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re: Recommendations on replacement Top

To: triumphs@autox.team.net
Subject: re: Recommendations on replacement Top
From: CARIBOULH@aol.com
Date: Wed, 7 Aug 2002 02:00:55 EDT
Just so there is a chance for "equal time" here on this subject of tops and 
their fitment, I am not going to use this as a "plug" for my tops, but as a 
manufacturer of tops I've seen a few "things" in my day.

The once absolute truth that has never been broken in my 21 years of being in 
this business is that:

"THE INSTALLER NEVER, EVER MAKES A MISTAKE... IT IS ALWAYS THE TOP 
MANUFACTURER'S FAULT"

Read between the lines here folks... Caribou has sold thousands and thousands 
of tops and I have never, ever met nor heard of a top installer who admitted 
to making a mistake. You'd figure that somewhere over the years that somehow 
just one of these guys would slip and goof up just once! But no... they 
collectively must all doing the most flawless work of any workforce on the 
planet!

My all time favorite installer says top is defective story: 
We sell an Alfa Spider top to customer, he takes it to the installer. Week or 
so later customer complains that installer sez top "doesn't fit" (and nothing 
more specific than that... just doesn't fit). Well we have a no questions 
asked, no hassle, return it for a refund policy so I tell the car owner 
simply to send it back... and oh yes, he wants his money back (not a 
replacement top) as the installer has already obtained another one thru his 
channels and put it on the car.

Top comes back to us, we refund customer's money and life goes on. About 3 or 
4 months later I'm out in the warehouse cleaning up and I come across that 
guy's returned top. I open the box to check it out and I nearly fell on the 
floor....

in the Alfa Spider installation the rear of the top is affixed to the car on 
about 10 studs or so and the installer must punch the ten or so holes in the 
lower flap of material to line up with the studs on the car (we do mark the 
approximate positions of where the holes need to be, but there are car to car 
variances). Well, this "flawless" installer instead of letting the flap hang 
down and punch holes, folded the flap up over the rear of the top so in 
addition to punching ten holes thru the "flap" he also punched ten holes in 
the top material right below the rear window! Extra ventilation or something 
I guess.

And this installer had the guts to tell the car owner the top "didn't fit" 
and to return it to me for a refund!

In another case I had sent an MGB owner THREE separate tops that each one his 
installer said would not fit correctly. After the third one I finally bailed 
and gave the guy his money back.... what are the odds a fourth would have 
fit? And you know what? After checking out each of the three returned tops 
and satisfying myself that they were just fine, I sent out to three other 
customers each one of those tops and NEVER heard a single complaint back!

Another customer once returned a top 'cause it "didn't fit" and when we 
opened it up there was a 12 inch slit (a nice clean cut... must have been a 
fresh, sharp razor blade) diagonally right above where the drivers head would 
have been. We know the customer or installer did it, because the top had been 
opened and unfolded and then haphazardly packed/stuffed back in the box... 
not the neat, compact way they are folded before leaving here. And you KNOW 
that if the top arrived to the customer with that slit in it, he would have 
been on the phone immediately! The reason for return would certainly NOT have 
been that it "didn't fit".

Year after year here (statically speaking) no matter how many tops that are 
returned to us (and percentage wise it is a tiny amount) that "don't fit", 
after we forensically examine them to the millimeter ONE HALF of them, year 
after year, have no flaw whatsoever in dimensions, construction materials, 
etc. Fully half of our customer/installer claimed "defective" tops (year 
after year, every year) show absolutely no perceivable problem whatsoever.

I've got dozens more stories like this that I've accumulated over the years, 
but that's enough for now. So whenever I hear another installer say the "top 
is defective" I always cringe a little... after all you should ask him when 
was the last time HE made any kind of an installation mistake.

Ed at Caribou
www.caribou.cc
www.warp9.to/Alfa
www.Renovo-USA.com
www.convertible.top.ms
www.SportsCarConverters.com

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