Mariska,
Take my advice, I'm not using it:
As for the money, you are protected because you used a credit card. Getting the parts is a different story.
The very first thing to do is to contact your credit card customer service and find out their policy on putting amounts in dispute. Once, I called the credit card company, got ahold of a sympathetic customer service person and she credited my account on the spot. But they will probably have you send a dated, written complaint to Johnny's Mustang City. Keep a copy. You might even send it certified mail (costs about a buck). Tell them you are going to dispute the amount owed to your credit card company unless they credit your account or provide good, reliable service. (It would have been nice if you had done this in January, because the credit card companies usually requires 30 days after you notify the vendor, in writing, to put the amount in dispute).
If you receive no satisfaction from the vendor, notify your credit card company and they will put the amount in dispute. You will not have to pay interest on the amount in dispute.
What they do is charge back the vendor and he then has 30 days (or 60 days, I forget which) to make you happy. If he does not make you happy, he does not get the money.
The parts are a different story. Too bad there are characters like this out there. They gotta know they can't keep the money. Maybe they just do it to build up their order volume to show creditors so they can borrow more money that they will probably default on.
One other suggestion: I catch alot more flies with honey than with vinegar. I sent a Cobra tach (worth about two grand) off to a guy in Tennesee in October. I called this guy once a week until February, when I finally got the tach back. He was always "just working on it." I thought it had gone into the black hole and I would never see it again, but I just kept good ole boyin' him asking about the weather in Tennessee, did he vote for Al Gore, how's the work on the tach coming? Once a week, FOR FIVE MONTHS. Offline, I was smokin'. Online, I was Bubba from California. Well, he sent it back, all fixed and calibrated, $250 worth of work, NO CHARGE because he thought I was so patient for putting up with him while everybody else was calling him names. Well, I won't do business with him again, but he was an honest guy that was just a little scatter-brained, business-wise.
Good luck and sorry about the problems...
Dan
Be a good dad to your kids and phone your mom twice a week...
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