Want 2 go to a yard that will rob you? Go to United Metal. (LONG) (but it has taters)
Tom, i hope yer on here. I want you to see this, ya jerk.
So i get a call about 3ish months ago from Tom, the owner of a United Metal franchise that opened in Boise. He saw my ad on CL and wanted to have my business. He talked himself up, "i pay the best" blah blah blah. We worked out a deal. He said he'd pay for my TV/Monitor plastic at .1 a pound. Great! Now it doesnt have to go to the landfill for $15 a load.
As the days go on, id bring scrap in and everything was great. His scale guy would nickle and dime me on some things, but i chopped that up to just business. It got to a point where everytime id go in, id have to go back and argue, to get what i was supposed to be paid. I was slowly getting very irritated. My old yard never did this.
They seemed to have a HUGE lack of communication between the scale guy and Tom. Tom would work the register. Scale guy would tell me a price, and some how it would change in the 15 feet from the scale to the register.
I had them bring me a couple gaylords. They promised metal bins, so i was freakin' stoked. They showed up with 2 cardboard boxes, just huge. No problem, work pretty much the same. Id fill em up, call em, and they'd send a guy to pick em up. Id get paid $160 a ton, because they had to pick it up. They pay $180 a ton if you bring it too them.
As the days wore on, i made a friendship with Jay, the guy who handled the e-scrap and picked up my bins. He told me that instead of bringing in all my plastic by the truckload, why not just hoard it, and when he comes to pick up the bins he'll just load up with plastic. Fan-freakin-tastic batman! I would put between 750-900 pounds of plastic in my truck, so this would DEFINITELY increase profits. Jay and i worked out a plan, and all was good.
Finally it came time to pick up my plastic hoard. I had 21 truck loads of plastic to my storage unit. Jay came with his big box truck, picked up my bins, then we spent an hour loading the plastic at my storage unit. We were having fun. Jay even said "I like this, i dont get to do this kinda stuff too often. Its nice to get out".
Then my dad had his first set of seizures. So i was down for a week or so. Finally, i went to United to pick up my money from the plastic, and bins. Now, i had 2 bins. 1 had tin, the other had random aluminum. It was about 20 pounds of heat sinks from monitors, and some of those aluminum "cases" that some computer monitors have that surround the whole thing inside. I had over 150 pounds of aluminum. (Yeah, i had ALOT of those cases. A LOTTTT) When Jay picked the box up, i told him "i know its mixed up, not separated, so just give me dirty price and we'll be good" He agreed and everything was honky-freakin-dorey.
I pick up my money. I got $17 for my aluminum. They gave me .5 a pound. FIVE-FREAKIN CENTS. They said it was "pot metal". I about blew a friggin tater.
I then asked for my money from the plastic. Tom looked at me, and said "So...you REALLY want to be paid for it?" I looked at him and chuckled "....Yes? Isnt that the reason i bring it in to you? To be paid?" He rolled his eyes and went back to the register.
A second tater was blown.
I looked at the receipt, he handed me $9.52. So 952 pounds. I decided itd be best for my blood pressure to just leave.
Well today, i FINALLY get around to calling Tom to figure it out. I was calm cool and collected, had all my taters locked and loaded securely. I asked him, and i quote "Tom, i understand the day i came in the market crashed. So i know things were tough that day, but why the attitude? I dont deserve that." He proceeded to get wound up tighter than a rats rear end. I told him that my truck can hold 952 pounds of plastic, and i had at LEAST 20 truck loads in that box truck of yers. So i dont understand.
"Listen, Chuck, do you REALLY expect me to pay you for that plastic? We did you a favor by coming out and cleaning up yer storage unit. I had to pay for that truck to be running, and for the man hours involved due to yer lack of organization."
A third tater was indeed blown.
I told Tom that if you dont want to buy it, dont. But dont wait until you have the dang product to tell me you dont want too. I called him out on just typing up some random weight. He said, and again i quote "Chuck im not going to sit here and argue with you and f****** plastic. Go ahead and take yer stuff to Pacific. It's apparent im dealing with a child" Then he hung up.
A fourth tater was blown, mashed, this time.
Moral of the story, United Metal will SCREW you, any way they can. Tom is by FAR the most unprofessional "business" person i've ever had the displeasure too meet. Tom, im sure that if i met you off yer property and you opened yer mouth, well....
Thanks for reading this tater-tantrum.
(By the way, "blown tater" is idaho speak for blown gasket. Or maybe thats just me-speak....im crazy)
