----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, February 15, 2003 8:13
PM
Subject: [FWDLK] SMS.....one buyer's
experience.
Trusting people with your hard earned ca$h with
nowt in writing, is something usually to be avoided.
My buddy Mike ordered vinyl and cloth for his '59
Imperial from SMS. This was way back in about '96.It was not cheap, and when
the package arrived in New Zealand...ie....a long
ways from Oregon, it was quite simply rubbish. Sure, the colours
and style were correct....but it was basically off-cuts. There was no way to
use it.
Mike complained, by telephone, fax and by snail
mail. SMS had no e-mail facility back then.
Promises were made that the stuff would be
replaced....time went by but nothing was ever done by SMS to make good the
crap they sent out.
Fast forward about 18 months. I showed Mike
an ad in Brute Force magazine ( Chrysler 300 Club, Inc). It was for a '57
DeSoto Adventurer, in Oregon. He was always sweet on DeSotos, and they don't
get much better than '57 Adventurers.... so silly me showed him the mag.
He telephoned the vendor, who is more than likely on this list. He is a person
who has owned some very nice FWLK cars, and still does, I'm sure, as I see him
on e-Bay at times.
However, Mike did a deal on the Adventurer, and
the seller kept it stored, for quite a long time.
He then decided to go over to Pomona
swapmeet, then go to Portland and drive the Adventurer down to Long Beach and
have it containered back to NZ.
With him, he took the SMS Imperial
off-cuts! Well, Mike went to SMS with the package. It was quite a shock
to them to find that a guy had come 6000 miles to complain about the
"service".
It was replace forthwith.
But, it shouldn't take all this trouble, and the
rubbishy bits that were sent in the first place should never have got out the
door.
I know SMS allegedly have one of the best ranges
of upholstery stuff, but I have heard of only poor service from buyers
on this side of the world.
My experience is not much better. Except, I never
had to fork out anything as my correspondence went unanswered. 5 years
ago, I wanted new cloth for my non FWLK New Yorker. I 'phoned first, then
wrote a letter with the details. I did get a reply, months later asking me for
a sample. I cut a swatch and sent it off.
Never did get a reply back. I 'phoned, they said
they'd look into it.
I gave up. Never ever did hear back. And, I
enclosed an International Reply coupon, so the stamp costs them
nothing.
Dave.
300F.
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