Who should I call first?
The powdercoaters or the OCBA?

And should I phone the powdercoaters or personally visit?

I would go see them, clench teeth, jump up and down...

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DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.

Personally, visit them.

Explain the situation as you see it to them. If they refuse to cooperate, use the OCBA line.

They are stupid if they dont even try to compromise to an acceptable outcome. If your efforts are still fruitless or if they are absolutley trying to rid themselves of all responsibilty for what happened call OCBA.

They will sort it out

Hope they havent done any irreversible damage to the wheels.

Matt

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WTF....
crap happens, I am sure that they didn't mean to 'hurt' your wheels.......
obviously they feel a that a $60 fix will work, if you are not happy with that deal talk to them...most people are reasonable and not out to get you! even if it aint there fault (as they say) FFS!

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Andrew@Minisport, South Australia
Ph: 08-8177-1275
Skype: minisport.au

www.minisport.com.au
Minisport for all your mini parts

Yeah... I am not impressed.

Oh well, I'll see how things progress tomorrow.

I agree with you entirely, but whether they intended to damage the wheels or not is irrelevant. I am positive they wouldnt have intended to stuff to the finish too but if the quality of the goods is not up to the standard requested, the onus is on the business to provide the service or rectify the problems associated with their service.

Matt

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tell them it costs < $10 to powdercoat one wheel in sydney

would it be more economical if you put the wheels in your magna, and drive over to Sydney and drop them off for them to be powdercoated, wait a few days, and then drive back home?

but on a serious note, I'd take Daniel's advice, he seems very wise

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oh.. sorry i mean verada

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a verada is a magna!

having been through a lot of businesses that dont provide the service they said they would, dani and i fully understand what its like and we're
sorry to hear about this bud..

i recommend you take someone with ya at least so you have a witness

No need to "get in the mood", you want to appear cool, calm and balanced but very determined. Histerics (atleast by a 19 year old, apparently not very dangerous looking boy) never help in such cases. Be polite and speak in a very calm voice - like you are the only voice of reason and the person you are talking to is slightly crazy, this way you'll increase your chances of being heard. But be very determined, have an immediate list of concise arguments that all lead to the same thing -you exercising your rights and making life difficult for them)
for eg. "you have advertised a service, inspected the wheels and did not warn me of any problems before accepting the job. Now you've damaged my property, failed to deliver the service and are actualy asking me for more money?"
"you are the proffesionals, you deal with alloy types every day, you should have warned me of any risks. The onus is on you to know how to deal with wheels which are not a standardised item and are mostly different from one another"
finaly "dont you think the fair trading department (or the WA equivalent), or a judge would feel this way too if it came to this?" and "I feel very strongly about this and will go after you through the legal system if I have to" you could also say that you've already spoke to a family friend of yours who is a lawyer and promised to give you legal advice and advised you to take them to the small claims court which will only cost you a $60 filing fee. Tell them youre a casual worker and can have a day off, but how do they feel about spending a couple of business days in court?

I just had the wheels on my girlfriend's Mini redone, they were pretty rough and corroded. But the powdercoater did warn me that even after sandblasting and their prep, corroded wheels may still bubble gasses through the new powdercoat when it was in the oven. So I got him to heat cycle the wheels in the oven a couple times when he was baking other items before he powdercoated mine. He did that and they turned out fine in the end.
But I still think that your powdercoater should have warned you first. When you end up getting the redone eventually maybe get them to cycle them in the oven a few times before they actually powdercoat them. I'm no expert, but it worked for me.

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email - [email protected]
http://s28.photobucket.com/albums/c207/TurboOrangie/

67 Traveller - Needs restoration
www.victoria-chiropractors.ca

1. get any paperwork they should have given you when you dropped off the rims

2. write down everything they have said to you and on which dates

3. go see them and tell them what you want and note their response

4. lodge a complaint on-line with consumer affairs (takes about 10 minutes and it will ask all of the above)

I had a problem a little while ago with some flooring people. About 10 days after I lodged the complaint a guy rang me and discussed the problem for about 10 minutes and confirmed my story. 20 minutes later the flooring guy rang me with the solution I wanted. The web site says that it may take up to 3 weeks to process, so if the powder coaters contact you in the mean time wanting money or something just tell them that it's been placed in the hands of Consumer Affairs and you'll get back to them

Small claims tribunal is great. I filed to take Strathfield Car Radios there a couple of years back. The great part is there's no legal representation allowed there, so they can't hide behind high priced liars (not a spelling mistake!), and the tribunal contacts them before the hearing to strongly encourage them to resolve the issue without having to get to the hearing - which they did, and I'm told is what usually happens.

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Bob Slattery
Duffman Says A Lot of Things - OH YEAH!!

How about showing us a picture of the "dodgey work"?

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[NATHAN] -- Sold everything mini related and am back in big beautiful BMWs

i hope i get to hear the faliure whinge

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