I bought a radiator from RnD fabrication after finding Sparky's posts here on the forum in the vendor section. The radiator was for a '51 GMC with a 5.3 swapped in and an automatic transmission. In every picture (on here, ebay, and RnD's website) the radiator was shown as having a filler neck welded onto the back of the upper tank on a 90* tube, similar to the original radiator's filler neck. The neck has to be there to clear the upper radiator cover. There was nothing in the item description that stated that the filler neck would be in any other location. The warranty policy stated that manufacturing defects would be covered for one year, and that any damage from shipping would need to be reported within ten days. Upon reciveing the radiator I inspected it for damage (there was none) and boxed it back up until it was needed. I bought the radiator along with a ton of other parts at the beginning of the restoration.
Here is the picture that is in all of RnD's listings with the filler neck in the correct location, and also a link to the vendor ad here.
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=628628
Here is a picture of the radiator I recieved. The filler neck is in the wrong location, under the upper radiator cover where it can't be accessed. The upper cover also wouldn't drop into place due to it hitting the filler neck. Cutting the shroud would be the only way to use the radiator; the ad stated that no cutting would be necessary.
I emailed Sparky to attempt to resolve the issue since it was obviously a manufacturing defect and supposedly covered under the one year warranty. He offered to send us a filler neck for $35 plus shipping. I replied saying that I shouldn't have to pay to fix a warranty issue; Sparky replied "if you'll cover the $10 in shipping, I'll cover the cost of the replacement neck. Fair enough?" I replied and said that "fair" would be for RnD to honor their warranty. I didn't recieved a response, so I posted here on the vendor listing in an attempt to continue communication.
This is where the shady dealing started. Sparky changed the item description, policy, and warranty descriptions so that the radiator was no longer covered under the warranty, stating that I didn't notify them of the problem until after the ten day period listed in the warranty/policies.
Sparky's response:
Quote:
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Per our site's terms and conditions, it is noted that it is the customer's responsibility to notify us within 10 days of receiving the radiator with any issues they have with the port locations / fill neck locations / etc. We were notified about this concern at the 5 month mark, well outside the required timeframe. We do our best to work with customers when concerns arrive, and are willing to help even though it's well outside that timeframe. Also, placement of items is not covered under warranty, as that is reserved for component failures (leaks / broken welds / etc). I'm more than happy to send you the neck, and I'll even cover the cost of shipping as I know my response time has been slower as of late due to workload. If that works, let me know and I'll send it out shortly.
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That didn't sound right to me, so I did a google search and pulled up cached pages of RnD's website. I found that RnD had changed their item description, warranty, and polices to exclude our problem form being covered under warrenty even though nobody would ever order a radiator with the filler neck in a location that isn't servicable without cutting the original sheetmetal.
Here are the original item description, warranty, and polices pages. According to these pages the improper filler neck would have been covered under warranty. These pages were edited well *after* I originally contacted them about the problem. This is a cached page (dated 2/2/18) that anyone can view via a google search. I first contacted RnD about the problem on 1/17/18, well before they edited their website.
No mention of "default filler location" on top of the upper tank.
The current/edited item description, stating that the default filler neck is on top of the upper tank (where it's impossible to fill??). No one would order a radiator made this way... I feel like this was edited just to get around fixing the filler neck under warranty.
The original warranty description (cached page again). No mention of needing to report manufacture's defects within ten days.
The current/edited warranty description. Notice that filler neck location is now listed as not being covered.
I don't have a problem with a company changing their warranty, policy, or item descriptions... just don't do it to get out of fixing what is obviously a manufacture's error that should be covered under the original stated warranty/policy. Thats' dirty. Currently RnD's item description states "This is a bolt-in swap, no cutting or sheet metal modifications required" and "Standard layout is with fill neck is on top"... you be the judge if this makes any sense, since the cap is UNDER the upper radiator cover as seen in the pic I posted. You'd have to cut the upper cover to access the cap.
RnD never attmepted to fix the problem other than offering to send us a filler neck. Filler necks don't simply bolt on... offering a new neck is not a fix to the problem. They also made no response when I called them out on editing their warrany, policy, and item description to get out of fixing the radiator under the original warranty (which was still posted in their ebay listing at the time, so it should have been current).
I ended up having the radiator fixed at a local radiator shop which cost us $90 bucks.
I won't be doing any business with RnD in the future, and I hope others will think twice before ordering a radiator from them. After looking up reviews for RnD on google I'm not the only one to have customer service issues when there were problems.
I'm also disappointed that a vendor on this site can handle a situation in such poor manner and still be allowed to advertise here.