PerryB
07-14-2007, 01:25 AM
One of the things I've enjoyed most about the Turbo Buick community is the quality of the people I've met and dealt with. Sorry to say, here's a truly extraordinary exception. Trying to buy some decent interior door trim pieces for my car led me to Jay's GN Parts in PA. This guy lied through his teeth to sell me what turned out to be junk, then lied again when I called to request a refund. Then applied a 15% restocking charge on top of me already having to pay to ship his junk back to him so he could throw the parts back on the dirt pile he pulled them out of. We're not talking about much money here....but I can't recall a more blatant screwing in 25+ years of dealing with car guys remotely. A real shame....be careful out there.
Here are details:
Called Jay and explained what I'm looking for. Both rear trim pieces behind the door pull straps and the driver's side front. Three pieces total. He replied that he had these, but didn't offer any info on their condition...so I ask. Are they nice looking? Any scratches, chips, etc... The interior of my car is near new, so I want something that looks good.
Jay replies - Well, they are used, so there's a few scratches.
I ask - scratches on the chrome or in the gray inserts?
Jay replies - Chrome is good, a few scrathes on the insert pieces though.
I said that I thought I could paint these if I decided it was necessary and was happy to have found them after searching for some time.
A few days later, the parts show up and I am disgusted. All three pieces are extremely dirty, no way to tell what shape the chrome was in because it was barely visible. It get's worse. One piece has about 1.5" of the gray insert gone. Looks like someone had tried to pull it out, realized it wouldn't come out nicely and simply cut away the section that was lifted.
After some cleaning and polishing, I decide that I can live with the two complete pieces since they were reasonably priced ($30) and the square holes weren't busted like mine were....I'll use these for now and keep looking for something nicer.
I call Jay the next day and say that I was quite surprised to find that one of the pieces had a chunk of the insert gone, since we had spoken specifically about these pieces and whether I could paint them if they were too rough.
He says, Yeah, I knew that piece was missing when I packaged it, but the square hole isn't broken like a lot of them are. I am stunned. I ask - After the time we spent discussing, didn't you think that this was worth mentioning to me?
He's says - No. Everyone wants pieces without broken square holes and this one isn't broken so I decided not to mention the missing insert portion. I'm not beleiving what I'm hearing.
I finally realize that no amount of reasoning is going to do any good, so I simply stated that I wanted my money back.
Jay replies - Wait a minute, I have applique kits for $17 that you can repair these with. I'm still upset that I had been misled but now I'm quite happy to know that these applique kits are available....never heard of them anywhere before. I say - Well, that's great, I wish you had mentioned that when were on the phone a few days ago and I would have been tickled to have fresh new looking inserts.
I'm looking at the piece in my hand, and decide just to be sure that these wonderful inserts are correct, to ask whether the inserts have the embossed
border around them so that they look proper.
Jay says - Look at your console around the shifter and ashtray..."These inserts are just like that material...same color, texture, etc".
I say, Ok, Yes, but do they have the raised border around them?
Jay is cetain now that he has a real sucker on his hands and tries to explain again that his applique kit is similar to the console material.
I say directly this time - "Jay, you're not answering my question. I know all about the console kit, I have one already. Does your door trim applique kit have the raised border or not?"
Finally he says - The door trim applique and the console applique kits are the same material. Well, you may have to cut and fit pieces to make them work.
Now I finally see that he's been trying to sell me a console kit without calling it that! I'm about to lose my religion, and simply repeat that I expect a refund.
Jay says - Well fine, there's a 15% restocking charge. I am again stunned. Just can't beleive this.
I calmly (honestly) explain that a restocking charge is hardly appropriate considering what we've just been through, and I expect a full refund. Didn't ask about paying to ship it back to him - just figure I'm eating that cost to have learned a lesson.
He interupts me abruptly as he had done throughout the discussion and says - Go ahead and ship the piece back, I'll refund your money.
I say thank you.
Sent an e-mail the next day to let him know that the piece was shipped, and asked how my refund would be applied - charge card credit, check, what? I get no reply at all for a week. So I call back and ask. He says that my card has been credited.
I say thank you.
We're almost done. My sales receipt for the credit shows up and surprise, Jay has decided that he wants that $4.50 afterall. Wow.
Last detail...I go back to the garage tonight and see that upon closer inspection, one of the two "good" pieces actually DOES have a section of the chromed section of the square hole missing...the vertical section that touches the door panel is gone. It had cracked at the top and bottom and was cleanly removed. Hard to see at first and I honestly don;t know if Jay even knew about this.
In any case, it's the last straw for me and I decide to post the message here. I've never been treated so poorly, and have never used this or any forum to complain about anyone - period. Just couldn't let this one go.
I'd like to say more...but that's enough.
Here are details:
Called Jay and explained what I'm looking for. Both rear trim pieces behind the door pull straps and the driver's side front. Three pieces total. He replied that he had these, but didn't offer any info on their condition...so I ask. Are they nice looking? Any scratches, chips, etc... The interior of my car is near new, so I want something that looks good.
Jay replies - Well, they are used, so there's a few scratches.
I ask - scratches on the chrome or in the gray inserts?
Jay replies - Chrome is good, a few scrathes on the insert pieces though.
I said that I thought I could paint these if I decided it was necessary and was happy to have found them after searching for some time.
A few days later, the parts show up and I am disgusted. All three pieces are extremely dirty, no way to tell what shape the chrome was in because it was barely visible. It get's worse. One piece has about 1.5" of the gray insert gone. Looks like someone had tried to pull it out, realized it wouldn't come out nicely and simply cut away the section that was lifted.
After some cleaning and polishing, I decide that I can live with the two complete pieces since they were reasonably priced ($30) and the square holes weren't busted like mine were....I'll use these for now and keep looking for something nicer.
I call Jay the next day and say that I was quite surprised to find that one of the pieces had a chunk of the insert gone, since we had spoken specifically about these pieces and whether I could paint them if they were too rough.
He says, Yeah, I knew that piece was missing when I packaged it, but the square hole isn't broken like a lot of them are. I am stunned. I ask - After the time we spent discussing, didn't you think that this was worth mentioning to me?
He's says - No. Everyone wants pieces without broken square holes and this one isn't broken so I decided not to mention the missing insert portion. I'm not beleiving what I'm hearing.
I finally realize that no amount of reasoning is going to do any good, so I simply stated that I wanted my money back.
Jay replies - Wait a minute, I have applique kits for $17 that you can repair these with. I'm still upset that I had been misled but now I'm quite happy to know that these applique kits are available....never heard of them anywhere before. I say - Well, that's great, I wish you had mentioned that when were on the phone a few days ago and I would have been tickled to have fresh new looking inserts.
I'm looking at the piece in my hand, and decide just to be sure that these wonderful inserts are correct, to ask whether the inserts have the embossed
border around them so that they look proper.
Jay says - Look at your console around the shifter and ashtray..."These inserts are just like that material...same color, texture, etc".
I say, Ok, Yes, but do they have the raised border around them?
Jay is cetain now that he has a real sucker on his hands and tries to explain again that his applique kit is similar to the console material.
I say directly this time - "Jay, you're not answering my question. I know all about the console kit, I have one already. Does your door trim applique kit have the raised border or not?"
Finally he says - The door trim applique and the console applique kits are the same material. Well, you may have to cut and fit pieces to make them work.
Now I finally see that he's been trying to sell me a console kit without calling it that! I'm about to lose my religion, and simply repeat that I expect a refund.
Jay says - Well fine, there's a 15% restocking charge. I am again stunned. Just can't beleive this.
I calmly (honestly) explain that a restocking charge is hardly appropriate considering what we've just been through, and I expect a full refund. Didn't ask about paying to ship it back to him - just figure I'm eating that cost to have learned a lesson.
He interupts me abruptly as he had done throughout the discussion and says - Go ahead and ship the piece back, I'll refund your money.
I say thank you.
Sent an e-mail the next day to let him know that the piece was shipped, and asked how my refund would be applied - charge card credit, check, what? I get no reply at all for a week. So I call back and ask. He says that my card has been credited.
I say thank you.
We're almost done. My sales receipt for the credit shows up and surprise, Jay has decided that he wants that $4.50 afterall. Wow.
Last detail...I go back to the garage tonight and see that upon closer inspection, one of the two "good" pieces actually DOES have a section of the chromed section of the square hole missing...the vertical section that touches the door panel is gone. It had cracked at the top and bottom and was cleanly removed. Hard to see at first and I honestly don;t know if Jay even knew about this.
In any case, it's the last straw for me and I decide to post the message here. I've never been treated so poorly, and have never used this or any forum to complain about anyone - period. Just couldn't let this one go.
I'd like to say more...but that's enough.