Re: [alfa] portable garage caution

[f.rastinejad@xxxxxxx]

I had a much better experience buying a shelter from Harbor Freight.  I got their 14 X 32 roundtop shelter which is just perfect for holding 4 Alfas.  It costs $799 and shipping is free.  I set it up over the weekend and my 4 and 7 year old children helped pull the rather large cover over the frame.  These shelters require 6X6 timbers to serve as the foundation and that was enough for the shelter to withstand ~50mph wind gusts that we had here in Connecticut last week.   I am looking forward to having all 8 alfas at the same address!   -Farzan

-------------- Original message from Richard Welty <rwelty@domain.elided>: -------------- 


> first of all, i don't have a problem with the quonset style portable garages. 
> from checking in the area, they have worked well for people around here, 
> not needing any particular care in snowy conditions or anything. having 
> checked, i started shopping, and the best price appeared to be a 
> connecticut based vendor on ebay, a hundred or so dollars per shelter 
> cheaper than buying locally. so i ordered two from that vendor. 
> 
> it turns out that this wasn't the smartest move on my part, there are hidden 
> costs in the shipping end of the deal. in summary, overnite transportation, 
> the shipper chosen by the garage vendor, has customer service in the 
> best tradition of the old bell monopoly, which is to say basically none. [1] 
> between taking a half day off from my hourly no benefits contract programming 
> job, renting a cargo van, and paying the suprise storage charges, this 
> is going to cost more than buying locally would have, it's taken longer to 
> get, and my aggravation levels are much higher than they would have been. 
> 
> i'm not saying that you shouldn't buy something like this off of ebay, 
> i'm just suggesting doing better research than i did. the wrong shipping 
> company can make it a pretty miserable experience. 
> 
> richard 
> 
> [1] their concept of a delivery appointment is "sometime during 
> business hours on the day of your choice". today, the phone 
> company at least narrows it down to morning or afternoon, and 
> for large appliance deliveries, sears will call you at a designated 
> number 4 stops early so you can get home before they do. 
> by comparison, the customer service person at overnite had zero 
> interest in the notion of "getting it done", no real concern over 
> whether or not i ever got my shipment, and nothing at all in the 
> way of ideas that might help with the situation. at times it seemed 
> like she was taking some care to make sure that everytime i made 
> a step forward, there would be a corresponding step back. 
> -- 
> Richard Welty rwelty@domain.elided 
> Averill Park Networking 518-573-7592 
> Java, PHP, PostgreSQL, Unix, Linux, IP Network Engineering, Security 
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