Long story short:
Bought a Flexalite Aluminum Radiator from PerformanceParts.com it was DOA, shipped it back several months ago, they never reply to voice mail messages or emails, im due about $500 for a refund...what is my best option?

Did you get it directly from them, or thru fleabay?

Since you've made numerous attempts to contact the seller, just call up your credit card company and explain the situation. If you have it documented with pics of the faulty part, receipts and/or tracking info from the return shipment, that may help. The CC may ask that you send them an affidavit of sorts, a signed letter explaining what happened so they have it in writing. A $500 charge against their account will get the vendor's attention. It's not considered polite or subtle, but you've clearly gotten nowhere with that approach thus far. In a refund situation for faulty/DOA merchandise I wouldn't wait several weeks, let alone "several months."

Long story long... my 'runner has a rebuilt engine in it after the original puked up a cylinder ring. It's a factory (ATK) rebuild, and my dad had all the install work done by a Toyota dealer. This was over 10 years ago, before it became mine. Anyway, here's the relevant info... we inspected it before driving off the lot, and dad found a few missing bolts on accessory brackets, improperly tightened belts, generally minor stuff but indicative of lazy or disorganized mechanics. Motor appeared to run fine, revved up freely, so we had them fix the little stuff, dad wrote the check to pay for it, and we headed home. Truck drove fine on the way home, but a couple of days later the oil pressure suddenly dropped to zero and it puked coolant all over the place. This was quite a spectacular failure for a 10-mile-old factory rebuild installed by an official dealer of Toyotas, what with their stellar reputation of quality and all. When we went back to the dealer the next afternoon, the service manager, even after we made him aware of the situation, had the balls to ask my dad why he called the bank to stop payment on the check. "I shouldn't be doing quality control work for Toyota. I'll pay you after it's done right, but based on this experience I have no desire to loan you the money in the mean time." They put one of their more experienced mechanics on it and did it right on the second attempt, and it's been purring along fine for the last 10 years.

That was long and rambling, but I've had a few cinco de mayo commemorative beverages and hey, at least it's truck related. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> And the lesson here is that going through the 3rd party handling the funds (bank or credit card company) has a way of getting someone's attention if you haven't gotten it previously. It's not the most diplomatic method, but you're not a charity so you shouldn't be giving out money for nothing. As long as you're letting them keep your money, they have no real incentive to remedy the situation.

BTW, I'm curious what radiator costs $500. What's it made of, platinum? <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Mafia! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/evil.gif" alt="" />

Was the part in any way faulty?

If it was "as ordered" and not faulty then there probably isn't much you can do, in the legal terminology "Caveat emptor" (let the buyer beware).

You can't generally return something for a full refund just because you don't like it. If it does not perform as advertised, or is in any other way manifestly unsatisfactory in workmanship, or it is not what you ordered you may have a chance.

Like Scott said, if you used a credit card, do a charge back. Usually you only have 60 days to do this, unless its outright fraud.

If you no longer have the product in your hand, you could try to argue fraud and that they stole your money. Probably won't fly, but its worth a try.

Beyond that, maybe try to sue them in small claims court. Hard to say if you can file in your region or not. You'd have to argue even though it was shipped to you, it was sold in your state. Heck, if you had to pay sales taxes on it, I'd argue you bought it in your state. It would be much better if they happen to have a distributor or some form of business in your state.

If you won a small claims, you could probably get the money back pretty easily after that. Just hire a collector and they'll go sieze something from them. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

>>>*One thing to remember about emails is they do often wander off somewhere they aren't supposed to. Add in servers that attach "points" for certain characters like dollar sign symbols and certain words, then the email can just get dumped as spam.

Best to use a telephone if possible, the item could be sitting there and the company may have no idea what to do with it. I have one sitting on my desk right now with no return address, no note, nothing. Some lash adjusters, we supply around 10 sets every week and if someone orders the wrong part, we are happy to refund. We just need to know who to and how much?

If that doesn't work then US mail and make them sign for it.

It's too late to initiate a chargeback most likely unless it was a paypal payment or something like that, even that company has limits.

Now if all else fails, there is one dirty trick. I had a company do similar to me years ago, some racing tires from Radke's. They had insisted I pay in advance, then they shipped Greyhound COD. So I had to pay twice, or no race.

No response to anything. I even got hung up on and had signature mail returned unaccepted.

So I waited 3 months, sent them a fancy looking box via Greyhound COD urgent. Put my Dad's ranch name, "OCS Ranch" on the return label so they wouldn't know it was me.

Heehee. Filled with some of the best Alder firewood money can buy, except a bit conky, bugs were included.

Got my $130 back, too. *Never heard a peep out of them.......Good luck!....*EB

If there not far away there is always small claims. Only cost around $50 to file.

How can a radiator be DOA?