A good friend of mine always says "sometimes, you just can't give money away". Some vendors we deal with bend over backwards to promote and sell their product, others? well not so much. How can that be? For some time now I have been communicating with Brookville Roadster regarding the purchase of a new 31 roadster body and related parts. First off, overall communication has been good, no issue there, everyone I've spoken to has been helpful, to a point. Here's the rub, numerous times I have requested via phone, e-mail and Face Book page to please send me additional detailed photos of a 30-31 body hoping that someone will help out, but nothing. All I get is "I'll see what I can do". Walk your butt out there and take a few pics, how hard can it be? If I'm going to spend $7,000-$8,000 on an item I would like to see additional photos, not just a simple side view on a web page. Are we as consumers asking too much? Anyone else experience this type of issue with a vendor? This is not by any means meant to be a rant on Brookville, I'm just sharing my situation trying to by a product related to our hobby.
I buy large quantities of material to support our business. Not only am I finding vendors less helpful, the lead times have grown dramatically lately. The busier they get, the less they seem to appreciate the business. With that said, online sales, self checkouts, they know they're going to sell the shit no matter what level of service they provide. The old saying "people buy from people" no longer rings true, in most cases. A term used a lot here on the HAMB, "Traditional" well most people seem to despise tradition these days. I do find a lot better service with the vendors in our hobby, than the vendors I deal with at work.
Maybe Brookville does not fully understand why you need photos. Their body is exactly like Henry built. Or they might think you want to shaft them somehow, so they aren't going to help you do it. Maybe you can contact a dealer that has a body in stock. In general, a manufacturer is good at manufacturing. High volume. They are not good at dealing with the public, users, tire kickers, etc. That is the role dealers or distributors play in the supply chain.
it might just be the nature of the beast. does this thread help you? https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/11-day-brookville-roadster-build-1930-31.1020077/
In the world of sales, "can you send me extra pictures" often translates into "I need a bunch of reference pictures for a project that I'm working on and I'm hoping you'll send me some if I pose as a buyer even though I have no intention to buy". That may not be true in your case, but they probably get requests like that all the time. You might just chalk that up to other people having spoiled it for everyone. What exactly do you want to see?
A lot of this, I've known quite a few smaller, but quality outfits, especially those that make suspension pieces who get burned by people copying the design and remaking them to sell without having to do the r&d, legwork, etc. and then they in turn have to change their practices and what they will share because of a few bad eggs. Not implying in the least that the OP is one of these, and I have no reason to think he doesn't plan on buying a Brookville body, but im sure that daily, they are dealing with a lot of looky loos, dreamers, and time wasters who will never end up buying anything from them, and as a result, will probably only humor potentials to an extent.
"Humor potentials to an extent"? We are talking about $8G's here, Stooge! If you answer an ad on the HAMB about a car for sale that costs that much and the guy doesn't send you pics after calls and emails from you... Are you gonna throw your cash his way? I thoroughly doubt it! And if you will, lemme know... I have a few that I'm lookin to sell. Sounds like a "we have the market cornered and don't care if you buy one or not" type of scenario. Kudos to Squirrel for the great link! Lost of great pics on it!
I find I get customers who are interested in either buying something or having me create something for them. I also have some people who simply call me up and talk about their car collections and act like they are going to place an order but never follow through and then I don't hear anything from them for another few months when they call me up and go through the whole routine again. Thank God most of my customers are normal car guy's but every once in a while I run into someone who is trying to pull a fast one on me. I had one car collector who called me and I spend a great deal of time creating images for him and he told me to contact the guy who was the president of the Cobra Club who would have the final say on all images so I contacted him and he loved all the images I showed so I went ahead and made them only to ship them to the collector who told me he wanted something different and when I reminded him that he told me the president of the Cobra Club would have the final say and he approved everything I made he finally agreed to pay me my money. That was the last project I ever did for that collector! Jimbo
I understand that, and $8k isn't anything to scoff at, but also not really what I was getting at. out of say 10 general inquiry emails that Brookville receives asking this or that, how many do you think are seriously, actually going through to follow through and lead to placing that $8k+ order? Go to a big car show with some higher end vendors, or a trade show, and I would imagine a large percentage of the people at the booth are just looking, have no intention or the means to buy, or want to be able to casually mention in conversation to someone else that , "yeah, im in talks with whatever company about a project im thinking about doing". Again not implying the OP is one of these people, just something I've seen through friends with various small businesses in all different fields and through my own dealings, there are a lot of time wasters and dreamers. Jimbo's quote below is a prime example of what I was trying to say
if you had posted this before the hershey swop meet, i would have taken all the pictures you would have wanted........they had a full display.
This is basic math, not Brookville-specific... Accommodate potential customers making reasonable requests = maybe a sale, maybe not. Alienate potential customers making reasonable requests = no sale. As someone in the business of _selling stuff_, which is the better approach?
Let me just add this, I talked to their sales folks and took the time to do a formal quote before the second photo request. Some time later, I spoke to a different sales person, I revised the quote and asked once again, for the third time. I was very specific regarding my requirements for the body I needed. It should have been obvious to them that I was not some guy "fishing" for information. Very soon I will be selling my 31 Deluxe Coupe body to make way for the roadster body, I will be happy to provide as many pics as needed to make the sale. Momma wants a roadster now and you know what they saw about Momma! Squirrel thanks for the link, it's a big help!
Is this thread about Giving money away or trying to get pictures ? I'll bet the guys on the phone aren't near an assembled body
The best advice I ever got about making money was to earn it. I prefer to business with companies that follow that policy.
"I'll bet the guys on the phone aren't near an assembled body" I'm currently not near any of my customers steam turbines but I will damn sure walk out of my office, go out in the shop to get an update or pics, after all, good intentions don't pay the bills, customers do. Flops A roadster body build thread told me a lot of what I needed to know. Thanks again Squirrel!
You think it is hard to get something for an $8000 order, I have been trying to get an concrete contractor to return calls, send the contract for the last month. Finally gave up and found someone else after waiting, followup calls, texts and emails for a month after he said it would be there, dead silence for a month. The new contractor was slightly higher but will excavate/pour concrete next week. Of course after signing with the new guy the old one finally responded, guess what I told him to do. A lot more than an $8000 contract.
I got so exasperated with a (work) vendor - *that I had already spent $12K with* - trying to get them to return my call or e-mail, that I finally sent one to every named person I could find on their website. President on down. And named names of those who would not contact me back. The final message was, " I just spent $25, 000 with your competitor because no one would return my request for quote" and that was TRUE. Boy oh boy did the phone start ringing. I asked again for the operating manual I had already paid for. Never did get it. fuck 'em.
Joliet Jake, I really hope you receive satisfaction from Brookville. I think you will be satisfied with a '31 Brookville body. I purchased mine after hearing good reports about them, but never having seen one. I drove from Iowa to the factory to buy it & truck it back home. The body looked darn good to me. I saw some bodies lined up awaiting shipment to their new owners, the purchasers' names were chalked on them. When I saw Brizio written on 1 or 2 of them, that was good enough for me.I would not consider buying a different brand. Greg
I would be shocked if they didn't have the photos in question. That doesn't mean that the customer support reps have access, or if they do, that they know where the pics are kept. There's also 'that's not my department' thinking (not saying that happened here).
I have always dealt with the owner, Kenny Gollahon directly. He is a first class guy in my opinion and has always responded to my questions. I ordered a '32 chassis, pickup bed plus a fender and running board kit that I picked up at Hershey. There were a couple of parts missing and I sent Kenny and email and he thanked me for bringing it to his attention and no questions asked offered to ship me the parts. Sometimes it takes him a little while to respond but I know for a fact he is a busy guy. I don't think you'd be disappointed with the quality of their work and they stand behind what they sell. I do have to agree with you though that it seems like additional photos/product details would be something they'd have readily available.
Never dealt with Brookville, but I work for a boat manufacturer. Customer Service is one of the departments in my group. Our products retail between 80-400k. Here’s how it works if you work for me: The associate you talked to would go out in the plant and take the photos, and confirm any questions you might have had. This takes place within 24 hours. Then your info is provided to a dealer local to you for follow up. A brochure is mailed to your address. And finally the associate will follow up with the dealer in seven days to ensure the follow-up protocol was done. Overkill? Maybe. But like that roadster body these aren’t impulse buys. People go through a process leading up to pulling the trigger. They naturally find making a high value purchase (provided the product meets their needs) with a builder who is attentive throughout the process. Is the reality that this means enduring a lot of tire kickers? Absolutely. But the cost of time and effort, spread across the entire production, is worthwhile.
i was just thinking........is it possible, after a big production push to get product delivered to carlisle and hershey, that they just don't have anything finished to photograph?
Brookville is usally at all the large events with up to 30 bodies or more being delivered to customers , I’m surprised you haven’t been able to see one in bare steel up close yet I’ve bought 6 body’s from them and been happy , I believe the A has been made by them since the 80s
Sure, just say so. "Hey Mister Valued Customer, we just emptied our inventory to cover orders for the big show. We will have more pieces in 14 days. I'll be glad to get the pictures you need the day the parts arrive. Will that work for you?" Set realistic expectations for the customer, then follow through on meeting them. If you find your ability to meet your original commitments is no longer realistic, update the customer to reset those expectations as soon as you see the timeline slipping. Note: this is NOT the same as every two weeks telling your customer "two weeks."
There is no way they don't have pics of something they've been producing for well over 10 years. Its pure laziness that they can't even reply! And what totally exacerbates the whole situation, is that he has asked DIFFERENT people for the same pics... so this must be a company-wide accepted treatment of potential customers.
finally someone gets it. Its the companies responsiblilty to determine if someone is a legitimate buyer or a tire kicker. Get in the game
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