A Woman And Her Car . . .

May get the experience of a mechanic trying to rip them off, badly. 

Tash's car did indeed need an alignment after getting new tires. 

She took it to an alignment / repair shop that is a chain that goes by the brand name of a king who had the ability to turn everything he touched into gold.

Well, at Midas, they must have thought they struck gold when seeing her bring her car in for an alignment.

They performed a free inspection, then refused to do the alignment and claimed the car was unsafe to drive and needed $11,000+ in repairs, complete with a nice detailed scary report with pictures.

She properly flipped out and decided to take it to our own mechanic that we trust to get a second opinion.

Unsurprisingly, No, it does NOT need $11,000.00+ in repairs.  

But, it does need a couple repairs - new rear struts, power steering reservoir is leaking, and it needs a new gasket for the transfer case and some new front brakes which are actually going to be repaired as a warranty as the brakes are replacements and still under warranty, and the total is not even close to the $11,000 quoted (which is more than the car is worth at this point - but it's paid off and overall reliable transportation) -  it is $1,800 to repair everything.  He is not seeing any evidence of most of what they are quoting as problems and is in fact seeing the opposite of their claims. Our mechanic is furious at Midas for trying to rip her off, as are we.

Now to be fair,  they'd probably pull that on me as well, but I suspect they pull it more readily on women even more due to the stereotype of women not knowing anything about cars or car repairs.  Shame on them for pulling this nonsense.

So yes, if you get a repair quote at Midas, you'd better get a second opinion.

No Happy Glow Of A HALO

Murphy's Law reports on the successful completion of the transfer of his Gemtech HALO, which I did get to shoot when visiting him in the Big Easy.

We each bid on used Gemtech HALO's from the same dealer on the last day of the NRAAM - Paducah Tactical in Kentucky run by Stephen Douglass and both won our bids on used Gemtech HALO suppressors.

In April 2017, right after winning the bid I duly sent in my money via money order for the suppressor and $18 for shipping and my SOT FFL's paperwork for the transfer and patently waited for the NFA Branch to do their paperwork processing and waited some more.

Well, the day came when the initial transfer paperwork from Paducah Tactical to my dealer was approved and he then shipped it via Postal Service Priority Mail in June 2017 to my dealer, with tracking information. Should be simple, right?

Not so much.

Apparently the Post Office tried to deliver to my dealer on a day he was not open and they did not leave a notice that they had a package for him. They tried to deliver it once.

Then the package . . . . disappears.

The Post Office has no trace of it, it was not returned to Kentucky, it is not at my dealer's local Post Office where the last scan said it is, in fact it has vanished without neither a trace nor an explanation.

My dealer checks into it and is told by the Post Office that they don't have it here. Paducah Tactical says they check their post office and no record there either. Both request the Post Office trace it and nothing happens.

This gets to be more fun.

So it is clearly lost without a trace and my dealer both reports it as lost to the Post Office as a lost item and to ATF, as apparently does Paducah Tactical. I go personally to the Post Office and have them search for it again and also file a lost report. Unfortunately, I cannot make an insurance claim on the package as I'm not the sender, only Paducah Tactical and Stephen Douglass can do that.

Unfortunately Paducah Tactical and Stephen Douglass have failed to refund my money on this and he/they are the only ones who could do an insurance claim on the package as they are the senders. Requests for refunds have been met with silence.

As such, if you do any businessmen with Stephen Douglass and Paducah Tactical, I'd say its a 50/50 chance you'll either end up happy like Murph or screwed out of your money like me. You have been warned.