[alfa] portable garage caution

[Richard Welty <rwelty@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

first of all, i don't have a problem with the quonset style portable garages.
from checking in the area, they have worked well for people around here,
not needing any particular care in snowy conditions or anything. having
checked, i started shopping, and the best price appeared to be a
connecticut based vendor on ebay, a hundred or so dollars per shelter
cheaper than buying locally. so i ordered two from that vendor.

it turns out that this wasn't the smartest move on my part, there are hidden
costs in the shipping end of the deal. in summary, overnite transportation,
the shipper chosen by the garage vendor, has customer service in the
best tradition of the old bell monopoly, which is to say basically none. [1]
between taking a half day off from my hourly no benefits contract programming
job, renting a cargo van, and paying the suprise storage charges, this
is going to cost more than buying locally would have, it's taken longer to
get, and my aggravation levels are much higher than they would have been.

i'm not saying that you shouldn't buy something like this off of ebay,
i'm just suggesting doing better research than i did. the wrong shipping
company can make it a pretty miserable experience.

richard

[1] their concept of a delivery appointment is "sometime during
business hours on the day of your choice". today, the phone
company at least narrows it down to morning or afternoon, and
for large appliance deliveries, sears will call you at a designated
number 4 stops early so you can get home before they do.
by comparison, the customer service person at overnite had zero
interest in the notion of "getting it done", no real concern over
whether or not i ever got my shipment, and nothing at all in the
way of ideas that might help with the situation. at times it seemed
like she was taking some care to make sure that everytime i made
a step forward, there would be a corresponding step back.
-- 
Richard Welty                                         rwelty@domain.elided
Averill Park Networking                                         518-573-7592
    Java, PHP, PostgreSQL, Unix, Linux, IP Network Engineering, Security
--
to be removed from alfa, see /bin/digest-subs.cgi
or email "unsubscribe alfa" to majordomo@domain.elided