Re: Caveat on Stranos

[Eddi Jew <jew@rysa.dtc.hp.com>]

 > I bought a wheel bearing from them that turned out to be the
 > wrong part.  I am still waiting to receive a credit from them,
 > she claims it will be done this weekend.  I hear I'm not the only
 > one who has had to wait a long time for a credit.
 > I'm still checking into her claim that Bosch bought Mann...

How's the status on your refund? I'd placed an order back in March 22nd,
was told I'd received it all by the 24th, then was told it couldn't be done.
Instead, an alternate supplier could get third-party goods (Brembro, etc.)
at a lower total price, to receive by 29th. Not bad- $40 off and do it
next weekend. But as it turned out, I'd still be waiting for all my parts to 
come in. 

I'd given her all the benefit of the doubt, but she'd accused her 
suppliers of delaying the "drop" shipments (and put some blame on UPS, 
also). My partial shipment of rotors, pads, CV joints/boots, etc. 
(supposedly) went from Ohio to Southern CA (I'm in San Jose), then 
vectored off to Pennsylvania somewhere, went back to Ohio, finally 
delivered next-day to me- April 7th.

On March 28rd, Arlyn said she shipped the bolts (for inner CV joints)
three-day UPS. Follow-up calls result in a lot of "it should be there 
tomorrow" or "let me track it down and call you right back" until, on 
my April 12th call, she promised to ship them (again?) using next-day. 
When she failed that (couldn't find anybody that stocked it!?), she'd 
offered to credit me if I buy the 12 bolts locally. I checked prices 
(Carlsen) and she groaned at the $14.67. I would have to mail them the
receipt first.

I'm wondering if I should try the buy-local/credit method, or just get
Strano's to (re-re)ship it. Trying to figure out which is the lesser
of two weasels (I like animals, so I'm talking 'bout the human trait).
I'm not looking forward to collecting my core credit on the idle 
stabilizer.

It's not so much that I had to replan my weekends. I'm upset mostly from:

   The delivery expectations (delivery being one of the major metrics 
   of a deal)

   Arlyn not doing post-sales support and plain not returning my phone 
   calls:
      once she had my money.
      because she's so busy (with prospective customers).

   Arlyn not delivering on promises and contradicting herself. Would not
   like to use the "lie" word here 'cause I can't/didn't verify the 
   supplier's shipping fiasco (which is ultimately Stranos's 
   responsibility).

I'm aware that others had bad experiences with European Traffic (aka, 
Mid-Atlantic), but I have to make this comparision- the one time I
bought from Mid-Atlantic, I had better service and delivery than I got
from this (my first) transaction at Stranos. Have not done credit 
returns (yet), so I'm not comparing that. With the exception of the
transaction I had with Computer Express, this has been my worst 
experience as far as run-around/service/delay.

Gotta get me one of those credit cards that I can do stop-payments on.

 > | Dan |
 > -- 
 > Dan Simoes			          dans@ans.net
 > ANS CO+RE Systems, Inc.		         (914) 789-5378
 > 100 Clearbrook Road  			Elmsford, NY 10523