Sliding

I ordered and paid for "Fuddle racing" torque converter on 12.28.2006.
It's been almost 3 months ago and I still didn't receive TC.
You can see that I've been patient but I think that I've waited
long enough.

Here is the whole story in short;
"Fuddle" organized Christmas sale and I ordered one of their converters
for $490. I spoke to John Cameron about shipping and he told me that
shipping will be extra $150. It looked much, so I asked him to check with
USPS. He replyed that it was $135 for USPS so I told him to go with
$150 option.
During that period all communication was good, he confirmed that he
received the payment and that TC will be shipped in next few days.
So I waited and waited...... and nothing came.
I e-mailed "Fuddle" and told them that I didn't receive anything and John
Cameron told me that he'll look into it.
So I waited again.............. and again nothing. Not even e-mail from John.
Again, I contacted him and he told me that he'll file a claim with USPS
and that he'll send me another TC with different shipping company.
And that was when all communication stopped.
I waited again and when nothing happened I tried to contact "Fuddle"
but with no success. I've sent a dozen e-mails, PM's on different forums
and nothing. Finally, when I started to sent him not so pleasant
messages he responded that he sent second TC and that I could be
happy because no other company would do so. Also he started with
some laim excuses that e-mails that he is sending me are bouncing
back to him............... BS. I've sent him all my contact infos including
phone nr., 2 e-mail addresses, and PM availability on 3 forums.
I asked him to send me any kind of proof that he sent first or second TC
and again all communications are down.
I've even contacted Mr Mojo before going public with this.
He contacted John Cameron and got the same story that I did and that
I sould receive new TC this week.
Guess what??? It didn't come.

There are two main reasons why I ordered TC from "Fuddle racing";
1. Price was good
2. Fact that "Fuddle racing" is CF sponsor
I've had many good deals and found a lot of good people here on CF
but John Cameron is not one of them.

I expect him to read this thread ( I'll also post this on thirdgen,
camaroz28.com and ls2.com) and I expect to see a full refund from him.
To achive this, I also expect a full support and help from CF administrators and
other CF members.

1jfuddle

We have explained this situation to you; we have explained this to mods at CF. Everyone else seems to understand the situation. We have sent 2 converters to you. USPS does not give us tracking information for shipments to Croatia. To get that option you must go through FedEx and pay more for shipping, which you did not want to do. When you complained about the 1st converter not arriving yet, and USPS could say nothing more than it had left the US, we tried to work with you and sent a second converter. We are still trying to get money for our claim on the first converter. Note that we will not be getting the shipping cost back for sure, so we are out another $150.

So, right now, we have 2 converters which are in Croatia, but you claim you have received neither of them and now want your money back. Before we were willing to work with you and sent a new one even though we had no way to verify that you hadn't received it. But we are not willing to send a third converter or give you your money back when we are in the hole one converter + $150 right now.

I understand your frustration, but do not claim BS or that we are ripping you off. Your email address does not accept emails from us. They do bounce back. I don't know how to get you to belive this, though.

During this transaction, we gave you the lower shipping price, even though we do not like to offer it because of the no tracking and lesser insurance. We agreed to a lower customs cost for you. We sent a second converter to you when you told us the first didn't arrive without any way to verify that and even though we were not able to even file a claim yet. We paid for the shipping on it, knowing we could not get that money back on the first one. I am not sure what else we could have done in this unfortunate situation that was out of our control.

Sliding

As I said in PM to you, I'm SORRY that it came to this. You say that e-mails return, I say that I gave you 2 addresses and I receve mails on both of them from everybody else but you. Also you could have talk to me over PM's at number of forums.
You could have taken time to write message like this before and I would have been more understanding. Instead you choose not to write anything until now.
If converter will eventually come I will appologize in public but I don't trust you anymore. You said that you'll ship 2'nd converter with different shipping company yet you didn't. Aftre first problem you choose to go the same way???
You could've asked me and I could send you more money for different shipper!

1jfuddle

Do you really think we could run a business if we just didn't send converters to people and kept their money? I can't imagine how that could fly as almost all our business is online with message boards. If we did not communicate with you well enough, I apologize; it was not for lack of trying.

We never said we would ship with a different compnay the second time; I am sorry for any misunderstanding on that. Changing to our preferred company would have been twice that, and we did not want to outlay it on our own. And I never imagined you would ahve agreed to a higher shipped cost on the second converter, as we were paying for shipping on it. That leaves one option, as anything else would have been twice as much or would not deliver to Croatia.

Despite quoting a 3-5 day delivery time, with international shipments, they do not consider something lost until after 6 weeks. So, your first converter is just now in their possibility of being lost, but they still are not agreeing that it has not been delivered, so who knows whether we will get money back? International shipping is not easy, especially when we try to save the custoemr money by not charging them $300 for shipping. And at a time when car parts are used to for drug trafficking, so all of our international packages have to go through extra screening.

We are not trying to make this a difficult situation for you. It is not an easy situation for us either, as we are in the hole on this transaction by a large amount now. We are trying to work with you and appease you; I am sorry it has not come across this way. I hope that this can work out, but I am unwilling to send a third converter or provide money back when I am already at such a loss and when I am told the second converter is in Croatia, too.

Thrak

You should copy/paste the bounce back message into a post here so he can identify, and possibly fix, the problem thats causing it. The return-email messages generally contain the reason why it was returned. ie - mailbox full, domain unable to be contacted, relay not available, etc..

Sliding

Here is C/P of your e-mail dated February 16th 2007.:

Bruno,
We are getting extremly frustrated with USPS. We have had no luck with
talking to them either. If we do not get a definative answer by the end of
the day, we will file a claim with them and send you a new one through a
different shipper. We again appologize and if we do wind up sending another
and you get two just let us know.
Thanks,
Fuddle Racing

BlackbirdZ07

The international shipping is the problem here, or more specifically, customs. When you send stuff via UPS or Fedex, they get it through. When it's with the government, it can be extremely slow. Someone I know sent a package to Italy last year via USPS. It finally got delivered five or six months later. Unfortunately it can get hung up in customs for a long time. And the vendor is right, tracking is extremely difficult and takes weeks or months. You can't even start the tracking process for a long time. All this is why USPS should not be used for international shipments. The other services are much more expensive but worth it for international.

Hate to say it, but I think the only thing the buyer can do is sit tight and wait. One or both of the converters will probably show up.... eventually.

Sliding

I know that international shipping can be a pain but when you pay
$150 for shipping you should get a receipt for this.
I asked to see a copy of that receipt but I never received anything.

AGENT 86

I never read any good news about Fuddle

cv67

Just sent off an email to Sliding, nothing bounced back.
Hope this man gets his converter soon and the situation gets sorted out.

Raidmagic

Well this sucks. Hope you get your converter or your money.

Brian9

if i was a vendor i would rather loose money then have someone posting negative stuff about me.... hope you get your convertor or money back this sucks all the way around.... you s been more patient then i would have been!!!

VenkmanP

Did you pay with a credit card? In the US in a situation like this if you paid with a credit card you could just dispute the charge with your bank and they will get your money back for you.

savewave

One of the possible scenarios not mentioned thus far is that maybe each of you has been ripped off by somebody in Croatia. Nevertheless, I think both sides are going to have to show some patience and see how the shipping/customs issues play out.

If you are looking for a bargain on shipping, you have to be willing to take the delays and/or risks involved.

By way of reminder on unresolved disputes:

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show....php?t=1118161

Third parties without direct knowledge of the dispute are not welcome in such threads and merely get in the way of efforts to resolve the issue offline.

I'm going to lock the thread to prevent further online debate and/or negotiations (that needs to take place offline) but I'll be glad to post periodic updates furnished by either party in the dispute.

savewave

Update from Sliding:

savewave

Sliding PMed me at 5:40 a.m. CDT today that his converter arrived and he has picked it up at customs.

He said the converter was shipped on March 21, rather than an earlier date. Fuddle earlier had stated they sent a second converter when the first did not arrive, but Sliding says no shipping numbers were furnished to him and he was not able to track either shipment.

There probably are a myriad of reasons this transaction got off track, including the fact that it was an international transaction where customs were involved. Based on my observation in trying to help get the issue resolved, the communications between the parties had deteriorated to the point that each feared he was being cheated by the other.

Sliding says, “here is C/P of USPS tracking site when I entered
number that I wanted all along:"

C/P
Label/Receipt Number: EC92 0197 641U S
Detailed Results:

Into Foreign Customs, March 28, 2007, 2:26 pm, CROATIA
Arrived Abroad, March 28, 2007, 2:03 pm, CROATIA
International Dispatch, March 22, 2007, 8:44 pm, SAN FRANCISCO AMC
Enroute, March 22, 2007, 8:43 pm, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94128
Acceptance, March 21, 2007, 5:10 pm, SALT LAKE CITY, UT 84106
Electronic Shipping Info Received, March 12, 2007

I’m not sure what became of the original shipment. I think Fuddle said earlier they had filed a claim on it when they shipped the second converter. They had taken the position they would not ship a third converter until it was clear to them what had become of the first two shipments.

This ends the matter as far as I’m concerned unless Fuddle wants to add additional information to this thread. The thread will automatically go into the archives and will remain available by search.

Jim Willis
Corvetteforum.com