Rimming away.
It is easy to equate incompetence with malice, as we know, and when I found myself assuming the worst strategic intentions due to the nature of the man's accent I began to try visualising him actually struggling with a busy workload, poor English, poor technical nous, infrastructural hindrance, and the general mental battering that comes with living in Christchurch.
Stereotypes from Fiction made it too easy to view this as an obstructive con-man. It helped to remember a friend who has a similar apparent general cultural background, and who is the most bend-over-backwards guy I know.
Two and a half weeks on, he finally sent me some rims. They arrived on Wednesday.
Nice, quite good condition, shiny and alloy. Except: they are the wrong fucking size. These are 15s, I need 14s. I had said so. I also already have a full set of 5 of exactly these rims with some vaguely shitty tyres already on them. Communication ensued in which I nicely but clearly reminded him of what was said by whom and when.
The phrase "as bent as a Chch wrecker" would still stand as a valid conversational reference in other circumstances, but I'm pretty sure that the situation where I got sent the wrong set of wheels really was just a mistake. Poor communication is understandable when someone needs to spend their days arranging the disposal and acquisition of automotive junk, rather than at a PC, never mind the language problem.
He may still be dicking me around, but really does appear to be looking for the correct rims.... especially since I sent a copy of our conversation prior to me buying, where he said he had them.
Fourteens are hard to find. I have told him this. I think he is realising though he reckons by Tuesday he'll have a set for me. That will be Tuesday of the fourth week since I clicked "buy now".
I had also during the waiting period been acquiring a few of the Mazda rims, with the same bolt pattern but a smaller center bore. A local engineer will enlarge those, and I now have a set of 5 waiting for that option. Either way it's a spare set for my Mazda, or is a very sellable scarce set.
So I could make do with those, or on sell them for bigger dollars than paid.
Harking back to above comments, there was a significant bust of Chch Wreckers a few months ago, uncovering a large racket involving stolen cars being chopped hastily and disposed of en masse, and that this seemed entrenched in the business there. He seems honest, though I don't want this guy running out and grabbing some other poor bastard's wheels or getting them from someone who did.
Also, now I have found another set of Mitsubishi 14s myself. I have told him, and suggested that perhaps I can get something else from him. I may just tell him to flag it, and move on, be charitable with my North Island wealth, and try to sell the 15s though they are practically worthless.
These other wheels were purchased on Tuesday, paid for by Wednesday, sent on Thursday, and arrived today (Friday). That's what I like. "Island Time" doesn't cut it.
From a L200 Sport Ute. Steel, flaky, dirty, spidery, and a bit rusty.
They clean up pretty well though, which I did after work today on just the one, that's after a couple of hours with a buffer and the sand-water-blasting.
The Blue Zinc turned out to be a bit more cobalt than I was expecting.
I have plans for that. Plans involving Blaaaaaack!
Stereotypes from Fiction made it too easy to view this as an obstructive con-man. It helped to remember a friend who has a similar apparent general cultural background, and who is the most bend-over-backwards guy I know.
Two and a half weeks on, he finally sent me some rims. They arrived on Wednesday.
Nice, quite good condition, shiny and alloy. Except: they are the wrong fucking size. These are 15s, I need 14s. I had said so. I also already have a full set of 5 of exactly these rims with some vaguely shitty tyres already on them. Communication ensued in which I nicely but clearly reminded him of what was said by whom and when.
The phrase "as bent as a Chch wrecker" would still stand as a valid conversational reference in other circumstances, but I'm pretty sure that the situation where I got sent the wrong set of wheels really was just a mistake. Poor communication is understandable when someone needs to spend their days arranging the disposal and acquisition of automotive junk, rather than at a PC, never mind the language problem.
He may still be dicking me around, but really does appear to be looking for the correct rims.... especially since I sent a copy of our conversation prior to me buying, where he said he had them.
Fourteens are hard to find. I have told him this. I think he is realising though he reckons by Tuesday he'll have a set for me. That will be Tuesday of the fourth week since I clicked "buy now".
I had also during the waiting period been acquiring a few of the Mazda rims, with the same bolt pattern but a smaller center bore. A local engineer will enlarge those, and I now have a set of 5 waiting for that option. Either way it's a spare set for my Mazda, or is a very sellable scarce set.
So I could make do with those, or on sell them for bigger dollars than paid.
Harking back to above comments, there was a significant bust of Chch Wreckers a few months ago, uncovering a large racket involving stolen cars being chopped hastily and disposed of en masse, and that this seemed entrenched in the business there. He seems honest, though I don't want this guy running out and grabbing some other poor bastard's wheels or getting them from someone who did.
Also, now I have found another set of Mitsubishi 14s myself. I have told him, and suggested that perhaps I can get something else from him. I may just tell him to flag it, and move on, be charitable with my North Island wealth, and try to sell the 15s though they are practically worthless.
These other wheels were purchased on Tuesday, paid for by Wednesday, sent on Thursday, and arrived today (Friday). That's what I like. "Island Time" doesn't cut it.
From a L200 Sport Ute. Steel, flaky, dirty, spidery, and a bit rusty.
They clean up pretty well though, which I did after work today on just the one, that's after a couple of hours with a buffer and the sand-water-blasting.
The Blue Zinc turned out to be a bit more cobalt than I was expecting.
I have plans for that. Plans involving Blaaaaaack!