I guess I should have paid more attention in school, maybe then I would have known what that phrase meant before last week. Here's the story. I was looking for someone to lay up some fiberglass seats for me, I have molds for big bench type seats and there was enough interest in them to justify building them to sell. I met a guy named Tom that said he worked part time at Canyon Boats (they make Tony Scarlatta's TFH hull) a price was agreed upon and we're in business, or so I thought.
Brad was the first one to order up a set of seats, they were supposed to be tweed, all tweed, the stripes and piping came in vinyl, I'm not real happy about it, niether is Brad, but he sucks it up and deals with it, secondly the seats themselves were all scratched and shitty, hmmmmm. I call my guy and he tells me to send them back and he'll make it right, not an option as the Parker race was less than a day away, Brad says fuc* it and bolts the seats in. In the meantime, I'm fielding lots of questions via PM and email about the seats, people seemed to want them, this is good, or is it? A guy named Randall steps up next and orders a full set, 2 20" buckets, a 50" bench and tweed covers to match, he paid in full at the time of order. I contact Tom, let him know to get the seats laid up and put a check in the mail to him for the product.
The date was April 10, 2008. Tom called me and told me he got the check and the seats would be done in 2 weeks, not a problem with me or Randall. This is where the wreck started, Tom calls me to tell me that the upholsterer has had a family tragedy, mom and wife in a bad car crash, both in the hospital, mom eventually passed on. Again this isn't an issue with me or Randall as we're both understanding of family and the role they play in our lives, by this time, it's April 20th. Tom assures me that the seats are made and he's just waiting on the stitcher to come back to work, tells me that he'll have them for me the first weekend in May, I relay this to Randall, we're ok with it.
May 1st comes and goes, May 8th, comes and goes, in the meantime I've called numerous times with no answer to my calls or voice mails, I've emailed, PM'd from this board, NO CONTACT. At this point I'm pissed
. I finally get in touch with Tom of Friday May 9th, he tells me the seats are done, covers and all. Great! I'll drive up on the 10th as I'm off and pick them up, cell phone goes dead, no call back, nothing. I get a PM from him saying we'll meet 1/2 way between us on Sunday May 11th, I'm good with that and arrange to call him on the evening of the 10th to figure out the details. I called on the 10th, starting about 5 PM, you guessed it, NOTHING, I must have called another 25 times just hoping that he'd pick up and tell me that we're still a go for Sunday, that wasn't to be.
Sunday morning comes and I get a PM from him telling me that he can't get in touch with the stitcher and he'll call me in a few hours, no call, didn't answer any of my calls or my emails or PM's, now Randall is more pissed than I am
. On Monday the 12th I call Kevin Felkins, the owner of Canyon Boats, he has no clue what I'm calling about and is genuinely pissed off when I tell him the story, seems the seats he sold me, and the set that went to Brad have gone "missing" from the shop, yep these are hot seats
Kevin tells me that he'll "make it right" and assures me this is not SOP for Canyon Boats. I tell Randall the news, he's not happy, but he is relieved a bit. Tuesday comes and goes with ZERO contact from Tom or Kevin
Finally on Wednesday I get ahold of Tom, he's got the seats in his truck, he'll meet me after work, I agree and drive towards my job. I decided that I could miss the day and drive to Lodi to get the seats so they could be shipped in enough time for Randall to be able to use his boat on Memorial Day weekend, I call in sick, fuel up the wonder truck and head North, for 4 hours I head North. I meet Tom's wife in a McDonald's parking lot to pick the seats up, she's late, I wait. She shows up and I grab the stuff from her mini van and load up the wonder truck, right off the bat I notice that the piping and stripes are vinyl, not tweed as ordered, hmmmmm, I call Randall and tell him the news, he's not happy but he needs the seats, I offer to ship them and pay any cost to get them fixed on his end, he agrees and we're back in bidniss, or are we?
I stop for lunch and look, I mean really look at the seats, "why do those fronts look so small", it's because they were 18" instead of the 20" they were supposed to be, on top of that, they were black gel instead of white, they had a shit rattle can job over the gel. PHUCK!!! Before I call Randall I call Dan @ Canyon Marine and secure a set of 20" buckets in white gel, I call Steve @ Steve & Vic's boat shop & beg them to try and make this shit right in time for the shipper on Friday, everyone agrees and I call Randall, this time he's livid
This morning I met up with Dan, got the buckets and drove to Castaic to meet Victor & Steve, they look at the seats and ask what it cost me, I asked what they thought it cost, "no more than $500 for everything, fiberglass included" ummm, NOPE. I tell them that this is a thousand bucks they're looking at, all kidding stops at this point and we begin to brainstorm, trying to figure the most economical way to make these things right. They are laying more glass in the rear bench so it doesn't flex like a taco bell cup, modifying all three covers to a)fit correctly b)not look like ass. These guys are my new heros. All told, I'm out about
$1520 on this set of seats, just this set. A big thank you to Steve, Vic, & Benji from Steve & Vic's Boat Shop in Castaic-661-295-5245 These guys do great work at a good price, boat upholstery, bimini tops, boat covers, you name it, they do it. Sorry for the novel, but I had to type it out in order to actually believe it
Here's a few pics of the shit I took to them;
