cr-rex

iTrader: (114)

just want to start by saying that i did get everything i paid for. my reason for making this thread is to outline the experience i had with dealing with this place.

i placed and order for a mid pipe and injector spacers on 3/12 late at night. according to the website the mid pipe ships in 24/48 hours and the spacers 24 hours. ok, cool. the 15th comes around and on the website, my order is still being listed as "processing". no update email or anything has been sent up to this point. so i call to get an update. the phone rings and is answered "hello?".

yes, hello.... thats how a place of business should be answering the phone. moving on, i explained the reason for my call, he asked what i ordered so he can look it up. he looks it up based on that, pulls up the wrong order. then he asks my name, still cant find it. then he asks me something else and i interjected and said i have my order number, can you use that. his response was something of a "sure, i guess so". gave him my order number, he pulled it up. he told me that he has no tracking but it should have already been sent and i should have it (at that time) tomorrow. he then went on to say that he will send me the tracking later that day........ never happened.

i call again the next day.... *ring ring* "....hello?". i explain why im calling and again he asks what i ordered. i didnt want to play the same guessing game as last time so i just said i have my order number. he looked it up then i got a new story: it hasnt shipped yet. he went on to say they are made to order at a shop and he got an unusual amount of orders so a bunch had to be made and will be shipped in the order they were received. at this point its the 17th. he said it should be going out today and he will have tracking for me later. which he did.

he tried to make it clear that normally they do go out in 24/48 hours because they only sell a couple a month but it was just an odd occurrence they had so many ordered at one time. i responded with "ok, fair enough but by day 4 you havent heard anything back from the shop that makes them, is there no prompt on your end that maybe you should check why?" basically the conversation was going no where. i just said ok and the call ended. i got my tracking in an email later that day and that was that.

i think during that same conversation he was telling me the spacers were going to ship the next day. they shipped the 24th of this month. so usually ships in 24 hours had become a 12 day wait with no explanation as to why.

like i said in the beginning, i received everything i ordered. my beef is that this guy was extremely unprofessional and speaking to him on the phone was like talking to a teenager without a care in the world. it was a lot of "ok, sure, yea, i guess, something like that, i dont know". the nonchalant attitude was frustrating. it was as though i was being an inconvenience by calling for an update. to put it bluntly, i will NEVER do business with this website again for this sole purpose. if this is the way things are handled there then no thank you. i learned my lesson the hard way.

FourtyOunce

iTrader: (15)

I wonder who it was on the other side of the phone. Did they give a name?

Jason

iTrader: (5)

You were talking to me. Sorry if you had a bad experience. I answer the phone Hello because it goes to my cell phone lol.
Like I said when we talked I did have about 5 orders in a 2 day period which caused a slight delay in shipping. These are made to order typically, which is the reason for the longer shipping time.

Once again, sorry for any inconvenience.

cr-rex

iTrader: (114)

it cool man... if you have your cell phone doubling as your business phone, maybe you should answer it more professionally since you never know who is on the other end. dont let me tell you how to run your business or anything but for someone like me, our experience was enough for me to not want to send my money your way again.

RotaryResurrection

iTrader: (8)

I still find it hard to believe that people think when they call a small business specializing in a niche market for 20+ year old cars that they should receive a highly professional response as though they are dealing with a huge corporation. Almost every small business in the rotary industry is just one or a handful of people who are enthusiasts that also happened to turn that into a business. We're just regular people like the rest of you. You're not calling directv customer service here people. NOBODY is getting rich off of rotary engine parts. At a certain point you just have to be realistic and happy that you can get what you can get, because as the years go on the parts offerings and vendors that deal with these cars get fewer and fewer. And don't give us the "the customer is always right" line, because again at a certain point the few honest vendors left around are just as valuable to the community, as the customers are to that vendor. Stop expecting the vendors to kiss butt and be perfect and be happy that parts are still available for your car from someone who isn't a lazy businessman or an outright scammer.

cr-rex

iTrader: (114)

seems as though a lot of implications are being made in your post. it also seems as though you are defending jason. allow me to clarify.....

small business or big corporation, if i am calling what is and can be viewed as a place of business then there is a level of professionalism that comes with that. im sure if you were you to call any other vendor on this forum you wouldnt be greeted with a "hello?". im also willing to bet during that conversation you wouldnt be spoken to as if you were a burden or someone that they just wanted to get off the phone. from what i am reading in your post, it seems like youre saying regardless of the experience, i should just be grateful that i even have somewhere to buy parts.

if so, this is a terrible way to look at it. i dont know jasons situation but i would imagine if the website were to be shut down tomorrow, it would negatively impact his life. if you run a business and its what pays your bills then act like it. dont speak to customers in a way they can perceive the person on the other end as being bothered by your call. in my instance, jason has lost my business for the rest of forever. even though he apologized, its just the way i feel about the situation. will losing just 1 customer affect him, probably not but this is my situation and my decision. if im spending my money somewhere, i dont like feeling as though its a "pay up and get out" type of situation. i want to know my money is going towards a purpose. with that said, i do shop at walmart

regardless, the way i see it, theres no excuse for acting in an unprofessional manner in a professional setting. just because its a small business or just a store front, doesnt excuse you from having some sort of professionalism over the phone. imo, you shouldnt be encouraging that behavior either. as you said, this is a small market. the people with the power of distributing parts to those of us that seek them should hold themselves to a higher standard. if you look in the vendor section, the threads made by the vendors here show that effort was put forth to advertise a product. very elaborate threads are made. its not like they just put a vague description and say pm for prices and pics and then answer pms at their leisure like it makes no difference whether they do or dont. all im saying is, if im doing business with a small place, i am seeking some professionalism. thats all. i dont feel i got that here, therefore, my business will be taken elsewhere. i wasnt really looking to make a discussion out of this. i just wanted to share my experience. feedback is a powerful tool.



ps: i may not have been in the rx7 world for as long as most but at this point i feel as though im resourceful enough that i have the luxury to pick and choose where i do business and not have the "just be grateful" mentality.

Jason

iTrader: (5)

I don't want this to turn into a pissing match, its not worth it. I will say I don't see what it wrong with answering the phone "Hello". Complaining about that seems strange.
Especially when if you call my store number you get an answering system that says you have reached the RX-7 store. You have to hit "1" to reach sales, which then forwards the call to my cell.

I have been selling RX7 parts for 17 years. The last few years, its been a part time business. I have another business that takes up most of my other time.

I don't recall being rude on the phone. Maybe I was having a bad day.

RotaryResurrection

iTrader: (8)

You've overlooked one important concept.

He can run his business however he sees fit, because he's the sole proprietor, hes not under the thumb of an owner or manager. Maybe he got into business alone because he isn't good at conforming to standard expectations in the workplace. Maybe he just wanted to do things his own way. These are concepts I used in my own one man business, which I also tend to run how I want, not how everyone else might expect. Being in business for myself enables me to do it my way, not the other way around.

Yes, you can certainly choose to vote with your dollar and buy from other vendors and refuse to buy from this vendor, even over the most petty issue. But bear in mind that operations come and go all the time, so there is something to be said for the guy that's still doing it after 10, 15, 20 years in the game. It must mean that enough people are still voting FOR that vendor with their dollars to keep him operating, and so then he must be doing something right.

Don't take this necessarily as a defense of jason or his store, but just the perspective of another business owner of similar size and nature.

Jason

iTrader: (5)

Well said