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Also, it could be that people aren't paid enough so aren't motivated to do their job very well, but I think it is more a matter of how people are raised. I'm guessing that the people I am dealing with at UPS are well paid (maybe overworked?) - I think they just don't have the follow through on a problem they encounter. Everything is somebody else's job. Large organizations do tend to discourage initiative, but good people rise above it. End daily rant now.
I also got a tailgate lock for $20 since I discovered how quick and easy it is to remove the tailgate. I wish GM would follow Ford's lead and include tailgate locks and rail caps on most of their pickups.
Thanks for everyone's suggestions on the bedrail caps. Now I just have to wait for them to arrive.
Rico
I am adding this to support my towing of a 2200 lb pop-up trailer this summer. Will likely make a few trips to the West VA. and PA. mountains so I know it will be needed.
Any reccomendations or suggestions on this install would be welcome.
Thanks,
Rico
Rico
Let's go Terps!!! (Univ. of MD Class of 90)
So, to answer the question: Yes, UPS apparently knows where my parts are. No, they won't (or can't?) go get my parts and ship them to me. Of course, it will take 8 business days for UPS to tell me what everybody involved already knows. I even emailed the Chevy dealer who has my parts - of course, no response from them. I guess I am missing something here. My guess is that the Chevy dealer who got my parts already sold them to someone else by now. It is sad that an outfit as large as UPS will not take any serious interest in a shipment they "lost."
Do they lose that many shipments that they don't have time to take care of my shipment? I have generally had good experience with UPS in the past, but recently have had problems with UPS shipments at work. I realize that mistakes happen, but I just don't understand why there is zero customer concern on the part of UPS. This sure doesn't do much for their public image. I don't think I can recommend UPS as a carrier of choice - not sure that I will ever use them again. I had no choice on this one.
So then I logged on to my email. Flow (aka gmpartsdirect) emailed me that UPS found my package and is shipping it to me. Who should I believe - Flow or UPS? End daily rant now.
Gonna be another week full of Mondays, isn't it??
PF Flyer
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Pickups & News and Views Message Boards
Carry on!
PF Flyer
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Pickups & News and Views Message Boards
No repsonse from Flow yet. Is Flow coming down with the same malady that afflicts UPS? UPS has never told me they got my parts back. Are they on the level with Flow? Stay tuned for the next installment of As The Flares Flow (or don't Flow).
Tucsonjwt - Hope that UPS can get your order straight. At least they can track your order. The USPS has lost/stolen several items that I have ordered recently. The chances of them actually finding an order is about the same as me becoming pregnant. At least the companies that I dealt with were willing to send a replacement at no charge.
Rico
The address in Texas was another dealership, no one is sure why your
parts were delivered there, our shipping records do show that the
package was addressed to you, even UPS shows the correct ship to
address.
UPS told us they have contacted the dealership and that the dealership
has sold the parts.
We reordered your parts this morning and will send them to you ASAP. We
will attempt to place a claim with UPS to reimburse us for the missing
parts. We apologize for the confusion and thank you for your patience.
I'll have some questions for Flow, like:
1) Will it take another month for you to get the parts?
2) Will you charge me again for the same parts, then try to get a claim from UPS to reimburse me for the first order?
3) If you do get replacement parts, will you send them UPS again?
4) Why doesn't the dealer who "obtained" my parts for free and sold them have to pay for these parts?
Can you guys think of how I should proceed on this? This is a little to weird for a simple person like me.
This is a little too weird for me as well. Chevy Dealer that sold the parts should be liable. Heck, if some truck parts just showed up on your door step one day do think you could sell them without being held liable??? As for the charge, there's no way they can (legally)charge you again. I wouldn't think they would be so arrogant as to try. As for the wait, that's your call. It's frustrtaing, but would you get them quicker elsewhere for the same price?
Just so you don't feel you get all the luck....I bought husky floorliners and ordered mud flaps last week for my rado from a local store. Was in a hurry and my son had sprinkled the floor with some of his cereal so I just told them to put them in the truck and I would install after I vacuumed. Got, home, they gave me the wrong ones. Went on line and found out they ordered the wrong type mud flaps as well. Called the store and told them, they said they would order the correct ones, be in this past Tues. Called today and they had never corrected the order so they received the wrong flaps and ordered the same floor liners I already had.
When I got the truck back after all the customizing, The aftermarket installer had placed the power door lock switch on my dash on the left of the steering wheel which made it hard to access. They had also installed these ugly rubber plugs where the manual window cranks were. The side molding was a joke, couldn't be worth more than $50 as looked like dull rubber. Had 300 miles and started to vibrate. Sooo...called the Sales Manager and told him the deal we had was to install "factory" upgrades on the windows, door locks and side molding. He told me that it would be too expensive to do with factory parts. So...my question was why were they trying to deceive me by allowing me to think that it would be factory rather than this cheap aftermarket stuff.
Long story short, they reversed the deal and as I was getting ready to leave, they brought out this Black '00 xcab. Never made it to the Ford dealer to buy that Lightning....
Check out my plan and see if I am on the right track.
I email the dealer and ask them to send me $375 which is what I paid Flow for the parts. I figure that they owe me directly since they "inappropriately obtained" my parts and sold them. So far, nobody is going after the party who wrongly sold the parts. If they say no, I report them to the Texas AG. I can deal with Flow later, based on how long it will take them to get replacement parts.
Is this the correct next move in this internet chess game? All suggestions appreciated.
I think I have a better chance of getting my money back from the dealer than UPS in the short term. So far, the UPS bureaucracy has been impenetrable. At least I have the dealer wanting to talk to me now. I don't see how they can justify not compensating me for my parts they improperly sold.
Also, if you run a business you order parts from vendors (mother GM in this case) via purchase order. When parts come in, you check them against your purchase order to make sure that you got what you ordered, then authorize payment via accounts payable to the vendor. There was no purchase order for these parts, and no attempt to match the parts with the purchase order.
I don't see how the dealer can explain selling parts he doesn't own, regardless of how he got the parts. But, I could be wrong. Maybe it's my fault.:)
The other side of the coin is, who knows, the dealer may pay you for it. I wouldn't hold my breath though...not without UPS pressuring them. Did you file a loss claim with UPS? or has it been through the phone and email?
Working with a car dealer...excuse me for being pessimistic. Course there are some that are honest. Did the shipper give a reason for not filing a claim?
Here is what I just emailed the Fort Worth dealer:
"I got your phone message yesterday (I was out of the office on Friday.) The parts intended for me which you subsequently sold cost me $375. Could you please send me a check for $375 and we will put this unfortunate incident behind us?"
Will it work? Sounds simple to me, but I am a simple minded person.:):)
Stay tuned for tomorrow's episode.
So, overall I give Flow and gmpartsdirect high marks. Once I got in touch with a good point of contact they were very aggressive in making sure that I was a happy camper. They seem like a very professional outfit and have the best prices I have found - can't beat that combination.
GM? - I have to say they get high marks, too. It's always amazing to me how quickly a big company can respond when they want to. The quality of the parts and the packaging were all top notch. I'm impressed.
UPS? - Well, let me think. I guess we have no other alternative for relatively inexpensive ground shipments. They did get the second shipment exactly right, and I don't really fault them for delivering a shipment to the wrong address. (I actually ran a big company shipping department once and one of my guys sent a shipment to the wrong Country. Try going through customs in Australia to get your shipment back.:-o) However, they stalled me for two weeks needlessly and probably flat out lied to Flow. Didn't they learn anything from our political scandals in Washington, DC? I feel sorry for the people at UPS who were trying to fix the problem - I don't think they had good instructions on how to handle this from their management. It takes a lot of skill and experience to handle a customer relations problem like this and I got the impression that the workers I talked with were completely lost and really didn't know what to do.
Next post: Actually describing accessory installation (I'm gettin there, pf flyer ;-o) )
I measured a regular cab to get the proper dimensions for mounting the side molding. I marked the body with a pencil to define the locations. Then I used some blue lightly adhesive painter's tape to mark the top edge of the molding location. I pulled off a small amount of the tape from the two adhesive strips on the back of the molding and stuck the front of the molding to the truck. Then I pulled off the rest of the tape and pressed the molding in place at the same time.
One odd thing, the body crease on the doors and cab does not match the body crease on the box. The box crease is about 1/4" - 3/8" higher from the ground than the cab. So, I held a straight edge from the door/cab moldings to the box to get an even line of sight. It looks to me like most trucks have the box molding mounted higher than the cab molding because it is measured the same distance down from the body crease. I wanted it to look like one continuous line, so the door and cab moldings are 2 1/2" down from the crease, and the box moldings are about 2 3/4" down from the crease.
The molding job took about 2 hours, but most of it was checking, rechecking, eyeballing, etc.
After I completed the job and drove off, I immediately saw a twin to my truck with a long scratch in the side of the truck at the rear quarter panel. Has anybody modified one of these moldings and added it to the rear quarter to protect that area?
For all of the knocks GM takes here and elsewhere, I have to say these parts in particular are excellent quality and a great value if you shop for price.
I think these mods are $375 well spent. Too bad it took 4 months to get the parts.
I finally added the accessories that I posted questions about a few weeks ago. Put on Bushwacker (plastic) bed rail caps, a Bully tailgate lock, and a B&M Transmission Oil Cooler. All went on fairly smoothly except the transmission cooler. I decided not to mount it to the A/C condenser (with little plastic ties that they included). I instead bolted it to the A-frame that holds the hood latch in place. Much more secure this way and I did not have to bend up any of the cooling fins on my A/C condenser. Routing of the transmission hose lines was very easy after seeing how they disconnect from the radiator (Haynes service manual). They have quick connect fittings that are very easy to deal with once you see how they unlock. The toughest part of the job was getting the front grill off. The two side retaining clips require some force to dislodge. I was afraid that I was going to break the clips.
If anyone else wants to tackle adding a tranny cooler, feel free to ask for some pointers. Knowing what I do now, I could do it in an hour or so. You will also need extra supplies like more transmission line hose. The amount that comes with the cooler kits is not even close to being enough.
Tucsonjwt - Glad to hear that you finally got your molding and flares delivered. Hopefully they were worth the hassle of dealing the UPS customer diservice department.
Rico
Seen em on a truck for the first time saturday. They seem to add more protectiont han the wade (hang down the side of the truck a little lower)
Can you post a pic of the rail caps?
Ryan
I like the look and feel of the caps. They have the little "x" marks on the top portion of the caps to give them some texture. They felt a little flimsy when taking them out of the box, but seem to be fine when on the truck. (I just wasn't used to dealing with a long piece of high priced plastic.) They are a little thicker than our tailgate protector.
They do cover more of the side than your Wade caps do (looked at your picturetrail site). The Wade caps seem to be a sleeker design. They also covered enough of the inside portion of the rail to almost meet my bedliner perfectly. I hope that my tape job holds up well. Don't want to have to re-do any of the taping again. Only time will tell.
Rico
I like the V-6 but don’t get the mileage other guys seem too. Hard to believe the 20-mpg city above on a Silverado. My truck has the 3.73 and I am averaging 16.5. This is about as low as I think anyone would get and don’t see that much difference from city to highway. Problem is highway around here is 75-80 mph or stop and go, sometimes all in just a few hundred feet!
Your gas mileage does not seem too bad for a 4x4 with your axle ratio. My old Mazda 4x4 mini truck with 4 cyl engine and stick shift only avg'd 20mpg. My current V6 ext cab with 3.42 rear end gets about 18 mpg in mixed driving. I get slightly higher values if I actually let the gas gauge go below 1/4 tank. Don't do that often because in the DC area, one can easily get stuck in traffic jams for several hours at a stretch.
Saw that you have a class III hitch as one of you options. Do you tow anything heavy? I have a 2300 lb pop-up camper that I tow and was wondering if you experience much of a rear end "bounce" due to towing. I was thinking of adding Air Shocks to dampen out the bounce. Any experience with this problem?
Rico
'00 Silverado Base Ext Cab, V6, Auto, A/C, bed liner, rail caps, class III hitch
To dampen the rear, get better shocks - Bilsteins work well on my truck.
To raise the rear, get air lifts. Air shocks put weight on the shock mounts. The shock mounts are not design to carry weight. Air lifts put the weight between the frame and the axle where it belongs.
Mike L
If anyone else knows anything about the Monroe's performance, please pipe in.
Thanks,
Rico
http://www.activesuspension.com/
On my '99 stripper rado that I had owned for one week, had the power window and remote door locks installed by dealer who used aftermarket parts. I wasn't too impressed with them as they mounted the door switch on my dash. I told them that I had been led to belive that factory parts were to be used soliciting a reply that "factory parts costs too much". I replied that being a Chevy dealer, why wouldn't they use Chevy parts. Long story short, the truck deal was reversed by the dealer who resold as new. Truck had 300 miles when I returned it to them.
As far as the gas mileage, 16.5 is the running average since new. Truck now has 5k miles. This includes towing, 4x4 in the mountains and on the beach, and long cold idling using remote start. I know everyone is going to say, wow, that is pretty good. But, when you fill up and don’t get change from a Fifty, it sucks. The truck also has CA emissions, not sure if the hurts too. For a base truck I guess it is OK.
As far as towing, I have towed 5000 lbs, cars and trucks using a dolly and farm equipment, so I am not a good one to ask about rear end bounce. The base shocks on the 4x4 seem to be very effective. Power is great when towing with the 3.73s. The engine actually feels like it could damage the driveline in sever conditions. I hope the rear axle is up to it.