O/T: does customer service suck as bad when you're IN the U.S?

It's occurred to me over a long period of time that customer service pretty much sucks if you're overseas wanting to buy online from the US. I'm talking about buying from car/rod parts places where they don't have online "baskets" like Summit, etc., but do have online listings and email contact details.

Whenever I email a supplier I tell them exactly what I want, how I want it sent, how I can pay, etc...so they've got as much information as possible to make it as easy as possible for them to take care of...but 9 times out of 10 I never hear back. I never email someone if I don't intend to buy. I've got better things to do with my time than waste someone else's.

It's easy to develop a great relationship with good suppliers, and I have many of them.

Is it the fact we're overseas that it becomes "too hard" or are these places just full of lazy idiots?

Are most places just as useless when you live in the US?

It's driving me nuts not to be able to get the stuff I'm after...and it's not so easy to pick up the phone when there's so much of a time difference.

 

I cant understand why they would not email you back but I fully understand why they do not want to do bussiness of the country! we just recently sent some parts to Australia and it was a big pain in the ass....so much crap to fill out paper work wise, and they want it sent air, then they whine about the shipping and expect us to discount the parts because of the shipping like its our fault. So to answer you question we are not lazy idiots, and I just send an email back explaining that the shipping and duty's are up to you....and most places are not like this in the US!!!!! But shipping internationally really sucks for the retailer!!

John

 

Yes Peddro, they do suck! When I was at the hotrod shop I sent lots of parts overseas, never once was it a pain in the ass to do so......

BTW, how the hell are you?

 

you can thank the new Home Land Security rules for the 11 pages of paper work it takes to ship stuff now!!!!! there is still now excuse not to answer your emails Peddro!!!

John

 

Consider getting a Verisign or Thawte email certificate. With a certificate signed email, it will make it through the spam filters.

Use the fax machine. Email is so spammed here, that most businesses lose 20% of their mail to filters.

They never see it.

Call them, fax them, but for christ sakes don't just email them. Especially without a signed certificate.

 

yep. . . had to do some business with an un-named buick parts place... i'm sure most here know who this is. anyhow, i ordered last week thursday morning EARLY, made damn sure the guy knew i was in kind of a hurry to get the stuff, and to email me with the tracking number soon as he got it out the door.

friday morning i checked my email and still nothing so i call... real snippy woman told me "when it gets pulled, it will get boxed and shipped"

no email or phone call all weekend with a tracking number ?!?!?!

this AM i called again, and was told it had been pulled FINALLY and that it should go out today... SHOULD?! no... you dont get it, you had my money THURSDAY, and i should have my parts tomarrow... get the stuff here.

told the guy he's got 1,300 of my money, and i need 1,300 worth of his parts in my shop by no later than this week thursday... a WEEK to express ship some parts? i coulda DROVE out to arizona to get em by now

 

Great. Got a little 2-week old son in my ranks now. Shoot me your email and I'll forward you some happy snaps.

 

That I can understand...I suppose I'm in a different situation. I ship (well, air freight) out of LA almost always via my freight handlers, so there's no need for anything other than an invoice. If I don't send via them then it's USPS regular air.

BTW, you should try sending something INTO the US!

 

Thanks for the tip...I've never even heard of an email certificate! I'll investigate.

 

I know Peddro it is alot worse to ship here...we get parts from Germany and Italy and they always XRAY our stuff and hold it up and then charge us storage for them to inspect our parts...I feel your pain 100% sir.

John

 

I am sorry to say that the industry just sucks in general. Other than a handful of old timers that still run their own shops, most are run by snot nosed know-it-all super hot rodders.
I know, I have had to work with an ever increasing bunch of better-than-thou punks that will not listen to common sense or discipline.
Unfortunately, as the older guys retire or move on, all we are left with is self-idolized-super demigods that will do anything to increase sales.

Money is what the bottom line is, not quality of parts or service. This is the trend for the new century.

just my opinion, But the jackass that invented wyotech and similar high society super tech schools opened the door to anybody who's daddy had $45 grand to spend on getting their useless kid out of the basement for the next 9 months.
If daddy didn't want to deal with the kids, what makes them think that an honest person in there 50s/60s does.
I'm tired of trying to pass my trade on to kids that already know it all. I've spent 40 years in and around my trade and years ago I earned an honest to goodness Journey mans ticket to boot. I won't take slacker back talk from these types, I'll just keep to myself when the know-it-alls come thru the shop. They'll learn nothing from me, what's the use? It's sad to see many skilled/Licensed tradesman that are just as disgusted.

Good Honest help is hard to find. It's Sad to say that many people fall far short with honesty and attitude. But every once in a while you find someone who is truly there to learn. Send those ones over here and keep the rest. Unfortunately, The good kids are usually badgered because they are "weird" for wanting to make something useful out of themselves while portraying a polite honest kid..

jmho

 

Got a 4mo old one here, they will meet sooner or later my friend

 

I worked for a speed parts store when I was 19 for a couple of years. Hot Rodding attracts the most flakes I've ever seen in my life.

It it wasn't for hot rodding, many of these bastards would be chicken farmers and cotton pickers.

After a couple of weeks you can tell the scumbags from the legit customers as soon as they come in. They always want stuff for free, or two for one, and they always bring stuff back broken, and say it came that way in the box.

You can't educate them. Now picture this with mail-order. Holy shit, you cannot believe the stories you have to put up with.

To me though, if I tell someone I have the part in stock, it gets shipped that day if possible, and the next day if not. The profit margin is crap, so quantity has to be maintained. There's no getting rich with parts on the shelves, and orders in the bank. It all falls down like humpty dumpty if you let it.

Now realize, there is a lot of bankrupt companies trying to recover. You can't know who they are, as we don't have the time to research it. Basically, if the company has been around 10 years, they've already got past their bankruptcy.

 

..thats business ,it doesn't matter if you are selling car parts or burgers, there are always ferals trying to screw you .But it doesn't excuse the firm pedrro is talking about.Thats just plain arrogance and he would do better to let us all know who it is and send them a further email saying" look,here it is ,now everyone wants know who you are and why are you are so pathetic when you deal with your customers? ".
In any business you NEED the customer more than the dickhead whose losing you customers because he's too busy checking out fleabay to reply to emails.
Afterall,the customer is number one because they have the MONEY you need ,if money isn't the reason to be in business I can't think of any other...and if these guys don't want the business,then lets find out who they are so a more deserving vendor can get our dollars.

 

Thankfully Australia has about the toughest internet laws in the world, so we don't get anywhere near the volume of spam most countries do. Having said that, I've never personally had any problems with getting stuff. And big or bulky items go to Long Beach for inclusion in a rodder friendly container. But I have had troble getting a response out of a HAMB member. In that case the business is going elsewhere and they are very good at emailing. It pays to follow up enquiries because the order can sometimes be a lot bigger than you may at first think.

Of course some "customers" can be a pain or worse!

 

I am right there with you man.
<O
I am trying like hell to get a set of Radir cheater slicks out of the U.S. Got the money and I am ready to buy. I just can't find anyone that will deal with me. I am so fucking sick of the "we don't ship to APO</ST1" crap.
Customs is a pain in the ass for an American in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com<ST1Germany. </ST1</st1:country-region>The damn APO shipping is to <st1:State w:st="on"><ST1New York</ST1</st1:State> for crists sake!
<O<O
I have even tried to talk with an 'alliance vender' about the tires. He said "We'll see if we can do that for you, and get you some prices hopefully today." That was on the 18th of July. Not a word since.<O</O
<O</O
I did have a really good experience with Modern Driveline on a tranny recently. Everything went smooth (except for the customs part).<O</O

 

They charge you storage for them to inspect your parts?!! This is outrageous!!

Customs are a nightmare in any country. Here in Europe (at least in most countries) the customs charge tax not just on the price of the parts but also on the postage (!) which doesn't make any sense and is a total rip-off!

 

The Zollamt charged me 55 Euro storage for my transmission while I got the customs papers!

 

Ive dealt with Speedway, SoCal, Heidts, Limeworks,Air Ride Pro, and over 60 ebay purchases from private vendors in the USA all without a hicup, absolutely no problems and everything has arrived in good condition.

Ive tried to deal with TCI , wanted to order rear 4 bar kit in stainless for a 35 to 40 ford chassis ( same part no.) he asks what model its for... Err 35 to 40 ford chassis its the same part no you have listed ... OK what length do you need.. err its the kit for the 35 to 40 ford chassis part no xxxxxxx.. this guy couldnt be any les enthusiastic or less helpfull, so I told him to shove it and hung up, called Heidts and got the parts no problem. So TCI sack the dude that does your phone sales, hes loosin you buisness, and im not the first to have encountered him..

 

You don't want to even get me started on this. Try to buy something that only costs a couple of bucks,there is not enough there to make a profit on it so no-one wants to talk to you at all.
A friend has a business and wants to be a " automotive Guru/genius/ Hero/Innovator/trendsetter".Unfortunatly he tries to conduct business like a huge speed equiptment dealer, in fact he has almost nothing in stock and promises anything to get your order. He spends most of his day trying to stay ahead of his customers demanding their stuff.
He recently made a deal with a guy who moonlights out of his garage with a mill to make an oddball part. He is taking orders and $'s for these parts and has not yet bought any raw material for the guy to make them.
He spends a lot of time on his own hero worship web site.
Oh well I hope none of you are waiting on stuff from him.

 

This might be the most accurate thing I've read on this board in months. I used to be in bands and thought people who thought themselves 'musicians' were bad, well it's nothing compared to hot rods...

 

LMAO... yeah this only works if the mail server on the other end is set up for those certificates. The only ones that I know of right now are for the big providers (ATT, Earthlink, Verizon, etc.). If they have their own domain chances are they aren't on one of those mail servers which means the mail certificate will do no good.

 

I believe it is an offshoot of the Epay 'You can make a kabillion dollars a month' programs. I see that stuff on the TV and filter as much of it out on the email. I live in Alaska so I try to save up and make larger orders. This offsets the shipping cost as no one wants to ship anything slower than UPS Blue (2nd Day Air).
So I try to find people that have what I'm looking for and pay what they ask (even If I don't want to) just to get the stuff in a timely manner and for less on shipping because it "will" be in one shipment. Of course if they ship it from the factory I get screwed because they usually have 3 to 5 suppliers to get all I ordered and then bill me for shipping to the business that was supposed to have it in stock and then to me whether they lay hands on it or not. I notice more and more of these "shops" that are operating out of their home and are drop shipping from whatever factories they sell for. I suppose this wouldn't bother me except Dad was a Legends Cars dealer. He kept a large inventory, so I understand that the costs and logistics required to keep inventory on hand.
But don't tell me you have it and then you order it from the factory (which I could have done for the same price and gotten whatever it was quicker and cheaper because I don't get charged for shipping it "twice", but F me for trying to support the dealer network). And what is it with people leaving their home based business for a vacation and leaving someone "in charge" that can't even figure out how to check the status of an order? Or if they can they won't give you a tracking number. I have worked for the airlines since 1994 and I started in cargo. When I got a call from some irate customer demanding their freight I would ask, how many pieces, how much does it weigh, what does it look like, do you have a Tracking / Shipping / Waybill / Bill of Laden number? If they could not tell me any of these (not even one and you don't want to know how often that happened) it hadn't shipped, that whole federal regulation thing about having paperwork, no matter the form of transit that SHALL have all that information in some form or other. So when I have a Business that says "it's on the way" and can't / wont give me any of these I know they are LYING .

So yes it does suck here too. I apologize for the rant. I usually don't do that. I am hoping to do business with the HAMB vendors soon. From what I hear, for the most part, I can expect better of them.

 

Oh and I have had that problem both on the Auction Giant and off (increasingly off).

 

I'm not afraid to name names. Kanter gave me the runaround on some wheel cylinders for our Olds. I ordered em on a Monday and he assured me that they send ALL their shipments out via UPS. They billed my debit card that day. Wednesday, the charge disappeared from my debit card. I called back Friday and they said they shipped through FedEx and they didn't have a tracking number. I wasn't billed yet, I assumed they hadn't shipped. I called back the following Wednesday, this time asking the person's name I talked to. He went and checked and produced A TRACKING NUMBER. I had them Wednesday and, according to UPS(!!!), they shipped two days before. I believe UPS over Kanter and I'm sharing this story with anyone. Now, I'm just an amatuer, but if I made my living building cars and had a car on the rack with the brakes apart while other paying work waited, I'd be so pissed I couldn't see straight. I'm sure I'll order from Kanter again, but only as a last resort, because all they had to do was tell me it was backordered on either of the two times I talked to them before the produced the tracking number and I'd have mowed the lawn or something instead of trying to watch for the UPS man with the car on jackstands.

 

Gonna have to call bull shit on this one. My wife runs her own business and roughly 50% of her sales are to somewhere outside the US. The forms are totally no big deal. Hell, most of the time she fills them out, and just puts them in the mail box with the flag up.

Customer service sucks here also. I will generally give a supplier 2 tries. The ones that treat me well are rewarded with lots of my money. I also don't shop on price only. I am happy to pay a preimium to get what I need, when I need it.
Shopping by price alone is a BIG part of what is wrong with this country today. If a shop owner knows he will get your business no matter how he treats you, as long as he is the cheapest, how do you think you will be treated? I give my money to people who treat me like they want my money.

 

I agree with this completely. Treat yourself to good service people and you'll prolly end up saving whatever extra you spent on that service in lack of frustration when something's wrong or doesn't show up at all. The dude from Coker that jumped to replace a possibly-defective tire bought second-hand in europe based on a HAMB thread was a stellar example of that kind of service. I got the same service buying tires from them at the swap, I don't even know if their prices are that great because their service was impressive enough that I didn't bother to check with the other tire people...

 

Customer service is practically nonexistant in the US now. It doesn't matter where you go: fast food, car parts, phones, retail, gas stations, etc. For some reason there is an "attitude" with everyone here. I guess the prison mentality has permiated the entire society. I ordered a gauge dash panel from EELCO last February. It didn't fit the standard gauges that most companies sell. In April I sent it back. As of today, I haven't got my panel back. When I call, five or six times, Marty tells my that they are retooling the entire plant to make the panels correctly. Now, I can't get anyone on the phone that knows anything. The girl that answers says that she doesn't know anything and is scared to talk. I don't no how these people can stay in business, it's just unbelievable how they operate. I cringe when I think about it. My dash has been on hold for 4 months now because of these assholes.

 

Yeah, welcome to the club!

It&#180;s even worse if you restore a hole car over here.

I ordered USA made valve guides that came in a box "Made in China" and where cracked. I mailed and called 7 times, never got them replaced or money back.

It took a well known big Chevy supplyer 5 months (60 mails several calls) to get my order (woth over $2000) shipped. And than they "lost" a ...

(uhmmm .. I feel a bit sheepish to confess that) ....a $150 can holder.
They denied, than they promised refound - never got anything.

Germany is far.

I got a set of headers. Made for that model/year/engine.
They looked like a 12 year old boy did his first welding tests.
They where in the way of the shifter rods and the intake.
Some clown even managed to weld the companys Logo upside down on them.

All they say was sorry. No money back, no bolt on headers.

As you can see, owning an old american car in Germany is real fun.

But - to be honest - I also have to say that I got 80&#37; of my parts from Ebay USA and only had 2 minor problems in 7 years.

Frank

 

Damn Stovebolt I feel bad for you, that really sucks, fuckers need to stand up and let it be known that we will not shop from these con artists....