Re: [ihc] portable garage caution

[Steven Stegmann <steve.stegmann@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Richard,

I understand.  I now usually try to buy locally unless
there's a really compelling reason to do otherwise. 
It also supports local businesses who will hopefully
be there some Saturday when it goes down the drain.

Steve

--- Richard Welty <rwelty@domain.elided> wrote:

> first of all, i don't have a problem with the
> quonset style portable garages.
> from checking in the area, they have worked well for
> people around here,
> not needing any particular care in snowy conditions
> or anything. having
> checked, i started shopping, and the best price
> appeared to be a
> connecticut based vendor on ebay, a hundred or so
> dollars per shelter
> cheaper than buying locally. so i ordered two from
> that vendor.
> 
> it turns out that this wasn't the smartest move on
> my part, there are hidden
> costs in the shipping end of the deal. in summary,
> overnite transportation,
> the shipper chosen by the garage vendor, has
> customer service in the
> best tradition of the old bell monopoly, which is to
> say basically none. [1]
> between taking a half day off from my hourly no
> benefits contract programming
> job, renting a cargo van, and paying the suprise
> storage charges, this
> is going to cost more than buying locally would
> have, it's taken longer to
> get, and my aggravation levels are much higher than
> they would have been.
> 
> i'm not saying that you shouldn't buy something like
> this off of ebay,
> i'm just suggesting doing better research than i
> did. the wrong shipping
> company can make it a pretty miserable experience.
> 
> richard
> 
> [1] their concept of a delivery appointment is
> "sometime during
> business hours on the day of your choice". today,
> the phone
> company at least narrows it down to morning or
> afternoon, and
> for large appliance deliveries, sears will call you
> at a designated
> number 4 stops early so you can get home before they
> do.
> by comparison, the customer service person at
> overnite had zero
> interest in the notion of "getting it done", no real
> concern over
> whether or not i ever got my shipment, and nothing
> at all in the
> way of ideas that might help with the situation. at
> times it seemed
> like she was taking some care to make sure that
> everytime i made
> a step forward, there would be a corresponding step
> back.
> -- 
> Richard Welty                                       
>  rwelty@domain.elided
> Averill Park Networking                             
>            518-573-7592
>     Java, PHP, PostgreSQL, Unix, Linux, IP Network
> Engineering, Security