ATTN: warning about Stillen / Steve Millen Sportparts

If you paid for it with a credit card I would call the credit card company and explain that the product was defective and let the credit card company sort it out with Stillen. You may end up having to pay for it but I would give it a go if it were me.

Puffer

Sorry about your luck dude

This just goes to show,

If it ain't broke,Don't fix it

Unfortunately this is all too typical these days. Companies don't care about their customer, you're just one among thousands. He should have compromised. You pay to ship the part back, if it's defective then he picks up shipping in both directions.

Why don't you hunt down the address of the CEO or maybe mangle an email address for him. Perhaps a few hundred emails from people out here will help. You may also want to post this to

once you have someplace for people to email. We can all attach your letter and make our opinions known.

Bob "mad as hell and not gonna take it anymore"

In case you've never heard, there is a reason they call Stillen = $tealin.

CW

Well, if your experience with Stillen is true, I know *I* won't be buying anything from them...with that indifferent attitude, they don't need MY business, either. Or my friends' business.

I don't know why so many business are so damn stupid and short-sighted...your posts in Usenet will cost them MANY TIMES MORE than they would have spent helping you out, especially if they shipped you a defective part in the first place.

Negative advertising is the LAST thing any smart business would want, but lots of them have to learn the hard way...if they ever do.

John D.

As the poster above suggests, call up your credit card company, tell them the goods are defective and you don't want them. They will almost certainly reclaim your payment back from Stillen and then Stillen will have to fight your credit card company for the money.

In 99% of cases like this the credit card company sides with YOU, their customer, and you end up getting your money back. I know, I have a business which accepts payments by credit card, and that is the way the system works, in you the customer's favor.

If Stillen wants the muffler back, don't send it unless they send you shipping money first.

Al Moodie.

Two other things to think of:

Assuming everything you've said is spot-on accurate, you should 1) contact the Better Business Bureau in your community, and 2) if one of your local TV stations has a consumer affairs reporter, phone them up and tell them your story. This is the sort of thing some reporters live for--chasing the owner of the place with a camera and microphone saying "Why won't you refund this gentleman's money?"

John

UPS ground $24.84 seems to be what they charge for shipping to an address near me... To be honest I have not weighed in an exhaust. I looked up part number SKU# 508200.

I assume they wanted you to pay for shipping both ways with their handling fees. That seems a touch bongus IMHO. I'm not clear on california law on the subject, but it seems most troubling that they wouldn't permit you to ship them your exhaust on your own expence.

Why not share the sku number of what you are talking about, this way a person like my self can make an informed judgement about shopping with them. If they wanted to charge you $50.00 each way for example on something that they normally charge $100.00... I'd say they were being foofoo heads. For $50.00 I can easily ship a 75pound package to their california office via UPS, 50 pounds would be about 1/2 that.

Off hand it sounds like to me that they are trying to cover their expences for defective goods by charging outlandish shipping and handing charges. To be honest, I don't know of any other company that does it that way.

I just picked up a base model Nissan Sentra 1998 and appricate when people share their experences as I do plan to invest money in some little odds and ends. Likely not from this company.

'nuther Bob ( snipped-for-privacy@noplacereally.com) wrote on Wednesday 30 July 2003 08:12 pm:

Likewise, I purchased a rebuilt engine from PowerPro. They paid for shipping to my door. The first engine was bad, so they sent me another

-and- paid me for my labor (not the best rate, but better than nothing). I then mis-diagnosed a problem, and thought it was the engine again. They sent me another, but did not pay me for labor (as the engine was not defective). But at no time did I pay for shipping. Or warranty charges.

Best,

Phil Sharkey

matt zukowski wrote:

Thanks for the tip!!!!!

I, just last night, hit the tri-state lottery for $5000. I was about to drop every penny on the Stillen web site. My '02 max is just passing "out of warranty", so I yhought the timong couldn't be better to have an extra $5k to spend on it.

If I hadn't read your post, Stillen would have been $5k further ahead in July revenues. But screw them, they'll not see a penny of my long awaited winnings.

DaveN

snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com wrote:

if you authorise it. its like cash. they wont stop the transaction.

"KINGLIFER" wrote in news:FF9Wa.9555$ snipped-for-privacy@news01.bloor.is.net.cable.rogers.com:

Not true. He didn't authorize the purchase of a defective muffler.

Not true.

I am in business and have credit card merchant account. Over the years I have received several orders for goods, have supplied them as requested, then had the purchaser tell their credit card company they didn't want the goods or that they were defective (untrue).

In every single case the credit card company refunded the money to the customer DESPITE the fact that I provided evidence of the order and my fulfillment of the order.

Now if a customer disputes the charge I don't even waste my time fighting it.

Al Moodie.

In response to Mr. Lilly's allegation: I must admit I was quite surprised by his posting. This was not the conversation that I nor the two other employees in the office at the time remember having with Mr. Lilly. The contents of his posting do not seem to be based on fact. At no time was Mr. Lilly spoken to rudely nor did anyone hang up on him. He was clearly unhappy with our warranty policy. However, as a customer service gesture, I personally agreed to ship the exhaust back to the dealer from whom he had originally bought the system, at no charge if in fact the exhaust was found to be defective. Mr. Lilly spoke to 3 employees here at Stillen, at which time we did everything within our company guidelines to make a frustrating situation somewhat more livable. As with any large company, (within or outside of our industry), Stillen must establish and work within a set of pre-determined rules and guidelines. Let me assure you that Stillen stands behind its products and supports its distributors. We are still more than happy to try to work through and resolve this situation with Mr Lilly, even though he has taken this position.

snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com wrote in message news:...

You didn't address the core of his problem:

He says that you insist he pay (according to him) $100 shipping to return it so you can unilaterally decide if it was defective. Assuming that you do decide that it was defective, you will not reimburse his shipping costs.

So, assuming that the muffler was in fact defective, it will cost him an extra $100, not to mention his time and trouble installing and removing the defective muffler, and his expense and more time and trouble installing and removing a temporary replacement, and lastly his time and trouble installing the replacement muffler. Because you manufactured a defective product.

Since you don't deny the accuracy of what he said, other than claiming you were polite on the telephone, we must all assume that what he says is correct reportage of your policy.

If the product was not defective--perhaps was damaged in installation--it might be fair to expect him to bear the cost of returning it, but it would still be lousy customer relations. Where did you earn your credentials to be a customer relations manager?

Where do you live? Doesn't your state have consumer protection laws? If the shop sold you an item that wasn't fit for use for the purpose intended, your state probably has a law that says they have to take it back and never mind what the manufacturer says his policy is.

Or is it that you're giving us all a warning about the dangers of catalog buying?