Complaint Review: Parts Components Partsco

Here's a copy of a letter used in documenting my year of trouble trying to get my money back.

Some time ago I was looking on the Internet for fenders and a hood for my automotive restoration project. I found a good deal with a supplier and got the ordering process started. The process involved requesting a quote on the parts then after receiving the company's quote replying yes or no via e-mail. To place the request it was necessary to create an account with the company including my charge card information.

After seeing the quote with shipping added I declined it because I needed to check with my bank as to what the spending limit was on my check card. After I found out that I could charge the amount needed I called the company and asked what was required to place the order. I was told that all I needed to do was send another e-mail in requesting the order while referencing the quote sent to me from the company. Time went by, possibly two weeks and I saw that nothing had been charged so I called the company and asked if I had done something wrong and if they had received my e-mail. The person on the phone was not very knowledgeable so she connected me to Steve the manager. Steve told me that a declined order could not be re-opened and that I would need to request a new quote and approve it this time. He was very agitated and rude and asked me not to waste any more of his time. Figuring that this was just the way they did things I went along and requested another quote and this time approved it. Time went by and still nothing happened. After a week or so I got online and checked my account with the company and saw to my alarm I had two orders with the company. Over the next few weeks I sent several e-mails referencing the order numbers and my concern that I only wanted to be billed once. I received ONE reply which was apparently from some other department. The e-mail was sent to Steve but forwarded to me so that I could see that someone was working on it. It said Steve, Do you know anything about this? During this time I called and talked to seemingly knowledgeable people at the company who assured me that all was OK but I still felt uneasy.

Eventually my check card was charged for the quoted amount and I thought great it's finally happening and forgot about it for a few weeks. (This was the billing on 6/16/03) After two or three weeks and no parcel in sight I went online and checked my account with the company and saw that despite all my e-mails and phone calls I still had two orders on my account. This time I sent a large e-mail clearly explaining my concerns while requesting an ETA for my goods I had purchased. There was no reply.

I discovered that I had been billed a second time (7/8/03) while calling my banks 800 number. My account was several hundred dollars overdrawn and with all of the check card charges still floating out there I was going to continue to receive overdraft charges despite what deposits I made. An immediate visit was paid to my bank to determine what the best course of action was and I was told to try and resolve things directly with the company first then pursue other means of correcting the situation. That day (Monday) I called the company, explained what had happened and demanded a credit be applied to my card. Pauline, the person helping me, said that it would take a couple of days for the credit to go through their channels but that it would definitely be finished by Wednesday. Nothing happened so I called my bank and asked what could be done. The person said that I should have tried a dispute and wondered why I had been told to try and resolve such a matter directly with the company. He also added that the bank could hold the company accountable for the overdraft charges which seemed fair to me.

On Friday, 7/25 I called the company and asked for Steve. After explaining what a terrible job his employees had done I asked when my merchandise would arrive. He informed me that it would be another eight to ten weeks before the parts would be in the United States! Now that he knew about my dispute he asked that I cancel the dispute. He said he would run a credit right away but that he would not pay for any overdraft fees and that if I continued the dispute after him crediting my card that I would lose.

It's now 5/25/2004 and they are still jerking me around George Fawrup of LA County High Tech Crimes is not interested in such a trivial case even though the BBB has said they do this all the time. So here I am posting this to your site!

For the record... PartsCo employee Cecile is useless but a little more honest than Pauline who has blatantly lied and even laughed at me over the phone. Steve the owner/partner is unreachable by phone even though people admit he is in the office.

It burns me that this company has a scam down to a T.

The Best to all who deal with them.

Jim
Winter Park, Florida
U.S.A.