Opinion time on a purchase

[BlkGS]

Bought longtubes for my TBSS, ARH catted ones to be specific. Ordered them from a website I bought my SLP exhaust from, they're drop shippers and kinda slow, but was in no real rush. This time they decided to just not communicate, so that was fun. Went above and beyond with PMs, emails, their ticket system, and phone calls to try to get an update, heard nothing. Filed my PayPal dispute, posted about it on another forum they're a sponsoring vendor for, and magically got an email from the owner. He had a story about how his supplier missed a ship date (over a month ago), didn't update him, but great news is magically its in the next shipment, but will be there in a few days, then he can ship to me.

Here's the dilemma, to move forward he says I need to cancel my PayPal dispute. PayPal apparently yanks the money when someone files a dispute, and since he's got no tracking info to give them as he hasn't gotten it yet to ship, he's guaranteed to lose the dispute, and doesn't want to bring the parts in knowing that. I contacted PayPal and they informed that if I cancel the dispute, I'm on my own, as they will only do 1 dispute per transaction. So basically, I'd have to trust the word of someone who had 1600$ of my money, a supplier that doesn't give him good info, and was radio silent until I brought it up in a public forum.

I can't see how canceling the dispute makes any sense. I requested PayPal to extend the dispute deadline by a week to give him time to make it right, but I dunno if they'll do that or not.

I knew this place was sort of a lowest cost, lowest service sort of place, and the price for them is awesome, 1500 for catted ARH 1 7/8 headers is amazing, but part of me feels like I should just cut my losses, buy some 500 dollar speed engineering headers, weld in some 100 dollar high flow cats, save a grand and actually get my parts vs having to hope and wait.

So what would y'all do?

 

[TimW451]

I wouldn’t cancel the dispute until you get your merchandise. You’ll have zero leverage if you do. If he is honest he’ll ship first. It was his lack of response that caused the situation. You could certainly end up not getting your order and having to go elsewhere, but that beats being out $1,500.

 

[drewkaree]

"I gave you every opportunity to get back to me after I tried contacting you several different ways, I will NOT cancel my dispute since you chose to ignore me. I will place another separate order for the same item, so that I have some recourse, and for you to have assurances that there is an order pending, but given my past efforts that you ignored, that is my first, last, best, and final offer. You had the chance to make this right, and you chose not to respond until it hit your pocketbook. You have given me no reason to believe cancelling my dispute is in my best interest, and only serves to benefit you - that's not how business transactions work, and it's now on you to earn my trust back as a customer of yours. I can be your best advocate, or your worst reviewer, since I have all the receipts to back up my claim. You tell me how you wish to proceed, and I will take that into account when making my final decision"

I wouldn't cancel the dispute under any circumstances. PayPal has laid out their terms, and you claim to have made multiple efforts across mutliple channels, with zero feedback from them. You have no way to recover your money if you cancel the dispute and then get stiffed. The time to address the problem was ANY of the several times you reached out to them.

The phrase "fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me" comes to mind. The lower cost you were hoping to pay is the trade-off for dealing with, IMO, shady tactics. Cut bait if they can't understand that, and pay the higher price for better customer service. Sometimes, it's worth the cost for a better transaction experience.

 

[drewkaree]

He had a story about how his supplier missed a ship date (over a month ago), didn't update him, but great news is magically its in the next shipment, but will be there in a few days,.......doesn't want to bring the parts in knowing that

Also, these two things scream 100% bullshit to me. If it's in the next shipment and will be here in the next few days, then he's ALREADY bringing the parts in, he's simply using this lie as bait for you to cancel the dispute.

You know/said they're a drop shipper. Either he actually has the parts in-hand, or they really ARE in the next shipment, which he's ALREADY paid for and has them incoming, so there's no reason for you to cancel since they're inbound. Placing a separate order for them again should be perfectly acceptable, since you can do that in literal seconds/minutes so he can see he's not going to be out of pocket for an item and has a pending sale.

You do you, but if I'm you, I'm getting my $1600 back. Maybe set up an account in the wife's name and order the same item, but no chance I'm cancelling my dispute. Dude, you had your chance before I filed my dispute, and you showed your consideration for me as your customer. $1600 is a figure I expect at least a damn e-mail about, even if it's just to tell you what he ultimately said.

 

[BlkGS]

Yeah, he's definitely said some stuff that has made me question it. I almost wonder if he's ordering through a middleman who buys bulks of parts, then distributes them to smaller sites who sell them to consumers. It sounds like that at least, which would explain his statement, he doesn't want to complete HIS order with the distributor because he's not sure when they will ship them out. So he'd rather pass the risk off to me and his distributor who presumably has the order for them being filled.

I kinda figured this was a cut and dry leave the dispute open and see where it lands, but figured I'd get a gut check from others. I did ask PayPal to give him some extra time to come through, I dunno that they will, but I guess we will see what happens.

The sketchiest part of this whole guy's deal is that people don't hear from him after ordering parts and get thrown into a endless loop of radio silence, but you post about them with something negative and he responds publicly about how "it's not his fault" and "he will make it right" pretty much immediately. As long as it looks good to other customers I guess that's all that matters?

 

[drewkaree]

The sketchiest part of this whole guy's deal is that people don't hear from him after ordering parts and get thrown into a endless loop of radio silence, but you post about them with something negative and he responds publicly about how "it's not his fault" and "he will make it right" pretty much immediately. As long as it looks good to other customers I guess that's all that matters?

"I've got the receipts" doesn't just apply to purchase receipts

Showing your communication efforts helps others steer clear or has him change his practices. Putting his poor (or lack of) communication out on blast also shows others just what they might expect from him too. If he can't see that, and change his tune, it won't matter how much less his product is, he'll lose business. In the long run, you're helping others by showing your interactions (and misfortune) and just what type of guy he is. There are vendors like that in every business. We have great examples with vendors on this forum that communicate well, and plenty of folks willing to call out bad experiences - it SHOULD make them better (and really seems to do just that!). I wish more vendors were like the guys we have for our related prodcts.

Good luck, whatever you choose to do.

 

[adrianp89]

Tell him to refund the money for transaction A. You will create a new Transaction B. If no shipping number, then new dispute. Easy peasy.