RE: [Chrysler300] Legendary (literally) Seat Covers for C (aka 300 equivalent of OJ's Glove)

["D'Aloise, Lawrence Jr." <ldaloise@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Rob,
 
Interesting story. I had a very similar experience in replacing the
convertible top on my 300D.  I purchased 3 tops from different sources
before I got one that fit correctly (almost). Same problem with the
replacement exhaust. Just because a product is advertised to fit doesn't
mean it will. Thats one reason this list is so valuable because we learn
by others experiences, good & bad.
 
Larry D'Aloise

________________________________

From: Chrysler300@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:Chrysler300@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of rob kern
Sent: Saturday, May 03, 2008 5:11 PM
To: Chrysler300@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx; George/Meg Hagerty
Subject: [Chrysler300] Legendary (literally) Seat Covers for C (aka 300
equivalent of OJ's Glove)



Hello 300'ly to all!
Just compiling a bunch of vignettes (albeit expensive ones) to augment
Charlie's NewsFlite articles. All personally experienced. The saga in
progress is my Christmas treat to Mopsy of new Legendary front and rear
seat covers. This and new bumpers (another story...stay tuned) are the
last items on my list of fine tuning to get my C where I want her
(perfection effort that I'm seriously wondering if at all worth the
hastle...so read on). December 4, 2007 the decision is made to purchase
new seat covers when I receive the Legendary Interiors holiday discount
special...10% off and free shipping! (how prophetic). I call and put the
order in while looking at their website. What a compliment....their rear
seat photo demonstrating THEIR rear covers for the C hardtop is my
existing ones made by Goers! OK, lets get the covers and move forward.
Right..... with several backsteps and back flips and bellyflops in
between. Of course plunking down the $2212 was acceptable since I saved
the shipping and about $300 to boot (majic number that 300). "You'll
have them in 8 weeks" they said, enjoy the holidays dreaming about your
new seat covers. Dewy eyed mysticism set in thinking that this
no-brainer new upgrade will be so beautiful and hassle-free since it
only involves removing my seats and taking them 2 miles down the road to
the upholstery shop and presto...the only concern will be how soon I can
get them back in the car for spring car shows! I was under the
impression that in early February I would have the seat covers so
advertised my old ones on a Saturday afternoon in January at which time
they sold in 10 minutes to the first buyer (e-mail response wasn't quick
enough so he called me via probably iridion satellite phone before I
received his e-mail. SOLD!! Three other club members were in line to
purchase. This gave me that "loving feeling" that all was right and this
was my final reward for the trials and tribulations with Mopsy the past
5 yeras. Yeah, and if a pig could fly! Mid-February the phone calls to
Legendary start on my part. "Just a slight delay in that the material is
back-ordered". Wait a minute.....you mean that you dudes don't even have
the material yet? It's been 10.5 weeks. Of course the Discover Card bill
was already paid, so that was some consolation. End of February I call
them, after I've been repeatedly told that they will call me when they
are completed for shipment. The next call was precious, "Oh yes, we
shipped them to you yesterday!" Where? You were going to call me for the
final shipping adress? Pregnant pause....believe me, as an obstetrician
there is no such thing, those babies slide out when they want without a
pause! "Well, I have to reseach that and we'll call you back" Don't,
I'll call you in an hour. "We close in 20 minutes" Duh, can I hold while
you find where they were shipped? "Sorry, shipping went home 15 minutes
ago and locked their computers. We'll call tomorrow. But we did ship
express since you waited so long!" Great, now I have to contact any
family member, my office, neighbors, etc. to be on the lookout for 2 big
boxes of Legendary seat covers that might show up by BROWN. Visions of
these boxes sitting on my front walk saturated by rain are creaping in
my mind. Or worse some BROWN guy walks into the lobby of the office
blaring out that my seat covers are here when I'm running 2 hours behind
schedule. Pissed-off patients stampeding out...great.... can I now
afford to get these installed? The worst nightmare was some homeless guy
going through the neighborhood trash picking takes them if they were put
out by the curb by BROWN and he thinks he hit the motherload! All he
needs is to get an old chair frame and its Lazy Boy time! Well they
arrive, fortunately to my office while I'm scheduled to be in surgery so
no patients are waiting. I get back from the OR and there is a cacaphony
of nurses singing your new LEATHER seats are here! Great!! (Don't think
you're getting a chance to sit in the back seat, I'm happily married and
don't want tattoos to rub off on them or your body piercings to marr
them). Quick phone call to the upholstery shop...."I'm a week behind,
but no problem bring them a week from Monday with the rear seats first"
SWEET! We are well into Lent and giving up chocolate I thought was my
major sacrifice. The Lord and this hobby teaches patience. Meanwhile I'm
e-mailing the buyer of my seat covers each week with status updates. I
drop the seat covers and rear seats off to the Upholsterers with a
smile. Smart this uphosterer, he wants to do the rears first so I can
still drive Mopsy on health runs and not be dead-in-the-water waiting on
him. Easter Monday. I call the uphosterer. "Yeah bring the front seats ,
I'll have these ready this afternoon". The Friday before between
deliveries I get my buddy Jerry Wise to meet me at the storage garage
where Mopsy resides while Marnie is home, and we take the front seats
out oh so carefully (after limbering up so that we can be stealthy in
transitting across the front passenger compartment while lifting the
seat out). Don't want to scratch anything that was already so
painstakingly accomplished now , do we? I get the front seat in the back
of the Escalade and between rain showers on Easter Monday afternoon
proceed to the uphoslters. Get there, and the uphosterer greets me at
the door. "I was just calling your office. These seat covers don't fit!"
Can't be, they're Legendary. Nope. "Remeber the OJ glove deal?"...I'm
sick now, I don't want to barf...not on the existing seat covers,
they're already sold! Sure enough, a minimum of 2" short in every
dimension and the pattern is off. The only thing that was measured
correctly was the rear vinyl piece for the front seat backs....probably
a $19.99 material cost of the $2212! Thank goodness I had Legendary on
speed dial...it was already 4:20 EST! Got a hold of Legendary and of
course Tech support left for the day. Got his extension though! Several
more calls and conversations between my upholsterer and Legendary's tech
support, 2 sleepless nights on my part, and the uphosterer starts acting
like a stubborn mule. Fortunately a mule won't step where it doesn't
want to go and the upholsterer didn't want to mess with the covers for
fear of damaging them. I call Legendary back after a 3:00 am revelation
comes to me and inquire about shipping my existing seat covers back to
them with their new ones so that they can make any adjustments necessary
to fit my seats. "Great idea" they said. "We will pay for shipping back
to us for both sets of covers since this was the first time this ever
happened " (sure). So off they go. Tracking via FedEx was to become the
new seat cover enjoyment for me. A few days later I get a phone call
from Legendary! Finally! (is this a good or bad omen?) "Hey, our seat
covers are correct, yours are oversized and not the originals". Sure, I
told them they are Gary Goers, but then I told them that they had them
pictured as their's on the Legendary on-line catalogue (just had to get
that zing in as I was mentally tying a knot at the end of my rope). All
possible scenarios of what to do next go through my mind. All my seats
are apart and the covers are in Newark, New York. Mopsy is
dead-in-the-water in the storage garage with a step stool for a front
seat. It never seems to fail, that I get in a project with this car that
doesn't get hamstrung because of ghosts of hobbyist past, or current
inadequacies to but it politely. Another lost night's sleep and at 3:00
am (another 300 epiphany?) it dawns on me to just ship the seat frames
to Legendary and let them custom fit OJ's gloves with the correct
padding and burlap, cotton, whatever. While they are at it why not bead
blast the frames and paint them the correct black. The money meter
starts turning again. I call Legendary the first thing in the morning
and they think it is the only way to go and so does my upholsterer. Well
Jerry goes and gets the frames, padding ,etc. from the upholsterer and
boxes up the seats. Try shipping seat frames! Price quotes go from $1300
to $1600 for Yellow freight or UPS freight and of course the nearest
freight depot is in Texas! I call Legendary and their shipping guy says
no problem, "I just shipped a crate weighing about a ton of seat
material to Key West for under $600. Just give me the weight of each box
and the dimensions and I'll issue a pick up tag for the body shop to
have them picked up tomorrow". Great! Things are looking like the plan
is coming together. The one way shipping comes to $340, a bargain and I
don't have to load up the truck and go to Texas! Four pick up numbers
are issued through Legendary via FedEx to be picked up the Friday after
Easter. FedEx comes by and states they only have one label, pick up one
box and they are gone! I get a call from the body shop that 3 boxes of
seat frames remain. "What to do?" Legendary gets a speed dial from me
just before they close and they throw a fit that the FedEx guy didn't
read the tag for the four box numbers. Thanks guys, I'm paying for all
this grief and get caught in the middle. FedEx tells the body shop TTFN
until the following Tuesday! Legendary pulls strings and the FedEx dudes
show up on Monday to get the boxes. Miraculously all 4 show up at the
same time to Legendary. Meanwhile Legendary sends me back my original
covers, which I put in a Legendary box (poetic justice) and ship to
their new owner along with a bicycle box full of padding, burlap,
kitchen towels, cardboard and whatever else were stuffed in those seats,
because we all know that a man's hand can't fit in OJ's glove so arriva
d'arce! Trying to ship these were not easy but this story is getting a
liittle long. Just say for $271 the pads, etc. and seat covers arrived
safely to their new owner. So now I've got all my seats in the hands of
Legendary. A phone call to Wayne Graefen confirmed that this was the
RIGHT thing to do and I can sleep on it. Apparently it has been known
that Goers seat covers were prone to dimensional deviations. Isn't that
a fact. Well, Wayne's word is the Good House Keeping Seal of Approval in
my book and back to sweet dreams of driving Mopsy with seats again and
not propped on a foot stool hanging on to the wheel for dear life. Well,
Legendary has the seats for now 3 weeks and I'm told that they are
having to redo them since dimensionally the were way off and that they
have put 26 hours of work into the pads,etc. but are only charging me
half that time since they are having to make new templates for C seats!!
Imagine that. So by mid month they should be ready to ship. My
upholsterer will assemble the front seat backs to bottom seat and it
will be done. $1134 more to Legendary (including return shipping....real
deal since diesel went up about .50/gallon since Easter) and this stroy
should come to a happy ending. Legendary assures me they will be mint
quality and a little voice is telling me that will be true. Since there
is nothing easy about restoring a '57 Chrysler, this rings home to be
the correct other half of the story. Hopefully future C owners will
benefit from the new templates made for C seat covers and will not
experince this horse and pony show! ROB KERN

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