...what seems like drunk ranting...
Yup, that's what blew my fuse, right there. Have a problem with this vendor? Get ready to be hollered & cussed at and the phone slammed down in your ear after being accused of drunken ranting for daring to have the effrontery to suggest that maybe my check shouldn't have been cashed until he'd come through on his end of the deal, instead of delivering me a truck I then had to ask even for a bill of sale to, after I realized that the only Couch-branded paperwork included was an invoice. Which I thought would've covered the hydronic heater and such, which I was never "double-billed" for. Yeah, I shouldn't have taken delivery, but without a bill-of-sale or even an invoice for the work done on what still isn't my truck, it shouldn't have been delivered by the seller, either.
The complaints on “charging the batteries” and what not... you will see on the invoice and in the following emails between Eric and Couch Off-Road that these were at no charge to him and the amounts were listed on the invoice and then discounted off. So he did not pay for anything extra or absurd charges... It appears he forgot to mention that he actually did not pay for that!! Noted in our emails we said “The other items listed that you are arguing about are just for your knowledge and at no charge to you. So yes we did some repairs and test drove before delivery at no charge to you. I'd be surprised to hear if most customers would be upset at that”.
I think plenty of customers would be upset at receiving an indecipherable invoice, purporting to offer a "discount" which happens to be equal to various charges... so what we come down to, is for five months and $580, the faulty ether-shot switch was replaced, the parking brake was fixed, and the lug nuts were torqued. Which I had hoped would be included in those rims/tires I certainly thought I was buying. Nothing about that invoice makes me happy, because all talk of snowblowers and universal skid-steer mounts aside, we'd only been talking about the hydronic heater, block heater, dipstick heater, etc. as per the HMMH for three months (of paying every bill I got, in a timely fashion as discussed), not to mention rims/tires, that trailer, before my SEE ever went to Couch to sit around and collect dust.
Eric sent us the SEE because he thought the head gasket needed to be replaced due to an over injecting ether system. After we reviewed the truck at Couch Off-Road, we informed him the head gasket was fine and did not need replacing, saving him $2,000 in parts and labor. It was his batteries were dead and at prolonged idle the trucks all put out gray smoke. There were some small repairs done to his vehicle like parking brake repair, and trying to bend the hood back into shape to fit the machine (unsuccessfully - which came to us bent and not fitting). Eric wanted the hydronic unit installed (like we had done on his HMMH), which yes..should have been installed by now and is my mistake for not having that done by now.
Saving me nothing. I wanted $200 worth of checks done to the motor while it was there for oh, so much more work that was never done, the hydraulic mods for a snowblower is a rabbit hole I apparently shouldn't have gone down if it prevented even the skidsteer adapter from being done, which was Jay's sales pitch for me sending him the SEE in the first place... plus I never asked for the hood to be hammered on, or the lug nuts torqued, what I did talk about were several miscellaneous parts still missing and rather obvious, like no work-light switch, plus hydronic unit, various other heating systems, tires & chains, oh don't forget those crane seals / reservoir my money isn't good enough to buy from Couch because I guess I'm a ranting drunk or whatever.
Plus, no idea what all that about prolonged idling / gray smoke etc. pertains to, maybe someone else's truck?
One reason I halted working on the SEE is Eric has been pushing to install a $14,000 snow blower on it that won't work because of the ridiculous volume and pressure needed to run the blower he insists on getting.
Not sure how you can halt work that was never started? First I heard you were actually gonna follow through on the skidsteer plate was this month, when you said if I "still wanted that done" you'd get to it in what, early February? As I've said all along, there's nothing ridiculous about that snowblower where I live, and if for some strange reason I can't spend enough money on my Unimog to run it, Plan B is buying a used skidsteer for $5K to run my ridiculous snowblower off a much smaller platform. Had Couch even started any of the basic winterizing work on the SEE as per the HMMH, I'd believe Jay when he says something can't be done, because as it stands I don't believe him when he says something
can be done. I'm hardly a "failure is not an option" kinda guy, that's how we learn, so if it was back to the drawing board or abandoning the project, well, at least it woulda run most of those other implements I linked to earlier in this thread.
Realistically putting this system together could have cost between $25K and $37K to engineer and employ with a better than 60% chance of failure. If I am as bad of a guy as Eric says or a “mog thief” as so claimed, we could have done what he asked for and let him waste his money to have something that wont work.
Yeah, and since I posted my critique of your business on this thread, I've heard from more than one party interested in giving it a go, all being realistic about cost/chance of success. I said you weren't a thief, for the record, again. But the snowblower was always ancillary, because the first thing I wanted was all the other work done on the SEE so that it could remove snow around here this winter even with the stock loader bucket, you wait until mid-December, after months of discussing this, to tell me you're not interested? Now that I've complained, you blame the customer for not doing any of that other work? You realize your website says this is exactly the sort of project you're after? Excuuuuuuse me!
The SEE could have been picked up whenever he wanted after the repairs are paid, which was only $580. The proper address is on all the invoices he has received from us. He calls me up rant claiming we have an invalid business address, we are delinquent on our taxes, and that my business is for sale.... All of which are bizarre and untrue... this is when I asked if he was drunk and yes hung up on him.
Heh, no, after slamming the phone down, you called back to apologize. That's when I told you we're done, because at that point I was completely sketched out about googling your business and finding an incorrect address, delinquent tax status, and business for sale -- which until that point I wasn't going to bring up. Anyone googling your business can see this for themselves, even though most results don't reflect it. The ones that do, are your problem for being out there, not mine for finding, so don't shoot the messenger. By which I mean hollering and cussing and slamming the phone down in my ear a second time.
There are a hand full of inaccurate and embellished comments but this is a cool technical forum not a lame as soap opera. Apologies for the delays and miscommunication to Eric but slander is definitely a punishable offense according to our lawyers. For any further insite into this unfortunate happening keep reading the actual email communication below.
Dude, where's my title? Do you really want me to post my records of all those e-mails it's been promised to me? The above quote about being overnighted to you today wasn't 12/14 as you claim, it was two weeks before that, and that's only after my fuse blew, but for gosh sakes, it's been another month now, and now it's apparently gonna be next year before I see it? Don't bother trying to rebut me here until you come through on your end of that $35K you cashed last Spring. Then you can talk. I was patient over a week before replying to your post, which doesn't reflect messages actually from 12/14 or later about how I'd definitely have that title last week. OK, maybe next week, but until then maybe (all blaming the customer aside) the lack of a hydronic heater isn't the only mistake you've made.
![DSCN0058[1].jpg](https://www.steelsoldiers.com/data/attachments/451/451021-9e000446d227ff3acda3bae34838f3bc.jpg "DSCN0058[1].jpg")
