First of all I really admire the way everyone has maintained an adult attitude about this issue and I appreciate the Admins. handling of the topic. It's a functional discussion and not cut off with "Oh no, no slamming vendors in here...."

Reading through this and other threads like it always reminds me of a couple mantras that get pounded into my head regularly at work.

"If we don't take care of the customer somebody else will."

"The customer is always right". <-- This one is especially tough for me quite often but it seems to always be the attitude that corrects a sticky situation.

Very well said. :thumbsup:

First post,so hi to all. I starting dealing with Frank a few years ago. I was on vac. in Florida and looked him up. He took me for lunch and treated me like a old friend...price of the whole deal i bought a DSE wiper motor kit?Cost to his sales ,3 hours at lunch taking no calls.Phone rang every 45 seconds,most calls free advice Point i am making orders have been lost,misplaced ,whatever,BUT if We as a bunch of car nuts are going to talk to Frank and want answers and tech stuff,how much free time does he have?? I work in a large jobber store 14 parts guys 600 invoices a day,i missplace a order a day. We take 4500 phone calls a day,multiple suppliers,shippers..so i feel the pain. We as a company charge the customer the second we get a order..reason if we didnt how many parts would we be stuck with if we didnt? I change my mind every other second,i think we are all like that. Frank you are a asset to the sport.. great day to all Wes

"Problems happen, delays happen, incorrect parts and products and defective parts and products happen...

Poor customer service does not "happen," it is created." -Bill Kistner

When a company, any company, gives poor service, it is, in a way, ripping off its customers. Excepting for a few people who actually enjoy Wall Mart style shopping, customers want to be served. They want to know that their money, their hard work, is respected, and when that respect is lost, they are cheated... and they'll let everyone know about it.

It is unfortunate, but "word of mouth" advertising is probably one of the least utilized yet most powerful types of advertising out there. It saddens me to read of instances like this because I know from experience that most vendors really care about their customers, they just don't know how to really "do" customer service right. Why do you think I started a business helping small companies with their customer service! Most of the people I work with aren't "business men," they're doers; they're mechanics, body men, cooks, accountants, etc, and they're great at those things, but they need to learn how to do the other "stuff" and stay in business at the same time... that's tough to do.

Shiny Side Up!
Bill

Yenko, first off, welcome to the best site on the net, period. Your first post is in defense of Frank and that's fine. What is happening is a legitimate concern for all here. Frank is a good guy, but when money is tossed in the mix everything changes. The main concern is this: parts paid for and not ordered, period. You are making excuses for Frank and Prodigy's repeated patterns of billing and not ordering, and it is repeated, and thus is not excusable. If his business is indeed doing as well as he sez, then he needs to hire a few logistics people to solve his logistics problems. Shipping? Hire someone. Outside calls for free advice on your project? Field as many as possible and hire a back up when he's "at lunch".

The man handing his hard earned scratch over to any vendor, regardless of who it is, HAS FULL-FILLED HIS END OF THE DEAL!

Excuses from Frank, you, President Obama, are just that...excuses! I will confess that the issues I have read here have prevented me from ordering from him. It sounds like my concerns are well grounded.

So on this deal when we Bryan's orders were placed we knew stuff would be back ordered and did not charge until we THOUGHT we would be able to get parts. At the time Bryan ordered his transmission I told him they were on back order everywhere so we did not charge yet. In the meantime I put request (not orders) into 3 distributors I use as know one had a firm date as to when they would receive them and I was going to order with whomever got them first. Whenever we did charge it was because we got a indication the trans would be coming in very soon, however it did not. In fact during this same time period Modern Museum decide to accept a wide ratio box as the close ratio simply was not coming in. All the while I had not placed " orders" with all 3 vendors or I could have wound up with 3 of each for each customer. So I out is a request for 3 units for Prodigy Customs, no customer name attached. There was some courtesy copy emails informing all 3 customers of delays and expected times of delivery.

When transmissions did come in to the distributors there was confusion with Lisa and I over who was handling what order. We ran no sales, no promotions, nothing this past Christmas season December, January and February were HUGE sales months, up 50% over the previous year, and Lisa and I were past our limit of what we could handle quite bluntly. I have not thrown any blame on Lisa, but realistically she has a much lower pain tolerance than I do and as things get super busy I have to take the lions share of the load. That is not saying anything negative, some people can handle more then others.

In the meantime Bryan however was politely quite, which is appreciated, but unfortunately as someone mentioned, the squeaky wheels gets the grease and I got so busy, if I thought about it for a second, the phone would ring. I kinda needed reminders weather it should be that way or not

When the transmissions came in to various distributors. I thought Lisa handled Bryan, she thought I handled it, no one handled it. How can this happen, we was handling litterly 100s of orders.

So the decision was made we had to step up, move into a larger facility to handle all this, or lose it all. So we moved which is all consuming in it self when you move from someplace you have been 22 years. So knowing I was moving I ran zero sales, pulled back on forum activity replying to people asking where to get this and that, to soften sales. I often refereed to competitors if I was in a position i could write a invoice.

So bottom line, the transmission parts were not available for a long period of time, and when they were my head was somewhere else and I forgot which as nutcase said is terrible to say, but it is what it is.

As for charging up front. 90% of the vendors we use charge up front (we run zero open accounts), so we charge up front. It takes 3 days for funds to post to a account by credit card, we have reminders to order, sometimes they get dropped Sometimes you can be ready to place a order, the phone rings, someone wants to talk about their project, someone needs you in the shop, you have lunch and forget. The new system will not allow that. It will hound us with reminders. having someone that is not taking tech calls that is only doing POs, will make that much less likely also.

BTW, FWIW, this goes the other way also. I got a call from Australia today reminding I need to charge for a A/C kit that is on the way. he needed it ASAP, I was on the road when he called, so I got the order going driving down the street. I simply have not wrote the invoice yet. A item shipped yesterday and I have not even charged for it yet. He is a good customer, I trust him. I will get to it. just need to get his card number.

Bottom line this is not a grab and go deal. It is not a cash flow issue as some have eluded too. It is simply too much too fast and as I said I am doing everything I can do to fix it. FWIW, the company is 100% debt free. Accept for a very short term mortgage on the building, if you see me with it, we own it. Includes all equiptment, inventory, cars, everything. No floor planners, investors, lines of credit.

I just thought I would throw that out there for the speculators that think it is something it is not.

I cannot lay it out any clearer or accept more responsibility. And I cannot do anything more then i am doing to fix it.

Welcome aboard, Wes.



The contention here isn't about how many phone calls that Prodigy Customs receives. This problem is about people being charged for parts/items that are ordered months after the order is placed and payment is made.

The sheer volume of PM's, e-mails, and phone calls that I've received over the past 48 hours from people that are or have been in this same situation with Frank is shocking. I've also taken phone calls from several manufacturers that tell me how they get phone calls from irate customers demanding to know why X part has been backordered for months - when in reality they have the part in stock and ready to drop ship. The excuse was produced by Frank to cover the issue of it never being ordered in the first place.

Now, while Bryan has his ordered problems figured out and both parties have parted ways, there are several more people with this same problem RIGHT NOW that do not feel comfortable placing their issue out here in the wide open for public consumption. But they are out there, reading this thread, wondering if they will ever get their stuff.

Scott, I have not recieved one phone call, email, PM from anyone in this position since this thread has started. I actually expected everyone in the world to call that has been waiting more then 5 minutes but it has not been that way at all. Sure we have orders open Please forward me anyone PMing you, I will be happy to address. They should have no problem contacting me.

Frank, you know exactly what is going on with what customers. You think I'm making this up?

Frank,

You should not be expecting any calls. If an order has been placed and delays are incurred, you should be the one contact them. Customers should not have to be expediters. Once an order is placed, the vendor should be responsible for for updating customers with logistical issues and expediting their execution.

Thanks to the mods for stepping in to resolve this issue. I hope everyone gets their parts in a timely fashion.

I'll be in touch in a week or so concerning my drive shaft, the last piece of my order.

:lateral: