[alfa] Cats Again: The Plot Sickens

[Will Owen <nashwill912@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Well...

First of all, thanks for the input from Alfa friends old and new, and
you know who you are. I must say that I had a hard time maintaining my
cool when presented with a $200-plus converter being touted as a
Discount Special, seeing as how my last one cost me about $60. Okay,
they have gone up some like everything else, but I found a couple in the
$80 range, and my story is all about pursuing one of those:

After doing a Yahoo search, I found the website for catconverters.com,
and followed their ASP routine to a converter for the Milano. It wasn't
a "direct fit," but a generic, which is pretty much what I got last
time. So I "put" it in my "shopping cart" (isn't it cute? After all
these years, we're doing pretend grownup stuff again) and went to pay.
Something like $86 for the cat, another $13 for three-day shipping. This
was on a Wednesday evening. By the following Tuesday, no cat in hand, I
was a bit annoyed, especially after getting a very bogus-looking email
confirming the financial transaction. I sent an reply to that, and while
it didn't bounce I didn't get an answer either. On Friday, still
catless, I saw that my account had finally been debited for the amount.
This all tended to confirm my growing suspicion that I'd been had for
damn near a hundred bucks, and I called Bank of America to see what
recourse I might have. They couldn't de-authorize the payment, but the
nice woman said that if I still hadn't gotten the goods after the
weekend, I should call back to file a claim and they'd do what they could.

Nothing came on Monday, so that evening I went to the website and found
their email link and 800 number. I sent a query to the email address,
and it bounced. Uh-oh. The next morning, I tried calling the 800 number.
Repeatedly. Busy every time. BIG uh-oh. So I pulled together all my
printed-out copies of whatever evidence I had, intending to call BofA on
my lunch break to start proceedings. What stopped me from doing that was
the appearance, on my front porch at noon, of a box containing one
catalytic converter!

At least I assume that's what is in there; I guess they could've just
sent eight pounds of scrap metal. I still haven't gotten around to
looking. I'll let you know...

Will Owen
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