Scrap yard fixed their mistake, but I learned a lesson

Saturday was a busy day for us. We brought two loads to one of our local yards, GLE Scrap Metal in Warren, MI, one a 1440 pound load of steel and one a 2600 pound load of mixed ferrous and non-ferrous.

When we were having our non-ferrous materials weighed, somebody else besides the guy who was working with us came in and tweaked something on the computer at the scale. There was a bit of an argument between the two workers over "whose ticket" the materials were going to appear on, and then the original guy continued weighing our stuff.

Well, to make a long story short, we got our pay-out and didn't really look at the ticket until today, and wouldn't you know, about 50# of aluminum wasn't on the ticket. Since it was a big load for us we missed it while we were still at the yard.

When I called them this morning, the first person I talked to gave me a variation of "too bad, so sad, shoulda caught it then." And in a way, I guess she was right, but I persisted and got to speak to the manager. Lindsey listened to my description of what happened, and promised to look into it and call me back.

The good news is that they are going to credit us for 50# of aluminum. She called me back, earlier than she had promised, and will make it right as best she can. She reminded me that we need to check the ticket over carefully while we're still at the yard, and I agree with her, but they were able to establish that somebody new had messed up the transaction and gave us the benefit of the doubt.

So, couple of things here:

• One, don't take the first "no" you get for an answer. Persist -- politely and calmly -- when there is a problem with a ticket and you know you are right.
• Two -- review your ticket carefully before you leave the yard. I'm going to have to bring a checklist to make sure I have something to compare my ticket against.
• And three -- the people working at GLE in Warren MI went above and beyond for us and did the best they could to make things right for us. Detroit area scrappers: these are good folks.

--Geoff

I highly advise looking over your ticket before you leave the yard. It is rare, but it still happens where something was left off the ticket or the wrong material grading was made. When this happens there is a small window for us to rectify the situation. In most cases when you call the following week or sometimes the following day the material has already been shipped and there is no way for me to go back and physically see it to make an adjustment.

The guys running the scales are human, and do make errors. When this happens you have to catch the mistake quickly or there is generally no recourse.

I cashed in a small load a couple months ago...alum cans, #2 copper, couple batteries, couple brake rotors. When I got my check I almost dropped a load...it looked waaay to small. Upon ticket inspection the guy at the scale put my copper as #2 insulated...I asked him about it, he looked at it, apologized, cut me a new slip and told me if the cashier had a question to call him and he'd verify his mistake. They simply voided my check and cut me a new one.

one of my buddies took a small load in and the office lady messed up and he got paid 2500. he ran like a bandit. even though we advisd him to take it back he didnt and the office staff remembered him on a separate loan and he got banned from the yard after telling them too bad it was your error.

another of my buddies took in a ton and received a 15,000 check. he argued with the office lady and told her they weighed him wrong and that he got too much. the lady insisted it was right and it went back and forth til the lead came out and they figured out the mistake.

Originally Posted by CanIScrapIt

Hey! GLE is my regular yard haha. Maybe I've seen you there before. What are you driving?

07 Grand Cherokee towing a 10' trailer.

--Geoff

I always check my ticket before going to the pay window. Sometimes I'll wiegh my nonferrous before I go to the yard so I'll have an idea of what I'll be getting.That way I can take a quick look at the ticket and know if something dosn't look right.

Always check your ticket. Sometimes my tickets look like a long grocery list. When you get ready to go too the yard make a list of what you have so you don't miss anything.
Good luck

One time I had a bunch of different items to turn in, so a long list to be printed up. As soon as I get paid a worker runs in the office they did not add a 45 pound bag of #2 ins wire to the ticket. At that time that was like $50! Several months passed and I was turning in some other stuff and the scale guy mixed up the numbers on #1 & #2 wire I told the guy in the office and he seemed shocked that I would tell him I should be payed less. Told me its yours!

You also have to be careful as to what size scale is used when weighing at the yard. When we weigh our nonferrous metals here, on our state certified scales, it's on a 5k limit scale, and its tolerances are +/- x% of your weight. When I took our box truck onto their truck scale, and offloaded our pallets of densified al cans, and then got back on the scale, the weights were in their favor 300lb on a 3200lb load. I made them take my pallet loads and weigh them on the small scale, and sure enough, their little scale was within 4lbs on a 1600lb pallet load from ours. Now, if it had been copper, and I didn't catch it, and it was like 6-7 years ago- that'd been a lot of money. Every scrapyard buying ferrous/nonferrous metals will have a smaller scale for their walk-in customers.