Silver Star Recycling - bad experiences

[Mauri H.]

Hello all,

I live in Finland, and I do some tuning up for my Merc.

Finland has extremely stupid taxation, which makes cars and gasoline ridiculously high priced. I think 1 liter (1/4 gallon) gasoline costs around 1.3 €, which is 1.64 $, nice isn't it?

Cars also cost alot, for excample new E 320 CDi costs 92 100 $

Well, because of this, you cannot really find used parts for big mercedes in here. And as I need to update my brakes, I decide to go for 500 E / 500 SL brakes.

I search for them in interned, and decide to order from Silver Star Recycling, I send them mail, and they assure me thay have the needed parts.

I tell them that I specifically need 5 sets of rear - and front calipers, front calipers for disks 300x28 mm, and rear for 278x24 mm, both VENTED. They say OK.

I send the money in advance and wait for 2 months ! I get no tracking number or anything, and they don't tell me how long the shipping will take (I ordered rear carrier from Potomac German Cars, arrived in 2 weeks with LOTS of cheaper). After 2 months the packages arrive.

Front calipers are quite ok, at least they are right ones, but rear calipers are for nonvented disks, 278x9 mm. This is really bad thing, because we already have ordered right rear disks and pads from Germany, they were quite expensive, 216 $ for 2 disks and pads.

Well, I'm very dissapponted, I have paid enormous postage fee, big customs duty and real big sales tax for the rear calipers that I have no use for. And we have those disks too without proper calipers.

I contacted Silver Star Recycling, takes really long before they answer, and all they say is that they don't have rear calipers for vented disks, why the H*LL didn't he tell me that before he shipped the goods for me? He also says that he cannot get those, so I suggest that I send the calipers back, and he sends me some front calipers instead. He says OK if I pay for shipping. This is outrageous, in the first place I payed already 120 $ too much for shipping (yes, I counted the prices from stickers in the boxes, who took this money, this JED I was dealing with?), HE made the mistake, and I shoud pay for it. BULL****!

Perhaps Silver Star Recycling thinks that it is easy to f*ck with guy from Finland, but it is not so.

To declare you how expencive it is to order stuff from US:

If I order stuff from US, I have to pay 4.5 % customs duty from purchase price, then they will be summarized, transport costs will be added, and from all that I have to pay 22 % sales tax. Not very cheap.

Now I have received no answer, looks like Silver Star Recycling doesn't want to correct their mistake, but they hope I will forget everyhting.

What do you suggest me to do? I really don't want to pay nearly 800 $ for rear calipers that I have no use for and I have NOT ordered. Yes, 800 $ is the price for rear calipers with taxes.

Sorry for this long post, and thanks, if you read it.

Mauri

[Grdenko]

gee man, that sucks

ive never heard of silverstar, but ill stay away from them. you mentioned Potomac German Auto, ive bought stuff from them, theyre good.

i wish i could help you with the calipers, but it sounds like youre stuck with them. how about this, you could tell me where theyre located, send the calipers to me and ill throw them through their window! but would that really do anybody any good? oh well

hope you have better luck buying parts in the future

[rg2098]

I've given them 3 chances spaced about a year apart and both times were horrible. The first time I ordered a turn signal lense for the 450SL and it came in cracked, they took it back without to much difficulty. Then I attempted to get new wheels. I clearly specifted they best wheels they had and would pay a premium for them. The ones I recieved were poorly packaged and the finishes were trash, one rim was actically cracked as well. They took them back but I had to pay shipping both ways. The third time was a rust free silver trunk lid. THERE WAS A FLIPPING CELL ANTENNA HOLE IN THE MIDDLE OF IT!!! Plus the corner got bent in 4 inches because of their careless packaging. They refused to take it back or even pay for the shipping. Scum of the universe!

NEVER BUY FROM SILVER STAR!!!!!!!!!!

[Johnhef]

I have only dealt with them once, I won a set of 14" bundts off ebay and they shipped them, but sent steel rim lugs. I emailed them and they sent the correct lugs , no charge. I guess it deppends how much its going to cost them in the long run to admit their mistake.

On the other hand I deal with potomac german all the time. They are about 10 miles up the road from me. If I order something and ship it to my house, it takes a week and costs me for shipping. If I have it sent to me at work, its there the same, or next day and costs nothing!

[stayalert]

Bummer that. Thanks for the heads up. I'm new to MB's and assembling a "network" of resources etc. this place just made the "do not consider" list.

Regards

[diesel don]

We used them once and they sent the wrong wheels, but eventually they did make it right by sending the correct ones. In addition, they let us keep the wrong ones. 8 for the price of 4 eventually.

Don

[Ganaraska]

Thanks for the warning. In my book you are 100% right and they are a bunch of sheiskopfs.

Now why don't you try ordering parts from a German recycler? There must be tons of those parts in Germany, going cheap.

A few years ago a young mechanic friend went to Germany for a few years, his daily transportation was a second hand Porsche 911 he bought for $2000! In this country you would never get a used Porsche in running condition for that kind of money. He told me there were lots of old Porsches and Mercedes going cheap and lots in junk yards. VWs Opels and Audis were like dirt on the ground.

Gas here (Canada) is 91.9 cents for the cheapest regular, over a dollar in some places for hi test. That's per litre. This summer I expect all gas to be over a dollar a litre.

[Brian Carlton]

Mauri,

The risk of dealing with any "recycler" is high. The chance of getting exactly what you want, in the condition that you want is no better than 60% IMHO.

The risk to you, in Finland, makes the process simply impossible. If the wrong items are shipped or the condition is not as advertised, the costs to return the items are prohibitive for you.

You might consider asking some of us, who live in junkyards, to see if they can find parts for you. William (MTUpower) frequents these yards quite frequently and might be able to find what you need, if you are patient.

Since you have quite a bit of communication with Dave (Gsxr), he might additionally be able to point you in the right direction, however, I'm not sure how many yards are in Idaho.


Better luck in the future.

[gsxr]

Oh, NO! I'm sorry to hear that, Mauri.

I"ve dealt with Silver Star several times in the past, they're usually OK. I used to live about 25 miles away from them. However some of the people have changed over the past 10 years, the two real experts (AJ and Mike Pataka) no longer work there. I'm not sure how competent the current employees are. They are the largest Mercedes recycler on the west coast, I believe? Anyway, I would try Potomac German Auto as an alternative. They are the largest Mercedes recycler on the east coast, AFAIK. Make sure you ask for 400E rear brakes (124.034), those are the only cars imported to the USA with the 278x24 rear brake you're looking for (ok ok, the USA 124.036 had the same rears, but they're pretty rare in the USA and the .034 is not rare). The SL500 (129.067) had 278x9 non-vented rears, which is what Silver Star sent you - d'oh.

I'm not sure what recourse you'll have with Silver Star for their screwup. To get the rear brakes you need, call or email Potomac - I've dealt with them at least a half-dozen times and they are very nice, competent, and helpful. If the prices are outrageous, drop me a private email and I'll see if maybe I can help somehow...

[nhdoc]

The credit card companies have very liberal policies and will protect you against mail order companies that don't send what you ordered or won't take defective items back. All you have to do is send the merchandise back with a receipt proving it was returned and notify Mastercard or Visa that the charge is to be reversed because the merchandise was unacceptable. End of story. If enough customers do this the seller will have to pay a premium fee to accept credit cards or will lose their merchant accounts entirely and will not be able to accept credit cards so they will probably go out of business. I generally will not deal with any companies who don't accept CCs unless the items I am buying are very inexpensive and not worth returning anyway.

[Brian Carlton]

Originally Posted by nhdoc

The credit card companies have very liberal policies and will protect you against mail order companies that don't send what you ordered or won't take defective items back.

They will be happy to take it back, provided Mauri pays the freight from Finland.

I don't think you have recourse through the card companies for the freight, both outbound and return, for merchandise not as ordered.

[lietuviai]

And I thought that Finland was a nice place to live.

I personally will not deal with any junkyard unless I can see the part with my own eyes before buying it. If I can't buy it at a junkyard then I'll look to ebay and deal with those I know I can trust. If that doesn't work out, then I'll just bite the bullet and buy it new if I need it bad enough.
And yes I always pay by credit card so they can do all the work to get my money back if something goes wrong.

[CSchmidt]

Folks,

I've bought things from them 3 times, all were fine. In one case it took them a week to pull the part and then ship it. They usually answer an email about pricing in 1-2 days.

Chuck

[unkl300d]

I have bought fromthem about three times. All satisfactory.
e.g. parking lenses, outside mirrors, and lately I ordered two front door windows.
I asked them to make sure they sent ones that were solidly glued to the metal runner and make sure no rust etc. I also told them 'no hurry' on my part because I preferred the better item.
Well, it took about 2 weeks but I received well boxed glass in very good shape for about $35 each with one shipping/handling charge. $12

I bet the change in personell is messing them up.
California is becoming a banana republic anyway.

You ought to see how people drive in San Francisco. total third world.

yeah, certain interest groups want it that way.

Finland man, write them a letter politely, pointing out that they sent you the wrong parts and due to the fact that the shipping expense and taxes are so much, SUGGEST to them to do the honorable thing and send you parts that you can use such that there is no cost to you for parts and shipping .This way your expense for the wrong part (excluding shipping) is covered and you keep the part you can not use, saving them a shipping charge which they ought to reimburse you by courtesy. It was there mistake.
FAX it to them and e-mail it also. Post it as well.

If that fails, then perhaps you can sell the part in Finland for a good price considering there are no junk yards there.

good luck.

[Honus]

For what it's worth, I bought a 617 motor from Potomac German several years ago and was very satisfied. The motor was at least as good as advertised and they gave me excellent service.