General rules here are:
We screw up, we fix it.
You screw up, we help you fix it.
Fuzzy what happened but there's still a problem, we work out a reasonable way to get the problem solved.
Without a blow by blow which I hope is not necessary here, there was some fuzziness in the email string about what springs to ship. At some point attitudes flared (no fingers pointed at all, things got dumb here) and we ended up replacing the springs. I'm not sure how to make it any more free or easy to get the right part there than the way it worked out. The path to that end I'd prefer not to go through again.
Anyone that feels like they're being grilled over a mis-shipped part, warranty item, etc. should keep in mind that things get screwed up many ways. More often than not we find out that the reason for a problem or return is not the actual problem and we can help stop the chain of problems by just figuring it out. It takes some talking to do that.
Couple examples to illustrate:
Guy orders shackle flip for 1-ton truck. We ship shackle flip for 1-ton truck. Guy calls saying the flip is wrong and the brackets sit too close to the frame. Then we find out the "1-ton" is a 1/2T with a swapped in D60 and a K30 14 bolt that's not going to fit when he gets ready to install it. This guy needs more than just the correct flip to make the project work.
Guy calls up and says his truck rides really stiff and sits low after shackle flip install. We can't figure out the problem but eventually we get pics and there is no shackle installed, the spring is bolted right to the flip bracket. Easy fix, install the shackle rather than return the "defective" part and everyone is way happier.
It would probably be easier to just take the return and get off the phone but we're pretty convinced we can help people build trucks and with 15 years of that system working out, we plan to stick with it.
We're not perfect by any means, we definitely make sure that the parts and support are primary and the nuts and bolts of the business constantly need work and stuff like this sometimes happens. I'd prefer it didn't, I've been worrying over it for nearly a week now. We've put some new business procedures in place to help ensure it doesn't happen again and that's about all we can do at this point.