Dear list members,I am writing in response to the recent posting from Neil Vedder casting unfavorable comments regarding the character of two fellow list members. The list members in question are myself, Andrew Sharpe and my Tulsa traveling companion Mark Sandwith from Ballarat, Australia. Since we have nothing to hide and have done absolutely nothing wrong, you are all welcome to know who we are. Ron Mog's replacement idler-arm bush has been in my possession for some time [Neil now has a picture of this item to ease his mind]. The replacement bush will be posted to Ron as was always intended, along with some specific gifts from our US trip and an enlarged print of our cars on their Tulsa pilgrimage as a "thank you" for the warm welcome and assistance Mark and I received from Ron and his wife. I might also add that full payment was offered to Ron upon the installation if the idler bush in question. Contrary to Neil's statement, I personally have received not a single email from him regarding the issue at hand, if I had, the matter would have been promptly dealt with. I find his comments to be unfounded and based on assumption and speculation more than anything else. I have emailed Neil privately to explain the situation and he is now fully aware of his error in judgment. Neil is planing to contact the FL list to retract his statement and hopefully apologize. Wishing all list members and their loved ones a Happy Christmas and safe New Year. Regards, Andrew in Australia I apologize for this long message, and anyone bored or offended by it may delete it.My story involves the following life-lessons, which we all should be generally aware of, but which never hurts to reiterate, in case we ever decide to do anyone else a financial favor:1) Military: Never volunteer 2) Civilian: No good deed goes un-punished 3) Gambler: Never wager/risk more than you can afford to lose 4) Investor: Never invest/risk more than you can afford to lose5) Negotiator: Never bargain where your highest outcome is a no-win situation6) Conservative: You get what you deserve ; blame the victim ; (almost) no one is trustworthy7) Liberal: Forgive-and-forget ; stay on the high-ground ; (almost) no one is not trustworthy8) Cynic: Never forget the price of everything, value does not matter ; what's-in-it-for-ME ?9) Ebayer: Never ship anything out of the U.S. 10) Faux News: We report, you decide 11) Me: Live and learnI'm not going to name-names, here, but I'll be glad to provide them, on a PM basis.Back in June, my friend Ron Mog, who made the pilgrimage to Tulsa, allowed a couple "tourists", who were going-on , to Tulsa, too, to use his home garage's hydraulic lift, to service their newly-bought 1961 Newport. Ron provided grease/lube and tools, but also an idler-arm rebuildingkit (which service the car really needed).It was agreed that the 2 men would send Ron another 'kit', after they returned home.Never happened.I PM'ed 'them' several times (Ron having no confuser), but never got any response ; the last time, Ron had asked me to try toget a $20.00 bill out of them, in the mail. Never happened.Now, the reason that I'm writing all this, is merely this: on 11/13/07 I paid $422.12 for an actual UPS billing, that I voluntarily paid, and for which I expected full reimbursement, on a package of FWDLK parts whichwas sent to a Foreign Country.I had never shipped anything large, to another country, before, by UPS, or USPS (#9, above)I have no financial profit in this transaction. ( #2, and #3/#5)Before this occurrence, I had volunteered (#1; and I was in the Navy) to help the individual make an order thru Gary Goers, which, for me, has not been a problem. I even volunteered to PAY Gary (#1 & #3/#5) for the parts, and hope to receive reimbursement for that expense (#7) at a later date. I do not know if Gary has been paid, as the shipping matter hit-the-fan before I could write a check to Gary. I am preparedto pay Gary, if necessary, as it was my order to him (#4 ).The beneficiary of this matter is, of course, the parts recipient, who, today tried to make himself the victim (#6) by saying that I had failed to inspect the trunk panels(about which I had NO involvement), as well as saying that I "should have known that the USPS would be cheaper" to send the stuff, overseas, than"good old(?)" UPS.Now, probably no one here has had experience with shipping via UPS, but, they are an internationalpackage shipping business.Business competition being what it is, and (in part) because I HAVE routinely used UPS to ship packages, and Gary Goers' parts-stash was sent via UPS, and the trunk-stuff was sent Fed Ex Ground (iirc) to me (for incorporation with Gary's stuff, for a 1-package deal ; what-a-guy) , I put the stuff together & took it to UPS depot, waited in line, got to the counter, and the nice lady, there, said :"Oooh, this is going to be expensive".As I am not poor, but not rich, and as I knew of no other cheaper means to ship the package (weight:37 lbs, total) , I gulped and gave the lady my credit card.Altho I have not done so, I do know of several persons who have shipped entire cars across the pond and I know that international shipping is not cheap. That knowledge, as much as anything (and the hope of getting reimbursed ; #7) persuaded me to finalize this dope-deal, which, again, I had no financialprofit, what-so-ever, in contributing-toSo, per #10, and #6, above, I am NOT looking for any sympathy, or (much) commiseration (#6, after-all!), but I do want to state, for the possible benefit of anyone who might be interested in doing anyone else a good-faith good-samaritan , but possibly-flawed, (financial) favor, please see #8, and all the other Life Lessons,before deciding what to do. So, what have we learned, today?Ron Mog graciously allows his personal property to be used, and gets stiffed, over $20.00 retail value ofa idler-arm rebuilding kit.And I, not knowing any better, rely on UPS to tell me what it wants to ship a 37 lb package overseas, andI get stiffed, for $422.12 .I have no recourse, except for the writing of this message, but, I am willing to abide by #11, above.Neil Vedder ************************************************************* To unsubscribe or set your subscription options, please go to http://lists.psu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=l-forwardlook&A=1 ************************************************************* To unsubscribe or set your subscription options, please go to http://lists.psu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=l-forwardlook&A=1
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