With work being a little slower than it has been recently today, I made some strategic phone calls to try to solve some ongoing issues and make some contacts for CustomTacos.com.
First, I called SuperBuy tires and demanded that they refund my money. The reson I use the word demand? Because I've called twice before today and asked that my money be refunded for the center caps that they never shipped me. And the reason they never shipped me? Because they received the wrong ones from Enkei. Big surprise.
I then called Enkei direct, got a part # for the center caps I need, called a local warehouse who referred me to a local shop, who ordered them from the local warehouse. He says they should be here in 4-5 days. To make sure he ordered the correct ones, I emailed him a close-up photo of one. We'llhow this works. I'm pessimistic..but I have good reason to be. When you've gotten the run-around this many times for such a simple request you tend to get this way.
So, then I decided to call EL Prototypes and LC Engineering (both are aftermarket Toyota performance parts shops/makers). I didn't get anybody, but someone SHOULD be calling me in the next few days. I'm trying to make some contacts with vendors to work out some kind of banner-swapping or partnership.
So then I got a wild hair and called McMullen Publishing, the company that publishes Minitruckin' magazine. When the operator answered, I asked to be connected to Mike Finnegan. Mike Finnegan is an associate editor of Mini Truckin' and just happens to have one of the baddest Tacomas on the scene. He is admired not only because he works for the bible of the mini truck community, but also because his truck is pretty awesome. To my amazement, he answered the phone. Panic ensued. I felt like a 13-year-old kid asking a girl to the middle school dance. I'm pretty sure I sounded like a complete dork. I told him that I just completed a website that was right up his alley. I proceded to explain the site to him, and then gave him the URL. I also asked if he would give it a plug in the next issue of the magazine, to which he agreed. I then asked him if he would mind being the featured truck of the month next month on CustomTacos. He agreed to that and emailed me some photos of his truck. He was really down to earth and denied that he's sortof an icon to other Tacoma owners. He said that he would drop in on the site from time to time and chat with everybody.
I got off the phone amazed at what I had just done. Thinking about it now, it seems pretty dumb that I was nervous about talking to him because I know he's just another person like you or me...but it's strange. It was like meeting Leo Laporte. There's nothing really special about Leo (other than he's really nice and smart), but I had basically the same when I met him the other weekend. Anybody else have any insight on this?
Tonight, Adobe's fine product, GoLive made my life a living hell by stalling in the middle of uploading my index.shtml to CustomTacos.com, resulting in a 0 kilobyte file on the server, a locked up and unresponsive GoLive program, and no backup. *&^$#%@^#%$&*())&^%$#%%$^^&&* Luckily, I had another copy of the index that was close enough to the current version that I modified to use. Lesson #194: Backup your website every other day.
Posted by Jeff at November 14, 2001 12:43 AM
Comments
I'm going to post what I posted Monday, because your entry today about pinning down some center caps is EXACTLY what I was talking about. :)
"I know I asked you about the truck. You aren't normally like that about anything, especially when something pertains to your truck (or computer).
That's why I was shocked at least. The moment you win an eBay auction, you start tracking it until it comes to your door. You're a go-getter, Jeff. It's one of your attributes. That's why I was so surprised at your passivity at not hearing about your truck as it is in pieces in some guy's garage."
On a different note, HomeSite occasionally does that. I know Greymatter does too. Sheesh. It's a nightmare trying to figure out
1) What went wrong
2) How it went wrong
3) What the damage was
4) How to fix it
5) How to prevent it from happening again.
I'm proud of you for calling the top dog and pitching your site. That takes balls, Jeff. And you're exactly right. I'd venture to say that most famous people would rather have people see them for what they are-- just normal folks who happen to be in the public eye. Very cool. Very very cool. I'm enjoying watching the communiy thrive in there.
(Folks, even if you aren't into customizing Tacomas, it's pretty darned interesting to see how people are taking off with Jeff's community. I encourage you to check it out.)
Posted by: Brian Korte at November 14, 2001 11:45 AM
What's the progress on the truck, by the way? Have you heard anything?
Posted by: Brian at November 14, 2001 2:50 PM
We went to Cali(from Phoenix) for a show and decided to stop by Devious Customs in Ontario,Ca. When we got there we saw Mike Finnegan. I felt the same way you did bro he is like sort of a icon of the Minitruck world cause he has a kickass job and the baddest mini around. We didn't bother him cause he was sanding down his boat. It was a cool stop though they are kool guys.
