Projects HOWELL'S SHEET METAL

Bought my 32 truck assembled bed from Mack Hills in Missouri. Excellent product and reasonable service. They make most year boxes for Fords and Chevy's.

 

Howell's $150.00 Waldens $500.00 The hassle
Might be worth it for me as I'm on a fixed income.

 

If you're retired and on a fixed income, you're old, like me. How much wait time is worth $350 to you? That's the question. For a lot of folks on these and other threads, the wait time is forever. I don't think I'm likely to have that much time. Your choice, though.

 

I was nervous but I ordered lower door repair panels and lower inner door structure repair panels from them on ebay Wednesday and happy to report it actually shipped yesterday.

Even provided tracking number and it shows progress on delivery so if there's something they have you might check ebay and order thru there.....

 

Ebay won't put up with any of his nonsense and will ban him for it so he is probably a lot more motivated to ship stuff he sells through there than on his own.

 

Does he list a roof insert on Ebay?

 

I waited nearly a year for a set of rockers for my 28 chevy. When it came time to actually installing them, I still didn't have them and after numerous calls and emails to Ryan, I was finally able to get a refund. Total waste of time and I would avoid these guys like the plague.

There are many threads about the customer service of this place all over the internet. Educate yourself.

 

I've read that Ebay is the place for his stuff. I have not found a roof insert for a 1930 CCPU.

 

I've been watching threads about Howell's for the last couple of years and I think I've got them figured out. It would seem that their business is making runs of multiple copies of the same part. When that run is done, they move on to the next scheduled part, make the specified number of that part, and move on to the next, and so on and so forth. I can see no reason why they would want to interrupt this scheme to make a one-off for someone, no matter how badly they needed it. They may accept individual orders as an indication of what the demand is out there and what they should be scheduling down the line. There may be rare occasions where there is a lull in their regular business and they can sneak something in, but that is probably a rare occasion. It is very disruptive for a manufacturing business to run on a random basis with no scheduling and to do so would probably lead to failure of the business sooner or later. So they run their business in the most orderly manner possible, producing runs of the parts most in demand on a schedule pre-determined well into the future.

This sounds like an excellent business model to me and it seems that they are a successful company. A lot of companies operate through distributors only and will not accept orders from the general public for a variety of reasons. Again, I think they accept orders from the general public only as a marketing tool to determine demand for future scheduling. So you may need an item they are able to make, but if it is not in their production schedule, be prepared to wait. To operate their business in any other way would be folly. What they are doing is best for the hobby s a whole, although it may leave some individuals very frustrated and disappointed.

 

Damn. I think you nailed it.

 

If so, that is a lotta crap business model. One-they're not only taking orders, they're taking folk's money with no intention of delivering an order. Two, they damn well know their production schedule,so they could advise a potential customer what the true wait time might be. The first one is THEFT, the second one is a very poor way to treat customers. Either is a really good reason to deal with anybody else if at all possible.

 

Roof inserts on a budget and quick? Do it old school and hit the used auto parts yard. We are so catalog happy we forget the basics.

 

In my long career, most of the really successful businessmen I knew were unprincipled and greedy.

 

You got that right! See my comments on Carol Shelby and Mickey Thompson on another thread...

 

I finally received the parts last Monday, 12/30/19. If you order from Howell my advice is stay after them until you have the parts in hand..

 

I ordered some pickup parts from them last year & it took 3 months to get the stuff. Really bad service. Terrible to have to deal with liars & such. I finally went to CC co & got my stuff by removing charge or threat to. Good luck.

 

Since this vendor sounds like a no, who IS the go-to for floors, patch panels?

 

Donnie Smart makes beautiful panels but, you might want to search threads about him before you commit.

Here is a panel he made for my '34, it was perfect.



-Abone.

 

I buy from them at Pate Swap Meet, cash and carey only.

 

This is a excellent manufacting model, but not a good business model if what people have stated is accurate.
They should not except any orders as such, and refer folks to their distributors if in fact they have such a network. Their distributors should then be "forced" into minimum monthly/annual purchase quantities based on previous demand based on their "territory". Taking money, with no intent of delivering in a timely manner is a bad business practice, and usually leads to one's demise.

 

Nice "Ivory Tower" statement. For thirty years, I owned and ran a business that supplied support services to many small to medium sized businesses and I can tell you that efficiency of operation and profit trumped "customer service" every time.

Oh yeah, "forcing" distributors just doesn't work. Think of what the word "distributor" means.

 

That might work in the short term. Long standing, well run companies operate on pleasing customers. I can certainly tell you that in my highly successful veterinary practice, we depend on return business. My dad was in business for almost 60 years and always told me you are only as good as the next person who comes through the door.

 

I can tell you that in my industry (service/design) we could have the best product in the world, but if we don't deliver what we promise we won't last through the year. And if our customers don't have our immediate attention they won't be our customers for long.

 

Yeah, you figured it out after I explained exactly what you said on my post #55 in this thread

 

I had same problem with Durant springs. Had a problem and they wouldn't answer the phone. If I left a message that I was interested in a spring they would call back

 

You can go to ebay and buy Howells stuff

 

I think many of you are missing the point of who their customers are. They are the distributors buying quantities of their stuff and the individuals who are buying off eBay and from the distributors getting what they want, not the occasional individual wanting some part not in stock. The targeted customer base is probably quite happy. "You can't please all of the people all of the time".

 

Sounds like Howells is pleasing 5% of the people 5% of the time.

 

I hate to not give a straight answer but I'm not sure. I'd call a couple of well know hot rod shops & ask who they use. Can't hurt, not all are dicks ! I'll check around too. good luck. Alan Ain't that some shit about Street Rodder & 18 others ? !

 

Making occasional runs of parts is fine, just make enough so you can send the promised number to the distributor(s), plus a bunch for individual sales if that is an option offered.
I used to work for a company that made runs of parts, but we made up lots of 'em, so we always had them in stock. When we started getting low on an item, we scheduled another run.
Sometimes we even worked an overtime shift or two to make sure we didn't run out.