I would make a cleaned up version....as reading 20+ pages of all the complaints would be a little too much for people. A stickied thread that laid out all of the various issues with lugs, antennas, wheels, scoops, etc would definitely be good to help inform people. You would just have to have it nicely organized and laid out so people could read the sticky and understand easily.

 

I have been a fan of the Robinson boys and Co. for quite some time now...thanks for noticing. I always wonder how many people get this.

There are plenty of relevant, comparable examples in modern media where a station or entity has refused to accept certain advertisers due to something like this, i.e. bad service, bad products, bad PR, etc.

 

Well Amorican, there are probably a few music fans here who got it. I got an offer the other day from the marketplace on an engine badge and the guy's signature says "One of Jerry's kids" so of course I knew he was a Dead Head. I'm getting up there in years (54), but I still go to see plenty of live music, as much as I can, but the bands are concentrated within the genre we're talking about here. So far this year, I've seen Rich play in three shows. Two were back in January and March in small halls in NYC , The Bowery Ballroom and Irving Plaza (now calling itself The Fillmore NY), with his side project Circle Sound, where he just shreds old standards of his favorite artists with Luther Dickenson of NMAS. I also saw him with the Crowes just a few weeks back in Central Park, with NMAS opening. Apart from that I think I began the year with a Rolling Stones show in AC and I caught a few Allman Brothers/Ratdog combo gigs in NJ last month, a few Govt Mule shows along the way (just about 2 weeks ago with Grace Potter in Central Park was the last one, as well as an All-Star jam Warren arranged back in March at Irving Plaza), and Phil Lesh at Mountain Jam back on June 3rd (and I'm probably hitting about a half-dozen of his NYC marathon shows next month beginning on Halloween, as well as one in Camden earlier in the month). I'm pretty sure I also caught a Umphrey's gig in there someplace too. I also expect to see Marc Ford next week in Teaneck and then Derek Trucks in mid-November in Bergen County, so I'll get around. My problem is that I can't drive to any of these shows and be embarrassed by rusty lugs. I think I got some photos for you from these gigs (3/28/07, 6/3/07, & 8/22/07).

 

^^I'm half your age....but i still know what you're talking about My dad was a hardcore dead head and raised me listening to his collection of taped live concerts

 

^^^


Fortunate were you; raised you well, he did, young Padawan.

 

After giving this some thought, until I completely reach the end of the line with PU, I think I'll hold off on posting all the e-mails they have sent me of late. They still may favorably surprise me, although I doubt it. However, as long as they are going to keep up the effort or front, whichever it is, I'm not going to burn that bridge. I don't see anything wrong though with posting my last e-mail to them, as it will likely be my last one until they send me the "new batch". I think from it alone you will get a good picture of what was said by the other side and that it pretty much represents the state of the affair.

Sean:

I have spoken with Bryce on the telephone. The man was very pleasant and he always writes very nice personal notes that he includes with the shipments. Of course you should send him my best. This is not a personal issue.

I have lost many a family member, too many in fact, to cancer and I have a younger sister who has had it and is also fighting to beat it and lengthen her life, so she can see her two sons grow into men. It is an ugly disease and I wish Bryce all the luck in the world with it.

Still, that doesn't mean I am not going to be upset with the company over a product that has given me a lot of grief and that seems from what I read on NAM to have been found to produce similar feedback from others from NAM. Add to that the accusations of rebadging this and other items with far less expensive ones, where photographs suggest these possibilities to be plausible and it ought not to be hard to understand why anyone would be leery of dealing with you. Some of the same sorts of replies that I have received were claimed to have been received by others, which makes the likelihood of coincidence seem very remote.

I have no way to know if the others writing about PU on NAM actually did or did not buy your tuner lugs or other of your products, but the backlash on NAM seems very widespread, too widespread for it to all the be the work of just 2 people. This whole explanation that this is a smear campaign of a competitor is a bit hard to swallow. I’m not saying it isn’t possible, but I do not think the available evidence lends credence to it, at least not evidence I can see.

Mine was not the only photo posted to a NAM thread of one of your products that failed to measure up. I didn’t doctor mine and I have no reason to suspect another NAM member doctored theirs.

When you are speaking through this medium, everyone is on the same playing field, because you know a very limited amount about one another. It is only when you get into a situation of direct involvement (like a private sale through the NAM marketplace) that you can learn anything about another NAM member.

At the moment my opinion of the company has only the favorable impression I formed from the CF scoop to go to its favor and even that required some doing to get to a scoop that I thought measured up. I realize it was only cosmetic, but it is an over $300 item and it was no false issue that the badge was off-center, not once, but twice, which does suggest there is a lack of control in the distribution. That lack of control would seem to be a similar problem to the tuner lugs. One would hope that after one bad set it wouldn't be allowed to happen a second time and that the third time there wouldn't be any misunderstanding as to what was going to be sent in substitution.

Look, I feel like I am beating a dead horse here. I am allowing you an opportunity to pull a rabbit out of your hat, as far as I am concerned. I also do not have a solid alternative, because you would not offer me a refund. So you have one chance left, one I am sure many, many NAMers at this late stage would not give you. As was suggested on NAM they would have simply returned the item regardless, contacted the BBB, the CA attorney general’s office, as well as their own state’s, and the credit card issuer, so don't blow it.

Please do give my regards to Bryce.

Andy

 

lol @ the concept of photoshop rust

Looks like a good email though Hopefully it will bring the response you're hoping for.

 

did you buy new lugs already?

 

True... they might NOT show up at your house and pound a rusty nail through your nut sack. Beyond that... what else can they do?

PU threads... "just when I think I'm out... they pull me back in". But not this time. Not to be harsh, but I've been struggling with a Zune all frickin' night and the hunk of junk STILL won't work, so I'm testy, so all I'll say is that after everything tha PU has done to you so far, piled on top of, what, six or seven hundred coprraborating forum messages (maybe more) then I guess you deserve what you get. They clearly don't give a crap about emails, they'll just keep lying, to you and to everyone else.

Me - I'm returning my non-functional thingamabob in the morning for a full refund. Ahhhhhhhhhhh.... that feels nice. One day of struggling with a product that should work but doesn't is MORE than enough...

C ya - I'm done.

 

Not exactly, but sort of.

I purchased a used set of Mini's own locking lugs in the NAM marketplace to use with 12 of my 16 OEM ones that came with the vehicle. So, at least I have a locking lug on each wheel, even if they don't look as fancy as the PU ones, but at least they are not rusty.

I do feel sort of reduced to a second class Mini owner though. I no longer have the "world's finest" on my vehicle.

 

So the moral is stay away for the Zune? Maybe you should let the world class desingers/engineers/craftsmen at PU take a crack at it.

 

Funny that anyone who would state
would buy a Zune, which has been widely criticized in what must be thousands of articles and posts on the Web.

 

UPDATE:

Now they are offering me a refund, although that discussion had more drama than needed. In order to get a credit to my credit card, I'm returning the last set of new lugs (the plain, everyday, plain vanilla, no claim of PU perfection, solid-head, non-locking variety), which is absolutely fine with me. I do not imagine PU would NOT give me that credit after I return these lugs to them.

 

hahah rediculous....but glad it turned out for the "best"

 

Lrt's see it all go through first without any hitches ; then I can laugh about it being over.

 

I'd be sure to put signature confirmation on that shipment...I can already hear it...

 

It will be that way by going FedEx, having a tracking number, and signature release, as well a coverage up to $100.

 

Sadly, this might mean the end of the PUTL topic.

 

You never know.......despite all of the reports of the rust, PU is still selling them.

 

"Palo Uber" will become a verb as a result of this topic.

 

Or maybe they'll just change the name to "The Artist formerly known as Palo Uber" -- or The Artist for short

 

Yeah... I read them, waited till I saw it on sale for literally a third it's initial retail price (since I was cautious based on the reviews), and then when it didn't do what I wanted it to I returned it 3 days later for a full refund.

Full refund. :: taps mic :: Is this thing on? I said...

FULL. REFUND. No hassles. No qestions asked. That's what I call a "satisfactory purchasing decision" even though the actual item didn't work out. I didn't have to fight with Microsoft for 6 months and send 63 emails and summon forth the patience of a Saint.

That said... The Zune was still the nicest portable player I've ever held... Such lovely product design (sigh). It was the interface software that totally sucked wind. If I'd been able to hack it with Rockbox it would be sitting on my desk right this second.

Best of luck with the refund! If they go missing (bad batch at the shippers y'know) then at least you can get your money back via insurance.

 

If you say so, but since you posted
it didn't exactly seem that you were patting yourself on the back for sound purchasing.

One-third initial retail price was way too much money to pay in the first place for a product so widely known to be a disappointment. Better luck when you purchase your second Zune.

 

Obviously you're not listening... or selectively plucking things from my messages...

I dealt with the bad product for one day. One. Uno. Ich. Un. Not months. I specfically mentioned it to contrast the "PU Experience" listed over these 18 or so PAGES of back-and-forth.

Dissapointment? Well the PLAYER totally rocks. If and when someone hacks it for a better OS, I'll get another one.

My only dissapointment is that in the end I had to return it - it really was lovely. Solid. Sounded great. Looked better. Heck, I'll get another one (I know me) when the v2.0 comes out and the price drops a bit more for the early models... I can work around some of the software issues, provided I don't pay and arm and a leg. Zune's aren't known for failures in the hardware - they seem to hold up just as well as any other device designed to be put into a pocket or backpack and shlepped around.

Either way... I returned it with no hassles. I don't see that as something to pat myself on the back about - it's what I EXPECT any time I shell out coin for a large or even semi-large purchase. That's why I always research any online seller before giving them my money. Hopefully threads like this will alert like-minded potential buyers about PU's real operating procedures before they get screwed.

 

So this latest post by the powers that be at P.U. gets my goat. Why?? I'll tell ya.

I know a person locally that had purchased these "tuner" lugs. A very meticulous person at that, who never uses air tools, doesn't drive the Mini in the rain, and it lives in an AC'ed garage. The darn things rusted just like all the others. The Mini has never seen salt air since it's arrival in Dallas and harsh wheel cleaners are never used. This person was also accused of using air tools.

PU it's time to stop making excuses and own up to the fact the product is garbage. In my book PU is a 3rd rate vendor and will never ever see another penny of mine and I will do what I can to discredit them at every turn. Glad they only got me for an antenna, fortunately an inexpensive lesson into the crap that is P.U.