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Mike or anyone else who can contact him, can you please contact me or pass on this message and let me know what is happeing to my shipment of parts I have paid for ?

I have tried ringing, email, snail mail and contacting people who thought they could get in contact with you but have so far failed.

I am a patient sort of guy but it has been almost six months since you took the $$$$ off my credit card and I haven't hearding anything about the shipment.

Cheers,

Brad

Relevant threads to read with basically the same sad story of delivery and communication issues with this business:

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=188974

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=178698

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=166745

Thanks ZTNOO .. I guess i will kiss my $$$$ good bye until I hit the USA next year and track him down for a chat.

Until then I will continue to attempt to contact him via all and any means I can find.

Cheers

Posted: 5/28/06, 1:03 pm

Video Bob wrote:

"After cancelling an order three months ago, I got a call from Mr. Basso practically begging to re-instate the order with an offer of free shipping. I always try to give a second chance and agreed to re-instate the order. The parts arrived about ten days later. (NY to GA norm about 3 days)
I placed a second order about 30 days later. No parts No communications but 10 days after placing the order, my credit card reflected a $184 charge from TU. 17 days after the charge, no parts. Dispute filed with MC. I don't know if Mr basso is just a poor businessman or has some other problem best not accused of on this forum. I do know of individuals who have lost their families, business, home and friends because of poor choices in "entertainment".

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewto ... 05#1702321

K-mann,
I see you deleted your post (which was the second message posted) from this thread.
What was your motivation for doing so and why did you deem that necessary?
Regards,
ztnoo

I have deleted my Basso posts from this forum as an attempt to cloe this subject.. STF Things is not in business to just continue to beat on any vendor, but also does not back away from posting "continuing problems". Mike Basso seems to fall in the continuing problem class. We have about beat this topic to death. I would like this topic to be a closed issue. Everyone knows the issues and continuing to post about it will not change anything.

For the rest of us who prefer to be fully informed, I think it's paramount to remember knowledge is power....whether we're discussing mechanical issues or procedures, or discussing suppliers who assist us in keeping these peculiar vehicles running.
I disagree that "everyone knows the issues". That's just not true. If that were true, the reports of deficient supplier performance wouldn't keep rolling in at the various Thing forums. A capricious, arbitrary statement about closing the issue, won't change the situation or make it go away.

I have been continually stunned over the last year to read posts by innocent parts buyers who had no knowledge of the current state of affairs of T.U. and fire off an order....then discover shockingly over weeks and weeks and months and months, they can't get parts, can't communicate with the proprietor, and worse than that in some cases, have been charged for merchandise which hasn't been received.
Saying discussions on this topic should be closed is only sticking one's head in the sand and ignoring the problem. That won't make the problem go away. Deflecting the issue to another universe doesn't help the average guy looking to buy Thing parts in the real world. It doesn't make him more knowledgeable about which suppliers to use and which to avoid.

As a community sharing information about Things and everything related to them, I believe it is incumbent upon all of us to share information, the good, as well as the bad, and the ugly, about what we each have experienced and observed attempting to deal with this entity, or any other entity.
If we don't, and just wistfully hope the problem will go away and say we aren't going to discuss it, the list of more innocent, uninformed buyers will continue to grow.
If there's room for cheerleaders and flag wavers in this forum, there has to be room for more reflective perspectives and realistic rationales about deficient performances by a supplier......no matter who they are.

ztnoo,

You should run for Congress. Impressive speech. Both posts!

But let me set the record straight. Basically, I asked Kubelmann to close the thread. Posts have been made for months and months about TU's problems. Any search for Mike Basso or TU will turn up these posts. All are extremely negative and should serve as a warning to any prospective buyer.

STF accepts no advertising or contributions from any source. I pay for this site out of my pocket. STF does not "pull the punch" on ANY vendor. We are also not obligated to keep complaints on the front page.

Your backhanded shot at Kubelmann is uncalled for. K has gone way over and beyond the call of duty to preserve TU's business and reputation for the Thing community. Unfortunately, TU seems oblivious to folks trying to be supportive.

I believe you have stated your opinion on every TU thread. Everybody does get your view (and, I believe, most support it). OK. Let's move on, please.

doc

For the record.... I am a poor to medium STF Thing forum moderator (compared to my dear old friend Bob Ingman) But you are stuck with me... for now... Any further negative comments or posts about TU or Mike, I will delete.... Done deal... We are done with. This thread is closed....

pablo espanol's thoughts and experiences:
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewto ... c&start=20

and the beat goes on......

Kubelmann wrote:Any further negative comments or posts about TU or Mike, I will delete.... Done deal... We are done with. This thread is closed....

I'm sorry K-Mann. I have lots of respect for you, but I can't respect your position on the censorship of this particular issue. There are new Thing enthusiasts cropping up all the time to whom this information would be most valuable, and keeping the topic near the top of the list is important.

I could support a ban on future Basso-bashing if there was a locked sticky containing a brief warning to potential customers that Basso is unreliable.

Respectfully,

Spalding

Spaulding,

Obviously, you have not bothered to read the rest of this thread. The thread is not closed. Neither Kmann nor I has pulled any punch on any vendor. Period.

"Any search for Mike Basso or TU will turn up these posts. All are extremely negative and should serve as a warning to any prospective buyer."

"STF accepts no advertising or contributions from any source. I pay for this site out of my pocket. STF does not "pull the punch" on ANY vendor. We are also not obligated to keep complaints on the front page."

What didn't you understand? There isn't going to be a sticky about this topic to suit you. Sorry. STF is under no obligation to post anything to inform buyers. However, for those of us that actually bother to read the forums and use the search facility, there is an amazing amount of information available. Try it. You'll like it.

doc

doc wrote:Spaulding,

Obviously, you have not bothered to read the rest of this thread. The thread is not closed. Neither Kmann nor I has pulled any punch on any vendor. Period.

Yep. I read it all.

"Any search for Mike Basso or TU will turn up these posts. All are extremely negative and should serve as a warning to any prospective buyer."

Certainly it can be said it's the buyer's responsibility to check out a vendor before making a purchase, but few of us actually do that search until after we've experienced a problem. Whenever you contemplate an online purchase, do you always find a related forum and do a search on the vendor? I don't. And I disagree that such painstaking research falls within the realm of due dilligence. It is reasonable, even in this caveat emptor world, to expect that when you place an order and send payment to a vendor that you should receive the goods.

"STF accepts no advertising or contributions from any source. I pay for this site out of my pocket. STF does not "pull the punch" on ANY vendor. We are also not obligated to keep complaints on the front page."

Thanks for your commitment of time and resources to the ACVW community. Along with many others, I appreciate it. It's your baby, and you have a right to edit and censor as you see fit.

What didn't you understand? There isn't going to be a sticky about this topic to suit you. Sorry. STF is under no obligation to post anything to inform buyers. However, for those of us that actually bother to read the forums and use the search facility, there is an amazing amount of information available. Try it. You'll like it.

I didn't, and still don't understand - because in the last post that the moderator of this forum made to this thread he said that he would delete any further negative posts about Basso/TU, and that this thread is closed.

Obviously this thread is not closed, or we wouldn't be able to post this friendly little exchange. While you are under no obligation to inform potential TU customers of the risks of doing business with Basso, censoring the posts of others who would do so goes beyond not being obligated to warn or inform other readers. It sounds a lot like "pulling a punch." And it threatens the credibility so carefully engendered by your policy of not accepting ads or contributions. The aim of my comments was to protect the credibility of your forum.

As to the posting of a sticky on the subject: when I made the suggestion, I did so under the assumption that K-mann was urging dropping the subject because of the sheer redundancy of it all. Stickies are commonly used as a device to preemt repetetive questions or comments. And it was in that light that I made the suggestion. I certainly didn't mean to suggest that I think it is his, or your, obligation to do so.

Sorry to get you all up on your hind legs.

Spalding

Spalding,

Ok, "slight" over reaction on my part . Sorry. In fact, you raise some good points. Points I agree with.

When I saw this post initially, I contacted Kubelmann and asked (in my own inimitable fashion ) if this subject, which has been previously covered ad naseum on this forum and others, needed to be rehashed yet again. These posts almost inevitably attract other posters who have no actual experience with the business in question, but have heard "from a friend of a cousin of a .........." that so and so did whatever.

In my usual inept fashion, I miscommunicated with K-mann and left him with the impression that I wanted the post closed. That is the genesis of his post you are referring to. Subsequent to that communication between K-mann and me, we agreed to leave the thread open. K-mann then did not delete his previous post.

I know that K-manns original intent on the MB/TU issue was to try and preserve this formerly valuable and RARE 181 parts supplier viable to the hobby. Obviously, that has not happened. Too bad, but I believe K-mann did the right thing. He actively tried to do something positive for the hobby. In return, let's just say he hasn't gotten much of a return on his investment.

So, MB is either problem plagued or just a thief. I don't know. He has caused unending problems over the last year for both K-mann and STF. We ended up, as we often do, with "no good deed goes unpunished". The internet is a scary thing.

Please accept my apologies for the fiery post. Whatya want? I'm old. I'm lame. I have a bad temper. I'll do better. It occurs to me that it is highly likely that every person on this thread has the same goal in mind. I will continue to be appreciative of your input.

doc

Certainly it can be said it's the buyer's responsibility to check out a vendor before making a purchase, but few of us actually do that search until after we've experienced a problem. Whenever you contemplate an online purchase, do you always find a related forum and do a search on the vendor? I don't. And I disagree that such painstaking research falls within the realm of due dilligence. It is reasonable, even in this caveat emptor world, to expect that when you place an order and send payment to a vendor that you should receive the goods.

This is not an ideal world we live in. I NEVER buy from a source whose reputation is not known to me. If people shopped reputation as thoroughly as they shopped prices there would be less complaining and probably less bad businesses to take folks money. The research is not all that painstaking, and once one has been burned they end up taking the nessacary precautions in the future anyway. Might as well do it from the begining.

Ron