Not only with forum members but with businesses in general. I have a beef with a company called SwainTech Coatings. They advertise in the AMCA magazine too.
Here's the story
I sent them a pair of 45 pistons for my stroker motor I am building. It cost me $7.30 to send the pistons to them. Cost was $40 each to ceramic the tops and teflon the skirts. I had no problems with the price. So I go to the PO to ship the little package and I enclose a
US Postal money order for $90 ($80 for the service and $10 for shipping, which is nearly $3 more than it actually cost me to ship it.)
A few weeks later, I get a phone call, telling me my pistons are done and that I need to call them with a credit card number. So I called and inquired. They got the Postal money order, but said I owe additional shipping. ????? They said I still owe them an additional $18.50 (for a total of $28.50). I asked why and they said that is what UPS charged them. They tell me that they ship THOUSANDS of packages each year (so that means they get a large UPS discount, pay far less than if ya don't have an account) I know, because my wife is manager of a store that ships UPS/ FedEx for the public.
I call my buddy in town that has a UPS account (motorcycle restoration and parts shop) and only sends maybe a thousand packages a year to get me the price to send this same exact package back to SwainTech. Box is 4"x 4"x 8" and weighs 2 lbs. My friend tells me it cost $9.97, just less than $10.
So I am talking to SwainTech and asked the guy to "prove" to me that UPS actually charged SwainTech $28.50, by sending me a copy of their UPS invoice showing the charge. He could redact everything but the UPS header and the line that showed my shipping charge.
The dude tells me " I will send you a copy of an invoice" . I asked him if it will be the one that UPS sends to them every month, and he says no, just an invoice showing that SwainTech charged me $28.50 to ship my box back to me !!! I get very pissed when someone blatantly STEALS my hard-earned money. I'm sure there are a lot of whiny cry-baby liberals out there that would just brush it off, but I ain't one of them. So I commence to tell the guy that if he refuses to provide me a copy of the invoice from UPS, that he is indeed, not only a thief (by him marking up his shipping charge by an additional 200%); but a lying thief as well. He tells me I must pay, I told him to come down to my place and tell me that to my face, of the which he wouldn't and for good reason. Thieves used to get beaten; LITERALLY. It was a deterrent, so the thief would think twice, before stealing from some one again.....................
So instead of losing $287 ($190 for the initial cost of the pistons and shipping to me from T&O & another $7 to send them out plus the $90 I had already sent SwainTech) I figured it would be in my best interest to pay the extorted fee. So, very angry at this thief, I paid the additional extorted charge.
So I get my pistons in, with a long letter from the jerk. The nerve of this ASSHAT. He tells me that I am the only customer they have ever had that disputed their "shipping charges" and that I had no right to be angry at him !!!! (he STOLE my hard-earned cash) and voice my opinion to him. That I should have called first and asked him about how much they charge to return my parts,etc ???? I already knew what it cost, so why should I have called ? He says they ship only UPS, because they had a problem with the PO not wanting to pay the insurance when they screwed up and lost or damaged the goods.
I emailed them back to let them know that I have had bad experiences with both UPS and FedEx in the past and that the reason they used UPS is really because UPS comes to your shop and picks up the packages and gives you a rather large discount, so ya don't got to go to the PO and that the packages from UPS don't have a $ amount on them , so he could charge whatever he wanted and no one would be the wiser (unless that person actually checked into the matter, which I did) I told him USPS also gives you free packaging, free tape, free labels and free pickup at your business; did I mention FREE?????
I gave them this senario:
So SwainTech, send me a job. I'll charge ya $5 for the service but I will charge you $95 for shipping the 2 lb. package back to you, because that is what I feel like charging, no other reason.
No one in their right mind would pay it right? I am 100% certain SwainTech would not. He didn't care
Not only all this, but one piston has a scuff of teflon on the skirt and a missing splotch of ceramic on the crown. I explained this to them and told them to send me a return UPS label, so they could fix their screw up (bad quality control). They refuse to answer the email or fix their screw up. I still have their letter and the pistons.
So BEWARE of the thieves at SwainTech Coating. You will get unfinished parts back and they will stiff ya for extra profit on the shipping, then when ya call them on it, they ignore ya totally.
sincerely,
Pissed in Texas