Den

My Feedback: (4)

On September 15 @ 1:58pm I ordered a large 4 pole brushless motor and prop from "Fine Design" and talked to Chris. I gave my credit card number and purchased motor and prop for $173.80. They are in New York and I in Chicago. So on 9/23/11 I still had not received my items so I call them up at 4:42pm. Chris tells me that "his shipper was sick and my items just went out". So my order sat for almost 7 days!! Now I wait and call back on 9/30/11 and Chris says "he will get me a tracking number and call me back." He does not call back! I call on 10/03/11 @ 1:34pm Chris says he is having lunch right now and also looking for the tracking information as we speak said he would call me back. He did not call me back again! So I call on 10/04/11 @ 10:24am Chris says that he can not find any information about my order and he will have to refund my money. I asked him today and he said "today". So I get home in the evening and at about 11pm I check my credit card status and there was no credit refund to my account. Once again Chris said he was going to do something and he did not. I don't know about everybody else but I am patient but I do not like to be peed on and told it's raining. I can watch the news for that. On 10/05/11 I call my credit card company and ask if there was a refund posted to my account and they said no. So what would anybody do? I filed a dispute with my credit card company against "Fine Design". On 10/13/11 @9:48am I get a call from Chris angry that I filed a dispute and he has a card corespondence from the credit card company. He said he refunded my money on Oct. 8. I told him that "I did nothing malicious I checked with the card company and just like everything else you said you were going to and didn't do, you had not refunded my money back so I filed A dispute". He started yelling at me. I'm 50 and no sap is going to yell at me without consequences lets just say that. So I hollared at him "what the is wrong with you this is your fault all you do is lie". He inserts that "they had a bad batch of motors". I told him "why didn't you say that before so another lie. All you do is lie." He yelled something at me again an hung up the phone. When I finished my business for the morning I go back to my office and called Visa. I told them I had a disturbing call this morning from"Fine Design" Yelling at me and I do not want any charges from this company ever again". Visa said that "Fine Design just charged your account $865.00 to my card at 11:00am today" I had to re ask several times that what I was hearing was clear. Not only that, they told me that the money "Fine Design" refunded was $173.00 instead of the correct amount of $173.80 The $865.00 had not yet posted to my card and the only way that I cauld stop them from stealing my money was to cancel the card. The result was I had to cancel my card and File a credit card fraud report under the urging of the credit card company's credit card fraud division representative. Now I am waiting for the paper work from the credit company and then I'm calling the states attorney to proceed legaly with this. I may have cause to call the FBI because it is interstate fraud if the law descides so. I AM NOT STATING THAT ANYONE OR COMPANY HAS DONE ANYTHING ILLEGAL BUT THIS STORY IS COMPLETELY TRUE!! I am now waiting see what the law says. This is a great hobby and we do not need the few to ruin our hobby for us. We do this hobby for relaxation not lies and aggrivation. When unfair practices are employed we should expose them... Has anyone else had a similar bad experience?

Best Regards to all that enjoy this hobby and play nice
Dennis K

doby

My Feedback: (1)

If you do a web search, you will find lots of similar stories about FineDesign.

Deathwish

My Feedback: (6)

Good to know. Thank's for the head's up. On another note it might of been faster buying from china. haha j/k

brodjack

I would be paying him a visit[>:]

sundogz

I have heard many horror stories about Chris Fine, sorry to hear another. My understanding is that he (usually) does good work, but really doesn't have any business running a business. Hope it all works out for you.

Ron Olson

My Feedback: (1)

I've met Chris Fine once, a long time ago before his business started going down the toilet. We talked like old friends although we had just met. Shortly afterwards things went downhill as his brother started taking over things. He's now using the same lame stories to all of his customers now.
He had at one time a reputation of building some nice race boats for customers. One friend of mine ordered one and reported that it was a piece of junk.
Go through with your claims against him, you'll be doing a lot of people a big favor who have also gotten the shaft from them.

coriolan

Fine Design doesn't seem to be the only fuzzy dealer in the hobby, stumbled on that thread at RCG about Model Control Devices. Has been going on since 2008 and no resolution from MCD using all evasive actions possible(claiming to be sick.promising to ship soon and finally not answering phone calls or email!):
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=815347
His last post on RCG about that matter, feigning surprise
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showp...&postcount=128

Ron Olson

My Feedback: (1)

Geez, another person that I've met!
The scale Ship Modelers Assn. of North America used to have a regatta at a park literally down the road from me at the same park where the latest Mrs. Olson and I got hitched. Nice and funny guy but it's looking like you can't trust nice guys. I guess that I'm going to have to turn into a jerk.
Just what we need, more Chris Rabito's in the world of RC boats.

Rich404

Hi Dennis & all,

YEARS ago I saw his website and was intrigued to go to his store because it was a couple hours away from me. When I called to get the address I found that it was bogus and the store didn't really exist.

This is such a shame thatthis is happening years later....Fine designhas becomenotorious for this type of behavior. I'm shocked that he is still advertising as a business because he obviously doesn't sell anything... He just prey's upon people in the boating hobby...I have seen similar horror-story posts like yours in the past and they usually have "Chris" and Fine Design mentioned as the culprit...

I'm wondering what the deal is with Fine Design..I never see anyone post anything nice about them...Are they just a scam or what?? Has anyone had a positive experience from them??

-R.

Ron Olson

My Feedback: (1)

Do yourself a favor if you need any electric boat stuff and go to www.offshoreelectrics.com . I've done business with Steve several times, have always had great service from him and have never seen a complaint from anyone.

Deathwish

My Feedback: (6)

You left off an e in the website Ron. But i got it. http://www.offshoreelectrics.com/

Ron Olson

My Feedback: (1)

Thanks, fixed it. For some reason I seem to mess up the site name somehow and it's usually with those 2 e's together or do a really bad job at spelling "electric".

Rich404

I second that! Offshore electrics is a trustworthy place to shop for performance boat parts.

-Rich.