Giulietta spotted in Aloha Or

["RC Hiatt" <rchiatt@xxxxxxxxx>]

Okay, this spotting makes me somewhat ill! I was waiting for gas in my
spider Sun afternoon (starting to rain and top down) and a 59 or 60 sprint
in very shabby green with a trailer drives by. This thing looks like migrant
painters or landscapers with a 1600 Alfa as a tow rig for home repairs. I
tried as best I could to get the gas paid for and follow them, but lost
track. Anyone in the West Portland OR area seen this nice old runner before?
I truly regret parting with a 59 and would sure like to find this one again!
I can't believe the fate this fine car seems to be suffering.

Richard
72 Spider
Aloha OR



-----Original Message-----
From: owner-alfa@domain.elided [mailto:owner-alfa@domain.elided] On Behalf Of
Peter Webb
Sent: Saturday, May 03, 2003 12:17 PM
To: alfa@domain.elided
Subject: The bent wheel fiasco (long)


You may remember a few weeks ago I had bent the Team Dynamics wheels on my
Milano thanks to some road construction.   After a 3 week fiasco, the wheels
are back on the car.

After being unable to replace the wheels, many digesters emailed suggesting
I have them repaired.   Great idea.  I went looking and found several places
across the US that would do the job.   I came across Wheels America, a
national chain that had a store in Chicago here and advertised a 24hr turn
around and a flat $109 per wheel repair charge regardless of damage.  Even
better, or so I thought.

I dropped the wheels off on a Wednesday morning.   I said I'd like them
Friday, giving them 3 complete days to do the job.   I called on Friday
morning to ask if they were ready for that afternoon.   Was told no.
WHAT??? what happened to 24hrs?   They said they would try to get them done.
I called mid-afternoon they said they are just painted and to call back at
5pm.   I called at 5pm, no one answers the phone.   I got hold of a district
manager who said the store should be open and was going to look into it. He
said they would have someone there on Saturday so I could pick up my
wheels.   He gave me his cell phone # and said to call him if I hadn't heard
from anyone.   I called him back at 9pm central (he was in Cali, 7pm).  No
answer.  Left a message.  No return call.   Saturday morning, I tried to
reach someone at the corporate office.   No dice there either.  Left 2 more
messages for this district supervisor.  No return call.   On the Friday
conversation with the store, they said they would have the wheels ready
Monday latest.

Monday rolls around.   I call the store, they said the wheels would not be
ready until Tuesday morning.   WHAT??? What happened to being painted on
Friday?   I called the regional supervisor in his office and gave him a
piece of my mind.   He said he contacted the store manager on Friday and
left it in his hands.  Well, if I called and left him messages on Saturday,
obviously it wasn't being taken care of.

Tuesday rolls around.  Called, they said the wheels are ready.  I get there,
they are just coming out of the oven.   If you follow their story, they must
have been in there since Friday.   I look at the wheels.   They painted over
an ugly weld.  The wheels looked like sh*t.   I wasn't going to accept them.
I said I'd be back the following day.   Called the next day.  This is
Wednesday now, a full 8 days after they received the wheels (remember 24hr
turn around?).   The wheels were ready but their tire mounting machine
wasn't working.   That was fortuitous for me as you'll see.

I took the wheels (no charge at this point, at least one good point for
them).   I went to a local tire store and asked specifically if they had the
machine that doesn't touch the rims for tire mounting.   Guy said no
problem.   They mount the tire up and scratch the hell out of the freshly
painted wheel.   He spins the wheel on the machine and guess what?  It's
still bent!!!.

Ok, I have 2 options now.   I can send the wheels to the guy in LA (who has
gotten an earful from me for 5 days in a row) and have them fixed for free
(shipping paid by them too), or I can go to the tire shops local guy and
have them fixed for $225, slightly above the price quoted by Wheels America.

I opted to go with the local guy.  The only thing I've lost right now is
time.  I still have 2 bent wheels and I'm out no money.   I send them to the
other local guy.   First they're going to be ready Friday (Dropped off on
Wednesday).  Then I was pushed back to Monday.  Call the guy Monday, bad
news he says.  Your wheels are in Ft Wayne, Indiana.   Dammit.   I live in
Chicago, the shop I dropped them at is in Chicago, the repair shop is in
Chicago, how do my wheels end up across the state of Indiana?

Finally, the wheels come back on Thursday, and I took Wednesday off to deal
with this too. (looks like a week per shop is par).   I couldn't get down
there until today (Saturday).   The tires were mounted and balanced and
finally on the car.   One minor mistake in the finishing process was loading
up the threads for the centercaps with the bead-blasting material.   A quick
run of a tap cleaned them out.

So, I'm back on the road.   No thanks to Wheels America and their
incompetent, lying staff.   Stay away if you can.

-Peter
--
to be removed from alfa, see /bin/digest-subs.cgi
or email "unsubscribe alfa" to majordomo@domain.elided
--
to be removed from alfa, see /bin/digest-subs.cgi
or email "unsubscribe alfa" to majordomo@domain.elided