Date: Thu, 27 Jul 2000 16:13:32 -0700
Reply-To: Karl Wolz <wolzphoto@worldnet.att.net>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Karl Wolz <wolzphoto@worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: Parts Place - Dear Vanagon List Subscribers
A reasonable businessman, wanting his customers to come back and NOT feel
that they got fucked over, would have called the owner of the van and
offered to split the difference in some way. Were I in your position, I
would have been quite happy to have profited a few hundred bucks and gotten
some positive publicity.
Obviously, you and I do business differently.
Were you right? No.
Are you in a legally safe position? Maybe, but we can hope not.
Karl Wolz
----- Original Message -----
From: "Kevin Hale" <kjhale@earthlink.net>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Thursday, July 27, 2000 3:41 PM
Subject: Parts Place - Dear Vanagon List Subscribers
> Dear Vanagon Club Members,
>
> We would like to present our version of the complete story on Melissa's
van.
>
> -Parts Place Inc. gets a phone call from Melissa that she has a Vanagon
for
> sale.
> -We did not call her.
> -We say we are interested.
> -The van is towed to the Parts Place.
> -Melissa arrives with her title and tells us the engine is blown
> -I walk out to the Van with her to check the title and after checking the
> title I ask her what she wants for it.
> -She says $200. (She did not ask for an offer)
>
> The van is sitting in our customer parking lot. There is no fence, no
> gate, no obligation to pay for the tow, and no obligation for her to sell
> it to us.
>
> We pay her $200 by check, as she is signing the paperwork. She tells us a
> lot of personal information including how much she loves the van.
>
> We have not inspected the van, have not driven it, have not tried to start
> it, etc.
>
> We are not a repair shop and we never do repairs on customers vehicles.
>
> Two days later we take the van in to dismantle and in checking the vehicle
> prior to dismantling, we find it is not bad.
>
> It is Friday night, and one of our dismantlers takes the van for the
> weekend and goes on a long trip. The van runs fine.
>
> What should I do?
>
> She said that she loved the car. Maybe she wants it back? Should I call
> her or not?
>
> We offer it back to her at fair market value, she does not have to buy it.
> No one screwed anyone.
>
> In retrospect we should not have called Melissa, but we thought it a good
> idea to give her a chance to re-own her beloved van.
>
> Melissa stated that she was a college professor at ( I believe ) Eastern
> Michigan University. She did not appear illiterate or mentally
handicapped
> in any way that would lead us to believe she required "extra" special
> consideration. She appeared to be about 30 years old.
>
> We did not ask her to sell it to us, we did not set the selling price, we
> did not charge her anything, and we did not force her to buy it from us.
>
> Why all this mis-information?
>
> Most colleges and some high schools offer a course called Economics 101.
I
> hear it is worthwhile. I would think it would be required by anyone in
the
> teaching profession.
>
> Does the owner of a house which has risen in value have an obligation to
> offer it back to the original owner at what he paid for it?
>
> Does everyone whose stock has risen in value have to sell it back at what
> he paid for it?
>
> Should a restaurant owner sell breakfast to the farmer at the cost of the
> eggs and the wheat?
>
> * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
*
> * * * *
>
> An overview of our operations: We sell new, used, and rebuilt VW parts
and
> have done so for almost 25 years. We sell by Mail order and from our
> storefront. We dismantle VW's to get our used parts. We have shipped
> approximately 150 orders a day, 6 days a week for 25 years. That's over
> 1,000,000 orders, many happy customers, and some mistakes. We don't
> promise to:
> -Have everything
> -Never be out of stock
> -Never have an error
> -Never make a mistake
>
> Dear Vanagon Group,
>
> In 25 years we have made many mistakes. We try to make 99% of everyone
> happy, not 100%, because some people expect more than is reasonable. Like
> it or not, there are flight delays, luggage gets lost, orders are shipped
> wrong, and salesman give answers which are incorrect. We make 99% happy,
> our crew does it's best, that is all we can do, and that is all that's
> reasonable to expect.
>
> We would love to have you all as customers, but we have never promised to
> be perfect. We are not and we won't be. We do keep trying to be better,
> and we can always use crew members who love VW's and want to help us get
> better.
>
> Thanks
>
> Jack Finn
>
>
>
> --- Kevin Hale
> --- kjhale@earthlink.net
> --- EarthLink: It's your Internet.
>
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