Wednesday and Thursday all in one
Posted by Dr Diecast at 1/4/2008 7:08 AM and is filed under uncategorized 
So I didn't post anything yesterday since I was so busy. Along with just being too busy I am still sick and it seems sleeping is a problem now. To make a long story short im a 50 year old guy who takes no meds what so ever and when I do have to take something, as in now, it messes me up so I wont take anything before bed except Tylenol. Problem is Tylenol doesn't stop the coughing fits from the sore throat so I think I might have gotten 6 hours sleep the past 2 nights. Not good I tell ya.
Well........... im sorry if you could care less about RJC but it is down to crunch time here and since my partner can only help me on weekends it means I spend most of my days working on the cars for the show. I really thought I would have the cars in place right after the new year and then still have time to work on customer cars before the week I will be at BJ's but I was wrong, go figure, lol. Im just a guy and trying to juggle it all which sometimes can be a pain.
Here is an example.... while getting the 2 mini Cooper bodies and Desert scene box for the 70 Challenger (I did 12 White "Vanishing Point" Challenger box art for a diecast dealer) for one of my Canadian customers I have the one Mini slip from my hand and have the paint chip off the corner of the rear hatch. No biggy.... but.... I keep the hatch and still set about packaging everything for shipping.
So I decide im going to ship the box UPS since my post office is a genuine pain to deal with. See I live in a snowbird town...... snowbird meaning the town doubles in size every winter with the invasion of snowbirds from other cold states. Mind you I understand why as it was 74 yesterday and sunny on Jan 3rd, LOL, hell..... thats why I moved here too. When they move here they all get a PO box for there short stay and it makes the one and only post office with PO boxes busy busy busy ALL the time. All the time like standing in line for almost an hour to get to a counter person. This being typed I decided I didn't want to mess with that to ship these cars so I went to my UPS account to print everything and ship it that way.
First I see UPS has updated there website to make it "easier" to use.... LOL. Well I start creating the shipping tag and the site time outs. OK ....... shit happens, so I go in to do it again and it tells me its unavailable to try back later. OK........ I go on to do other things and come back in a hour......... same thing. Hmmm.... me thinks UPS is having problems, lol. So I end up back there about an hour later again..... this time it works, YEAH! So I type in all the info and then they have a screen about adding a commercial invoice for customs.... ok ... so it seems you have to print this blank page and fill it in which is what I do. Then I go back to print the label and it asked me all the same info cause UPS will print the invoice for me..... damn, just wasted like 10 minutes but thats ok. So I go through the hole thing and hit print label.... the site time outs, AGAIN! All is lost..... im pissed now so I call UPS..... guy tells me , yeah we are having some problems but its up and running now...... im like ok ........ so was my info saved? He says , yeah..... it should be there, go check. So I do and guess what ? Its not there... I have to start all over..... ugh!
So I set about redoing all the info and customs invoice again..... I look things over and ll seems fine to I hit print and boom I have a label........ but no customs form. I read the page and I get the impression that the info for customs is saved at UPS so were all good.
This by the way was Wednesday...... yesterday I get a call from UPS saying they never got a customs form and it should have printed with the label, LOL. Thankfully I had the hard copy here I had already filled out so I fax that to them and I guess everything is ok since I have heard nothing back, whew, finally.
Wednesday I did get the "Problem Camaro" back and yesterday I got the claim for with UPS admitting they damaged the car. Upon inspection im still in limbo as what to do. The lower front ground effects are broken off completely and will need to be redone. This would normally not be a problem but remember all the bodywork this car had and with that and the multiple coats of primer and paint I would have to strip this to do it right. Stripping a car with bondo and glazing putty means I will loose all of that and basically have to redo ALL the bodywork/ground effects again. Add to this I will have to buy another Firebird for the windshield and roof section and then cut trim and fit that again. Then prime, paint, clear and reassemble the car. So basically im starting over and since I can only claim the billed amount $505.00 and not the $285.00 additional I feel I have it Im not sure what I want to do. I can either just file the claim and refund the customer or redo the car with the hopes I can actually be happy with the time it takes for the $505.00 claim amount. What do you guys think ? I know the customer wants the car fixed or replaced. He loved it albiet broken. Knowing my frustration with this do I venture into the black hole that is the "Problem Camaro" again ?
I want to touch on 2 other things real quick......
First off.... I have stated here some of the things involved in the building of the RJC company. We made the decision due to time that we will not pour the resin parts made for the cars. The Cuda has 6 parts per car and possibly 10 when you include the custom made wheels. Well we sent everything to the manufacturing/casting company under the assumption that these parts would be cast in resin. Well...... we got a surprise yesterday, they wont be..... they are actually being cast in metal, hard metal, in some cases (wheels) hard polished metal. How cool is that !!!!!! So now every car will have custom made parts in METAL...... just like the diecast starter car. Heck just like REAL cars. I mean even the shaker will be metal, cool cool cool. Now....... thats the good, the bad... well the cost is about double what we were planing on paying but ... the end product is something NEVER done on a diecast modded car. So.... again, here I am being part of another FIRST. First modified diecast car using REAL cast metal parts. Hehe, I love this business sometimes. What a cool selling point too. This and well the fact that some die hard diecast collectors said for this price point using resin/plastic parts does cheapen the car. Well not anymore..... hehe.
OK...... I haven't ranted lately but I have a little one. As some know I own an PT Cruiser. Bought a new 06 mid 06, nice little car..... making payments like every other common guy. No big deal till I get a call from Chrysler Financial the other day. See my payment was due on the 25th... and I didn't pay it since I was watching cash flow and wanted to wait a couple more days.
So.... its due Dec 25th... they call me Jan 2nd.... asking where my payment is..... Im like, don't I have a 10 day grace period ? They say yes...... so do you want to pay that today by check ? Im like nooooooooooo I have 10 days.....it will be paid within the 10 days........ why the Fuuuuudge are you calling me when im 5 days late. Chrysler having that bad a year that they might go bankrupt without my little old payment ? Im sure you have many many people who owe 2 or 3 months worth in this economy and to call me when im 5 days late, give me a break. They said its a courtesy call and will I be paying that by check today.....I again said, what part of NO don't you understand. Heck look at my payment history..... I always make my payments on time and I find it funny you are wasting both my time and yours with this futile attempt to collect something that in YOUR COMPANIES EYES isn't even really past due. Ugh! I the said, im done talking with you goodbye and hung up, LOL. What the hell was that ? I mean really is Chrysler that bad off...... 5, ok 6 days I guess.... geeze. Anyway I paid it last night but hey, I wonder if they will call me back and personally thank me for saving the company ? I doubt it, LOL.
OK ...... im out
Well........... im sorry if you could care less about RJC but it is down to crunch time here and since my partner can only help me on weekends it means I spend most of my days working on the cars for the show. I really thought I would have the cars in place right after the new year and then still have time to work on customer cars before the week I will be at BJ's but I was wrong, go figure, lol. Im just a guy and trying to juggle it all which sometimes can be a pain.
Here is an example.... while getting the 2 mini Cooper bodies and Desert scene box for the 70 Challenger (I did 12 White "Vanishing Point" Challenger box art for a diecast dealer) for one of my Canadian customers I have the one Mini slip from my hand and have the paint chip off the corner of the rear hatch. No biggy.... but.... I keep the hatch and still set about packaging everything for shipping.
So I decide im going to ship the box UPS since my post office is a genuine pain to deal with. See I live in a snowbird town...... snowbird meaning the town doubles in size every winter with the invasion of snowbirds from other cold states. Mind you I understand why as it was 74 yesterday and sunny on Jan 3rd, LOL, hell..... thats why I moved here too. When they move here they all get a PO box for there short stay and it makes the one and only post office with PO boxes busy busy busy ALL the time. All the time like standing in line for almost an hour to get to a counter person. This being typed I decided I didn't want to mess with that to ship these cars so I went to my UPS account to print everything and ship it that way.
First I see UPS has updated there website to make it "easier" to use.... LOL. Well I start creating the shipping tag and the site time outs. OK ....... shit happens, so I go in to do it again and it tells me its unavailable to try back later. OK........ I go on to do other things and come back in a hour......... same thing. Hmmm.... me thinks UPS is having problems, lol. So I end up back there about an hour later again..... this time it works, YEAH! So I type in all the info and then they have a screen about adding a commercial invoice for customs.... ok ... so it seems you have to print this blank page and fill it in which is what I do. Then I go back to print the label and it asked me all the same info cause UPS will print the invoice for me..... damn, just wasted like 10 minutes but thats ok. So I go through the hole thing and hit print label.... the site time outs, AGAIN! All is lost..... im pissed now so I call UPS..... guy tells me , yeah we are having some problems but its up and running now...... im like ok ........ so was my info saved? He says , yeah..... it should be there, go check. So I do and guess what ? Its not there... I have to start all over..... ugh!
So I set about redoing all the info and customs invoice again..... I look things over and ll seems fine to I hit print and boom I have a label........ but no customs form. I read the page and I get the impression that the info for customs is saved at UPS so were all good.
This by the way was Wednesday...... yesterday I get a call from UPS saying they never got a customs form and it should have printed with the label, LOL. Thankfully I had the hard copy here I had already filled out so I fax that to them and I guess everything is ok since I have heard nothing back, whew, finally.
Wednesday I did get the "Problem Camaro" back and yesterday I got the claim for with UPS admitting they damaged the car. Upon inspection im still in limbo as what to do. The lower front ground effects are broken off completely and will need to be redone. This would normally not be a problem but remember all the bodywork this car had and with that and the multiple coats of primer and paint I would have to strip this to do it right. Stripping a car with bondo and glazing putty means I will loose all of that and basically have to redo ALL the bodywork/ground effects again. Add to this I will have to buy another Firebird for the windshield and roof section and then cut trim and fit that again. Then prime, paint, clear and reassemble the car. So basically im starting over and since I can only claim the billed amount $505.00 and not the $285.00 additional I feel I have it Im not sure what I want to do. I can either just file the claim and refund the customer or redo the car with the hopes I can actually be happy with the time it takes for the $505.00 claim amount. What do you guys think ? I know the customer wants the car fixed or replaced. He loved it albiet broken. Knowing my frustration with this do I venture into the black hole that is the "Problem Camaro" again ?
I want to touch on 2 other things real quick......
First off.... I have stated here some of the things involved in the building of the RJC company. We made the decision due to time that we will not pour the resin parts made for the cars. The Cuda has 6 parts per car and possibly 10 when you include the custom made wheels. Well we sent everything to the manufacturing/casting company under the assumption that these parts would be cast in resin. Well...... we got a surprise yesterday, they wont be..... they are actually being cast in metal, hard metal, in some cases (wheels) hard polished metal. How cool is that !!!!!! So now every car will have custom made parts in METAL...... just like the diecast starter car. Heck just like REAL cars. I mean even the shaker will be metal, cool cool cool. Now....... thats the good, the bad... well the cost is about double what we were planing on paying but ... the end product is something NEVER done on a diecast modded car. So.... again, here I am being part of another FIRST. First modified diecast car using REAL cast metal parts. Hehe, I love this business sometimes. What a cool selling point too. This and well the fact that some die hard diecast collectors said for this price point using resin/plastic parts does cheapen the car. Well not anymore..... hehe.
OK...... I haven't ranted lately but I have a little one. As some know I own an PT Cruiser. Bought a new 06 mid 06, nice little car..... making payments like every other common guy. No big deal till I get a call from Chrysler Financial the other day. See my payment was due on the 25th... and I didn't pay it since I was watching cash flow and wanted to wait a couple more days.
So.... its due Dec 25th... they call me Jan 2nd.... asking where my payment is..... Im like, don't I have a 10 day grace period ? They say yes...... so do you want to pay that today by check ? Im like nooooooooooo I have 10 days.....it will be paid within the 10 days........ why the Fuuuuudge are you calling me when im 5 days late. Chrysler having that bad a year that they might go bankrupt without my little old payment ? Im sure you have many many people who owe 2 or 3 months worth in this economy and to call me when im 5 days late, give me a break. They said its a courtesy call and will I be paying that by check today.....I again said, what part of NO don't you understand. Heck look at my payment history..... I always make my payments on time and I find it funny you are wasting both my time and yours with this futile attempt to collect something that in YOUR COMPANIES EYES isn't even really past due. Ugh! I the said, im done talking with you goodbye and hung up, LOL. What the hell was that ? I mean really is Chrysler that bad off...... 5, ok 6 days I guess.... geeze. Anyway I paid it last night but hey, I wonder if they will call me back and personally thank me for saving the company ? I doubt it, LOL.
OK ...... im out
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