Dodged a bullet - Work/vendor related
 

I had been working with a vendor, but they were not responsive enough and the pricing was becoming too high. So we stopped buying from them three years ago.

I came across an article in the WSJ about the company. I then went looking for the lawsuit.

Apparently, this company was one of the few solar panel producers in the Dallas area. After several reasonable years, they were caught up in the Chinese dumping issue. The domestic products couldn't compete on a price level. This was eventually prosecuted on an anti-dumping lawsuit and Chinese produced solar panels are now taxed at a very high level.

Well, this company decided to "get even". They planned to purchase a bunch of unlabeled Solar Panels and then relabel them as USA produced. The plan also included stiffing the Chinese producers. And the IDIOTS got caught!

https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/newspubs/releases/2013/Lawsuit-State_vs_1_SolTech_Inc.pdf

Thank goodness they were so unresponsive in the end of 2012 or I might have bought some of the fraudulent solar panels.

Good thing you told them to stick it where the sun don't shine!

Wow. I bet your disposition is pretty sunny, dodging that bullet.

That is a shining example of the bad customer service and worse ethics. Unfortunately this is just reflective of our times.

Reading the lawsuit, the owners are not US citizens and stated to the CFO that if they were caught, they would just leave the county. It is noted that they do not own any substantial assets.

The CFO was the primary reason the State of Texas found out. She quit a month after the scheme was hatched and refused to sign Purchase Orders for the Chinese solar panels.

I see what you did there...:cool:

Wait. So the federal importation taxes would fall upon an unknowing consumer after the fact?

That doesn't make sense.
My head hurts.

If they import PV panels direct from China.