muskadasa
03-08-2006, 01:51 PM
Sterndrive Inc. – A bad experience
I have had a bad experience with Lane Weir at Sterndrive Inc. Here are the facts.
In October/05 I upgraded the 454 mag in my Donzi 22 Classic to a 540, and was in the market to upgrade the outdrive to a Bravo XR. At the time Sterndrive had an attractive offer on these units and so, despite warnings, I called Lane Weir who told me that his current inventory had been sold but that he was assembling orders for a further 30 units of which he said approximately half had already been spoken for. As a result, I placed an order with him on November 11/05. How complicated could it be? I was surprised that he required me to pay the full price, plus an unannounced 3% "handling fee", rather than merely a deposit, but I assumed this indicated a quick turn around for the transaction. No mention was actually made of any specific delivery time.
On December 5/05 Mr. Weir e-mailed me that he would have the unit in "late this week or early next week", and would ship it to me within a day of two of delivery. When no delivery or further correspondence had been received from Mr. Weir by December 21/05, I e-mailed him for a status report. He indicated that if the wait was causing me a problem he would be glad to refund my payment, but otherwise delivery would be "late next week" to my door.
No delivery was received, but on January 7/06 Mr. Weir e-mailed to say that he had received the unit and it would be shipped out "the first of next week".
When no delivery was received by January 26/06, I e-mailed Mr. Weir for an explanation. Following no response I called him on January 31/06 at which time he confirmed that the unit had been sent to me by "Freightliner", because he didn't trust Fedex or UPS. He could not provide me with shipment details because these were "in the front room", but he undertook to call me back in 15 minutes. When I had not heard anything by the end of the day, I called him again at which time he indicated that "after researching it", he was "misinformed by his shipping department", and that the unit had not in fact been picked up yet but that he would do so in the "next day or two" and would personally absorb the additional cost of having the order rushed to me by "Thursday at the latest".
When no delivery was received by February 3/06, I e-mailed Mr. Weir for an explanation. Again following no response, I called him on February 7/06, at which time he told me that he had been having problems with his e-mail server, but that in fact the unit had been shipped and read me the UPS tracking number. Unfortunately, when I tried to follow this tracking number it turned out to be bogus, and when I called Mr. Weir on this he said that he was aware of this and was going to go right down to the UPS depot and "straighten the matter out". I asked him if he had in fact delivered the unit to UPS and he confirmed that he had done so personally.
When no delivery was received by February 9/06, I called Mr. Weir who then told me that, for some unknown reason, UPS had no record of receiving the unit that he had dropped off for delivery, and furthermore that he had no other unit available for me (although I noted that he still continued to advertise the same deal on his website). I didn't bother to press him on why he would drop a unit for shipment without receiving any paperwork, or try to make any logic out of his other preposterous statements, and we decided that at that point he would simply refund my payment.
The next day I received an e-mail from Mr. Weir explaining that the "mix-up" had been due to the press of business as well as a death in his family and that, as it turned out, he had discovered that he had dropped off my unit at DHL instead of UPS, and accordingly would now be in a position to ship the unit if I wanted. At this point, since he didn't have any DHL paperwork available either, I was not prepared to continue the charade and e-mailed him that I would prefer to receive the refund as previously agreed.
When my credit card had not been credited with the refund by February 14/06, I e-mailed Mr. Weir for an explanation, at which point he indicated that his "refund policy" was that a refund would have to be in the form of a "company cheque".
To date I have received no refund of any type from Mr. Weir, despite promises from him and several unhappy e-mails from me, the most recent of which departed from my policy of polite correspondence and stated that in my view he was a crook running an internet scam, who never had any intention of delivering the product or of refunding the payment. I am continuing to proceed on several fronts to try to get my money back.
I have had a bad experience with Lane Weir at Sterndrive Inc. Here are the facts.
In October/05 I upgraded the 454 mag in my Donzi 22 Classic to a 540, and was in the market to upgrade the outdrive to a Bravo XR. At the time Sterndrive had an attractive offer on these units and so, despite warnings, I called Lane Weir who told me that his current inventory had been sold but that he was assembling orders for a further 30 units of which he said approximately half had already been spoken for. As a result, I placed an order with him on November 11/05. How complicated could it be? I was surprised that he required me to pay the full price, plus an unannounced 3% "handling fee", rather than merely a deposit, but I assumed this indicated a quick turn around for the transaction. No mention was actually made of any specific delivery time.
On December 5/05 Mr. Weir e-mailed me that he would have the unit in "late this week or early next week", and would ship it to me within a day of two of delivery. When no delivery or further correspondence had been received from Mr. Weir by December 21/05, I e-mailed him for a status report. He indicated that if the wait was causing me a problem he would be glad to refund my payment, but otherwise delivery would be "late next week" to my door.
No delivery was received, but on January 7/06 Mr. Weir e-mailed to say that he had received the unit and it would be shipped out "the first of next week".
When no delivery was received by January 26/06, I e-mailed Mr. Weir for an explanation. Following no response I called him on January 31/06 at which time he confirmed that the unit had been sent to me by "Freightliner", because he didn't trust Fedex or UPS. He could not provide me with shipment details because these were "in the front room", but he undertook to call me back in 15 minutes. When I had not heard anything by the end of the day, I called him again at which time he indicated that "after researching it", he was "misinformed by his shipping department", and that the unit had not in fact been picked up yet but that he would do so in the "next day or two" and would personally absorb the additional cost of having the order rushed to me by "Thursday at the latest".
When no delivery was received by February 3/06, I e-mailed Mr. Weir for an explanation. Again following no response, I called him on February 7/06, at which time he told me that he had been having problems with his e-mail server, but that in fact the unit had been shipped and read me the UPS tracking number. Unfortunately, when I tried to follow this tracking number it turned out to be bogus, and when I called Mr. Weir on this he said that he was aware of this and was going to go right down to the UPS depot and "straighten the matter out". I asked him if he had in fact delivered the unit to UPS and he confirmed that he had done so personally.
When no delivery was received by February 9/06, I called Mr. Weir who then told me that, for some unknown reason, UPS had no record of receiving the unit that he had dropped off for delivery, and furthermore that he had no other unit available for me (although I noted that he still continued to advertise the same deal on his website). I didn't bother to press him on why he would drop a unit for shipment without receiving any paperwork, or try to make any logic out of his other preposterous statements, and we decided that at that point he would simply refund my payment.
The next day I received an e-mail from Mr. Weir explaining that the "mix-up" had been due to the press of business as well as a death in his family and that, as it turned out, he had discovered that he had dropped off my unit at DHL instead of UPS, and accordingly would now be in a position to ship the unit if I wanted. At this point, since he didn't have any DHL paperwork available either, I was not prepared to continue the charade and e-mailed him that I would prefer to receive the refund as previously agreed.
When my credit card had not been credited with the refund by February 14/06, I e-mailed Mr. Weir for an explanation, at which point he indicated that his "refund policy" was that a refund would have to be in the form of a "company cheque".
To date I have received no refund of any type from Mr. Weir, despite promises from him and several unhappy e-mails from me, the most recent of which departed from my policy of polite correspondence and stated that in my view he was a crook running an internet scam, who never had any intention of delivering the product or of refunding the payment. I am continuing to proceed on several fronts to try to get my money back.