Bearings and flame throwers, UPS rant (N.A.C.)

[Mike Arman]

>From: gjkscruggs at comcast.net
>Subject: bearing availability
>To: quattro at audifans.com
>
>If you look along the rim of every bearing you'll see a set of numbers.
>Take that number to any bearing supply house and you will be able to buy a
>direct replacement.  If they don't have it they can get it.
>
>While living in Daytona... late '70s... I took a number to a bearing house
>on beach side and came away with a front thrust needle bearing for a 0.4 cu
>in 25,000 rpm Italian model airplane engine.  The old boy behind the counter
>didn't even blink... but he did proceed to regale me with several newspaper
>clippings about how he helped develop the WWII flame thrower.
>
>I've not yet tried to buy bearings over the net but venture that can be
>done.
>
>Regards, Gross Scruggs


I met him too - the flame thrower story appears to be true - he's the guy.

Or was, anyway. I understand he died a few years ago, and the location is
now an ABC liquor store (ugh).

I've bought bearings over the net - once a tiny wrist pin bearing for a
20cc add-on bicycle motor. UPS drove the truck over it en route, so the
vendor sent a replacement free rather than fool around with the endless
claim paperwork.

Lately, the initials "UPS" seem to really mean "Use The Postal Service".
While the drivers, the guys and gals who actually deliver the goods, are a
pleasure to deal with, polite, helpful, competent, if you ever feel the
need to get a REAL dose of attitude, try calling the UPS service center for
a parcel pickup or, perish the thought, to try to resolve a problem. Their
phone people used to be East German border guards - they are invariably and
relentlessly hostile and unhelpful. Their accounting department used to
manage Enron - do you know it costs $10 a week just to be listed as a
shipper on their computer, even if you ship nothing for a whole year?
That's $520 a year you have paid just to be a customer. (Maybe I should try
that!) Of course, that cost gets passed on to the consumer, invisibly, so
no one complains . . .

They also have a price increase EVERY year, without fail, which increase
they justify as a cost of business adjustment (a self-fulfilling prophecy),
and they have changed the definition of a "residential delivery" (for which
they charge more) to cover just about any business that is smaller than GM
or Microsoft. I think their corporate strategists are the same people who
write credit card agreements, where it LOOKS like a good deal, but if your
payment arrives on an odd numbered day instead of an even numbered day,
your interest rate automatically quintuples.

Recently, a UPS sales droid called me to tell me what a good deal they were
and that I should be shipping ALL my products through UPS. It was a great
pleasure to inform her that UPS did not add sufficient value to my business
to be worth putting up with the hassles of dealing with them (which I
related in excruciating detail, from personal experience). What was even
better was that I think she understood what I was saying! They have not
called me back.

I hate to be a curmudgeon, but I also hate getting screwed, and UPS tries
to do it to me and to us at every opportunity.

Best Regards,

Mike Arman