| Author | Message | ||
| RANDY FULKERSON (Rwf) (66.82.9.11)
Rating: N/A |
I have found it necessary to post this in my defense. I also have posted a lengthy reply in the Where is my Bus Part II thread. It was recently brought to my attention that derogatory comments were being posted about me on this board. This is my chance to set the record straight and give my side of the story. My name is Randy Fulkerson a.k.a. Missouri Randy a.k.a. Diesel-doc1 on Ebay. I like to think that I treat people fairly and am knowledgeable about my business (the bus business). You can check my feedback on Ebay and see that most people agree. If ANYONE reading this thinks that they were ever treated unfairly by me, if anything I ever sold them or repaired for them was misrepresented, if I owe them anything or they feel they were ripped off, please respond here publicly firsthand. Tell your story! If you need to get in touch with me, my name is Randy Fulkerson. My address is RR 2 Box 125A, Cole Camp, MO 65325 (this is my street address!! I'm in Missouri on the corner of highway 65 and the P highway which is 12 miles south of Sedalia, MO and 100 miles north of Springfield, MO), my phone number is 660-668-3310, my cell phone is 660-287-2980. I have nothing to hide and am hiding from nobody. I've been in the bus business for well over 20 years now. I am a master diesel mechanic with lots of bus experience from keeping buses on the road in every day charter operations to pioneering some of the early V730 transmission swaps in GMC coaches. Last year between selling and scrapping for parts, I went through over 100 buses. This was accomplished mostly by myself with some casual labor. People come to me for one of two reasons. Either they can not find a better deal on similar buses or parts or they have mechanical problems/questions that they need answers to. This makes me a pretty busy guy. None of this is to toot my horn. It is only to inform those who don't know me about my experience in this field. Over the years, I have had very few unhappy customers. Recently I have had two that I know of. Part of the problem was trying to do most things by myself. My time started to get spread pretty thin which made me hard to get a hold of and not responding to inquiries as fast as I should have. Things got pretty intense in Phoenix where my business was located with too many 20 hour days. I found that almost half of the buses or parts that we brought to Phoenix or shipped from Phoenix were passing through the central U.S. and decided that for me to have more time with my wife and to continue to grow my business, that a central location would be beneficial to both myself and my customers. I found 30 acres in central Missouri that would work well for this, so last fall we bought it complete with a 2.5 acre lake full of fish. We are now in the process of hiring help so that I can delegate some of my responsibility and give better customer service. Let me get back to the two individuals that I know were not happy with me. The first one was Dwight Brasseaux (now known as DB) DB needed a 4.10 ratio rear end for his RTS. I had one. We agreed on a price which included shipping. I fit pulling this rear end into my busy schedule and palletized it for shipping. I think this was back in July of 2002 or so. I figured this to be a done deal. I was paid, his rear end was shipped by Motor Cargo in Phoenix, AZ to his location in Louisiana. DB contacted me at a later date to inform me that he had not received the rear end. At this time, I was on my way to Pennsylvania to pick up 4 MC9s that I had purchased. This made it difficult for me to check on his shipment. I believe this was in August, 2002. By the time I was back in Phoenix, it was September and I had 3 days to move 30 RTS buses that had been parked for a year. This also made it difficult for me to keep track of things for Dwight. It was the end of September by the time I took the time and became convinced that the rear end for DB was lost and could not be found. I put in a freight claim and looked through the different buses I had that may have the correct ratio rear end for DB. I am going off of memory here, so the dates may be off a bit. I believe it was close to the end of October before I found a rear end to replace the one lost in shipping. I had, in telephone conversations with DB, offered to send his money back, but he REALLY NEEDED the rear end. After I had the second rear end pulled and palletized, I again took it to Motor Cargo in Phoenix to have them ship it to DB. As I dropped the rear end off on their dock, I called DB and gave him all the shipping information and asked if he would keep track of the shipment for both our sakes. He informed me that he would be glad to do so. Somewhere about 2 to 3 weeks later, DB contacted me and let me know that they had lost the 2nd rear end!! Unbelievable!! He told me that Motor Cargo had handed the shipment off to another carrier in Texas and he had talked to them and they walked out on the dock and looked at his rear end. There was a paperwork mix-up and they tried to say that this was a collect shipment and DB informed them that NO, it was prepaid. It took them a few days to figure this out. By the time that they figured out that DB was right, they could no longer find the rear end. I'm glad that he was keeping track of this himself because at that point, I am not even sure he believed the first one had been lost. We made a bill showing that the rear end had been torn down for inspection and reassembled. I believe that this got him a refund from the freight company of more than he had paid to me. Boy, it's a good thing that we had the tear down and reassembly on the bill for the second rear end because the first rear end freight ticket only showed one used rear end and I got a whole 10 cents a pound refund. Whoopee!! This whole deal cost me about $850.00 plus my time and aggravation, not to mention DB's worry and aggravation PLUS some bad publicity. I don't believe that DB has a problem with me at this time. Let me tell you about the second unhappy customer that I know of... Al Kline, from this board, bought a 671 4 valve head with Jake brake and valve cover from me. After his check cleared in late December 2002, I shipped his head with **blush** Motor Cargo. It may have been the first part of January, 2003 by the time I actually got it there. After numerous attempts to get a hold of me while I was on many trips between Phoenix and all parts of the U.S., Al informed me that he had not received his head. *sigh* Being too busy for my own good, and the good of my business, I finally figured out that this shipment had been lost. ***SURPRISE*** After Al and I talked again, I delegated the shipment of another head. Many more phone calls from an unhappy Al because he still had not received his head, I found that the 2nd head never shipped!! It was still sitting at a friend's business that was supposed to have gotten this shipped for me. At this point, Al wanted nothing to do with getting his parts. He just wanted his money back. I can't say that I blame him either. I would have wanted the same under the same circumstances. So, while in Phoenix, I went to the bank and purchased a money order and sent it off to Al with an extra $50 for his troubles. Then off to Missouri I went. Some time later, I got an email from Al asking about his refund. I gave him the info of when I had sent it out along with a new phone number for me in Missouri. Al called and talked to my wife, who promised him she would get to the bottom of this. After an ass kicking from my wife, I did what I could to try and trace something I had mailed from Phoenix while I was physically in Missouri. This did not work too well. I checked with the bank where I purchased the money order and they said that they would see if they could figure out the serial number for me and check to see if it had been cashed. My receipt with the serial number on it is in my service truck which broke down on me in El Paso, TX and it is still there. The bank was able to tell me that the money order had not been cashed, but this was as far as I got until I was in Phoenix late last month. I went to my P.O. Box I keep there and guess what I found??? I found a plastic post office pouch with half an envelope and half a money order in it. The half of the envelope was the half with my return address. The half of the money order was the half without the serial number. I took this to my bank and they assured me that, IN TIME, they would refund me on the money order. I still have not received my refund. **  ** I Fedexed Al a cashier's check the other day. He called me today to thank me and to let me know there were no hard feelings. Now here I am minus a 671 4 valve head with Jake brake and valve cover AND 2 refunds that I paid out. One refund that the bank is supposed to refund me on and the other that Al finally got and more bad publicity. I believe both Al and Dwight are satisfied and do not feel that I "ripped them off". If ANYONE feels that I have ripped them off or had a negative experience with me, PLEASE let me know and post it HERE for others to see!! If you have never done business with me and you think that you know someone that knows someone that thinks they may have heard something bad about me, please don't gossip. Lets stick to the facts, and the facts are that if it is for a bus and I have it, I consistently sell for less than other dealers. I am up and running in Missouri with no delays (for the most part... nobody's perfect!) and I now use Yellow Freight for shipping and they have been very reliable. You can even track shipments online. Randy Fulkerson | ||
| Dwight (67.213.8.230) Rating: N/A |
I agree with Randy, that, I am satisfied with the final out come, I believe the cause of the entire problem was the freight company, with the change of freight company, I believe Randy's problems should lesson .... I am currently investigating the purchase of another rear end from Randy !! BUT maybe this time I wiil drive over there to pick it up !!! LOL ... now that he is closer to me ... | ||
| OAE Palmer (216.39.187.187) Rating: N/A |
Randy, THAT took time, effort and fortitude! For Dwight to chime in in support of your version convinces me that YOU have gone far and aways beyond "responsible" in the 2 transactions exampled..... thanks for.. "the REST of the story..!"  | ||
| Geoff (Geoff) (66.238.120.20)
Rating: N/A |
I am also glad Randy gave a full account of what's been happening-- it appears that people have been smearing his name around here without justifiable cause and no one in the know bothered to straighten out the story. I bought something from Randy a while back before the "problems" started and I was totally pleased with his service. Unfortuately it was hard to defend Randy when the complaints started and he was no where to be found. I even tried calling Randy on Dwight's behalf to see if he would answer the phone to tell us what was going on. I hope that in the future Randy doesn't spread himself out too thin-- if you are going to run a business you have to have someone in the office to take care of business, not just an answering machine. On the other hand, once the problems were resolved, the public complainers should have posted their satisfaction instead of leaving the bad stories stuck in everyone's mind. --Geoff '82 RTS CA | ||
| John Feld (150.199.209.14)
Rating: N/A |
Every true story contains a moral. The moral of this story is: don't jump to conclusions before you hear both sides. What can we gain by this unfortunate story? There is a system used by many in the trucking industry that uses satilite tracking and has located and retrived many trucks from Mexico as well as US locations. There is a system called LoJack (sp) that people use for their more expensive cars. Install a tracking device or some form of disableing device to prevent theft, isn't your hard work and investment worth it? Randy: thank you for comming forth with your "side" of the story in such a factual, streight-forward, polite manner ... you have gained my respect, even though I get the impresion you need to work on your management skills some. BTW Randy: do you deal in other than RTS, say 'ol GMC PD's? I will need a few body parts in the future for my 4104. I live S.E. of you 200 miles. All's well that ends well! John 4104 | ||
| Johnny (67.241.224.156)
Rating: N/A |
"What can we gain by this unfortunate story?" A new appreciation for hand-delivering big, heavy crated bus parts? | ||
| Alan Kline (206.28.236.235)
Rating: N/A |
Well the Paco Xpress will chime in again hears the deal when Randy told me on the phone that he would surely get back to me that day 1\21\03 and I wait&wait you begin to wonder If he would have called and said have not found anything out I could have gone on with my business which is also inportian I do belive Randy is a good man as I was told by other bus owners whoes busses he has worked on I do intend to go to his new location and meet him and purchase bus stuff. all is A OK | ||
| toddVP (Tvp) (63.122.65.97)
Rating: N/A |
Hey ... I bought a bus from Randy, on ebay none the less !! VERY happy with my dealings with him !! I wish I could buy more from him !! I'm sure things at his old yard in AZ got ugly after he left !! I met some VERY nice new bus owners there .. and one VERY fishy individual .. Randy was spot on !! I sent him cash , got my title fedex , drove my bus 2000 miles home !!! deal couldn't have been better | ||
| Scott Whitney (66.82.168.1) Rating: N/A |
I am a one-man business and can sympathize with being spread out thinly. Couple things I find very useful: 1) An answering machine with a remote message feature so you can call yourself and pick up messages when on the road. 2) A cell phone. 3) I put my cell phone number on the outgoing message of my answering machine (in case I am away) and I put the landline number on the outgoing message of my cell phone voicemail (in case I am out of range). 4) The US post office has some inexpensive tracking methods. One is called Delivery Confirmation. It is a fairly new service (within a couple years) and allows you to know when the recipient has recieved their delivery. It doesn't give day by day tracking of exact locations like Fedex, but it will be scanned when you send it out and scanned when it is delivered. This way, you can prove (well, proof is relative) but you can make a good case that something was sent. Of course, this works only for small parcels and letters and not heavy freight. Scott | ||
| larry dunlap (Larry4107) (205.188.208.39)
Rating: N/A |
randy do u have any parts for a wet clutch on pd4107 with a 4 sd spicer tranny 8v71 | ||
| RANDY FULKERSON (Rwf) (66.82.9.39)
Rating: N/A |
Larry I don't at this time. I'm currently parting out transits and MC9's. Have you tried Luke? | ||
| Ross Carlisle (Ross) (66.238.216.82)
Rating: N/A |
Randy.... Do you have any trim parts for MC9's? I need the small 90 degree L shaped piece that goes on the lower left hand(front) portion of the driver side sign board area. May also need a pax side wiper motor assembly. I won't know for sure until I get it apart. Thanks....Ross | ||
| RANDY FULKERSON (Rwf) (66.82.9.47)
Rating: N/A |
Ross, yes I have what you are looking for. You can call me at 660-287-2980 Randy www.rwfulkerson.com | ||
| Ross Carlisle (Ross) (66.238.216.220)
Rating: N/A |
Thanks Randy, I'm traveling for the next couple days. I'll be in touch on Friday. Ross |