Friday, August 1, 2008

I got scammed!

So, my mom sent my sewing machine to me and I was very excited. So it came in this big box with all these packing peanuts. And I took the sewing machine out of the box and took it upstairs and threw the box out. The box sat out on the sidewalk for several days and every day I was like, I should just check in that box and make sure i didn't miss anything. But I didn't do it.
So then, last weekend I was all excited to work on some crafts and I go to get out my sewing machine only to see that the foot pedal and power cord were not with it. I had apparently thrown them out. :(
So I had a mini nervous breakdown about my failure to manage basic life skills. Then I did a search online to find the replacement parts. It turns out that they are kind of hard to track down. I did call one company and he was like, "nope, I don't know if we have that." And I was like, "um...ok...would you be interested in checking?" And he gave me a whole bunch of nonsense. So I ended up deciding to order from the only place online that I could find. So I put in the order, got a little receipt and my card was charged. So that was on the 28th.
Yesterday, I emailed to see if I could get a tracking number, and didn't hear back.
Today, I kind of got concerned that it might be a scam, so I called the company. The phone was disconnected. Not a good sign.
I emailed a different email address and it was returned.
I googled "Sewing Style Scam" and came back with several hits, including complaints to the Better Business Bureau. I was totally hosed!
I called the bank to dispute the charges, and then in the meantime decided to call local Janome dealers to get the part.
One place said I needed to send in $20 and that he isn't going to order parts for another 2 weeks anyway.
Another place told me to trace the holes in my machine and bring in the tracing so that he could match up the plugs. I said, "Um, I have given you the make and model for this machine...so you should just be able to look and see if you have it in stock, and if you don't, you order it."
I seriously got the same shit from all the places I called. They wanted me to bring in my 20lb machine (not going to happen) and gave me a bunch of bullshit when I questioned why they seem to have so much trouble telling me if they have the part, or ordering it if they don't.
So then, I decided to call this place in Eugene b/c my mom was going to stop in there anyway.
When I called the woman was so nice and said she would check to see if they had it. When she checked and found they didn't have it, she said she would order it.
No bs about me needing to bring in the machine. No crap about tracing holes. And she was so nice. When she looked up how much it cost she was like, "oh i'm sorry, but it's $90". So nice! No bullshit!
And that is why I am moving back to Oregon next June.
My mom said, "Is that the reason New Yorkers are so angry all the time?"
Yes! Exactly! Because there is absolutely no reason for a sewing machine store to not tell me if they have a part. Argh!

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