Allstate Insurance: We're trying to buy a new house in Tennessee, which we won't move into for a while.
Our local insurance company doesn't cover Tennessee. Our car insurance company, Metropolitan, only will if we also insure
our local home with them but won't insure that because we have a home business. Allstate (Michael Luffman Agency,
Chattanooga, TN) agreed to insure the Tennessee
home IF we also insured our cars with them. So we cancelled our long-standing good relationship with Metropolitan and
insured the cars with Allstate. They said all was fine, and asked for the payment for the insurance on the Tennessee
home, which we sent immediately. Seven days later they called back and said that they won't insure the house in Tennessee
because it is worth too much! Of course they knew the value when we applied. It seems to be a straight-out scam to
get our car insurance. Then they sent us a bill for "the time the policy was in effect." UM...folks, the policy was declined,
and wasn't to go into effect until after the property closing anyway! As Bugs Bunny used to say, "What a bunch of maroons."
Obviously that bill won't be paid.
Long Energy, Inc. (aka Long Heating, Long Air Conditioning, Long Oil Heat, Inc.), Albany, NY: Who installed a new furnace in my house which did not have the features which I had specifically requested and had been promised. They acknowledged they were wrong, but have since not answered my letters. We will undoubtedly end up in court.
eMachines (e-Machines) My business computer suddenly died, and I needed an instant replacement. The only
machine I could get locally in a hurry was an emachine model T6520. The big problem - it will not support a second disk
drive. NO backup! From emachines tech support: "The system's BIOS has only been tested by eMachines to support only one
hard drive that was preinstalled by eMachines." Of course it took a while to get them to actually read my messages and
determine my complaint. I also find the BIOS to be flaky in other areas, including USB support. Also MUCH slower than my
older 2.2 Pentium machine, although rated at "3400+." My 2.2mhz Pentium would run the little boxes across the Win-XP-Pro
start-up screen slightly less than twice. This junker requires NINETEEN runs across, with frequent pauses.
Same OS, set up exactly the same. Emachines: Poor quality, NO service, no speed. STAY AWAY. New: Months later
they denied my rebate because the UPC symbol enclosed off the box wasn't the "right one." Huh?
X10 Home Systems (x10.com): I purchased their Firecracker receiver and Mp3 Remote
to use with my computer. One of the pair has died. X10 won't answer my email about getting them repaired or exchanged.
BFI Waste Systems: We had them haul our trash for over 20 years. Then they suddenly decided to change our prepaid
weekly pickup partially to every other week. I told them that they would owe us a refund, since we had prepaid for weekly
service. They then stopped picking up our trash completely despite repeated phone calls and resultant promises from them.
Earl B. Feiden Appliances, Latham, NY: We bought and paid for a refrigerator, dishwasher and trash compactor -
all high-end pieces. Then we tried to
schedule delivery. We called three times, were given voice mail three times, and received no return call three times. My wife
went back to the store and was told that delivery would be Friday at 2PM (we had no choice). Fine; she scheduled time off.
Friday at 10 AM they called and said they would be right here. My wife had to rush home from work. Then they parked the
truck across the middle of the parking lot, blocking customer access to my shop, and refused to back it up out of the way when politely asked.
Throughout the entire process they were arrogant and unfriendly.
Verizon: I won't go into the details here. There are plenty of web pages with horror stories. I'll just add
my recommendation to the din -- don't use Verizon for anything.
Wachovia Securities: They raised the fees on our 15-year old Command Checking account to ridiculous levels,
so I contacted them and asked them to close the account and mail us a check for the balance. That was July 29th. It
was supposed to be mailed to us from the Wachovia office in our own city. Five additional contacts later, we still
hadn't received it. Complaint filed with Securities and Exchange Commission on 8/30/2004. On September 3rd, the check arrived
via Airborne overnight, obviously in response to the SEC complaint. The check was dated September 2nd. My final statement showed the cash balance transfer as September 3rd. So much for all
those "check is in the mail" claims they gave me for over a month. Of course they paid no interest for that month.
Pella Window and Door Store, 5 Metro Park Road, Albany, NY: We had these folks install new entrance doors upstairs
and downstairs. The upstairs door is of the sliding type. The downstairs door enters our store, and is a steel-clad, windowed,
swing-out type. Both the doors and the installation were great, except that the threshold piece, the part that people walk
over coming through the door, is a definite hazard on the store door. It is over an inch tall and has a 1-inch vertical
face that people keep tripping over. The "installation coordinator" has promised three times to come look at it, but has
never showed. The installer said he "can't do anything about it." Twenty-eight days after I first reported the problem, the
installation coordinator finally showed up. This was right after my second written complaint to the Pella company.
He first spent about a half-hour trying to convince me it couldn't be fixed, fixing it would "void the warranty on
the door," etc. Then he finally called his workman, who fixed it in less time than the coordinator spent arguing.
So what was the big deal, guys?
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Good Guys
Accurate Arms and Ammo, Schenectady, NY: whose proprietor has always treated my wife and I with respect and courtesy, answered our stupid questions, and exchanged defective merchandise without quibble.
Dillon Precision Products: In addition to my reloading equipment, I purchased a Peltor electronic ear protector. A week before we were to leave for the S&W Academy, our dog got ahold of the headset. She ate several of the plastic and foam rubber pieces. I sent a fax to Dillon explaining the problem, requesting immediate 2-day air shipment of the parts, and enclosing my credit card info. The next morning Fed-Ex delivered the pieces, along with an invoice marked "no charge!" I feel this was well above the "call of duty," considering that Dillon doesn't even manufacture this item.
Jerry Ahern - Ahern Enterprises, Inc.: I bought a custom concealment holster from Jerry for one of my handguns, and loved it. I ordered another. The second wasn't as good, so I sent Jerry a letter explaining the minor problems, and requesting that I keep it until fall (I needed it for competition), and then return it for repair. Jerry called me on the phone and said that proposal would be fine but unnecessary, because he was going to make another one for me for free. I refused the offer - the problems weren't that bad. In fact I ordered a third holster immediately. Jerry insisted on throwing in a free magazine holder.
George Smith, Evolution Gun Works (EGW): When the nationally-famous gunsmith who built my IPSC racegun went out of business (still owing me $92 for items not received), George cheerfully and competently took over the maintenance and repair of the gun, at prices much lower than I expected.
Physical Therapy Associates of Schenectady, P.C.: After my knee replacment surgery and through subsequent complications, these folks worked cheerfully and
very competently to improve my leg function. I learned a lot from them.
ESET Software: who produce the NOD32 AntiVirus system. This seems to be simply the world's best - much
better than Norton. They answered all my questions promptly (email support!). The updates are automatic and occur sometimes
several times a day - they really keep up with things. The system has also been rated best at catching new viruses and
worms that haven't yet been classified and entered in the databases. For example, Norton and McAfee missed the NetskyD worm
for several days when it first started circulating. NOD32 caught it. Support is super. I had a thorny problem for which tech
support stuck with me for over a week, via email messages. It turned out to be a problem I had inadvertently caused myself. Try
that with Norton!
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