On June 14, after another member’s recommendation, I reached out to @Soxhlet asking about having Indofab do up a custom membrane housing for me with a 67mm ID.
We requested that all shipments happen through our Fedex account.
We talked on the phone on June 17. I was told that my housing would be ready in 3 1/2 weeks. For the record, I wasn’t pressing for a fast delivery - this is the timeline that was set by Soxhlet.
I received an invoice the same day after our call and paid it in the afternoon of the same day - June 17.
On July 14, 4 weeks later, I was told that the housing was going to be “at latest next friday” - July 23.
It was shipped via Fedex on July 28, 6 weeks after the invoice was paid.
It arrived August 3, in what we internally agreed was the worst packing job we’ve seen on anything this large/expensive.
After we opened it up, we discovered the compression fitting on the inlet was fucked.
Here’s what we said at the time:
I think the nut was put on the fitting only finger-tight, started to back off, and then got a good hit on something. There’s a small chunk out of the end of the box.
Talked with Soxhlet, he said they are changing how they ship housings and he agreed to send us a pair of new compression fittings that we would get a local fabricator to install. Payment for these was not discussed.
After the fittings were shipped, we received an invoice for just under $100 two fittings and UPS shipping. If I were the one who shipped the housing, I would have eaten that cost but whatever.
The fabricator charged us $200 to fix the fitting situation.
It comes back, we move on.
I get an email from IndoFab telling me they shipped me the wrong gasket. The correct one is in the mail. They want me to return the one they sent. Full disclosure: it’s still sitting on my desk in an envelope because I fuckin hate UPS and I almost never get out of site before everything is closed and I keep forgetting it.
When it comes time for me to put my fucky size Evonik membrane into the housing, it won’t slide all the way in.
WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?
It turns out that the ID of the housing itself was done to spec.
But the ASME flange that was welded to the outlet side of the housing has an ID of just under 64mm, and the Evonik just will not go in without potentially damaging it. And it’s a $4500 membrane, so I’m not going to hit it with a hammer harder than I already have.
So now the housing is at the machine shop two buildings down the road. I’m glad they like us and are good about “hey we need this fixed today.”
So to make a long story short:
- I paid for a thing.
- It arrived fucked up, way later than promised.
- I ate a bunch of costs to un-fuck the fuck up instead of shipping it back and waiting for indofab to fix it.
- It wasn’t actually made to the specification I provided - though I definitely should have checked this when it first arrived. I did a gentle trial fit of the membrane and it started to slide in and I didn’t press further when I got a bit of resistance
- Now I’m eating MORE cost to un-fuck the fuck up.
By my math, I’m going to have paid about 20% of the original MSRP on fixing fuckups.
I’m gonna have to go with a bottom-line review of “I can’t recommend this business to other people with similar requirements.”
