In mid-September Blindboy wrote of the problems he had getting the correct parts from Swedish Car Parts. His post was a couple of weeks too late for me to take into consideration as I had ordered a pair of steering rack boots for a '75 245 on Sept. 3. I do not know about the validity of Blindboy's complaint -- but I do know all about what happened with my order--and it was very frustrating. Blindboy has not yet posted the results of his issue but in my case a complaint to my credit card company led to a full credit on my account.
Here's my story---the back story first--I have been doing mechanical restoration work on a client's recently purchased Volvo. Mid work he accepted a job at the other end of the country--Long Island to Oregon and made arrangements for the car to be shipped. Before leaving he ordered parts from IPD and except for steering rack boots all the parts were correct. A search of local parts stores by the client led to a couple of "sorry we can't find a listing for what you need" and one other store gave him a boot for free knowing it was probably not right. The car in question has an original CAM rack and its boots are substantially larger at the rack end than later CAM racks. I was able to pirate one somewhat sad looking boot from a parts car identical to his - '75 with an original CAM rack. I agreed to continue trying to track down the correct boots.
To that end I visited all the on-line vendors I could think of and found them all listing boots that fit '75-'93 which I knew to be incorrect. At the SCP site I found a separate listing for 240-260 cars '75 to '78. There was a photo along with the listing--showing a pair of boots that appeared to be correct. The boot(s) were listed as a "kit" -- left AND right and priced at near double the price of individual boots for later CAM and ZF racks. EUREKA! -- I thought. I considered the shipping to be high ($19 for the parts - $16 for shipping) but went ahead and ordered the "kit" -- that was Sept 3. The "kit" was shipped 6 days later -- I received the package on the 12th -- sent by USPriority Mail ($5.75) which I also use for my track photo business. What came -- one single boot (wrong one) and the alternator bushing I'd ordered for my own car. I phoned them right away. This is what I was told -- the correct boot is a discontinued item - no longer available. "Why was I sent this incorrect boot and why was it just a single boot" I asked. The answer--an elderly woman in shipping picked it off the shelves and it weighed the proper amount so it got sent. As for it being a single boot despite the listing showing two and calling it a "kit" right and left (not right OR left) I was told the "kit" consisted of the boot along with two plastic tie straps (huh?). That left me almost speechless and after a bit of back and forth I measured the end tube of the rack for him (61mm--the boot sent measured 48mm) and he said he'd check the warehouse and get back to me. He did that with the report that he'd found two boots that would work. I had to pay for those ($19.04 for the pair as the listing showed) and he'd pay shipping. I was to send the first single boot back later. I received the replacements in a timely fashion -- three days. Wrong boots again--these being 49mm at the rack end. There was no way they could be stretched to fit.
Now for the KICKER -- another call led to more back and forth with the result I was told to send all three back and he'd credit my account minus some amount he'd determine later. When I asked him to be specific about my refund he told me to just "keep all three and don't call (him) back again--that he didn't have time to solve MY problems" and then he hung up on me.
A complaint to the credit card company led to them finding in my favor with a full credit on my account after I sent the three boots back ($9 USPriority).
If this fellow had contacted me (they do have my address, email and telephone number) before sending the second shipment of non-fitting parts and credited my account there would have been no need for this posting.
If SCP becomes the last place on earth to buy Volvo parts I'll just have to find something else to drive. Sorry for the long post/rant. -- Dave