Valentine issue...
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Joined: Jul 2003
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From: Naples, Florida
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Mike, Thanks for coming out and clarifying the situation for us. There are plenty of good busineses that refuse to take Amex for whatever reason and I have yet to let that deter me from doing business with a place of my choice... and I use my Amex for everything.
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Former Vendor
Joined: Oct 2003
Posts: 12,355
From: NYC
Rep Power: 0
Originally posted by W8MM
Hi everybody,
I'm breaking one of my rules now. I usually don't make any comments about my product, or radar topics in general, because I want to continue enjoying this forum for its own sake (real Porsche discussions). I don't enjoy duking it out with customers or competitors' shills, and it detracts from everybody's enjoyment of the forum if it happens.
So, ... I dutifully resist most temptations to comment. However, not this time.
Years ago, our company (Valentine Research) was all set to sign up with Amex to honor their credit cards. Yes, they used to charge a 3-4% higher discount rate than the bank cards, but had recently reduced their rates to only 1.5% excess discount. (That's 1.5% of the total transaction) All that was left was to sign various documents and seal the deal.
As I was waiting to hear from some associates before the final step, I received a call from our bank. They said that they had some documents from Amex with my signature on them, and asked when did I intend to start up the processing action.
I was somewhat taken aback with this surprise, since I hadn't signed any such documents as yet. I quickly asked for copies of the documents, which came by fax soon after.
Guess what? The Amex account executive had forged my signature on the paper work and submitted it to the bank in advance of any actual deal. I called the account rep for an explanation, and only weasely words came back.
Next, I called the rep's boss and got all sorts of lame excuses and obfuscations. The supervisor wouldn't even consider that something wrong had happened, much less apologize.
Under these circumstances, I cannot accept Amex cards for payment -- ever. If one can't trust the people with whom one does business, I see little reason to establish any kind of relationship.
And, yes, I have told this same story to high officials of Amex who wanted to use Amex cards to pay for their V1 purchases. After expressing great shame and promising to get to the proper personnel to rectify the situation, I have heard exactly NOTHING from Amex in many years.
So, I'm not cheap, but merely a person who values business partners with integrity.
(/rant)
Can you tell my hot button was pushed?
OK, back to Porsche subjects
Hi everybody,
I'm breaking one of my rules now. I usually don't make any comments about my product, or radar topics in general, because I want to continue enjoying this forum for its own sake (real Porsche discussions). I don't enjoy duking it out with customers or competitors' shills, and it detracts from everybody's enjoyment of the forum if it happens.
So, ... I dutifully resist most temptations to comment. However, not this time.
Years ago, our company (Valentine Research) was all set to sign up with Amex to honor their credit cards. Yes, they used to charge a 3-4% higher discount rate than the bank cards, but had recently reduced their rates to only 1.5% excess discount. (That's 1.5% of the total transaction) All that was left was to sign various documents and seal the deal.
As I was waiting to hear from some associates before the final step, I received a call from our bank. They said that they had some documents from Amex with my signature on them, and asked when did I intend to start up the processing action.
I was somewhat taken aback with this surprise, since I hadn't signed any such documents as yet. I quickly asked for copies of the documents, which came by fax soon after.
Guess what? The Amex account executive had forged my signature on the paper work and submitted it to the bank in advance of any actual deal. I called the account rep for an explanation, and only weasely words came back.
Next, I called the rep's boss and got all sorts of lame excuses and obfuscations. The supervisor wouldn't even consider that something wrong had happened, much less apologize.
Under these circumstances, I cannot accept Amex cards for payment -- ever. If one can't trust the people with whom one does business, I see little reason to establish any kind of relationship.
And, yes, I have told this same story to high officials of Amex who wanted to use Amex cards to pay for their V1 purchases. After expressing great shame and promising to get to the proper personnel to rectify the situation, I have heard exactly NOTHING from Amex in many years.
So, I'm not cheap, but merely a person who values business partners with integrity.
(/rant)
Can you tell my hot button was pushed?
OK, back to Porsche subjects
Thank you for clarifying the situation. As someone who values his relationship with Amex, both as a merchant and as a customer, this comes as quite a shock to me. I always viewed them as a step above VISA/MC issuing banks and their level of customer service certainly is.
I completely agree with the idea of keeping business partners and affiliates who hold their integrity in high regard and as I am very principled myself (as you can tell from today's events), I don't blame you for being principled as well.
If you or anyone else was in any way offended by my post, then I apologize. It was not my intention and obviously the fact that I still purchased your product indicates my confidence in its quality. All it was was a "vent" as my original post refers to it, in a moment of discontent.
On to everything Porsche...
P.S. Darren bet me $10 that I couldn't get you to respond!
Last edited by Stryke; Mar 5, 2004 at 08:30 PM.
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From: New York, NY
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KPV - Mike will be the first to tell ya that when you open up the V1 ......the laser senosr are gone - slick install but if you put one up on your windsheild and test it with a radar gun you will see what I mean but dammm KPV that audio system looks amazing - One of the best Porsche dash's ot there buddy
- ohhh and yes I concur guys........ Mike V is the man who has save my license tenfold
DJ
- ohhh and yes I concur guys........ Mike V is the man who has save my license tenfold
DJ
Banned
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 660
Rep Power: 49
Originally posted by Darren
KPV - Mike will be the first to tell ya that when you open up the V1 ......the laser senosr are gone - slick install but if you put one up on your windsheild and test it with a radar gun you will see what I mean but dammm KPV that audio system looks amazing - One of the best Porsche dash's ot there buddy
- ohhh and yes I concur guys........ Mike V is the man who has save my license tenfold
DJ
KPV - Mike will be the first to tell ya that when you open up the V1 ......the laser senosr are gone - slick install but if you put one up on your windsheild and test it with a radar gun you will see what I mean but dammm KPV that audio system looks amazing - One of the best Porsche dash's ot there buddy
- ohhh and yes I concur guys........ Mike V is the man who has save my license tenfold
DJ
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