----- 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.