The ability to recognize red flags while conducting business transactions is a good thing to have. I’ve been contemplating a new canopy for my travel truck since the old one blew off in the Arizona desert over Spring Break and after a couple of high-priced local proposals I found an outfit in King County, WA.
This is my old stomping grounds and my son the auto body guy lives there so I thought I could get a canopy and have it installed in early June while I visit. I called them and talked to a lady who quoted me a decent price for a custom made aluminum canopy. I then gave her my email and asked her to send me a picture of the canopy because their website was challenged. (it sucks!) I heard her moan over the phone like she’d heard this way too often and I made a mental note. Red flag…
Several days later after no pictures arrived I emailed her, and this was her response: Jim, I'm glad you e-mailed me. Someone thought they would do me a" favor" and clean my desk area. I am missing notes I took on our conversation. My recollection is that we were discussing a smooth aluminum canopy. I will send you an estimate for that and we will go from there.
Red flag…
Finally, I got some pictures and it looked pretty nice, mounted on a Ford Ranger:
I asked her to send me a photo of the inside and I got this:
It was sent from her phone so obviously she just walked out to her yard and took a shot of one from the outfit that makes them. These things are custom made by a local company and I know it’s aluminum and only weighs a hundred pounds and probably needs internal re-inforcement, but…
I could see me banging my head on those supports many times, the overall construction looked questionable and, red flag…
I called her yesterday to discuss a whole bunch of issues I had made a list of and got a message that the voicemail inbox I had reached was full and not accepting any more messages. Excuse me, there are no more red flags left, this deal is over and out…
Perhaps I need to explore other creative options for my truck bed…