Dirty Laundry

I rarely – I don’t think I ever have  – aired issues I’ve had with a business I’d dealt with. But I have never had an issue with a business that is in the business of selling parts (and services) for old cars before now. And I think it’s your business to know about it – because this is a car site and I am a car writer and you come here to find out/discuss stuff about cars.

And I think you ought to know about this business I’ve been dealing with – F Body Warehouse – which specializes in parts for . . . GM F bodies. That is, Chevy Camaros and Pontiac Firebirds. I own one of the latter – a 1976 model – as most of you who have been reading my stuff already know.

I needed (and still need) a hard-to-find part for my car, the electric rear defroster switch. I have my original but it stopped working years ago and I have been wanting to replace it or get it working again. While searching around online, I came across F-Body Warehouse, which offered restoration services for this hard-to-find part. I was elated to come across this and sent them $49 – the cost of the service – and sent them my carefully packaged original defroster switch via mail.

This was back in June.

After not hearing anything – or getting anything back in the mail – for what seemed like too-long, I got in touch with F Body Warehouse to try to find out when to expect my refurbished part. I spoke with a woman named Heather who told me the part I’d sent had never arrived. I told her I have the tracking number that shows it did. She promised to look around/check around and let me know.

Long story short, the part either got lost or (somehow) mis-delivered, though (again) I have the tracking number that shows it was delivered.

No worries, though. Heather told me they had a switch for my ’76 in inventory and would just send that one out to me. I was very happy and thanked her very much.

But the part did not arrive. It has yet to arrive.

It is now almost December.

I do not believe it will ever arrive – and for that reason have been trying to contact Heather to get a refund of my $49. She has not responded to multiple texts – and calls – over the past several weeks. The most recent – and last – text I got from her was about a month ago when she promised she’d “try to get to it.”

She never did.

I am not sure what the issue is. But I know she lied to me – about getting me the replacement part for the one that was lost. She either never intended to or she decided not to. Either being the same. Having figured out that this was the deal, I texted her – and called her, leaving a message for her – that at this point I just want my money refunded. I asked nicely – repeatedly. I have the text feed. But when she didn’t reply, I realized I was being ghosted – and ripped off.

And so I told her – via text – that I wasn’t happy about that and also that I am a car writer and that if she didn’t respond, I planned to write about this dirty business. And so I have. So that you know to be careful and think twice about doing business with F Body Warehouse.

$49 isn’t much, of course.

But see how you like it when you get fleeced of the same. And – worse – I am out the part. The original part I sent them, which is now lost forever. I will have to search around for an original replacement, no easy thing for a 50-year-old (almost) Trans-Am.

It’s all so petty and sordid that makes me both sad and angry. Heather could have just told me that the part she thought they had wasn’t in stock  after all and hey, we’ll just refund your money. I would have been absolutely cool with that because why wouldn’t I be?

But I am not cool with the way F Body Warehouse – via Heather – decided to just ghost me and keep my $49 and leave me hanging without my defroster switch.

So, now you know. And now you’ve been warned.

. . .

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