Fwd: Is it me or the dealer?

[Sandy Duffy <sandyduffy@home.com>]

You wrote:
>Ok, I need a little reality check here, is it me or this "family
owned,
>customer service" dealer?
>
>I purchased a 94 100S wagon from Fathers & Sons (West
Springfield, MA)
>last December via the net. I live in NC and was ticketed by a cop in
GA
>for having a liscense plate frame covering up the state name.  I
called them to see
>what they could do about this.
>
>I faxed the ticket to them with an explaination of what happened and
got
>the answer, "We never heard of that happening, I'll talk to my
owner." 
>Well, following up it seems that as a result of this, they will
no
>longer put the frame on out of state sales and "it really is the
owners
>responsibility to know state laws concerning these matters". 
BTW, we are only talking $25.00
>since the judge reduced it from the origional $65.00 fee
(ouch!).
>
>So, should this owner of Fathers & Sons in West Springfield, MA
get a
>letter from me advising them that the $25.00 would be nice, but
more
>importantly they have more serious customer service issues and word
via
>the internet gets around quickly?!
>
>The irony is I am about to sell that wagon and really am in the
market
>for a 100CSQW, but won't be looking to do business with them! 
>Appreciate anybody's thoughts.

Scott:

I live in CT and have had many dealings with most of the area dealers.
(Springfield MA is in my area)  I must tell you that Fathers &
Sons is one of the "good guys"  They have customer service
and attention to detail that goes way over most of the other
dealers.  They are something of a breath of fresh air in
dealer/customer relations. They are also addressing the problem for
future customers by not installing the offending frame on new
out-of-state/Internet sales.  
Clearly this has never happened to them before  "We never
heard of that happening, I'll talk to my owner." .  They,
like many dealers, are probably fairly new at this Internet
business.  They gave you a car that according to the Massachusetts
state motor vehicle law was properly registered.  They could not
possibly know the laws of the state of Georgia (where you received your
citation) or even the laws of North Carolina where, presumably, it is
legally registered.  I don't know if you had to pass an inspection
in NC to register your car there, but if you did, I would assume they
might have as least pointed the problem out to you or failed your car
until the problem was corrected.  I also assume that the other
states through which you passed found no flagrant violation of their
licensing statues.  (You drove the car from Mass "through
six states to North Carolina when I purchased it, with the potential of
this situation happening in anyone of those states").  I
also assume you did so a fair amount of driving in NC with no problems
encountered by your local authorities.  It is unfortunate that an
over zealous cop probably saw a northern license plate frame and decided
you were the biggest crime he'd seen in the last 5 years.  I think
that a letter to Fathers & Sons might yield the $25.00 maybe but to
accuse them of poor customer service is a little over the top.

HTH

Sandy

I have no affiliation with the above dealer other than being a happy
customer.