americas pride lift saga

If you are looking for a lift, think twice before ordering from
Ampro/Americas Pride

History of a nightmare, or how America's Pride does business


In September of 2007, I ordered a 2 post 10000 lb lift from America's
Pride in Seekonk Ma and paid via bank check. The first lesson in all of
this is always pay via credit card, although it will not always protect
you I have found out. Prior to paying they spoke as if they had them in
stock, although I will not swear they said such a thing. After receiving
my check they told me it would be 12 business days, then never returned
another phone call for 5 months.

When in mid October I had received no lift and had spent hours on hold
and calls to my salesman [Steve Smith] went unreturned, I finally told
the receptionist that I was going to call the Mass Attorney General. You
see, part of the attraction, besides a nice website with lots of helpful
pictures, was that they were in my home state, so how bad could they be.
Oh brother!

their BBB listing was revoked on 1/7:
http://reports.bosbbb.org/Boston/Pub...spx?firm=24193

If the link dies they had 109 complaints in the 36 months preceding 2/26

Well, some minutes later I got a call from someone saying they were the
sales manager[ did not get the name] who quite belligerently 'read me a
letter' that said that they had had supply problems since July [what
happened to 12 days] and since people had pulled orders and cancelled
credit card transactions, they had been forced to change bank
accounts[hello, fraud alert] and had no lifts, no money to pay for
lifts, and no firm idea when they would have either. Very big attitude,
like he somehow deserved my money.

Numerous unanswered phone calls, and a great habit I had never seen in a
real company; since they had call ID , they would not answer the phone,
just put me straight to hold.

So I called the AG, filled out the online form, filled out the online
form for the BBB, picked up the forms for small claims[but didn't file]
and contacted the Seekonk police dept. This was, in the end, the key. I
emailed and spoke to one of the detectives there, and he said he would
stop in, as it wasn't the first time he had heard this, but was under
the impression that they always come through in the end.

http://www.seekonkpd.com/Roster.htm

Actually not a bad site for a small town PD. Det P. Was a great help
in the end.

Fast forward a bit, some life intervened in my chasing these guys down,
beginning of January I started calling again. Same drill.
I saw a craigslist posting with a familiar story line and emailed[one
of the people getting this missive] and, yes he had eventually got a lift.

So I did a road trip, and got down to Seekonk and checked out their
office at 75 County Rd. Hah! Not so much as a sign at the address
listed. No mailbox, nothing. Big sign for "Mike's Dojo" Mike would be
Mike Nees, proprietor of America's Pride. Dojo appears to be upstairs
and the offices of AMPRO in the basement. I didn't go in, didn't want to
cause a fuss just yet.

http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l3...6/DCP_0466.jpg

On the way, I called and scammed them into telling me their warehouse
address, which, by the way is 13 Conduit st, Central Falls RI

What a dump


http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l3...3conduitst.jpg

the place defines 'bombed out'

http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l317/t92006/peek3.jpg

http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l3...06/peeking.jpg

bottom left is a stack of lifts

Sorry for the clarity, truck driver was nervous and I was trying not to
get chased


So I call again, on 1/29, and take notes to show how they treat me:

call 11:45, on hold 31 minutes

redial
straight to hold

hand up redial
answered, hold 9 minutes

redial, straight to hold

redial, answered
straight to voicemail

hangup
redial
hold 2 minutes

hangup
redial,

Answered, and it is actually the infamous Becky, who holds the secrets
of who will get product. Wow.

I am told that i will get a call on Friday[this is tuesday] to say what
day next week my lift will ship. I'll be holding my breath.
When I come in Wed there is a message on my answering machine from Det.
P of Seekonk PD, saying that he had been in to talk with them, and
telling me essentially the same story. I am beginning to feel some
glimmer of hope.

Friday comes, no call by 3pm, I call, and miracle of miracles, I am put
through in a businesslike timeframe to Becky. It is pretty amazing what
little visit from a nice man with a badge will do for people's
telephone skills. She tells me Wednesday my lift will ship. Needless to
say, i will believe it when I see it. She will call me with a tracking
number on Wed.

Of course, no call by 4 pm wed, so I call, again told I will have to
wait jut a few minutes, and less than 3 minutes later she is on the
line. no number yet, but she will call me later from her cell, which of
course does not happen.

Thursday, 9:26 AM, for the first time since September, America's Pride
calls my office. She gives me a tracking number. Which does not work on
Yellow's automated phone system. Arghh

A person at the freight company clears it up, and yes, a package has
shipped. Box of rocks? Old tennis shoes? We will find out.

Of course, then Yellow proceeds to juggle the shipment[of course, how
could they not] and a 80 mile trip takes till Monday.


http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l317/t92006/lift.jpg

Of course the shipping frame leaves about a half inch too short to fit a
pallet jack under it, probably the same everywhere, Chinese pallet
jacks are probably shorter.

So from the bill of lading, this is a National Auto Tools NT9 floor
plate lift. Go to their website and it is a 9000 lb lift, available for
300 bucks less, probably would have had it in September! NAT paid the
freight too, must pay their rent to Ampro in lifts.

So it is setup and runs, has a car up on it as I type. Has some of the
nice features that made me decide on the lift in the first place, but it
does not have the wheeled carriage that was originally listed[website
apparently has changed] Lesson number two, when you are beginning to
doubt a company, save copies of their web pages. I plan on chasing them
for the 300 bucks. What the hell.

Now, I consider myself a intelligent consumer, I saw no complaints
online when I placed the order[although I did not openly solicit them]
Perhaps it was my own arrogance and being sick of people telling me I
must buy the most expensive item to get a serviceable product.Hell, my
main use for this will be to lift cars less than 2000lbs! the BBB still
listed them as acceptable even a month after I ordered. They had an ebay
identity[auto-lift-king] had crappy feedback , but very small sample.
They still have items listed there and on Amazon.


The saddest thing about it is that I was in no real hurry. If they sent
the lift I ordered with some kind of normal customer service I may just
have waited. After all, they had much better info online than anyone.
Everyone shows just one stock photo of a generic 2 post lift, not real
close up pics like AMPRO did. How about trusting the customer, saying,
hey we can't get things till January, throw us 500 bucks and we will
order on for you? Many would pass, but with a good product, some would
not. I run a business, sometimes I have supply issues. They appear
unable to act honestly. If I had not enlisted the authorities, would I
have a lift at all, even an overpriced cheapo lift? I don't really know.

--------------------------------------

So I found out a lot of fun info.

http://rejournal.com/ne/sections/sal...es/SL/Sept.pdf

Mike Nees bought the warehouse, for 400k at the same time as having no
money to ship lifts

He or his associates own the building on County St in Seekonk, some
company called 'real relief LLC' address the same has some financial
dealings, putting money in, taking it out, I cannot tell, since I am not
an expert on registry of deeds documents.


Mr Nees appears to live in neighboring Rehoboth, but I cannot confirm that.

Watch out, they are selling on craigslist now!!
associated websites:

www.fridgesolutions.com
scam? dunno

http://www.sea-plies.com/
trouble? dunno

www.americasprideonline.com
shady? yup

www.carliftswarehouse.com
ditto
www.hvacplace.com
honest? maybe?

www.liftsUSA.com
scammers? you decide

www.e-paintbooths.com
dishonest? can't say

http://www.e-pipebenders.com/
caution

http://www.e-tirechangers.com/
caution

http://www.e-brakelathes.com/
be careful

http://www.wasteoilheat.com/
might be a waste of money

http://www.e-circleoflife.com/
do you really want to wait?

http://www.conveniencerefrigeration.com/
be careful

http://www.gorillahammers.com/
don't be a gorilla

http://www.uniwashers.com/
caution

Any way watch out for Ampro lifts!!!!!!

On Mar 5, 11:21*am, yourname > wrote:
> If you are looking for a lift, think twice before ordering from
> Ampro/Americas Pride
>
> History of a nightmare, or how America's Pride does business
>
> In September of 2007, I ordered a 2 post 10000 lb lift from America's
> Pride in Seekonk Ma and paid via bank check. The first lesson in all of
> this is always pay via credit card, although it will not always protect
> you I have found out. Prior to paying they spoke as if they had them in
> stock, although I will not swear they said such a thing. After receiving
> my check they told me it would be 12 business days, then never returned
> another phone call for 5 months.
>
> When in mid October I had received no lift and had spent hours on hold
> and calls to my salesman [Steve Smith] went unreturned, I finally told
> the receptionist that I was going to call the Mass Attorney General. You
> see, part of the attraction, besides a nice website with lots of helpful
> pictures, was that they were in my home state, so how bad could they be.
> Oh brother!
>
> their BBB listing was revoked on 1/7:http://reports.bosbbb.org/Boston/Pub...Report.aspx?fi...
>
> If the link dies they had 109 complaints in the 36 months preceding 2/26
>
> Well, some minutes later I got a call from someone saying they were the
> sales manager[ did not get the name] who quite belligerently 'read me a
> letter' that said that they had had supply problems since July [what
> happened to 12 days] and since people had pulled orders and cancelled
> credit card transactions, they had been forced to change bank
> accounts[hello, fraud alert] and had no lifts, no money to pay for
> lifts, and no firm idea when they would have either. Very big attitude,
> like he somehow deserved my money.
>
> Numerous unanswered phone calls, and a great habit I had never seen in a
> real company; since they had call ID , they would not answer the phone,
> just put me straight to hold.
>
> So I called the AG, filled out the online form, filled out the online
> form for the BBB, picked up the forms for small claims[but didn't file]
> and contacted the Seekonk police dept. This was, in the end, the key. I
> emailed and spoke to one of the detectives there, and he said he would
> stop in, as it wasn't the first time he had heard this, but was under
> the impression that they always come through in the end.
>
> http://www.seekonkpd.com/Roster.htm
>
> Actually not a bad site for a small town PD. *Det P. *Was a great help
> in the end.
>
> Fast forward a bit, some life intervened in my chasing these guys down,
> beginning of January I started calling again. Same drill.
> I saw a craigslist posting with a *familiar story line and emailed[one
> of the people getting this missive] and, yes he had eventually got a lift.
>
> So I did a road trip, and got down to Seekonk and checked out their
> office at 75 County Rd. *Hah! Not so much as a sign at the address
> listed. No mailbox, nothing. Big sign for "Mike's Dojo" *Mike would be
> Mike Nees, proprietor of America's Pride. Dojo appears to be upstairs
> and the offices of AMPRO in the basement. I didn't go in, didn't want to
> cause a fuss just yet.
>
> http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l3...6/DCP_0466.jpg
>
> On the way, I called and scammed them into telling me their warehouse
> address, which, by the way is 13 Conduit st, Central Falls RI
>
> What a dump
>
> http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l3...3conduitst.jpg
>
> the place defines 'bombed out'
>
> http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l317/t92006/peek3.jpg
>
> http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l3...06/peeking.jpg
>
> bottom left is a stack of lifts
>
> Sorry for the clarity, truck driver was nervous and I was *trying not to
> get chased
>
> So I call again, on 1/29, and take notes to show how they treat me:
>
> call 11:45, on hold 31 minutes
>
> redial
> straight to hold
>
> hand up redial
> answered, hold 9 minutes
>
> redial, straight to hold
>
> redial, answered
> straight to voicemail
>
> hangup
> redial
> hold 2 minutes
>
> hangup
> redial,
>
> Answered, and it is actually the infamous Becky, who holds the secrets
> of who will get product. Wow.
>
> I am told that i will get a call on Friday[this is tuesday] to say what
> day next week my lift will ship. I'll be holding my breath.
> When I come in Wed there is a message on my answering machine from Det.
> P of Seekonk PD, saying that he had been in to talk with them, and
> telling me essentially *the same story. I am beginning to feel some
> glimmer of hope.
>
> Friday comes, no call by 3pm, I call, and miracle of miracles, I am put
> through in a businesslike timeframe to Becky. It is pretty amazing what
> * little visit from a nice man with a badge will do for people's
> telephone skills. She tells me Wednesday my lift will ship. Needless to
> say, i will believe it when I see it. She will call me with a tracking
> number on Wed.
>
> Of course, no call by 4 pm wed, so I call, again told I will have to
> wait jut a few minutes, and less than 3 minutes later she is on the
> line. no number yet, but she will call me later from her cell, which of
> course *does not happen.
>
> Thursday, 9:26 AM, for the first time since September, America's Pride
> calls my office. She gives me a tracking number. Which does not work on
> Yellow's automated phone system. Arghh
>
> A person at the freight company clears it up, and yes, a package has
> shipped. Box of rocks? Old tennis shoes? We will find out.
>
> Of course, then Yellow proceeds to juggle the shipment[of course, how
> could they not] and a 80 mile trip takes till *Monday.
>
> http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l317/t92006/lift.jpg
>
> Of course the shipping frame leaves about a half inch too short to fit a
> pallet jack under it, probably the same everywhere, *Chinese pallet
> jacks are probably shorter.
>
> So from the bill of lading, this is a National Auto Tools NT9 floor
> plate lift. Go to their website and it is a 9000 lb lift, available for
> 300 bucks less, probably would have had it in September! *NAT paid the
> freight too, must pay their rent to Ampro in lifts.
>
> So it is setup and runs, has a car up on it as I type. Has some of the
> nice features that made me decide on the lift in the first place, but it
> does not have the wheeled carriage that was originally listed[website
> apparently has changed] Lesson number two, when you are beginning to
> doubt a company, save copies of their web pages. I plan on chasing them
> for the 300 bucks. What the hell.
>
> Now, I consider myself a intelligent consumer, I saw no complaints
> online when I placed the order[although I did not openly solicit them]
> Perhaps it was my own arrogance and being sick of people telling me I
> must buy the most expensive item to get a serviceable product.Hell, my
> main use for this will be to lift cars less than 2000lbs! the BBB still
> listed them as acceptable even a month after I ordered. They had an ebay
> identity[auto-lift-king] had crappy feedback , but very small sample.
> They still have items listed there and on Amazon.
>
> The saddest thing about it is that I was in no real hurry. If they sent
> the lift I ordered with some kind of normal customer service I may just
> have waited. After all, they had much better info online than anyone.
> Everyone shows just one stock photo of a generic 2 post lift, not real
> close up pics like AMPRO did. How about trusting the customer, saying,
> hey *we can't get things till January, throw us 500 bucks and we will
> order on for you? Many would pass, but with a good product, some would
> not. I run a business, sometimes I have supply issues. They appear
> unable to act honestly. *If I had not enlisted the authorities, would I
> have a lift at all, even an overpriced cheapo lift? I don't really know.
>
> --------------------------------------
>
> So I found out a lot of fun info.
>
> http://rejournal.com/ne/sections/sal...es/SL/Sept.pdf
>
> Mike Nees bought the warehouse, for 400k *at the same time as having no
> money to ship lifts
>
> He or his associates own the building on *County St in Seekonk, some
> company called 'real relief LLC' address the same has some financial
> dealings, putting money in, taking it out, I cannot tell, since I am not
> an expert on registry of deeds documents.
>
> Mr Nees appears to live in neighboring Rehoboth, but I cannot confirm that..
>
> Watch out, they are selling on craigslist now!!
> associated websites:
>
> www.fridgesolutions.com
> scam? dunno
>
> http://www.sea-plies.com/
> trouble? dunno
>
> www.americasprideonline.com
> shady? yup
>
> www.carliftswarehouse.com
> dittowww.hvacplace.com
> honest? maybe?
>
> www.liftsUSA.com
> scammers? you decide
>
> www.e-paintbooths.com
> dishonest? can't say
>
> http://www.e-pipebenders.com/
> caution
>
> http://www.e-tirechangers.com/
> caution
>
> http://www.e-brakelathes.com/
> be careful
>
> http://www.wasteoilheat.com/
> might be a waste of money
>
> http://www.e-circleoflife.com/
> do you really want to wait?
>
> http://www.conveniencerefrigeration.com/
> be careful
>
> http://www.gorillahammers.com/
> don't be a gorilla
>
> http://www.uniwashers.com/
> caution
>
> Any way watch out for Ampro lifts!!!!!!



AMERICA's PRIDE IS DEFINATELY A SCAM


I would imagine there are many stories like this. My story is much
the same and equally as frustrating. The infamous Becky has left the
company, thank god! What an inefficient and worthless individual. The
owner Mike Nees is no better. He wouldn't waste his time to get my
refund....he told me to call my credit card company and do a charge-
back. Rather helpful wouldn't you say ! I gave that company the
benefit of the doubt since they were having problems and I too was no
real hurry. But after 7 months with no lift recieved and several
months of trying to get a refund (virtually no email replies, no call
backs) I finally went to Master Card for a charge-back. They have now
promised a refund in the next 1-2 months on my card after several
requests for more documentation. This process has now gone on for
over 1 year and I can now buy one from a reputable company. My
recommendation......absolutely do not do business with this
company!!!!!!