Dr. Chop Shop

Your notice was received Wednesday just prior to the holidayNot sure what your time allotted is, but it begins when I receive it, not when you mail itFurthermore, I have no open invoice for this individualI have never issued an invoice, therefore am not bound by any time frame to anyoneThe
individual initiated inquiry last year about a customization quoteHe was quoted a figure, that was itA quote is not a guarantee of service, times or otherwiseFrom there, he chose to openly mail an item without invoice, notice, or even putting his information on the parcel, which went unknown to me until months had elapsed when I had to search every single item, only to find it addressed with a pet care business name and address on the parcelHe also sent a payment in April, but once again, was not invoiced, he openly sent a gift payment via paypalIt did NOT include the shipping required to send his items backThey have been done for over days now, but I don't ship without payment to coverAlso, to be 100% clear, the items he sent did not include full instructions of what was to be done (see the attached emails dates 9/23/requesting the information and the reply)The glasses he sent were chewed on, literallyThey also had gouges in the plastic from the tools he used to remove the deco panels from the frameAll of this had to be smoothed before his desired finish could be achievedNone of that was coveredKind of like wanting to have a car painted and saying the metal body is perfect, then having it come in with rust damage that needs repairedThe plates and icon logos had NO designation of finish, color and so forth to be appliedOnly the frame and case, which was sent at a later timeIf he wishes to open a "business" complaint, perhaps he should follow proper business etiquette and protocolI do not process anything without proper address as noted on my website (http://www.drchopshop.com/read-before-you-buy.html), I do not take in projects without invoices and correct protocol, and I do not ship until completely paid forSorry, but that is just standard business practiceYou wouldn't blindly send an item to a company for repair, modification or otherwise without some form of agreement and process standards, which incidentally are all contained in my invoicesYou also don't go slandering anyone and expect preferential treatmentWith that said, he can forward a shipping label if he wishes to provide one, or he can send the $fedex costs to return his completed items, that is his choice

I am rejecting this response because:
A week and a half ago I agreed to a resolution that you brokered and I greatly appreciate your assistance with thatI provided a shipping label, UPS # 1Z495*** per the seller’s requestThis shipment has not occurred and it is pointless for you to help negotiate a settlement if one party does not perform- as this seller has notWould you please contact him and ask him to follow-through?

The parcel is being dropped off on Friday, my normal days to run parcels. If he wishes to reject it, that's fine, otherwise it departs Friday 12/09. He can schedule a pickup but either way, my priorities were to those who have followed proper actions and my website customers. Have a good day. Also remember, the holidays were upon us during the time this was agreed and a label was sent, and at no point was I shipping for anyone, which was made clear via social media to all customers. Thanks in advance, have a great day.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 16, 2016/03/02) */
[redacted]
Revdex.com serving Central California and Inland Empire Counties
4201 W. Shaw., Ave Suite 107
Fresno, CA 93722
Dear [redacted],
This letter is in response to the claim brought to you from one [redacted], I believe you have his name...

as [redacted]. He represents his company Advanced Technology Gear, DBA Outlaw Eyewear. His dealings were business to business in nature. I thought I should clarify that first and foremost. This isn't an individual with a typical complaint. I do apologize for the delay in responding to the email I received from you on the 18th, I have been extremely busy catching up with many projects back logged as a result of the cold weather and rain we have had.
In review of the information presented Mr. "[redacted]"stein (at least that is his name in many of his emails to me), he states the following: "There are 2 issues.I sent him 2 sunglasses to custom paint on 10/17/14.These glasses unpainted are $100 each, for a total of $200.1 was for a paint job of Cerakote Eagle Full Graphics. I paid a $75 deposit for it.1 was for a paint job of Cerakote Stars and Stripes. I paid a $45 deposit for it.The deposit was 50% of the final price.He never did the work, and he has never refunded me nor has he returned the glasses". His information is incorrect. He did not send me 2 sunglasses as he has mentioned, however, he sent in 9 pieces. He paid a deposit of 50% $103.00 for the initial 8 pieces upon my receipt of his items on 10/13/2014 as agreed in my terms and conditions which I have attached to this email, and then a second deposit for the 9th piece also on the same day in the amount of $37.50, NOT $75 as he has stated. He paid a final invoice upon shipment back to him of the completed items in the amount of $103.00 on 11/05/2014. The invoices are also attached.
He was advised on the phone call prior to shipping his items in that the 2 items that he desired graphic designs coated on to, would be quite difficult and there was a high possibility that it would not work in such limited space. That proved to be exactly the case, and he was notified on 11/16/2014 via email. I had already rushed out the first part of his initial order of the solid colored items in 3 days' turnaround time. I received his items 10/19/2014 and sent the rushed items (at no rush charge which normally is charged) on 10/21/2014 and he received them 22nd. He provided return shipping labels for all his paid for orders to that point. I had not billed him nor has he ever expressed desire for me to cover any shipping costs.
In regards to his statement "The deposit was 50% of the final price.He never did the work, and he has never refunded me nor has he returned the glasses.I have asked him to refund the money and return the glasses, and he never has.He stated that the work was not possible to do.If he could not do it, he should refund the money, and return the glasses to me. The glasses are my company's company's property", the discussion took place multiple times in regards to the fact that the graphics he desired weren't working. The first conversation regarding this was via email on 11/16/2014. He had also expressed how happy he was with certain colors he had already received. He did also advise that he was having another batch of the frames made without the hole that was causing some of the problems making the graphics work. His frames have large vent holes right in the middle of the ear stems which prevent the designs he wanted from working. I didn't hear from him after that email until 02/17/2015, and he had not expressed anything in regards to sending the new style to work on, or asking for the others back or status. Being as busy as I was and am for an individual, they were shelved and I moved on to other existing projects while I awaited his directions for the 2 pair in question. From there, another series of emails were received and followed up with a telephone call on 02/25/2015, and again nothing was mentioned of the other 2. I then received an email on 09/14/2015 asking about resolving minor issues with a quote so he could get back to his potential customer. That too was resolved via phone conversations on 09/16/2015.
He inquired about sending more items in for sample processing, at which time he was advised of sinus surgery I had scheduled 3 days after (09/19/2015) and the 2 weeks the doctor had me off for recovers and a pending vacation in the very near future 10/19/2015 (inside of 30 days), and if he wanted to have anything done, he would need to send them in immediately. They were shipped out 13 days later and hadn't arrived to me until 09/28/2015. They arrived outside of the window for me to complete prior to my departure. He advised me on 10/06/2015 that he had a delay in sending them as he had a problem getting the lenses removed. I was away for 2 weeks for vacation and literally worked on other projects until 4am the day of my departure, which I left at 6am to head to the airport. So as you can see, I literally had just over 1 hour of sleep prior to leaving, and that was solely due to trying to complete as much as I could before going away. All my customers were made aware well in advance, and he was no exception.
Communications with [redacted] resumed 11/09/2015 via email at which time an invoice for deposit was discussed, but for some reason that didn't happen on my end. I believe it was confused due to the numerous and varying requests for prices he kept requesting as there were about 7 or 8 different themes, ideas, colors and so forth he asked about. We spoke again on the 18th of November, and again he was advised that his desired theme just simply wouldn't work out and look clean. This time, it wasn't due to a hole, but rather the small engraved logo that he desired to have a simple clean "Thin Blue Line", which is a law enforcement theme, to run down the ear stems. The line being 1/16th of an inch wide masking tape, needs a completely smooth surface to bond to or else you have ghosting and overspray issues and it becomes a distorted fuzzy line. The frames being used were the original 2 sent for the other graphics.
From there, he emailed again on the 28th of November asking about another "potential" 25-30 piece military order, but stated he hadn't paid the deposit yet and when could he get the order back as a couple pieces were holding up a large order, as he stated. The problem was created by himself several times over. By not getting things to me as I expressed how important it was before I left, he unfortunately had to go to the back of the line of pending orders ahead of him. Not to mention the several other dealers who had much larger orders ahead and it being the holiday time, which was extremely busy for me and my solo operation. What he had paid for originally, he received back except for the 2 experimental pairs. Those were eventually coated in a single color due to the fact his graphics and various other ideas simply didn't work on the items provided. He started making statements in his next series of emails that were rather insulting and also completely inaccurate. He also started making ludicrous threats of legal action and so forth. I consulted an attorney on the matter and I advised him of such actions on my part due to his threats. The threats began in an email dated 12/04/2015, and he states "I have waited over 2 months for you to finish the most recent work, and over 1 year for you to finish the custom work with the eagle logo. You have my glasses, and a $105 deposit on the work from 1 year ago. I have asked for you to return the glasses and deposit money by today, but you have ignored my communications. I am trying to not turn this into a big ordeal, but you are forcing me to take further action. You are forcing me to escalate in a way that will not be good for your business. It will be much easier and cheaper if you just take a few minutes to return my glasses and deposit money. All of this could have easily been avoided".
He is correct, it could have been avoided, had he sent them when he was supposed to, and advised of the severity of my time crunch. Also, I am no genius level scholar, but I have counted the days of his messages, and there are a couple of days between them, not months. As well, his mention of the item from over a year ago, the eagle, was discussed on several occasions about not being possible to do, and then further, it being one of the 2 used to also attempt the new Thin Blue Line idea on. So his actions were offensive and harassing to say the least. And I didn't feel inclined to spend even the smallest amount of time dealing with his outlandish threats and ideas while I was falling further behind on other projects as a direct result to wasting as much time on the phone and emailing back and forth with him as it was. Once again, the Terms & Conditions I provided him clearly state "21. Terms are not offered or available. A deposit of 50% payment is due at time of receipt by DrChopShop.Com with the remaining balance of 50% due at time of return shipment. A late fee of 15% or $25, whichever is greater will be assessed for any payment owed and outstanding at or exceeding 7 business days overdue and will accrue at said rate on a weekly basis until paid in full". His deposits initially paid were for the attempt at creating what he desired. He did not pay $105 in deposit, nor at ANY time had he ever paid that amount. He did pay a deposit of $45 for a stars and stripes theme, which was one of the original 2 that didn't work due to the hole in the frame, and he also paid a deposit of $37.50 for the eagle, which is the 2nd of the 2 failed attempts. He was never charged anything more simply because they were attempted and not possible. His deposits were more than exhausted with several attempts at the initial graphics as well as with the later proposed Thin Blue Line, which also resulted in failure. I did however, coat them in a uniform Black Cerakote finish and returned them after several go arounds with his ideas. I wasted a lot more in time and materials than his $45 and $37.50 deposits covered. He also never paid anything for the items sent to me 09/26/2015, so being demanding and expecting to be moved ahead of others is absurd. I had mentioned I would try to have things to him by Thanksgiving, but it simply didn't happen. I wasted many hours on the phone with him as well as working on failed attempts, and hadn't been compensated for said time.
When I finally had enough of his threats and nonsense, I opened his parcel (I have a policy, no packages are opened until the items inside are set to be coated since many are similar or the same and I don't want accidental mix ups of items) only to find he had shoved several aluminum metal sunglass frames into a small 6"x6"x4" box and they were all bent. Which seemed to be pretty obvious when his threats had also specifically mentioned the condition they were expected to be returned to him in. So I placed his items back in the box and marked it return to sender since he hadn't provided any form of return shipping as he previously had. They were returned to me several days later by the USPS as marked undeliverable. He was advised on 12/11/15 that the parcel had been returned and I would be sending it at my cost, but if he wanted insurance or anything else, he would have to pay for it. He was also told at that time "I am sorry what you wanted was not possible for me to create, but I put a lot of effort into trying, and wasted a ton of my time and materials, so it isn't as if I didn't invest time, materials and effort. You simply want something that needs to be printed, not cerakote.". Once again, addressing the fact that I was far deeper into his items that he had even begun to understand.
I finally found time to send them out about a few weeks later. I do not use the USPS as a policy due to the problems I have in my area with items going missing many times over, so when I do use them, I have to physically go into the USPS main location and have the item scanned by the clerk to insure that it shows in their system as received and in their possession. So with the holidays and everything else, I simply didn't have time and forgot. And while that is my fault, it's minimal at best considering everything else I had already dealt with. The item was finally sent on 01/14/2016 with all of his pieces returned, the 2 that deposits had been paid on previously, coated in black after several other attempts failed at his ideas, and the remaining 6 frames in exactly the way they were received. USPS Priority Tracking XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Shows delivered several days later, and again, exactly why I refuse to use them.
In the end, his dealings have cost me more business and jobs than it yielded based on all the promises he had. We had exchanged a number of phone calls and emails, and it was just not worth the amount of shear time I had invested, only to now have this headache loom over my head as well. It simply boiled down to him not paying for things, demanding more and more after receipt of initial projects, and then making absurd threats. He could have just sent a label as he had in the past if he wanted anything faster, and he didn't. I sent his items back at my expense. Thank you for your time and consideration of the matters at hand.
Warm regards,
DrChopShop.com
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 18, 2016/03/02) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
His response is full of incorrect information, especially as to how the events transpired and about paying deposits.
However, he finally did send back the glasses that I sent him.
It took a very long time for him to do so, but he did make good on that.
This was not good business. He did not do right by me.
However, he seems to have a lot of good comments on Facebook about his work.
Currently, I'm only out the deposit money.
I really don't know if he truly earned the deposits, or if he just said he did that work. I have no evidence either way.
If there was more communication, we would not have ended up in this situation.