RotaryResurrection

iTrader: (8)

Dude...

For 2nd gen info, you go first into the ...










wait for it...














wait....


















2nd generation specific section!

I took the extra step of dividing the website into 3 main sections. This way the FD guys don't get confused about me talking about FC NA to turbo swaps, and the FC guys dont get confused about me talking about FD nonsequential twin turbo setups and so forth. The pricing, the tech articles, the available options, everything is laid out and tailored specifically to the generation section you are browsing.

As for the FD emissions removal/nonsequential writeup being together instead of seperate, I did that for 2 reasons. 1) is that I don't ever do just one, I do both at the same time (as I am asked). 2) is explained at the top of the writeup:

Juiceh

iTrader: (4)

^lol

Kevin you do rebuilds on 20b's if the cores are provided by the customer though right? IIRC your building Attilla the Fun's 20b.



To the Topic:
The inquiry fee is fine with me. The only times I inquire is when I'm really looking to buy anyway. I may not be looking to buy immediatley, but soon after the inquiry. I don't like wasting peoples time, people waste enough of mine.

I do like the idea of the fee being waived for known buyers though. Even if the fee would be put towards the cost. It just makes life easier for return customers to shop if theres no extra steps.

Noxlupus

DOH, <insert foot and half a leg into mouth> :P

Sorry Kevin, I have a bookmark to your site, and that's what I used. No idea you had a 2nd Gen section cause frankly, I don't need it lol. My appologies.

And yes, I know why you put emissions - your write up did explain it very well. However, again someone might want to remove just the emissions, and would look at that topic and say it's not the write one because of the non-sequential.

Speaking from personall experience, I used it to remove the emissions but I left the sequentials. It's still a very good write up, but my point was with the because of the title one might think its not be what the person is looking for and thus they would send you an email.

Anyway, most of my point was destroyed by the fact that you have a 2nd gen section, (which thanks to my bookmark it was hidden from me).


I'll just STFU now...

XxMerlinxX

iTrader: (2)

If you really wanted a fee to deter those who are just browsing, I'd say $5. $25 is a bit extreme for simply asking "how much?".

sirx7

as a recent inquirer (dreamer) i bugged Ramy with lots of questions on Power FC and the guys at Banzai racing

Rahul from edmonton

and trust me i appreciate all the help i got and in the end i did buy power FC however through a different seller.

So as such i am totally up for fee for inquiry maybe not as steep as $25 but starting ball park of around $5 to $10 dollars . There is slight issue you see when i pay for stuff i usually expect to get my money worth and as such if I am to be paying for information I would expect a response a lot sooner than what i usally get from lot of shops when doing research so maybe u can structure fee cycle $25 for response with 4 hrs and less as the deadline progress further.

but being in sales and retail industry u can't but help and wonder when people want to do research and so they can make good descicion on products to buy. you maybe be turning away potential customers cause they maybe too afraid to ask questions

but either way you do it it is good idea just don't know how it will fly but till you try it you witll not know either

i know nothing in this world is free so if people need something bad enough they will pay for it or try to make it

but thank you for all they help with the Power FC

oh when i decide to do something else to my RX7 i will call up all the people i know taht know lot of inforation about RX7

sorry ramy i will be bugging you in the future again
and banazi racing
and rx7store
and various members on this site who i have bugged before (sorry for noobish questions)
but not rotary extreme even after paying for hood(3000) i got horrible service. i will never shop there

but i will try to do as much research before i dial that number or send out the emails/PM

neofreak

I sent a simple yes/no question via email and got a long, long response back, which well, is useful to some, totally overkill for me. I hope you don't waste your time being that thorough all the time!

edit:

and I should note that since the response took so long I just went ahead and sourced the item on my own! (over a month I think..)

wptrx7

That's another good point. What if we agree to pay, how long should we have to wait, will there be a return if we waited to long and decided to buy elsewhere? I know you can get the hard to find stuff, but what if there is a better deal elsewhere.

Luigi

juicyjosh

iTrader: (29)

Fellow Members,

How many of us have **experience** in Customer Service and/or actually managed a business ??

How many of us have ever devoted our time to "strokers" that pretend to be ready to buy only to turn around and say "AIGHT I GOTTA THINK ABOUT IT" after you just spent 20, 30 minutes or more putting your business on hold to help them ?? And of course they don't buy, but they DO come back asking more questions.

Better yet, how many of us have ever stood in line with purchase in hand, waiting forever because the guy in front of us is taking up all the cashier's time asking stupid questions ?? And then it turns out he didn't even have the money or wasn't ready to buy anything in the first place.

I think that covers most of us.

Having worked in Customer Service and Management for 15 years, I've worked with over 50,000 customers and experienced my share of strokers and "nightmare customers."

$25 fee refundable with purchase for up to ten inquiries is more than fair. After all, he's spending time and performing work for a customer in obtaining and pricing parts for our rare cars. The $25 charge will prevent strokers from tying up business and allow Ramy to give buyers with cash in hand more of his attention. His prices are fair, to say the least, and you simply can't put a price on great customer service.

Creating sliding scales or pro-rating means less time running a business and more time working for others for free.

I agree with Ramy in keeping it simple.

All of us have been customers, but not all of us have been on the other side of the counter.

XxMerlinxX

iTrader: (2)

So how would you feel if Best Buy or Circuit City adopted this practice? You walk in and before being able to talk to anyone who worked there, you had to pay $25. Not only that, but if you went to a different section of the store, oh hey, that's another $25. How ******* retarded would that be? As for him spending time to find parts and what not, it's called a telephone, pretty much every person in the civilized world has one now.

juicyjosh

iTrader: (29)

Ramy sources hard-to-find high-end parts for a rare Japanese sports car, not a $24.99 Tozai DVD player.

XxMerlinxX

iTrader: (2)

So you think he goes out and excavates these parts from hidden tombs? It's easy to pick up a phone, call the shop/yard that he sources his parts from, to ask if they have the part and for how much. Now going and picking up the part may be another matter, but that should be after the part has already been paid for.

RotaryResurrection

iTrader: (8)

Nah, you're looking at that wrong. The $25 is not for him picking up the phone. The $25 is for him knowing who to call. As most highly trained pro's say, "I dont get paid for what I do, I get paid for what I know".

Seriously...you cant compare what he does to best buy (something anyone can do). IF it were so easy, YOU'D be picking up the phone yourself. BUt guess what...you dont know who to call do you? THAT'S what the search fee would be for.

Iceman1979

IMO its the cost of doing business.

I have some friends that run a small networking company. They put several thousand dollor quotes together every day. How many of those people that ask for a quote actually end up going with them. The answer is not alot. Why, because people call around trying to get the best price or are just looking for information.

I know these guys spend alot of time planning out these networks. I have seen them spend hours apon hours planning an entier network setup and figuring up prices, all that to never hear from that company again. This happens alot more than you might think. This has to be aggrivating but its all part of the business.

I've asked him how he feels about it. He told me that It didn't matter how many he had to do he would do them all knowing that only a small percentage would actualy turn into to cash flow. His very response to me was "Is all part of the cost of doing business".

Bad idea IMO but thats just my 2 cents forth.

Thanks
John

littlecat

on the subject of easy phone calls...
1. Ever been on hold?
2. I am reasonably certain that 'free long distance' doesn't usually include Japan In my experience it's usually anywhere from 20 cents to over a dollar a minute to call internationally...

I see no problem with asking for a search fee for things that require searching for, because that search is a service...however $$ just to answer a email is ridiculus. For example, say you see something on his website that you want or are interested in, and you shoot him an email to verify that it's in stock, or that the one pictured is actually what you're getting - I shouldn't have to pay for answers to those kinds of questions, annoying as they may be, that's part of running a business. And if he expects me to buy from him, then I expect him to answer my stupid questions. But, if I ask for something that he doesn't have on hand, or that he knows he will have to search for, then I have no problem with a response saying that a search fee is required - and then I'll decide if I want it bad enough to pay him to locate it...

sirx7

like stated before fee is acceptable as long as it comes with guideline it can't be vague.
one must know exactly what they are paying for and when it comes to paying for service there must black and white ways to evalute when a service is rendered and when it hasn't.
timeliness of service is only very important

for eg. google answers used to do it or yahoo answers.. it was free but if u wanted faster response u could pay a fee (from what i can remember)

carx7

iTrader: (31)

I have mixed feelings about a fee. Perhaps $5 would keep people away who aren't truely interested... $25 seems steep, and also seems like it'll kill a sale. In my case, I have asked about something a couple of weeks ago and am still awaiting a response. I am tempted myself to try to source it myself as Neo said. For $25 I'd take the challange and try to get it myself

BUT, the truth is I'm not really in a hurry to buy... just to know... so I do understand ramy's trouble.

GoodfellaFD3S

iTrader: (213)

They went out of business, none of us will ever shop there again

jmadams74

Interesting thread! I have been a customer (only the hood damper group buy) and like most of us are always interested in some part or other to make our little twins happy. . .My two cents on the topic is that answering questions and quoting prices is customer service, and that is part of your overhead (and the funding to cover that should be in your pricing structure). In the end, most items can be found at competitive prices, so who I buy from really is determined by customer service. Ramy, the quality of your service and replys is very high in my opinion -- but if the size of your opportunity has outgrown your capacity, you need to exand and hire appropriately. Best of luck to you whatever route you pursue!

TeamChin

iTrader: (1)

where do I send the money to have a question answered??? actually I want to BUY a set of the 99+ rear hatch struts... I'll be more then happy to send you $25, $50, or $100 and then pay the balance after you get back to me... I think it's a good idea to ask for $ up front... I can't imagine how much time you must waste researching items that people never intend on buying... If a customer is serious about buying, from you, they won't have a problem putting a downpayment for your time... please post or pm me on where to send the money...thanks, Kevin

RotaryResurrection

iTrader: (8)

^ This is a prime example of "money talks and bullshit walks"

RCCAZ 1

iTrader: (10)

Ramy's business model (hard to find/rare Jspec parts) definitely lends itself to a lot more "touch" time and emails as opposed to someone like Jason selling items that you can purchase from multiple sources. I personally don't feel that the $25 price is out of line, but it needs to be "front and center" on his website as a purchase policy. Believe me, you will never get rich doing low volume, high value items like his specialty just because of issues like this one. I'm just happy that he's doing it since Chuck shut down his operation.

hercdriver

iTrader: (2)

I've never had to pay for a quote before but if I was trying to find something super rare I guess I'd pay for the info. I think it should probably be a 25 dollar fee only if it took more than a few minutes to answer. Just tell people up front that if they are calling for a super hard to find part the quote fee will apply (same with email). Otherwise, I think your going to drive away customers.

Specter328

iTrader: (2)

I just got a inquiry responded to and I think the parts I requested prices on are something that a few people would like to know. If Ramy would want so his load can be lightened, I thought maybe we could start a thread with prices that we were quoted so that he doesn't keep getting the same things requested over and over. Just a thought.

sirx7

that is not good idea price one day can be something totally different next time. on rare items especially

RedR1

iTrader: (5)

I am also for the fee. Time is money. Well all know parts for the FD come in the increments of the thousand. So $25.00 is really nothing in the grand scheme, and since it goes to the purchase of what you want, then there really is no issue at all.

For the most part, you have an "idea" of what the part costs. you can either source it out . . . . . wait. . . for. . .it. . . . online via used auction sites like Yahoo Japan, and things like that, or even search here. the part for almost every FD part is in here.

I wouldn't really chalk it up to "cost of business" as Ramy is in a very niche market, and his business costs are more than normal. Especially since all his quiries are over seas. So it keeps the people that actually want a part from waiting longer for the Ram-ster to answer other emails that have no intention of even buying the part. just more or less, dreaming about it. It wastes my time as a consumer, and his time as the retailer. So to shorten the list of everythingness, a fee would help out.

but on the same token, it may draw away potential buyers too, seeing that you have to pay a premium just to ask a question. So for us that know Ramy and order more in car patrs than we do food per year, we know what's going on. For those that stumble upon FDNewbie site, or from word of mouth, it may scare em away. . . . . know what i mean?