Customer NO Service.

Barry

Barry

Paint Fanatic
Staff member
I just have this thing or things, I should say and I'm not very forgiving about any of them.

First, I want the phone answered and if all lines are busy and it goes to voice mail, I want the call returned right away, not tomorrow.

I want all orders to go out the same day and can count on my hands the number of orders that did not go to next day in last three years. I think all were just called in to late and trucks had already picked up.

Well the two months been buying a lot of vette items, about 3,000 with Ecklers and i try not to abuse, so smallest order to day was $600. , two weeks later i get the order and once in a while in as short as a week (once)

So I though why not try another vette place in Michigan, a gamble as now we have a 2-3 day shipping time but I figured OK, they have to be better. Placed a $700 order a week ago and called yesterday to see if they even got it, yes we will start pulling it today. They are that busy it takes a week to pull an order? We hope to ship in next couple of days? I explained we were trying them out and its not looking real good but she sounded like she in another dimension or drugged up and could care less.

I guess i expect to much but how do these companies stay in business.
Yesterday we got a fax for a $9.600 appox order, in less then 30 minutes, it was pulled, palletized and bill of lading done, why would we want to stand around and look at it for two weeks??

OK, I feel better, never mind!
 
i would have gone guchy on her . if i order and it is not shipped in 2 days i cancel . i have learned my lesson on new and improved.
 
The problem is that too many people take this stuff lying down. If more people would make principled purchasing decisions based on more than just the cheapest price, our country would be in a lot better shape.
 
With the economy businesses arent stocking anything anymore. Everyone i deal with anywhere in any field all have next to no stock left. They are always out of everything or it needs to be ordered. Alot of mail order companies also cut shipping costs by waiting until they fill a tractor trailer load. If it takes 2 weeks to fill enough orders to fill that truck then that is how long you wait.
 
people are always telling me about some place to buy that has better prices. i order my rod parts from cody parr. i can order tomorrow morning and get it the next day without fail. and it has been this way for years. too many retirees starting 401 businesses that end up a mess.
 
I order from all the Corvette parts places and haven't found a single one that comes close to SPI customer service. Most send me an e-mail to let me know they have my order and a day or two later they e-mail a Fedex or UPS tracking number. I try to buy from smaller companies when I can but sometimes that results in a disaster.

I tried to order a hydroboost brake system from Hydratech but they only sell through dealers. I picked a dealer and placed the order (around $700). When I didn't receive any response for a week, I e-mailed an inquiry. No response so I called the next day. No answer and no voice-mail so I called back the next day. Finally got an answer and the dealer said it would go out the next day. Another week and still nothing so I e-mailed Hydratech and asked if there was a supply problem. Got an immediate response apologizing for the delay. Claimed the guy was super reliable but was sick and had yet to place the order. Hydratech offered to jump my order to the top of the queue but I told them to cancel. Contacted the guy one last time and asked for my money back.

I was upset that the guy deposited my money in his account on the day I ordered the system, rather than the day he shipped (?) it. I was upset he didn't respond to e-mails or phone calls and when he did, had no explanation for the delay. Hard to describe how I felt about the lying -- system's shipping tomorrow -- and you haven't even placed an order with the assembler (90% of the system is off the shelf parts). I was upset that 26 days were wasted.

I ordered the booster from one source, a couple of custom parts from another and the hydraulic lines and fittings from a third. Took ten days for the last part to arrive and the total was $100 lower (with braided teflon hoses instead of rubber).

I'm thrilled with SPI customer service. It's sad that it is so uncommon.
 
Unfortunately, the smaller businesses are struggling, so the owner may know about the problem, but cannow do anything about it. The larger companies, the owner is too removed from the process. The employees don't care about anything except their paycheck, and spend all day complaining about them. They don't understand the relation between the business and their pay.

We have some young kids at work that drive me nuts. Their only skills rea texting and talking on the cell phones. They spend all day complaining about how bad things are there, and how they should be paid more money. When they are told that a car is scheduled to go, they just complain. They don't understand that their pay comes from those cars being picked up.

Sure am glad that Barry keeps an eye on things. LOL

Aaron
 
I also think that a lot of companies are just middlemen- and don't actually stock the items.

you order - they order - they get - they ship to you

- easily adds 7-10 days to process. I find more and more companies that used to stock items I want, don't any more and quote a long lead time.

- Stephen
 
I usually stock what is continuously ordered, and do my best to keep everything stocked.. Lately with all the black basecoat and single stage sales, I am thinking I need to start stocking. It use to be a hit and miss item as most would just order by code, but now people are ordering more and more of the factory pack stuff.

I do understand as it is very hard to keep everything stocked all the times, but you need to do your best.
 
Funny thing happened this week after this thread was posted. Was in my local ppg store (use them for quick materials since i can just walk in and grab off the shelf) and somehow got on the topic of service with the owner. Turns out his philosophy is "You cant get a great price, and great service at the same time. It's one or the other" !!! Thought that was rather interesting! It really didn't dawn on me what he said till i was in the truck on the way back to the shop...i was just tryin to get outta there. It's no wonder their biggest account is a shop that repaints big trucks and tractor trailers...and they use shopline.

sigh.............................................................Only if spi had a color machine and jobber in my area!!
 
I think I skipped class the day that was covered in Business 101!

I would love to see the guys bottom line, bet it sucks because I don't care what type of business you have, it is customer service and great employees that makes the business money.

I'm sorry to say as this is a clean forum but the guy is a plain idiot.
 
I'd be pissed if I had to wait that long for them to ship an order. Good thing I don't own a vette. I love the fact that when I order from SPI I get it so quick. One other company that really gets stuff to me in a hurry is Summit. If I order it before noon I usually have it the next day. Can't beat that.
 
I'm an owner/operator of a Landscape maintenance business and can tell you that keeping customer happy is easy and difficult at times. Employees have no idea what it takes to keep a business operating. The ones that do care think they should making a million bucks.
 
About a decade ago I ordered about 15k worth of stuff from the corvette central which is about an hour away. I waited two weeks and never recieved anything. When I did call I got the run around and typical excuse. Another week went by and nothing. I called again and got more run around. I told them to cancel it and the sales person kissed my butt and talked me back into the order. I started getting parts then. This was my car and I had a full time job so It wasn't life or death. I retried them probably 5 years ago and it wasn't much better. I had switched to ZIP on the remainder of my car and had great results but I believe Ekclers bought them? In general the vette parts places blow big time. Order from NPD for a chevelle or that big camaro place out west and I get results. Of all the places I order from nobody has customer service like Barry. Some are good but you don't get the extra mile.
 
Corvette central? They are a customer of mine, only a few miles , where are you located? I was told they have good customer service.. interesting.
 
I'm down the road the other side of Battle Creek. Maybe a little more than an hour away depending on how heavy the foot is. The last two vettes I did the guys had an account with big savings so they wanted me to use them. It was a pain to deal with them. On more than on account I told them I can be there to pickup stuff and they said they don't really do that. But... they have a showroom??? I hope to never deal with them again. Zip was great, they were in North Carolina and everything was always 2 days away from an order. I've also had good luck with Chicago Corvette and paragon but the prices are noticably higher. It only makes sense to take the order, pull the order, ship the order. Everyone is happy that way. Oh, ten years ago I got the computer problem excuse and 5 years ago I also has gotten a computer problem excuse. At the last time I told the lady they might want to upgrade the equipment or the excuse as that is the same line they fed me 5 years earlier.
 
Interesting, it is weird how they do orders, the first time I ordered they wanted to ship it all, i was like, um, im one town away, about 5 minute drive, I don't want to pay for shipping. But they do have a showroom and the front section for corvette parking only. I ended up picking the order up. The owner is a really nice guy, he probably wouldn't be happy if he knew of the bad feedback.
 
I don't really understand these vette people, central was one, so I called customer service the day I posted this and order did go out next day, I also bitched at ecklers and the last three orders have gone out same day, instead of a week later.

On other hand, I have been ordering T-Bird parts from CASCO in Ohio and just like today, ordered the part Monday and I just got it today, like clock work and NEVER a backorder.
 
No, installed new wiring harness, turn on light and inside light blinks, tracked it down to a bad connection that was shorting through a conector.

Poor brightness on inside lights, so dash install comes to a stop, till I can get a new light switch.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top