On or about 31 July and 1 Aug, I conferred with the Riverside County District Attorney's Office. On their advice, I contacted the Riverside County Sheriff's Department at approximately 8AM EDT on 2 August and gave them all of the info regarding this issue.
At approximately 9:55AM EDT on the same morning, I received a phone call from a deputy sheriff who gave me a case number, his name and badge number, and stated to me that he had visited John's house at approximately 6AM PDT and questioned him on this matter. He stated that John "swore that it was at the shipper awaiting shipment." He stated that he told John that he had 7 days to ship the item or he would be facing criminal charges. He stated that he had instructed John to contact me that day, and instructed me to call him in 7 days if I either didn't hear from John, the shipper, or if I hadn't received my goods.
I then contacted the shipper that morning, who was kind enough to inform me that no, he was not in receipt of the materials to be shipped.
On Thurday, 9 August, which was one week later, I contacted the Riverside County Sheriff's department again and left a message for the deputy involved that I had not heard anything from the shipper, nor John, nor received my goods. Because the shipper had requested that I not contact them to follow up and to deal with John only regarding this, I had no idea what was going on. I had tried to get some info from John during that week as well, but again, he did not respond.
On Friday, 10 August, the shipper contacted the LFS here and notified them that they had the sump and ATO and was shipping it.
The sump and ATO arrived on a pallet at the LFS on Tuesday, 14 Aug. It is pictured packaged on the pallet in the thumbnail below. More on that later.
I got over to the LFS on Thursday and the owner and I carefully removed it from the pallet and removed the cardboard. I noted that it had been packed with the refugium/pump area lid at the bottom end. We opened up a little of the top of the sump and the ATO to look at it, and I noticed a large deep scratch in the sump lid and that there were items missing; 6 to be precise. It was still packed in shrink wrap, which we left on it and I took the sump and ATO home.
I stopped by Lowe's and picked up some insulating styrofoam to set the sump and ATO on in the garage to leak check it. After placing the sump and ATO onto the styrofoam on the garage floor, I removed the shrink wrap from the tank sides and the end where the refugium lid was at. The is the end that was on the bottom of the pallet.
I was shocked to find a 4 wide X 3 long" section of the sump broken out in the corner and the opposite side cracked where it was only tack welded and not fully welded. Upon later inspection, I found that the lid for the sump was not cut square and because it was packed on its end and not on the bottom, the stress from wedging the lid on for shipment caused the corners on that end to fail. See the images of the broken areas below.
I immediately sent an email to John and to the shipper with pictures of the damage and asking about if the shipment was insured, and were the missing parts shipped separately. That was at approximately 4PM PDT in California on Thursday afternoon. There has been no response from the shipper nor John, although because my deal is with John, ultimately I hold him responsible to make this right, as the shipper sent this as a favor to John.
On Friday morning, I received a voice mail from the deputy at the Riverside County Sheriff's Department stating that he had been "trying to locate John for over a week but cannot find him" and that he would contact me again on this coming Monday, 20 Aug. I replied to his voice mail that I had received the goods, that they are damaged and missing parts and hadn't heard from John on this matter.
After receiving no response from John by Saturday afternoon, I used some Weld On #4 and some Weld On #7 gel to repair the broken out section as best I could. I started to fill the sump, only to find that 5 panels in the sump were only tacked and not welded. You can see the horizontal bulkhead plate on the RH side in the attached pic below where it was only tacked in the middle and in the corner and had cracked out during shipment. This is the side opposite the broken-out corner and has now been completely welded.
Drained the sump, repaired or welded the seams where necessary, and refilled the sump. Straightened the end of the sump lid and flame polished it so that it now fits the sump correctly.
Leak check appears OK.
Here is the status:
Sump received, end broken and 5 components tacked only and not completely welded.
Handles (2) for sump lid missing
Sump lid has very deep scratch in the clear window that cannot be buffed out - too deep.
Sump lid was not square and required rework to fit the sump
ATO sw brackets (2) missing
Probe holder missing
Dosing tube mount missing
ATO purchased was to be 10x20x19, received at 10x18x19.
Although I will follow up with the Riverside County authorities tomorrow, I'm going to have to accept that this is probably as good as it's going to get on this deal.
I have kept to solid facts in this post. There is no guessing, unsubstantiated accusations, or wild speculation. I have posted this thread as a warning to others regarding this person and this company. If I do receive the missing parts, I will update this info here.
Kev
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