Vendor customer service - abysmal

[mscafide]

Getting paid before the part leaves means nothing these days when there can be a Paypal or credit card dispute after the part is received. Shipping overseas adds one more dimension to the chargeback mess.

Curly has been around here for years. I would be willing to order parts, take delivery and ship to him if he can't find an easier way.

Mike

[Curly]

Curly has been around here for years. I would be willing to order parts, take delivery and ship to him if he can't find an easier way.
Mike

Thanks for your kind offer Mike, but I believe that Vicks have now shipped the parts that I ordered last month - I have received a shipping notice from USPS and my bank account is processing a withdrawal of what seems an appropriate amount. The disappointing thing is, they have haven't answered any of my 4 emails which were asking them about shipping costs - they've charged me and shipped it anyway, without authorisation despite them noting "We will contact you with the price to ship" on their automated order invoice.
I don't really care at this stage, just happy that the parts are on their way; but it's very poor customer service in my book and I'll probably use somebody else next time. ...... and IAP still haven't responded to my initial email.

[davery]

I will second what people have said. AR and Mark's seem to have the best service. When I bought my first spider 25 years ago I dealt with IAP and Bayless. Both were pretty good, but in the day of online shoppping IAP hasn't kept up. I have not used Bayless since they move from GA. I used Vick's once and will not again. I can't say enough about AR, though. They have helped me out of a jam more than once.

[RRoller123]

+1 on AR. Great outfit.

[tartan18]

Ditto on AR. A+ Ramzi and Csaba are top tier in my experience. I also give a shout out to Mark Allison as the other resource for quality parts and advice. I appreciate both vendors for their willingness to answer questions and promptly ship with tracking.

[Ptoneill]

I have had excelent sevice from Allisons, IAP, and Vicks. But my best service for really hard parts and custom "bling" is from Spider Point in Germany. Their shipping to the US is very reasonable and the exchange rate is not bad at this point. Just remember that if you are using a PO Box you need to list it, the shipper they use subs to the USPS upon reaching the US. I had my first several orders returned as not deliverable because I dont get USPS at my house.

PS...I used to live in Canberra ACT, I would love to go back, Australia is a very beautiful country with excellent people.

[Daniel]

I'm contacted by email initially sometimes for projects but since I don't check my email daily unless i'm expecting
a response takes me a few days to see the message. I guess what i'm getting at is most my customers call me. If
we need to trade some emails for info then I'll reply right away since we are aware of or expected to communicate
via email. I've had issues trying to get replies from companies using email as well but picked up a phone and got in
touch with them right away. Maybe it's the daily grind of running everything on the phones,fulfilling orders etc that
adding more avenues for customers to contact you isn't ideal for every business to operate smoothly.
I totally get Curly's point being thousands of miles away in a different time zone would make more sense using email
and would like to be able to get proper info before moving forward on any deal. I think what they did was a cheap
move to charge Him without approval was completely wrong.

Another example I was over at a friends for a small party to watch a fight he ordered a pizza online it took an hour
an 20 mins to get there but we called somewhere in between to see what happened. They offered a discount for
the delay but I think the online system still has room for improvement, adding options to contact a company sounds
great but maybe its a burden to some and a convenience for others.
Just my 2 cents

[fiat218]

I have I agree with Daniel
Pick up the phone and use it..I am very surprise in how many costumes text e when I'm todo there project
They ask questions and trying to get better ideas, I'm like! Geesh,call
So I just make the call,