Yes, and its very sad though, is it not? Lets just hope that the eyes of a few are opened by the thread and keep it positive.

I hope so...I find the good outway the bad in my business handily. However, certain personality types are just that. I know some people don't deserve much of my time while others are sincere. I use contracts for exclusive relationships and I know some people will never sign em so I treat them that way. It seems to me they usually get whats coming to them. In your business they get wheels with the wrong backspacing or get ripped off by another vendor. In mine they get misrepresented and overpay for a piece of property.

The real issue of this thread....at least I think so.....is don't take up alot of extra time and effort from the business by asking tons of questions and taking advantage of their customer service and then go buy the same item somewhere else just because its alittle cheaper. Thats just wrong.

Yea, what he said...

Yes, yes, yes. If you have called and emailed a bunch of times, taken up alot of time and THEN you buy it somewhere else, You're a DOG. If you bought it somewhere else over few dollars, double DOG (you'll get what's comming to you)

But...

I have called and emailed many a company and got the cold shoulder, the talking down to me like I don't know anything, the short answer 'no we don't have none', the put me on hold twenty times, the one or two word answer to an email. They just push my wallet away like my money is not good enough (or big enough).
I wanted to like their company, I liked their logo, I liked their ad compaign, I even like their display car, but when I met someone from their shop, office, booth, they pushed me away like a bum. OK maybe they were tired, hungary, fed up, but the message got was We don't EVER want any of your money or your friends, go away, we're rich enough.


AND
Everyone shops for price. The parking lot of Harbor Freight is packed and so is Walmart. If I can't see (or be sold) the value of a Snap-On angle die grinder why would I pay the price. Twenty dollars at Harbor Freight and one seventy five at Snap-ON.

Most of the vendors on this board are trying to add value everyday. Why, because none of them are the low cost leader. If they can show value then they can justify the price.

In the absence of value, price is the only thing to measure and therefore people will shop for the lowest price (the only thing to measure).

Loyality is very important today, but how many times have you purchased something as a loyal consumer and taken it back because something happened and low and behold, its not covered, its not our fault, it's something else or the company is just plain gone.

Yes, I was loyal to Tyler, to the point I even wanted to buy Alcon's for my next project. I wanted to support him in anyway I could. I think loyality is one of the most important traits of humans, but many a companies have taken our loyality and crushed it into bonemeal (insert any one of a hundred major companies that have gone out of business in the past few years).((I'm not referring to Tyler here))


Please treat the vendors fair. Don't burn up all of their efforts if you are just going to buy the product somewhere else. Don't be that guy, every one will find out who you are. This is a small community and we all have email and cell phones and drink beer together at SEMA and Columbus and GoodGuys etc.
Vendors, remember if you add value, you can avoid the lowest price comparison.
Vendors, sometimes the guy stabbing you in the back is not the customer, but the manufacture. Many times the customer can call the manufacture direct and buy the product and sometimes at a discount too. If I can buy a cool wiper motor from DSE or from you at the same price, Whats the difference? Loyality I think. And your value added.


jumping off of my soapbox and getting a beer...





Mick

I have bought parts for Frank and wheels from Jon. Both have been a ton of help.

Frank has to be the best phone tech person i have ever got to talk to. If hes busy, he will stop what hes doing and help you. Him and i had a little outing few months back, but we worked everything out. Frank is a stand up guy.


Jon, why cant you be closer to Cincinnati. Killer cars running around that need some new wheels.

^^ Great post Mick

Thanks Flash68...I sent Pelosi a nasty email the other day...




Mick

I for one am the little guy who needs to rely on the experience of others in their respective fields. Seems we are all on a budget these days but the technical information is worth much more than the $$ to me.

Just to name a few, CC5S was a tremendous help when swapping my 4spd. for a Tremec 5 spd. - their customer service is outstanding by the way. And when I needed info on wheels & tires, Jon @ Driverzinc took the time to help me make the right choice and I reciprocated by buying from him. I've bought from Musclerodz as well after seeking advice on lighting. And I will buy my Wilwood brakes from Prodigy very soon based conversations we had and his solid, working knowledge of real world parts.

No, I don't build high-end SEMA cars (just a hobbyist) but I do spend money and when I do, I try to do it wisely. The wise part comes from relying on these guys that are sponsors here that have been there, done that. Without them I would probably waste more money buying parts that either don't fit or perform as expected. Customer support is vital to the success of a business and unfortunately some companies just don't get it. I've seen nothing but the best from the vendors on this site and will continue to use them, while my passion (sickness) of modifying my car continues to dominate me.

So for the record, I sincerely value your wisdom and experience and thank you all for your help, past and future.

Is there any other kind of email you could send that woman? :lol:

Great line, and I agree 100% :lol:

I get what everyone is saying here, and if anybody is going to solicit help from a vendor, they better be planning on using that vendor. At the same time though, not everyone here has the kind of money to throw into a hobby that some of you have. While I wish I could devote enough money to my camaro project to buy all top of the line products from the great companies represented here. Because of this I have to take a pretty budget approach to it and I plan on stretching my project over many years and only doing a project at a time. I do plan on saving money before each project to get some quality parts from some of these great supporting vendors, but I can't afford to build my car using only top of the line products, so as much as it hurts me, I have to pick and choose, some things are going to have to come from ebay or Summit. I do fully agree though, if you are asking for help and taking away valuable time from one of these vendors, you better have plans on buying their products, that's just rude.

Best of luck to all of you and thank you for what you are doing for this hobby. I hope to pay some of you back over then next 20 or so years, piece by piece.

Also want to add, one thing I will avoid at all costs no matter what is buying someones cheap knock off of somebody elses research and design. That is pretty much the lowest of the low.

i really cant see how someone can shop around and not buy from one of our vendors. jon and frank have the best prices that i can find. summit? jegs? the customer service sucks and most of those guys havent ever installed the parts. with custom cars and custom parts, the best places to go are those that have a hand in the design and manufacturing.

ive been guilty of shopping for the best price in the past though, but it always leads me back to the guys that i have bought from before. i also dont talk tech unless im going to buy. i may call for a price, but im not going to use up more than a minute of your time.

Tim