South East Model Products, is this acceptable?

[ExtremeRC]

Recently I ordered a thrust stand from Larry Epifanio at SOUTH EAST MODEL PRODUCTS, I asked all the questions, he answered with photo of what I would get.
Photos below show what I was supposed to get (minus the fan and gauge) and what I ended up with. Now on the surface the end product might not look "that different" but I can tell you this is not the case!
His last email actually edmitted to rushing the job as he had accepted some 6month job interstate and ran out of time.... and then offered to clean it up if I sent it back and paid all shipping costs (another $200.00) and waited until August/September for him to come back from the job and fix all his mistakes!!

Next post shows all the reasons why you should avoid this guy, his shoddy workmanship and his lies as to what you will actually get.

[ExtremeRC]

Apon unpacking the stand I found many mistakes, some of which are unnacceptable in a $500.00 (plus paypal fees plus shipping = $637.00) product that is supposedly "precision made in the USA"
First up the side panels, held on with 2 bolts, 2 of which have been drilled and tapped out of alignment and actually protrude into the machined rails of the base plate.
The baseplate arrived damaged, the bearings had been bashing up and down on it and dug out the sides of the slots right where you would want the carriage to sit, total mess and all due to the very poor packing, if he had even put a sheet of cardboard between the base and carriage it would have survived better.
The panelling is all scratched to hell, its been heavily scribed so it can be hand machined, rough too I might add, I can and do better on my own mini mill. The stand is supposed to have a clean brushed finish, look at the photo in the first post sent by Larry, "This is what you will get minus the fan and gauge" are his exact words.

The base of the carriage has mistakes, holes bored in the wrong place and rebored as you can see in the photo below.
Bearing outer races touch the sides of the carriage and need shim washers to correctly space them.

BIG MISTAKE NO 1:
The steel shafts that screw into the side panels and hold the bearings are machined out of round so when you insert them the bearings move in an elliptical fashion, means when they are all tight the bearings do not sit on a flat surface, you need to loosen one or more to get the bearing to drop and allow the carriage to actually sit flat!! ROUGH AS GUTS WORKMANSHIP.

EVEN BIGGER MISTAKE NO 2:
The holes bored and tapped for the fan mounting plates are rough and one of the rear holes has been overbored and is stripped, the first 2/3 inch of the bore has no thread at all!! How the hell do you bolt your plate down with no thread I am going to have to helicoil them all to fix this major structural problem.

Even the fan mounting plates are Rubbish, the slots are roughly machined and at one end they are oversize like he rammed the cutter into the plate and chattered the hell out of it before cutting the slot, or he bored it with a drill bit first.

Look at the photo of his mounting plates vs the ones I had to manufacture to replace the abominations supplied. Easy to see the difference!

He didnt even supply washers for the bolts holding the plates down...
And then he tells me it costs him $300.00 in materials to build one I purchased a 12mm sheet to replace the baseplate , (The biggest part on the stand) PLUS 6 pieces for new fan mounting plates, all for $30.00 including all cutting of the panels to exact size!

The guys workmanship is the worst I have seen, he has ripped me off not only with a poorly made product, but also with $25.00 excess shipping fees which he claims is to fill the tank of his gas guzzling truck so he can go down to the post office to mail it off!

[CHELLIE]

File a Paypal Dispute, you should get your money back, you have the proof that you got a very poor unacceptable product, and if the seller wants his thrust stand back, have him pay the shipping cost, not you. Fight this one to the bitter end Take care, Chellie

[CHELLIE]

Ok, I see you did get your money back, thats good

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1404378

[ExtremeRC]

No I did not get a cent back Chellie, paypal told me to pay shipping back, was going to be $100.00, plus I would have lost the $100.00 deposit as paypal would not recognise the 2 payments to the same person for the same item!!

I asked for partial refund so I could pay for materials and time to machine here, paypal just ignore you and do the blanket statement thing. Far as I am concerned paypal is a rogue private company with little regard for customers, use them at your own risk.