This entry was posted on 2/23/2007 11:32 PM and is filed under Guardala SCAM.
Dave Guardala Fraud 2007
This story brings such heartache with it. The following post on SOTW comes from
another good person, real person, sax player, fellow musician, hurt by recent
Dave Guardala fraud. His reaction in much of this post is directed to some of
the previous forum posters that either doubt these claims, or take them very
lightly.
Saxboy is telling the truth. I have been personally scammed by Dave Guardala
and I know several others who will not come forward. Most scam victims keep
their story a secret out of shame. That's a fact. You guys who are being glib
and funny about are not helping. Just imagine what losing a year's income is
like. Haha.
Dave has always been willing to stretch the truth but this latest behavior is
downright evil. Does anyone know how to find him? Are there any members here
who live in Frankfurt? He needs to be stopped.
If anyone here doubts me or saxboy, contact the initial poster Zachary. He's a
good guy and a professional retailer in Finland.
His company worked in good faith with Dave and got nothing. He will tell you.
Dave is not to be trusted.
In the past, I have gotten my best horns and mouthpieces from Dave. Dave and I
used to talk several time a week. Dave has even called me when he needed some
help. This is not the person we are dealing with now. He is using his good
reputation and good relationships of the past to scam several honest and
trusting guys out of tens of thousands each.
For those of you who find this just too weird to believe check out these fact:
Zachary has filed a police report in Germany,
the details of his scam and saxboy's and tonehole's are very similar, and Dave
Guardala has been out of the scene for almost 10 years.
Dave is a very talented and sensitive guy. He may be a liar but he has also
gone through some serious sh*t with his business life and his personal life.
Was this enough to make him go over to the dark side? Dave, if you're out there
and reading this: Most guys still think very well of you regardless. Don't
wreck your name! Do the right thing and come clean.
Finally, this is serious and dark stuff. Think before you post with some little
joke. It hurts. The victims will need years to recover financially and more
years to recover from being deceived by someone they thought was their friend.
Let's keep this a good and healthy community of sax players.
< -- END PASTE -->
Guardala Update 2007
My response to Crescent's post follows
< -- START PASTE -->
Crescent - thanks for speaking up bro...
Crescent is most
likely one of our regulars that wanted to be able to come into this discussion,
but felt he could not. It's probably a new user name for the person so they
could feel safe to get involved without attack or condemnation.
It's so sad that there are many sax players out there that are watching these
discussions, yet, due to the nature of the web and personalities some can
project, will not come forward. Think about it - It is being honest about a
mistake, and a painful one.
You guys asking for more proof. Look at this post! It is for real. I don’t know
which guy this is, but would guess I have been contacted in private by him
since many have emailed over the past month.
If we can go for a class action suit, or sue individually, or just raise awareness;
it is important to warn others of real danger.
Crescent is right about the amount of loss and the reality of trying to recover
this kind of loss. It will take years to get back to a "SUCKS"
status. I see 20,000 dollars as 200 extra gigs, extra, above the normal work to
survive and pay rent and all - extra gigs I have to somehow find - and this in
the middle of a lame marketplace, with club rates at the same pay for 20 years
now and little work with way too many bands, record deals gone and any artist
related activities being 100% out of pocket with little hope to recoup the
expenses. Pretty lame picture to come up with 200 extra gigs in to get caught
up and back to 'normal' (or sucks).
Thanks Crescent for adding a different view and sharing. I understand the
reality and frustration, very first hand. Just don't be too hard on these guys
for the funny stuff - they don't mean any harm and just don't know what else to
say.
Guys - a little kindness to Crescent please. Also - the silly stuff can go
'left', and is why threads like this end up pulled, leaving me and others to
get trapped again with the next group of victims because scam and fraud claims
are not to be found. Just a thought...
SAXBOY
< -- END PASTE -->
More Guardala Victims
Forum exchange like this is so double sided for me. On one hand, I appreciate
having someone come to my aid, confirming that I am not a liar, that this is
the truth and that people should be less silly when dealing with emotional and financial loss of this magnitude.
Yet, on the other side; I hate seeing and feeling the frustration and pain of
yet another human being that has been victimized by, a once respected friend.
It is truly sad.
I applaud Crescent for taking the time to post!! I hope he will find the time
to send me his or her story so we can get it up for all to see.
This is just another thought, but -- Stopping Guardala is very important to me.
Once Dave can not use his name in scamming people, what's to say he won't find
another way to extort and defraud the saxophone community? Even if you don't
get an email or call from Guardala, we all need to be aware of how a scam works
and how people fall victim to these things.
The more stories we can get online, the more similarities we can see between
them and learn what kinds of business are always bad business. Most of what I
have learned this month was nothing new to me. It just didn't seem to figure in, since this
was Dave Guardala, a trusted Saxophone hero to me. I now know I will never send
money to a third party, ever again, period. A Friend will not ask you to do
something that would be wrong, under any other circumstance. IF it is wrong, it is always wrong.
Doesn't matter who I am dealing with. I will never do business with someone I
can't communicate with again. Language barrier - so what. Needs to happen this
way - not.
I say this all by example - to attempt to make a point.
Learn from this event and these accounts. Do not allow similar things to go
unchecked and help friends when they have questions about side door business
deals too. Lets stop for a minute, learn from this and make it harder for the
low life of this world to survive from easy money - stolen from hard working
people.
