be classified as a personal purchase. There was also an issue over ownership of the goods since Mr. Guardala had signed the papers stating he was in possession of the goods and was the shipping agent.
At this point Mr. Guardala instructed me as to wording to deal with this German Customs guy, since he knew them and I did not, and had me FAX him a letter to use in trying to push the shipment thru Customs. That’s when I got a FAX # - 011-49-69-2710-3611.
As it worked out, German Customs required Mr. Guardala to pay sales tax before allowing him to ship. 10,000.00 US was the listed sale price for the goods, at German Tax rates was almost 4000.00 – Mr. Guardala told me I needed to cover the tax, he could not, or the German government would simply confiscate the goods to apply to the tax and the goods would be gone.
Mr. Guardala said once the tax was paid, they would ship that week. With months invested and so much to loose, I sent Western Union Wire for an additional 4175.00 on 12/5/06. The addressee for the 4th payment was different because the Stamos Family was now out of the picture. This payment was sent to Elzbieta Ambroziewicz, said to be an aunt of the family. Address 22475 Vons, Fuellerstr 75, Frankfurt, Germany 60431.
Shipping issues hit the holidays and then the Denver Airport was closed week after week when it was scheduled for those flights.
On 1/8/06 I found the first signs of fraud. I was searching the Sax On The Web forum for Dave Guardala and found a thread called Guardala Business, posted 12/6/06, that asked if anyone had “business dealings with Dave Guardala in recent months, We should discuss some vital information.”
I emailed the poster private and got the following response on 1/9/07 –
“Hello Greg,
Yes, Dave's received considerable amounts of money for vintage saxes & mouthpieces, nothing has been delivered. I know of a few others as well. Let me know if you've heard anything...
zachary”
Since this was a 1 thread, 1 time poster with no public information, I did not contact them back, but became very concerned that something might be very wrong here.
Mr. Guardala continued to call, needing to talk to me about shipping and updates. I was never able to get a shipping company, any tracking, copies of the Customs Declaration, invoice, or anything other than the need to trust him to take care of this; he knew what he was doing, had shipped thousands of saxophones in his life and I was going to be the proud owner of some very cool vintage saxes!
I did trust him. He was a sax player’s hero and I was a sax player. He had shipped 80,000 parcels when in business and knew what he was doing. He made the best mouthpieces ever made; I had 2 of them and believe that to be true.
The next time I heard from Mr. Guardala the shipment was leaving late that night for the US. I didn’t get shipping information because he was unsure of the destination airport, but would call once he had confirmation of the goods landing and give me delivery details at that time. Then Guardala called and said everything had made it to the US Monday, January 15th, but landed in Texas. Then they had problems booking the pallets to LA so it was put on a truck and being driven out. I was told I would have everything by the 17th of January.
At the music convention in LA, NAMM, a little research uncovered many sad facts. It appears that Dave Guardala had sold the rights to use his name in manufacturing mouthpieces to many different people at 15 Grand a piece. Legal battles over the rights are said to be in court or heading to court soon. The rumors at NAMM where very bad about Guardala and all indicators are pointing to scam and fraud at this point.
The last call I had from Dave Guardala was 1/22/07. The call surprised me because I was sure he was scamming me and never calling again. Mr. Guardala said he was awaiting pick up instructions from the shipping company in Germany and would call in the next few days. I was woke from a sound sleep and just wrote down what he said without much question, and just glad it still looked like it could happen. Of course, afterward, I had a million questions and things I wish I had pushed.
I waited thru that week and began emailing, calling and faxing again. This time delivery confirmation on the emails said he was not reading them. The phone messages went nowhere and the FAX got no response.
Over the course of time things started feeling wrong so I started recording messages and have a few messages from Mr. Guardala from my cell phone and copies of my correspondence via fax saved.
When this was all said and done, I paid out $17,715.00 in Western Union Wire Transfers. Nothing was ever delivered and I have heard nothing from Mr. Guardala for 15 days
These are the facts as of - Feb 5, 2007.
I had the police come out to file a report and was told they could not. They called it a business dispute and that I needed to file civil court papers to sue Mr. Guardala. I don’t think Mr. Guardala will be in the US again anytime soon with the growing legal issues that are forming around his old business practices and name use.
At this point, I expect to see nothing and just hope to file charges to add to the others filed against him, in hopes that he might get caught and stopped from burning more good people from the music community. Guardala is not a good man and should be behind bars.
UPDATE: February 11, 2007
Since going public on Google Groups and Sax On The Web I have had many emails and a few calls received. A Sax Players best friend emailed me to say his friend was hit by the same scam and was just trying to lick his wounds and move on from the disaster. Shame was sited as a major issue to coming forward, which I do understand. A Sax Player in Ohio emailed with a similar scam but very different details. The guy in Finland that set me off to this has emailed a few times and he says there are others that he knows of also.
Related scams include a business deal gone bad for that new line of saxes that some where talking about some 2 ½ years ago. These guys supposedly lost 50-70 grand a piece according to one source.
Once this is said and done, I believe we will see business partners, more mouthpiece makers and a couple of dozen sax players in a long list of fraud cases executed by Dave Guardala.
Now before you-all get up in arms about Rumors and no Facts. It is true that accusations have been made regarding others and I do not yet have all available facts or authorization from parties involved to share names and further details. I hope that many will post there story on the BLOG – Guardala.net. I share first, my story, which I know to be true, and second, the feedback I am now receiving from others.
THE FACTS – I, Greg Vail, had a long and lame business deal with Dave Guardala end in a large financial loss. I have receipts, phone bills and expenses totaling nearly 20 thousand dollars from these transactions. I have no proof that the goods ever existed and have some documentation regarding the deal; phone records, Western Union receipts, my emails to Dave Guardala and very few from him, copies of all fax transmissions sent to Guardala, and the last few messages left on my Cell phone with Dave’s voice, saved to protools files.
Contact Details in this Transaction –
Dave Guardala’s Phone Number –
011-49-160-9222-5855
My Cell phone registered the following #’s when Dave called –
+49-69-2573-9704
+49-69-257-397
The number used to FAX Dave –
011-49-69-2710-3611
The email addresses I got from Dave Guardala -
dguardala@yahoo.com
DGMp1@aim.com
Dsg9727@aim.com
DGMp1@aol.com
Of course, now I wish everything had been done differently.
…Like never getting involved, finding more on Guardala online before I got pulled into this, or maybe the basic intelligence to follow basic business protocol, even when dealing with a legend. I wish I had taped actual calls between Dave and I, or been more hard nosed about getting a receipt from him or any hard copy documentation, or any number of a hundred other things.
I wish none of this were true, but it is. I pray for others that have been victimized and hope you too can look into the future with hope once more.
Greg Vail – 2.11.07
Although Dave Guardala seems to be working many different scams, the story I tell above is still a favorite. I have received emails and calls as recent as this week with Gaurdala Victims just finding out they have been ripped off. My heart goes out to these guys and gals. The shock that follows the roller coaster ride Guardala takes you on is amazing.
Guardala Victims
Scam Critics
How to protect from a Scam
Guardala Fraud BLOG has the most recent information I am authorized to post.
My Guardala Scam - Back to Home Page
Partner with me to get the word out about Dave Guardala. Email, post, write, link us, and tell people you would like to see in business next year, while you can save them the heart ache.
Email Greg Vail
More on Greg Vail - Greg Vail Home Page
Dave Guardala had been missing since 9/11 and no one knew his whereabouts. He told me he had left New York and the music business, never to return, but now had a musical situation he was being forced to deal with.
He explained that a friend of the family, from his new wife’s side, had some vintage saxophones they needed to sell immediately. (Please note that everything I know about this sax purchase came from Dave’s lips and now, none of it can be viewed as truth, but this is what Dave Guardala told me.)
He told me they had a Selmer 10G clarinet, Buffet R13 Clarinet, Buffet Bass Clarinet, Selmer Mark VI tenor sax, Selmer balanced action tenor sax, Selmer Mark VI alto sax, assorted classic mouthpieces and classic vinyl jazz records that where found in the dead grandfathers room. This man was said to have passed away years earlier but they never went thru his stuff and left the room untouched until now.
Mr. Guardala said they where moving back to Greece and needed to get money quickly, had gone to the local pawn shop and were offered little for the instruments so his wife had asked if he would get involved to help them out. (Yes, Dave said he was now married and had a little girl to take care of now too.) He emailed me to see if I might be interested, if I could move in the next 24 hours, to help out this family and get them far more money than they could locally, while getting an amazing deal on the old saxes for myself. A win win situation if I could get the money there before they returned to the pawn shop.
I raised the needed funds – and have Western Union receipts for 6255.00 sent 7.29.06.
I spent the night researching Guardala for anything that might tell me this was a scam and all I came up with was stories of the mess he left when he disappeared. It appeared that Guardala’s story was very real.
Because Mr. Guardala was not the seller, but the middleman, the money was sent to the Greek guy selling the instruments – Athanassios Stamos. The address given was Offenbacher Landstr #460, Frankfurt, Germany 60599.
Issues with packaging lead to delays for the right cardboard and then a box maker to make boxes to safely ship the saxes. As a ship date became possible, while packing up the Greek guys house, they found more musical stuff and Mr. Guardala called with part 2 of the deal on 8/18/06.
I was told they found more vintage instruments – King Gold Plated Saxello satin finish, Conn Conn-o-sax Silver Plate, Selmer Jimmie Dorsey Alto Sax Gold Plate and a Selmer Mark VI Sopranino Sax, along with more records, big band charts, more old classicmouthpieces and accessories making this a serious find. Guardala said, if we held the stuff ready to ship and worked the new stuff into the shipment, the shipping cost would be little more and I would be getting an early Christmas this year.
I sent an additional 4175.00, Western Union, on 8/19/06 with the promise of another thousand upon receipt of the saxes and musical goods. The money was sent to Mr. Stamos again as directed by Mr. Guardala.
My only form of contact with Guardala became him calling my cell phone because I could not get thru when I called. I could leave a message but that was it. He said he could not get thru to my home #, and had emailed me with no luck so it started being a game to answer the cell whenever he might call.
My main record of this event is on my Cell phone bills since most of Mr. Guardala’s calls did show with the number and call details, although some did not. Of course, all my calls to him are in the phone records, home and cell.
On 10/12/06 we hit another problem. The shipping company wanted Customs paid coming into the US before accepting the saxes to ship. I knew I would have to pay Customs on the saxes and sent Mr. Guardala another Western Union Wire for 3110.00 on 10/13/06 for shipping undercharges when we first guessed what it would cost to ship and for US Customs.
The additional boxes and packing was finished and now we where waiting for an open flight with enough space for 2 pallets, 78 inches high. The next month of stories had to do with the cheap shipping cost to save me money, but needing available space to fit on a plane, so we waited for a cheap flight with space.
In November, the Stamos family was long gone back to Greece and we hit the big snag. German Customs would not allow the shipment because Mr. Guardala was not licensed to export and this was too big a shipment with 10 instruments, over a thousand records, mouthpieces, music and all, to be classified as a personal purchase. There was also an issue over ownership of the goods since Mr. Guardala had signed the papers stating he was in possession of the goods and was the shipping agent.
At this point Mr. Guardala instructed me as to wording to deal with this German Customs guy, since he knew them and I did not, and had me FAX him a letter to use in trying to push the shipment thru Customs. That’s when I got a FAX # - 011-49-69-2710-3611.
As it worked out, German Customs required Mr. Guardala to pay sales tax before allowing him to ship. 10,000.00 US was the listed sale price for the goods, at German Tax rates was almost 4000.00 – Mr. Guardala told me I needed to cover the tax, he could not, or the German government would simply confiscate the goods to apply to the tax and the goods would be gone.
Mr. Guardala said once the tax was paid, they would ship that week. With months invested and so much to loose, I sent Western Union Wire for an additional 4175.00 on 12/5/06. The addressee for the 4th payment was different because the Stamos Family was now out of the picture. This payment was sent to Elzbieta Ambroziewicz, said to be an aunt of the family. Address 22475 Vons, Fuellerstr 75, Frankfurt, Germany 60431.
Shipping issues hit the holidays and then the Denver Airport was closed week after week when it was scheduled for those flights.
On 1/8/06 I found the first signs of fraud. I was searching the Sax On The Web forum for Dave Guardala and found a thread called Guardala Business, posted 12/6/06, that asked if anyone had “business dealings with Dave Guardala in recent months, We should discuss some vital information.”
I emailed the poster private and got the following response on 1/9/07 –
“Hello Greg,
Yes, Dave's received considerable amounts of money for vintage saxes & mouthpieces, nothing has been delivered. I know of a few others as well. Let me know if you've heard anything...
zachary”
Since this was a 1 thread, 1 time poster with no public information, I did not contact them back, but became very concerned that something might be very wrong here.
Mr. Guardala continued to call, needing to talk to me about shipping and updates. I was never able to get a shipping company, any tracking, copies of the Customs Declaration, invoice, or anything other than the need to trust him to take care of this; he knew what he was doing, had shipped thousands of saxophones in his life and I was going to be the proud owner of some very cool vintage saxes!
I did trust him. He was a sax player’s hero and I was a sax player. He had shipped 80,000 parcels when in business and knew what he was doing. He made the best mouthpieces ever made; I had 2 of them and believe that to be true.
The next time I heard from Mr. Guardala the shipment was leaving late that night for the US. I didn’t get shipping information because he was unsure of the destination airport, but would call once he had confirmation of the goods landing and give me delivery details at that time. Then Guardala called and said everything had made it to the US Monday, January 15th, but landed in Texas. Then they had problems booking the pallets to LA so it was put on a truck and being driven out. I was told I would have everything by the 17th of January.
At the music convention in LA, NAMM, a little research uncovered many sad facts. It appears that Dave Guardala had sold the rights to use his name in manufacturing mouthpieces to many different people at 15 Grand a piece. Legal battles over the rights are said to be in court or heading to court soon. The rumors at NAMM where very bad about Guardala and all indicators are pointing to scam and fraud at this point.
The last call I had from Dave Guardala was 1/22/07. The call surprised me because I was sure he was scamming me and never calling again. Mr. Guardala said he was awaiting pick up instructions from the shipping company in Germany and would call in the next few days. I was woke from a sound sleep and just wrote down what he said without much question, and just glad it still looked like it could happen. Of course, afterward, I had a million questions and things I wish I had pushed.
I waited thru that week and began emailing, calling and faxing again. This time delivery confirmation on the emails said he was not reading them. The phone messages went nowhere and the FAX got no response.
Over the course of time things started feeling wrong so I started recording messages and have a few messages from Mr. Guardala from my cell phone and copies of my correspondence via fax saved.
When this was all said and done, I paid out $17,715.00 in Western Union Wire Transfers. Nothing was ever delivered and I have heard nothing from Mr. Guardala for 15 days
These are the facts as of - Feb 5, 2007.
I had the police come out to file a report and was told they could not. They called it a business dispute and that I needed to file civil court papers to sue Mr. Guardala. I don’t think Mr. Guardala will be in the US again anytime soon with the growing legal issues that are forming around his old business practices and name use.
At this point, I expect to see nothing and just hope to file charges to add to the others filed against him, in hopes that he might get caught and stopped from burning more good people from the music community. Guardala is not a good man and should be behind bars.
UPDATE: February 11, 2007
Since going public on Google Groups and Sax On The Web I have had many emails and a few calls received. A Sax Players best friend emailed me to say his friend was hit by the same scam and was just trying to lick his wounds and move on from the disaster. Shame was sited as a major issue to coming forward, which I do understand. A Sax Player in Ohio emailed with a similar scam but very different details. The guy in Finland that set me off to this has emailed a few times and he says there are others that he knows of also.
Related scams include a business deal gone bad for that new line of saxes that some where talking about some 2 ½ years ago. These guys supposedly lost 50-70 grand a piece according to one source.
Once this is said and done, I believe we will see business partners, more mouthpiece makers and a couple of dozen sax players in a long list of fraud cases executed by Dave Guardala.
Now before you-all get up in arms about Rumors and no Facts. It is true that accusations have been made regarding others and I do not yet have all available facts or authorization from parties involved to share names and further details. I hope that many will post there story on the BLOG – Guardala.net. I share first, my story, which I know to be true, and second, the feedback I am now receiving from others.
THE FACTS – I, Greg Vail, had a long and lame business deal with Dave Guardala end in a large financial loss. I have receipts, phone bills and expenses totaling nearly 20 thousand dollars from these transactions. I have no proof that the goods ever existed and have some documentation regarding the deal; phone records, Western Union receipts, my emails to Dave Guardala and very few from him, copies of all fax transmissions sent to Guardala, and the last few messages left on my Cell phone with Dave’s voice, saved to protools files.
Contact Details in this Transaction –
Dave Guardala’s Phone Number –
011-49-160-9222-5855
My Cell phone registered the following #’s when Dave called –
+49-69-2573-9704
+49-69-257-397
The number used to FAX Dave –
011-49-69-2710-3611
The email addresses I got from Dave Guardala -
dguardala@yahoo.com
DGMp1@aim.com
Dsg9727@aim.com
DGMp1@aol.com
Of course, now I wish everything had been done differently.
…Like never getting involved, finding more on Guardala online before I got pulled into this, or maybe the basic intelligence to follow basic business protocol, even when dealing with a legend. I wish I had taped actual calls between Dave and I, or been more hard nosed about getting a receipt from him or any hard copy documentation, or any number of a hundred other things.
I wish none of this were true, but it is. I pray for others that have been victimized and hope you too can look into the future with hope once more.
Greg Vail – 2.11.07
UPDATE Guardala Scam 4.28.07
Although Dave Guardala seems to be working many different scams, the story I tell above is still a favorite. I have received emails and calls as recent as this week with Gaurdala Victims just finding out they have been ripped off. My heart goes out to these guys and gals. The shock that follows the roller coaster ride Guardala takes you on is amazing.
Guardala Victims
Scam Critics
How to protect from a Scam
Guardala Fraud BLOG has the most recent information I am authorized to post.
My Guardala Scam - Back to Home Page
Partner with me to get the word out about Dave Guardala. Email, post, write, link us, and tell people you would like to see in business next year, while you can save them the heart ache.
Email Greg Vail
More on Greg Vail - Greg Vail Home Page
