Well let me start off by saying this. I am not here to bash Sam Strano or his business that is not my intent in any way. I like to keep business 100% professional so for all those that say why post my experience instead of going straight to the source to fix the problem, well i already have and im still not satisfied and i would like others to know. i have ordered from Sam Strano in the past (koni 4/4 and Strano springs over $1100 value) and the service was top notch. Shipping, product and advice were all great. well just recently i had jumped on the ATE rotor deal where shipping was free on April 29th. It was clearly stated that he was going to the races and would return to work on Tuesday no problem. I figured my rotors would be shipped on Tuesday the 5th, Wednesday the 6th at the latest. So the next week i called on Monday and had asked how long it would take and i was told 5 days, well when 5 days came around i had politely called and asked if he could supply a tracking number (just so i didn't have to call and bother anyone). I was told he would email it to me and that it should be there today. Later on i get a message stating that the rotors where never sent out due to the warehouse and that they were shipped out today. Well i had a big problem with this because there was not so much as an apology or compensation for a mistake on his company's behalf. So i went ahead and sent him pm's telling him how i felt as a customer and i was once again given no apology and no acceptance of the mistake and i felt like i was already a sale so he didn't care. So i had finally received my rotors yesterday May 20th i will say that they look excellent and i have no doubt that they will perform the same. But in closing i do not appreciate the way i was treated as a customer from Sam Strano and i will not be purchasing anymore products from him. To make this right was all i asked for and that could have been as simple as an I'm sorry for your inconvenience next time you order through me i can assure this wont happen. Once again this isn't a bashing his service parts and advice are usually dead on but this experience was not a good one.

 

Let's be fair. First you did not order the parts, your friend did. You never contacted me about this, when Sean did I investigated. In fact below folks can find the complete exchange between myself and jbutta224

" Quote:
Originally Posted by jbutta224
hi my name is josh buttacavoli in the past i had ordered your springs and koni 4/4. i had ordered my ATE rotors for my 99 trans am through my friend shawn mcelroy on april 29th. he doesnt have time to deal with the emails right now b/c he is at the hospital today with his daughter hence me writing you. so he said that the invoice was lost and my rotors were shipped out today and that you would send the tracking number today. my question is where they shipped standard?

Sam Strano's response jbutta224:
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UPS Tracking #'s below. Shipped Ground (way, way too heavy to go via air, some 80 pounds in total).

1z4033r10341129242
1z4033r10340312652

jbutta224's response back to Sam Strano:
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I would like to let you know that i have been without a car for 2 weeks now which isn't your fault now its going to be an extra week due to a mistake on your company's behalf. I do understand the reason behind ground shipping due to A.the sale you put on for these rotors entails free shipping (obviously its going be ground) and B. the weight of the rotors as you stated. What i don't understand is how you leave a message with no apology or not trying to make up for the poor service in any way. i understand how business works and i do realize that mistakes happen for that the owner must be accountable in order to keep his customers. i do realize i am only one customer and your service, advice and products are great 99.9% of the time but this time i may be satisfied with the product but i am not satisfied with the service. I wanted to consult you instead of posting it on the forum i hope you can appreciate that. Thank You Josh

My response back in jbutta224:
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I do appreciate your restraint. However, the warehouse had the order from me. It was not a mistake on my part, I was unaware of the fact this happened, and when it was brought to my attention I jumped on it immediately. Further, at no time was I informed of a time critical situation--this is the first I'm hearing of it.

As much as we may not like it, this was a human error, they happen. The ATE special was on going for weeks before the order was placed. When the order was placed it was done as I closed for a trip to Nebraska which was announced on my website's front page. I could not have processed the order until I returned, which is exactly what I did--including extending the free shipping at a date well beyond the official end to that special.

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To sum up. jbutta224 did not order the parts himself. The person who did never mentioned any of this to me at the time of the order, nor when he contacted me back. I extended the free shipping offer without being asked because I felt it was the right thing to do. I furnished the customer with tracking information to insure he knew the items were on the way. And we've moved from restraint and satisfaction to never buying from me again.

You can choose to believe it, or not. But this was a warehousing shipping error that I fixed as quickly as possible. I could have been an *** and not honored the free shipping. I could have back-burned it completely. I could have ignored your PM's since you did not purchase the parts. None of those things were the right thing do to. It's completely unfair to burn me at the stake for this. I can understand jbutta224's position, I'm not sure he understands mine. If I could turn back time and make that not happen, I would. I can't and did my best to fix the error. When he felt it was time to make it public, I was the one who posted the entire exchange for the public's knowledge.

Feel free to judge away now you have all the information.

 

I've had this happen with other vendors before and while it doesn't feel good it certainly isn't the vendor's fault. Honestly, beggars can't be choosers. If you know you need the brake parts the parts should have been ordered and in your hands before taking the car apart. Just my 2 cents.

 

that and this isnt the sponsor feedback section...

 

ACTUALLY lets not veer from the point here YES i did order the parts, i had to have my friend use his credit card b/c i get paid on the 1st and the 15th. I could have posted our whole conversation also so what are you talking about you you posted the entire exchange as if i were trying to withhold information from the viewers of this thread. It still shows not one apology and im tired of poor customer service hence the reason for this post. Really was i asking too much for you to fix the situation and i can show everybody a confirmation e-mial of your exact words stating i had ordered in time so you honored the free shipping so don't try to sound like you did me any favor. Yea you could have done all the things that you said but would any sponsor on this site do that? The only thing i see is that you received your payment on April 29th and i received my product on May 20th without any apology, me as the customer is not at fault for mistakes on your end so who is? THE SELLER!! At least take some responsibility. So what i ask now is how would you feel if you were in my shoes? Im sure you would expect a little bit more from a professional business. You think that you your so well known b/c of your knowledge, and everybody sees that, that you can try to make me look like im wrong and illegitimate for being upset with your service. Well i am sorry sir but i still find this unacceptable no matter how good you are at your job.

 

I feel your frustration man, but stuff gets back ordered all the time, mistakes are made, ect. I order through a lot of our sponsers, sometimes things come faster than expected, sometimes it is way past what it was supposed to be.

The way I see it, I order my stuff from Sam because he's a champion and he knows his stuff. He doesn't have receptionists like other big companies that will apologize.

Kinda like if Tony Schumacher had a line of products and you could buy his stuff from him and had his home phone number and talked to him personally. I wouldn't care if he didn't have the best bedside manner, he's a champion and is good at what he does.

But your the customer so if you don't wanna order from him anymore, thats your choice. Sam is a national champion and knows exactly what he's talking about, thats why I buy from him, I think people have too high of expectations when they call and we should be thankful he's willing to even share his knowledge with us, let alone sell us parts he uses/ designs. Just my .02 as well

 

im predicting this will be locked in a matter of hours

 

If this thread needs to get moved that's fine but there is no reason for it to be locked all i have done is voiced my opinion. And i notice how negative reviews aren't really welcome when it comes to vendors but shouldn't people know if you had a bad experience or not? I am not here to start problems and i never have been.

 

No matter that I was closed for a week (and that was not hidden). No matter that there was a mistake. No matter you didn't offer any solution that would make you happy (and in your PM's you didn't seem nearly as peeved as you do now, which is fine).

And I'm sorry to say, but the claim I got your payment on 4/29 is a bald-faced lie. I checked, and the order came in @ 19:45:38 (7:45PM) on 4/30/09. I close @ 7pm ET time. The order was submitted after the close of business, after the sale was officially over. I STILL honored your price, and now you've really gone too far by making things up.

A submitted order is not processed automatically. I hand run them, and not only was the customer *not charged* on 4/29, the ORDER HAD NOT EVEN BEEN SUBMITTED by then. Here is the time stamp form the order form: Date: Thu, 30 Apr 2009 19:45:38 (EDT)

In fact, as I was closed, the credit card was not run until I returned on May 5th!!!!!!!! You can check with Mr. McElroy is you don't believe me, it will be on his credit card statement as such.

And again it was on the front page of my website--and on LS1tech.com that I would be close over that period of time. So you can think it was 4/29 to 5/20. In reality it was 5/5-5/20 until you got your parts. Yes, 15 days elapsed. Of which 5 were shipping and 4 were weekends. I did my best to fix the issue in a timely manner when it was brought to my attention.

Say what you want, but lying about when the order was sumitted and when the order was processed is just slimy.

 

And I'm all for moving it where ever it needs to go. I don't care it's here, because I've shown what happened and explained myself.

I have nothing more to say about this. You can feel free to return the parts if you want and I will credit the cost minus the shipping and the 15% restocking fee as is normal.

 

YES you are right the money was not taking out when the order was placed technically. But by placing the order i had granted you the money all you had to do was take it you are correct the money was not taken out until you had returned. But i did place my order in time i will get the confirmation e-mail if you would like. There is no reason why you need to say negative things about me as a person calling me slimy or a liar.

 

Ok guys here's the deal like i previously stated my intent was never to bash Sam Strano. I had requested him to call me and he did. In whole this order was just one big miscommunication. When we had finished talking to each other we had both come to a complete understanding. Due to Sam being a reasonable and understanding guy i appreciate that and i will buy from him again.

 

jbutta224, I don't know how much experiance you have with mail order parts but sometimes stuff happens. Lost manufactures of performance parts have "day jobs" producing mainstream OE or OE replacement parts and the performance division is just for fun. Therefore we don't always get the best turn around time. It's sucks, I know, which is why I never take my car apart till I have replacement parts in hand. It's also why I don't procrastinate when it comes to doing any job either with my camaro or my day job. And I sure as hell don't let wear items like brakes get to the point where it's not safe to drive before I replace them.

I'm moving this to the Sponsor feedback forum.