Burned by Andysautosport.com

[Dustin_S]

January 28, I ordered an Erebuni WRW404 Wing for my 240. I pay with debit card in the amount of 331 dollars and some odd cents. On February 3rd, they call me back and say, "That wing was discontinued some time ago, we don't have any in stock." They offer me the same price on any other wing they have on their website, I choose another Erebuni and hang up, thinking everything is good.

THey call me back February 10, and tell me the exact same thing- except this time the wing is discontinued because Erebuni is going out of business. They make the same offer, are there any other wings I would like? The rest of their wings are non-aerodynamic pieces of shit with more curves than The Dragon Tail. I say I just want a refund and hang up, ever so slightly irritated.

Febrary 26 rolls around, and I get a bank statement- no refund. I call Andys Auto Sport and a customer service rep says "We'll send that out today." I hang up, a little annoyed.

March 8th. More bills. Still no refund. I call Andy's auto Sport again. This customer service rep tells me that the previous customer service rep was wrong, and they don't send refunds out for 30 days. My refund would be mailed (very important!) on March 10. I leave for spring break, quite upset. I get back from Spring break - it's about March 18th- and check my mail. Nothing. I call Andys auto sport one more time and say "Where is my money." THey say, "I'm seeing that a check for 260 dollars was mailed a few days ago." My eyes go wide and all I can say is, "What? I payed you guys 331 dollars!"

The representative says "We charge a 35% restocking fee."

I point out they never had the item in stock in the first place, and I know damn well they won't be restocking a discontinued item they never shipped. He offers to put me through to his manager. I, of course, get the manager's voice mail. I leave a message and wait.

He never calls me back.

This past tuesday, I called again. I got voice mail again. I left two messages. The second time, They told me the customer service manager only comes in on Fridays between noon and five.

Absolutely fed up, I call him today. He tells me that that the fee is standard on all returned orders, and my counter-argument that there was no order to return is ignored. That is, until I bring up the California branch of the Better Business Bureau. Finally, he waives the restocking fee but informs me (as "nicely" as possible) that there is still a 10% service fee on all refunds. And, to remove all doubt that no one at Andy's auto sport knows what they're talking about, he told me that the refund had already been applied- electronically- to my bank account around the 21st of March.

Me: No spoiler, two months wasted, 33 dollars poorer.

Andysautosport.com: terrible businessmen who clearly have no intention of following their own mission statement.

[Andydg]

That sucks man...but thanks for the heads up, I won't be buying anything from them!

[2.2 Straight six]

couldn't you have got rid of the 10% refund fee? so they paid you the full amount. i would've said i was prepared to take them to the small claims court.

[Dustin_S]

I've registered a complaint with the Better Business Bureau of California. Andysautosport has 331 total complains in the past 36 months.according to the website, only "about 80" have been resolved.

Throughout the past three months it's become clear that none of the customer service reps talk to any of the other reps.

Rep one told me my check would be mailed the day I talked to him.
Rep two told me checks weren't mailed for thirty days.
Rep three told me my refund would be deposited directly into my account but with the 35% restocking fee.
The Customer Service Manager waived the restocking fee (with a little pressure from me) but mentioned a 10% "processing fee" that none of the other reps even mentioned.

['97ventureowner]

Couldn't you contact the bank or financial institution that issued the debit card and let them know what is going on? Maybe they can help. I'll admit, my knowledge of debit cards isn't as strong as it is for credit cards, but at least with credit cards you can notify them of a problem. Usually they will offer some sort of resolution where they contact the vendor and find out what the problem is. They will try to solve the issue and in some cases I've seen the card issuer collect full restitution from the vendor on behalf of the customer. It might be worth a try to see if there is some sort of dispute resolution service attached to your card.

[Dustin_S]

Right now I'm thinking the most satisfying resolution comes in "boom" "bigger boom" and "oh man, this is gonna be big."

[Oz]

Grab some of your mates and go and visit Andy and co.

[00accord44]

Bombard their offices with flaming bags of poo. That always makes me feel better

[replicant_008]

There are several options to most situations. Some of them might vent your frustration, some will border on illegality and there are others that are entirely legal, make your point but take up some time.

Now the question is how much effort you want to take. For the 31 dollars, you might decide that it's a lesson on checking out the veracity and reputation of traders like Andy, like actually seeing what you want and handing over the coin with a physical transaction... if it is, vent, warn others and move on.

If not, here's a thought. Andy has screwed you for thirty odd dollars because he perceives you can't do anything about it. You can complain to the bureau but given the number of complaints, Andy doesn't seem to care not when new customers keep sending him money. So he's taken you for some cash and he knows the majority of folk don't have the resources to do anything about it.

Now ask yourself, if you did something to Andy which is legal but caused problems for his business that would make it easier for him to simply pay you the rest of the money than continue... he'd probably want to pay, right.

Say a picket outside his shop... with placards about his refund policy?

Now what would do this? Say you rang him up for a refund every day. Say you found the phone numbers of the company directors from the companies registry, say you rang them asking for a refund at home say every day at different times. Say you wrote to them all... say you got other people to write to Andy, say they wrote to the company directors all asking for a refund... then maybe Andy might think it would be easier to refund you.... I dunno.

[blazee]

Bug the shit out of them until you get the rest of your money. They've done this to other people, check out this guy:
http://www.nissanforums.com/buyer-se...-terrible.html

Try calling everyone at home.

This is the guy that the site is registered to:


Brian Lai
Email: [email protected]
673 S Milpitas Blvd Milpitas, CA 95035-5446
Business number: 800-419-1152
Alternate number: (408) 263-1778


Other people:

Eric Ferguson
Email: [email protected]
1666 S Main St.,
Milpitas, California, U.S.A. 95035
Phone: 831-658-3120



Jalal Mosameh
[email protected]
[email protected]
mailto:[email protected]
Cell number: 650 521-1712

Andy's Autosport
1280 Piper Dr
Milpitas, CA 95035 (408) 263-9215

[2.2 Straight six]

Blazee has magic info-gathering powers...

[00accord44]

I guess it really is good to be the king

[Dustin_S]

as much as I would love to send all that info (and the picture) to Andy's Auto Sport, I'm pretty sure that would be borderline illegal (harassment?).

I've emailed the bureau, gotten MOST of my money back. I just want to cause a little trouble before i go off and find a new supplier.

As for picketing their offices, Cali is what? 2000 miles from Indy? That'd be a heck of a road trip.

[2.2 Straight six]

how would it be illegal? it's not like you're calling up all hours of the night just to piss them off.

phone up, demand your money back. say that it's not a refund because they never sent you a product to return. it's not a refund, it's re-imbursment because nothing was supplied.

or just shank them.

[00accord44]

You definitely shouldn't settle for "most" of your money back. Haunt their ass til they've given you every last penny, a wing for your troubles, and their finest women and beer to help celebrate.

Or you could ask for their finest crack instead of beer if that's more your style. I had to pick between beer and crack and I went against my gut and assumed you were a beer guy.