Geesh this really got under my skin. Last night am am cruisin' around looking for buick stuff on the net and decided to check out OPG's new online catalog. I was impressed with the new catalog I recieved in the mail a few months back and wondered if there new site was working for the buicks yet. Wow, looky there it's up. Hey looks at all these parts. Then I check out some floor mats I am looking at getting and what do my eyes see? The exact floor mats I want, black with GS block letters embossed in them, for $10.00. WOW!?!? I was a little hesitant, that couldn't be right I thought to myself. But there was that little thing that made me a believer. Not only was the price $10.00, but the original price of $99.95 was sitting right next to it with a big slash mark trough it to make it look like it was legitimately "ON SALE". A black print slashed out $99.95 with a red print $10.00 sitting right next to it. Nah, couldn't be, I thought as I quickly placed the item into my shopping cart. :Brow: Certainly this will be corrected at checkout. Low and behold, I check out and the price stays the same. I am done, What a deal I got on these. Before I checked out I even called my dad to see if he wanted a set for his '66 before I finalized to save shipping (we know how that shipping is!). I get through the ordering process and print my copy of the confirmation. I am extatic that these are on sale just when I was looking to buy a set. What a deal. Fast forward to today. I am excited and wondering if these floor mats are really in stock (I mean they must be, they can't sell them and that is why they are on sale for so cheap right) and when they will be shipped, so I give a call to OPG. First person, I am sorry we don't have your order yet, they haven't processed all of the internet orders yet, hang on........ Oh, we found it, we will get it processed and you can call us back tomorrow to find out about shipping times. Five minutes later, the phone rings. OPG:Hi, is Jarrod there. ME:Yes that's me. OPG:I was calling about your order. ME:Okay. OPG:Are you sure you want the '69 400 Stage1 Valve cover decals for your '67? ME:Yeah, You never know when you will want a Stage1! OPG:Okay, and are you sure you want 2 sets of floor mats, that is kind of expensive....$199.90? ME:WHAT? I have a confirmation that says they are$20 total. OPG:No.... maybe $20 off? ME:No, that is not right. OPG:I will have to check this and call you back. Five minutes later.... OPG: Hi, Jarrod, I check it out and that was printed incorrectly online so it will be 199.90, do you still want them. ME: Absolutely not. OPG: Okay, let me take that off your order. ME: No you can cancel my entire order and can I speak with your manager. OPG: Okay hang on..... Hi this is JOE. ME: Hi Joe, this is what happenned. JOE: Sorry, they are 99.95 apiece. BLAH, BLAH, BLAH. On and on Joe told me about sales (as if I don't own my own business) and I proceeded to tell him about customer service which fell on a deaf ear I am sure. That is one company that will never get my business again, nor a good comment from my mouth anytime they are talked about. Thanks for letting me vent,
Nothing ventured nothing gained! I wouldn't burn any bridges over it, though. You're right; they should have honored the mistake, but maybe they'll have something you'll want/need down the road. Heaven knows, we could all use more Buick parts!
here is 3 of the many options they had. 1. sell you both sets at the incorrectly posted price. 2. offer to sell you one set at the incorrectly posted price. 3. or sell you none at the incorrectly posted price. they chose 3, and killed every possibilty of getting any customer praise from you what-so-ever.ou:
I'm going to take the road less traveled and say they should have sold the parts at the price that was in the basket. If a person were to put up an oline ordering system THEY should be SURE the prices are correct. I understand they would have taken a loss on the order, but as a retailer, they needed to have set the correct price. While I am sure it was an OPG mistake, if it were widespread it would be a bait and switch.
Looks like they've corrected the web pricing this morning. I also think they should have honored the price for this instance, since their customer had a priced, confirmed order in hand. It would not have been a large loss for OPG. I doubt their cost is any more than half of the retail price.
This sounds like customer service ala' normal as far as I'm concerned. Frankly, I'm so sick of these places posting stuff on their websites and ignoring it that I'm ready to vomit. A mistake is a mistake, nobody is arguing that, but if you are not going to take the extra time to ensure your web prices (or any other prices for that matter) are correctly posted, then you should do the upstanding thing and honor the screw up. After all, we waste our time ordering the stuff. These places are getting away with murder. I don't care if there was only one Buick vendor left this side of the milky way. Sh!t service is sh!t service. If I pick up 1 single turkey in the supermarket out of a pile of turkeys and mine says 20 cents a pound and ALL THE OTHERS say 70 cents a pound, they HAVE to give me my turkey for 20 cents a pound. NO QUESTIONS ASKED. The ONLY way I can think that they can weasel out is if they have the CORRECT price posted elsewhere in another form of advertisement. Even then, I don't think they are justified, because advertisement is advertisement, no matter where or how many different places it's posted.
I'm no attorney, but I'll throw in my two cents. First, I don't think they are legally obligated to honor the price unless it is proven that it was some type of scam. Granted, that doesn't help much for the perceived lack of customer service. Second, businesses make mistakes all the time no matter how hard they try not to. Hasn't everyone seen plenty of "corrections" in the newspaper where an advertised price was incorrect? Third, I think in this case it would have been reasonable for anyone seeing the add to assume a mistake was made. How many times has anyone seen a price reduction of 90% on a car part like this? We are usually overjoyed with a 40% reduction. Also, any large discounts usually include fine print like "quantities limited to stock on hand", "closeout item", etc. There was no mention of anything like that on the website (that I know of). If they really were so cheap (due to overstock, inability to move the goods, etc.), its more likely they would have offered them for free if you bought enough other stuff ("buy a set of headers at regular price and we will throw in a set of floor mats for $10 more), rather than charge a "token" $10 for them. That doesn't mean Jarrod shouldn't have tried. I just don't think we should be so angry at OPC for making a mistake and not honoring the price. Fourth, as Jarrod said, he was originally just checking to see if the website was up for Buick products. It wasn't like he drove 100 miles to the store to get the items, only then finding out that they were priced incorrectly. What were his true damages resulting from OPC's mistake? Fifth, e-business has changed the ways companies do business in many ways. If OPC had made a similar mistake on an item in their catalog, and shipped out 100K catalogs, are they ethically responsible for honoring the price? Are they ethically responsible for sending out 100K notices that there is a mistake? When doing business over the Internet, a company could be bankrupted in a minute if they were forced to honor a price that was incorrect due to an honest mistake. Yet we all love the convenience that doing business over the net provides. What do I think they should have done? If it were me, I would have offered to sell the items at cost. I'm not in any way suggesting that Jarrod was wrong in doing what he did. I've done it before, and been successful a few times. He may have truly thought that they meant to put a $10 price tag, but if it is a mistake and no-one has been damaged, let it go. Finally, I don't have any affiliation with OPC. I've never bought anything from them, although I do have their catalog. I have heard concerns about their customer service in the past. My comments are based on this single event and the assumption that it was an honest mistake and OPC does have reasonable measures in place to minimize such mistakes (because we know you can't eliminate them, don't we?). And yes, I own my own company, also. Ira
Dont feel so bad,i ordered some parts from Cars Inc. on sunday night for my `65 GS and guess what they havent shipped them out yet,they told me they are backed up and will ship it out tomorrow morning:blast: :af:
OPG is a bunch of jackasses to me.I spent 67 bucks more or less for a driver side inner trunk filler panel.(This was with shipping also)Happens the thing wasn't even close to the one I took off which was rusted through but almost entirely there.I called them and explained to them my dilemma and they told me I would be charged a restocking fee if I returned it.I told them that it didn't even come close to the shape of mine and they acted like I was lying to them.I ended up cutting about 1/3 to 1/2 of the panel and bitchin it to work.Look ok,but I am very dissatisfied with their quality.As far as I am concerned they can stick their business! I wont buy anything from them again.I give them a big two thumbs down.:stmad :stmad: :moonu: Pat
I have had nothing but good service from Cars inc. o No: Without going on a tangent. Any business makes mistakes , dont even get me started about lunch today at Sonic.!!:af: Rudeness can be 2 ways too. If you were expecting to get the parts for $10 well sorry for your bad luck. It would be like me advertizing a car like my GSX and posting it for sale for $20K instead of the $40k I was really tring to get for it. I would have told the guy to buzz off it was for sale for $40K. Now I will ad that OPG wanted to get with me about repop parts but they only wanted to pay me as they felt like it so I did the right thing I dont sell to them. And who sells this JUNK A** pot metal/lead chrome plated U shape shifter clip?????? That is the worst part I have ever seen!! WHOEVER IS RESPONSIBLE SHOULD BE DRUG BEHIND MY DUALLY!!! I had a guy show me this part and he paid good money for junk. WHY DO WE CONTINUE TO BUY THIS GARBAGE?? Its because we dont get behind the REAL leaders making AWESOME PARTS. Like AL , Duane, ME! and a couple others I cant remember , but the point is unless we change HOW we buy how can we change WHO we buy from???? JOIN THE BPG we all can get QUALITY PARTS made that way ...................... Buy from the guys who make the stuff Like Greg Setter (awesome dash labels BTW) I dont care who you buy from everyone has a day when nothing goes right. HAVE SOME PATIENCE!!!! This is not Mcd's. Shipping isnt overnight unless you ASK for it. You cant get overnight service on a sunday either!!ou: For me its like this I try to ship everything the next business day however somedays are better than others and so I do it asap!! What about the company that ships say 100 boxes a day out???? What if their packing guy (Im sure is minimum wage) calls in sick!! So now someone else has to cover that position and then what the mgr is running around doing 2-3 other positions to cover the phones and all the rest of the crap going on!! I run a dealership body shop all day trust me 8 employees have you running !!!! Has anyone ever had to be on the bad side of telling someone their car wont be done on time???? Its not fun is it. Try thinking about that the guy on the phone with you may be having "one of those days" so keep that in mind the next time you call anywhere. And one more thing......... How would you like to set on the phone and talk to dipsticks all day long who for the most part have NO IDEA what they really need or can even describe it!! Ask one of the JEGS guys sometime about that I have!! Its a horribly funny story!!!! If its a quality issue well post it on the feedback zone so we cant all buy one to find out it sucks!!! THEY DONT MAKE IT!!!! THEY ONLY SELL IT!!!! Remember that................................. stepping down now!!!
I understand where your coming from but to ship parts 5 days later is unacceptable,i`m sorry but it is. Thanks
Where I work, we ship same day for all stock parts orders placed by 4:30. This includes spring season when we process 300+ packages per day. This frequently means some guys work til 7pm when UPS comes to pick up. And we typically only have 2 pickers most of the day, until later in the day if we see we're falling behind. I personally don't feel there is a legit excuse for a business operation of more than one employee to take more than 1 extra day to ship out a stock parts order. There can be exceptional circumstances of course, but it should not be the norm for a stock order to not ship for several days. That being said, there are times when the distributor (OPG, Year One, etc) has no control over the mfgr getting supplies to them in a timely manner. We have that problem at times. There are low volume, big ticket items we sell, that we will put an annual supply of on the shelf. When that supply runs low, it can take 1 week or 3 months to new stock in. Nothing we can do about it.
Customers don't care about the how's and whys of why there not getting service. Any business owner who would complain to a customer about how hard it is to run their business and try to justify their position by taking the zero accountability approach doesn't know the first thing about customer service. To actual refer to a potential customer as a dipstick shows a lack of integrity and is a sign of having an enormous ego problem.
You are correct however even in the best business's, time is not your friend. And A COMPLETE explanation is in order also. Well if you would have heard the Jegs guy tell me a very funny story You would quoted him as I did........ And if you take this as a personal attack well what can I say you missed the whole thing I was tring to comment on.........
Why Would I take it personally? I admire your ability to step back and evaluate your comments, maybe the Ego thing is not a problem?
Customers, the only people that will stand in line to hand you money! While I don't believe they were obligated to sell you $200.00 worth of parts for $20.00, I think they could have worked with you a little more. Maybe offer to sell you both mats for the price of one perhaps. To say that "this is the price, take it or leave it!" When they did make an error is a bit thick headed. I approach my job working with customers with the philosophy of "How much money will this customer spend over a 10 year period?" I've quoted jobs that in the end my company had to put money into just in graphics charges to fix problems with the customers disc to get it on press and meet the due date. (Microsoft Publisher files mainly) :gt: But I will honor my original quote, and tell the customer that while I am going to honor the quote, this is what it should have cost and this is what you need to do to avoid these problems in the future. (education, long term thinking) If a job does go bad, and it clearly is our fault, I don't hesitate to re-run the job free of charge. Many of my largest and most loyal customers came about as a result of how I handled a problem! From your post I also sense you were a little quick to say screw it. (Maybe not, sometimes the context of a conversation gets misconstrued on these boards) Customer service is a 2 way street. Many people who complain about the lousy service they get everywhere they go usually (not always) bear some responsibility by walking in with an attitude. Some people refuse to be happy! I'm not saying you are one of those people, but they are out there. Theres a joke sign I have that reads, "If you are grouchy, irritable, or just plain mean, there will be a $10.00 charge for putting up with you!" If they had gone out of their way to please you, then this post would be about how great OPG was! As far as calling some customers dipsticks...Yeah, I have my share that make me shake my head afterwards in disbelief, wondering how they managed to get out of bed in the morning. But at the same time, I don't expect my customers to know the ins and outs of my business. Thats why they came to me, for answers to their questions, guidence, "how should I go about putting this together?" o No: I could go on and on. But I don't think they were thinking long term while dealing with you. One of my favorite lines I use when I feel I am getting shafted by a company is, "I may not be you biggest customer, But believe me, I have the biggest mouth!" Just ask me about Walser Ford in St. Louis Park, MN! :af: Man, I'm glad tomorrow is Friday! :beer
OPG I have ordered from OPG a few times and just recently used their website - I admit that their website needs some work. On my last order, the website said that my total was $32 with shipping. But then a sales rep called two days later to say it was actually $40. Minor, but still, their website really has to calculate the total correctly the first time. That is why I order from the internet in the first place!
Good points Ira. It's true, it would/might seem likely it was an obvious misprint. I really don't know, legally, where the line is drawn as to what you have to and what you don't have to honor as a business. I guess I automatically take sides because I'm so used to sub-par customer service with these aftermarket places. It's such a small niche that there is really no accountability. This one was blatant, at 90%, but I'm sure there have been others at less.
Don't feel bad... I was scouring Year One's web site and came across a clutch and pressure plate for 12 bucks and change. I thought man what a deal. Placed my order and a couple days later I received a bearing. I needed the bearing but I also really needed the clutch as well. I knew it was a mistake and left it go. Thinking about this posting I ordered a license plate and some other odds and ends from Cars inc. back on 12/31/02. Received everything else but the license plate. I called this past March and they were still looking for the license plate. After that I forgot about the plate until now. I just called them and they are going to finally ship me my plate after placing the order 10 months ago. I am sure glad I didn't really need it in a hurray!
