The life of a small vendor

Over the years I've collected a fair assortment of Studebaker parts and pieces, some of which I sell at flea market to help support my habit. A few years ago I had the good fortune to pick up a NOS 1950 chrome bullet nose outer ring, a rare and desirable piece. I had planned on bringing it to York to sell, but prior to York I got a call from a club member from a nearby state looking for this very part. This person is financially secure and over the years has had several cars on the cover of Turning Wheels . Given that it was a local club member I agreed to sell it to him at a very reasonable price, way below what it would bring at York. He asked if he could pick it up at a local car show we were both attending. I brought the part to the show and when he arrived he agreed that the part was what he was looking for, however he now wanted to dicker over the previously agreed upon price. Frankly I was flabbergasted, it seems like you go out of your way to help a local guy out and they want to take advantage of you. Anyway I told him that was price take it or leave it. Lesson learned, you try to be a nice guy and help someone out and all they want to do is put it to you. This also reinforces the prevailing trend to put the item on ebay and let the market place determine the fair price....

Yes he took it, however if you are looking for one there was a nice complete unit (both inner and outer ring) either NOS or rechromed at the NE Zone meet this weekend with an asking price of $350. Email me and I can give you the contact info for the person who I believe bought it.

Dan I know exactly what you are talking about. Several years ago a local guy calls and wants some parts I agree to sell him what he needs. While at my place to get the parts he sees other things to buy and agrees to my price but says he will pay me at a meet we would both attend the following weekend. Of course he is not at the meet or he is hiding from me. ether way I did not get paid for the merchandise that he already had. For the next week I call him and leave messages but he never calls back. This is the only time in the last 20 years I have been screwed out of money by a Stude guy.

What should one do when a vendor sends a "rebuilt" truck tranny and the customer has his tranny guy look at it and it is full of rust and cost $575 to make it functional?

JT

John Poulos wrote:

There is a very large computer company that would take back the most insane customer returns, such as servers and desktops returned missing processors and memory, there was one desktop that was totally gutted, even the floppy drive was missing. Recently a new laptop was returned and what the "customer" (actually thief) had done was buy a new laptop, take the serial number label off the new one, stuck it on the old one, and sent it back for a refund.

The big computer company just gives them their money back... absolutely drove me nuts.

Supposedly it was only a very small percentage of returns that were like that, and they didn't think it was worth pursuing... but I bet that kind of thinking is also part of the reason they sold out to the Red Chinese.

Jeff DeWitt

Grumpy AuC> What should one do when a vendor sends a "rebuilt" truck tranny and the

Fuuk being polite, this PC friendly shit needs some common sense and responsibility attached. Let me handle your customer service issues.

John Poulos wrote:

New line of work and slogan for you Calvin, I can see the ad now.

"Outsource your complaints department to OCF INC. When your customers have complaints we will tell them where to go!"

Jeff DeWitt

oldcarfart wrote:

pieces, some of which I sell at flea market to help support my habit. A few years ago I had the good fortune to pick up a NOS 1950 chrome bullet nose outer ring, a rare and desirable piece. I had planned on bringing it to York to sell, but prior to York I got a call from a club member from a nearby state looking for this very part. This person is financially secure and over the years has had several cars on the cover of Turning Wheels . Given that it was a local club member I agreed to sell it to him at a very reasonable price, way below what it would bring at York. He asked if he could pick it up at a local car show we were both attending. I brought the part to the show and when he arrived he agreed that the part was what he was looking for, however he now wanted to dicker over the previously agreed upon price. Frankly I was flabbergasted, it seems like you go out of your way to help a local guy out and they want to take advantage of you. Anyway I told him that was price take it or leave it. Lesson learned, you try to be a nice guy and help someone out and all they want to do is put it to you. This also reinforces the prevailing trend to put the item on ebay and let the market place determine the fair price....

and my assistant is Helen Waite, so if you have a problem go to Helen Waite!!!!!!!!

Well, it sure wasn't Apple.

During my brief stint as a customer support engineer back in the early

JT

Jeff DeWitt wrote: