has anybody installed StevensLake cylinder seals from amazon or ebay ? are they any good? or a waste of money. i'm trying to fix a 310e and the whole seal kit is really cheap.
I don't which listings you are looking at. But I looked at one kit they have on Amazon and in the details it says the brand is Hercules. Those are generally good seals.
I just ordered a backhoe bucket cylinder from an ebay seller called "Stevenslake". They sent the wrong kit, the part number doesnt match the order. The part they sent is for the 4" cylinder tube, the part I ordered is for the 3.5" tube. So I start to reverse engineer this order and I find that has no phone number and no way to contact them except thru the ebay 'contact seller' portal. On the emails I receive from ebay , I am able to see that Stevenslake is actually "Reliable Aftermarket Parts" but they dont list a phone number either. They only support customers via an online form to create a 'ticket'. No more Stevenslake or unReliable Aftermarket Parts for me. Next time I'll order from Hercules Seals, the quality is probably better as well .
I got the seals for my 580 E from Broken Tractor and they are Bulldog and work very well.
Bulldog, Hercules and MFP are all good outfits for you seal needs.
We had Reliable Aftermarket seal kits recently to Australia (4) all excellent.
So use the ebay contact system, it works instantly. That guy has 156,000 sales and 99.4% happy customers. Ebay guards their sellers information like a mother bear, they ARE NOT going to give you an alternative way to contact the seller. And you don't want to contact seller for some unknown reason of your own? Joe H
I've been using HWParts for machine seal kits and they've been pretty good so far. Out of probably the last 40 kits ive needed additional o rings for maybe 3 cylinders either they came with a slightly off size or it was missing from the kit
The Ebay contact system recently failed me. It wasn't Ebay, it was a seller that would not respond to a question I had. I purchased two pins for my backhoe and only one was delivered. The seller would not respond to multiple messages I sent. I was not rude or impolite. I finally gave up and contacted Ebay for a return. They instantly authorized the return. I sent back the one pin that was delivered and Ebay gave me full credit for both pins. It was time consuming and frustrating.
But they did handle it. I've bought and sold hundreds of things on ebay and the only problem I have is that ebay will accept whatever kind of ******** story the buyer comes up with as to why they should get their money back. No matter what kind of lie the seller tells them, they pay up. With my money. Joe H
I rarely answer business calls with my small business. When it's busy, I'd lose hours a day on the phone. Get people wanting to go on and on and on or it's time wasters Emails are much quicker. Plus I can look back at it, and read/reply at any hour... most people don't want call backs at 2200 or 0500...
Years ago I bought a Stihl chainsaw and it arrived not running (was sold as a good shape, running, ready to go to work saw) I brought it to the Stihl dealer to get it looked at and they gave me a list of what it needed. Ebay denied my claim because I brought my saw to the dealer without the sellers permission.
Fair question. Up to now, I've mainly ordered parts from Dale and his crew at Tractor Stuff, they were low key, knowledgeable and available on the phone. Its too bad that they aren't still in business because from a customer's perspective they were the best. Their price wasn't the lowest but they more than made up for it in support and service. This time as mentioned , I bought a kit thru ebay and the wrong part was shipped. It was only after I had removed the cylinder rod, removed the bolt and piston and was ready to install the new seals that I discovered that they had sent the wrong seal kit. This was quite frustrating and more so since I couldn't speak to someone to verify what the problem was and how to resolve it. Instead I used the the 'contact seller' link and after 2 hours the seller responded with 'The listing was incorrect , we will issue a refund' . I would have preferred that instead of a refund they sent me the correct part but I assumed that wasn't a option and messaging back to not refund but to ship the correct kit would be fruitless, maybe an incorrect assumption and I should have persisted but this is where phone contact would have been helpful. After some digging , I discover that StevensLake is Reliable Aftermarket Parts on ebay, I re-do the order directly on the RAP website. This time there isn't the standard order status and tracking like ebay provides but I have to download an App to my phone in order to see the order status and tracking. I'm definitely not downloading an app so I'll just wait and see when the part shows up. Based on the suggestions for other vendors, I checked two: Hercules Sealing Prod. - they answer the phone , BULLDOG brand , the price for G109504 kit is $74 delivered Broken Tractor - immediately answer the phone, no phone tree etc, BULLDOG brand, the price is @$60 delivered RAP - online only, NONAME brand, $44 delivered StevensLake , ebay seller , support online only, $39 delivered . I'm guilty of going for the cheapest vendors, so I have to accept the results but I can see the lesson .
Fair enough, you tried. Guess you won't be one of their 99.4% happy customers. Interesting if they ship the right kit from their alter ego. Joe H