Studio and Stage

This is a warning to everyone in the field of photographic and TV studios. Do not deal with Studio and Stage based in Halifax HX3 6SN. http://studioandstage.co.uk/ The company has changed name to escape the ripped-off customers but it is the same guy behind it each time.

If you have given them money then expect poor quality or unmerchantable rubbish. Don't expect a refund.

We should have realised when only a mobile phone number was listed. A real company of any size would have a land line.

We ordered a tracking system including rails and pantographs. The promised tracking was supposed to be as good as new. Then we were told it was brand new and made to order. It was scratched and bent and obviously worn. So we got low quality but workable rails and goods not as described. Also they promised rail extensions but those never appeared. The pantographs were much smaller than described and poor quality with burred edges ready to cut an unwary finger. So quite shoddy but maybe if it was cheaper it would do for an amateur's shed.

The coving was complete rubbish. It was supposed to have come second hand from a studio. As it turned out it was especially made for us. It was made from several ply of fibreglass and was so badly made it was not usable at all. Imagine a pile of lasagne sheets after you pour a kettle of hot water over them. Or imagine a few pages of mediaeval parchment that a toddler had spilled a pot of glue on. Also the key elements of coving, the corner curve was not supplied at all.

Despite being given many chances to remedy the situation all that we got were tactics designed to delay including false promises of a representative to visit, and bogus delivery notes and tracking numbers.

First they did not respond in a timely fashion. When they did reply they gave a cock and bull story about the corner pieces being manufactured. They also promised a shipment but gave no tracking number.

A few days later they said it was going to arrive with another shipper. This never happened either.

Then they gave a string of excuses including the weather and the Christmas break.

Then when pressed for a delivery date and tracking we got given a JPEG scanned image of a TNT consignment. This was a vaguely plausible except that the tracking number referred to a different delivery about 6 months old and the TNT guys who we know could confirm that there was no such delivery. Also there were minor errors that only a human could introduce. The TNT database would have rejected the details given. This was a photoshop job designed to stall and waste time. And clear evidence of fraudulent intent.

Then they changed their phone number to another mobile phone number. This is not the mark of a trustworthy company.

Then it was more nonsense about the weather holding up the packers. The packers were called "Pendign Packing" and somehow this company has managed to operate without getting a single mention on the web. But they happen to have the same postcode as Studio and Stage.
Then another pair of tracking numbers. One worked, the other didn't. In fact the other number was for a different consignment not destined for us at all. So some laughably amateurish attempts at flat coving looking like some sort of wrinkled parchment arrived. Then the curves arrived in several consignments. And the vital corner part never arrived at all. Like the keystone of a bridge, without this part, the whole coving can not be built. Personally I think that it is a difficult shape and they ran out of fibreglass trying to make something that they are clearly not competent to build.

So to sum up the trading standards points:
Goods not as described - Tracking was not new but worn. Neither did it have the promised extensions.
Inferior product - Coving is not of merchantable quality.
Goods not received in full - The corner part was missing.

And then the endless delaying tactics and bluff and bluster. This company is incompetent and fraudulent and should not trusted by anyone.

Inserter boards arrived

(Probably)
Nobody was home to accept the boards so they went back to the sorting office. The Irish Post Office confused matters because their tracking said that my package arrived in the United States.
Maybe the Irish Post Office thinks that the UK is about to become another American state?
Or maybe there was a clerical error at the manufacturers?
Or the An Post tracking system just doesn't work?
Hopefully the correct boards will be in the hands of the Royal Mail when I go there in the morning.
Engineering Change Note 2. Cut RESETN track to U2-40 and tie the pin to +VDD via 10k. Link RESETN to U3-1 and rename it CSN.
[Update: I got somebody else's boards. My boards ended up in the USA. Cockup in the post room I expect. Beta Layout had the boards remade in Germany and they arrived couriered in a couple of days after the mix-up was revealed. They had also been electrically tested as I could see from the pin marks. I would have awarded full marks for customer service. However the boards didn't come with my solder sucker (free gift for new customers) or the stainless steel laser cut solder stencil (which I didn't want anyway).