Greg, I hate to do this, but I'm a fellow tanker also. I have dealt with Bill Oates a couple years ago, he bought some items from me. Took a while, but I got paid.

Now, most of you know me as not only an avid tanker, but a supplier also. I will qualify what I am about to say with the statement that I doubt there are half a dozen items common between Mr Oates' sight and mine, ergo I have no ax to grind business wise.

As again most of you know, I live now in Krimea, and run my business from there, with a warehouse for shipping in USA and here. I am a stickler about fast and honest service, and if there is ANY doubt on an order, the customer gets the benefit of that doubt. That is called not only sound business practice, but integrity.

I have watched the rccommand situation evolve since May 2009 with increasing dismay and trepidation. I feared what was coming, but said nothing, as it would to some seem self serving, even though Mr Oates sells apples so to speak and I sell oranges.

Here's the situation, and you, my fellow tankers, can make your own judgment.

1. An order was placed to rccommand on 14 May 2010, from Moskau, Russia. The rccommand order number is #160345207, paid the same day via paypal, in the amount of $135.44 including shipping, for various small parts including a smoker. This order was never received in Moskau, and before you say anything, the Russian Post is if nothing else efficient. After numerous emails and attempted phone calls to rccommand, none of which were answered, the customer in Moskau abandoned the pursuit of the order and just wrote the money off.

2. On 05 October 2010, an order was placed from Moskau, rccommand order #167161036, in the amount of $216.79 including shipping for various parts. This order was paid the same day, although I do not know if it was paid via paypal or with credit card. After repeated emails and attempted phone calls to get a shipping status and date, none of which were answered, the purchaser has as of yesterday initiated an attempt to stop payment and recover his funds. I do not know if this attempt will be successful, as things are a little different in Moskau in regards to such problems.

3. There is a USA customer who in June ordered well over $700 of parts from rccomand and paid the same day. The tanker has asked that the particulars not be told, but bottom line, he was very well known to Mr Oates. To date, after immediate payment of the order in June, there has been no shipment of parts and no replies to his pleas for either a refund or shipment of the parts he paid for.

4. As a result of the two Moskau orders with problems, IOW no shipment of paid orders, rccommand.com has been black listed on the main Russian tanker club sight. http://www.d-i-m.su/forum/showthread...=9795#post9795

5. I personally emailed Mr Oates within the last 48 hours twice over the two Russian orders, each time to all three listed emails, and to date have not had the courtesy of a reply. Sorry, my friends, 48 hours is long enough to answer me. Mr Oates is in business, and there is no excuse for taking payment for parts and not shipping the parts, nor is there an excuse for not replying to communications. Quite frankly, I don't want to hear excuses for Mr Oates, as there are none when you take a customer's money and do not ship the parts he paid for in good faith.

Bottom line, what we have here is 3 instances of orders not being shipped after payment, the 3 orders alone totalling in the neighborhood of $1250.00 or more. Draw your own conclusions from this.