General Vendor experiences

[Redemption]

This is not directed at any vendor in particular, but rather a practice that seems to be common with vendors on this board:

Collecting peoples money and not even having the product available.

It is extremely frustrating to find exactly what you want to buy, you send your money (Send it NOW for the best pricing), and then find out that item hasnt been ordered/made or is still on a boat in BumF@#* Egypt and wont be here for weeks or months.

Now I understand that "times are tough" and you cant always keep everything in stock, but Sheesh!! At least be upfront about it and let your potential customers know how long the wait is. Honesty and openness is way more valuable than lip service, in my opinion.

:Rant over:

Customer waiting on stuff for weeks now...

[2quick]

This is unacceptable! If this involves LSR please pm me, email me, or call me and i will personally deal with this asap. I try to treat every sale as if i were buying it myself. Communication is key. I would rather not sell an item to someone if they will be unhappy in the delivery time frame that i can achieve. If i don't have it i say it.

If this is not an LSR item then, is there any way i can help you out? Even if it is not an LSR item I may still be able to help. Pm me if you like. Ill at least try.

Thanks

[Dr Jkel]

Originally Posted by Redemption

This is not directed at any vendor in particular, but rather a practice that seems to be common with vendors on this board:

Collecting peoples money and not even having the product available.

It is extremely frustrating to find exactly what you want to buy, you send your money (Send it NOW for the best pricing), and then find out that item hasnt been ordered/made or is still on a boat in BumF@#* Egypt and wont be here for weeks or months.

Now I understand that "times are tough" and you cant always keep everything in stock, but Sheesh!! At least be upfront about it and let your potential customers know how long the wait is. Honesty and openness is way more valuable than lip service, in my opinion.

:Rant over:

Customer waiting on stuff for weeks now...

[PFYC]

I understand your frustration. We hear from customers often asking if something is actually in stock because they've ordered elsewhere only to find out there is a long delay on what they ordered. As consumers ourselves, I'm surprised at how few ecommerce sites have the information available as to inventory status and where a product actually ships from.

In the quest to bring an ever increasing product selection for an ever increasing number of cars, drop shipping has become a necessity to most vendors. While we stock a great number of products in our Kansas warehouse, it is simply not practical to stock everything. In other cases, products like embroidered floor mats and car covers are custom made to order and sometimes take time to ship.

To make matters worse, the economic conditions have cause many manufacturers to lower inventory levels resulting in longer wait times as well. I know many of our vendors that used to get our stocking orders out in a day or two are now taking much longer to ship to us. Inventory control is becoming a greater challenge because of this.

PFYC believes that letting the customer know the status is extremely important to their overall shopping experience and for that reason, we list an Availability message on each product page detailing the inventory status as well as providing a Shipping Transit Time map showing where that product ships from and how long to expect transit time to be.

Here's an example of a product page showing the Availability message and transit time map.

http://www.pfyc.com/pc/CA5026/CAEXH/...+V8+30213.html

Here's an example of a product that is custom made to order and the Availability message that accompanies it.
http://www.pfyc.com/pc/CA8001/CAPRO/...Car+Cover.html

With that being said, the system isn't always perfect or foolproof but we're always available to ask if you have any questions. And we won't tell you one thing just to get the order and string you along. We'd rather not have the order if we can't give you an accurate answer.

We're like anyone else; we order something and then we're out sitting on the curb waiting for the UPS truck like a kid waiting for the ice cream truck.

Mike Lewis
PFYC - PartsForYourCar.com

[IndeedSS1]

PFYC - while I've not ordered anything for my Camaro from you yet. I did get an L67 Cam1 for my Impala SS. It was a good experience and I like the way you operate. Oh and that cam, after running two others, this one I loved.

OP - Recently I ordered something from Auto Agenda. This item was going to take a bit and they let me know via email. I contacted them to cancel my order. They were extremely cool about it, apologized, promptly refunded me and offered a coupon for a future purchase. Sometimes things catch a vendor off guard. How they handle the situation speaks volumes. I wouldn't hesitate dealing with them again because of their customer service.

[dragonZ28]

We design and fabricate nearly everything that is on our site. All of this is accomplished in our work facility from materials we do stock. The customer typical wait time for delivery, is one week to their door.
Anything we do not make ourselves is noted, and shipping times are spelled out.

We have 300+ auctions on eBay, and all of those items must have quick turnaround times. So we are setup for quick customization, and shipping of products.

When someone buys from us, they are dealing with the manufacturer, not a reseller. We do not wait for items to get shipped to us.

Thanks, Roger