Observation On The Silliness Of Corporate America

Umbra

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I'm shopping for exhaust stuff for Jackass (My TJ ). A big, well known parts supplier has a kit I want. Amazon has the same kit for $50 bucks less. When you copy the part number from from the BIG suppliers page, a little window opens with "LOWEST PRICE GUARANTEE- CLICK FOR DETAILS" . I click "details" and they demand that I jump through all of these hoops to get them to match lower price. So I just bought the cheaper kit from Amazon.
Why the heck would I spend 20 minutes copying and pasting, e-mailing and messaging them so I can wait days for a reply to get a cheaper price when I can just go click-click and get the cheaper price elsewhere?

And so many businesses are mystified as to why they are being crushed by Amazon. :)

I can't decide if it's funny or sad.
 
Oh yeah, you mean that low price guarantee that all the companies like Quadratec, Morris 4x4, and 4 Wheel Parts have?

Not only is it a hassle, but even after you fill it out, it takes them up to 2 business days to get back to you!

Like anyone really wants to wait that long in this day and age.

At that point they really deserve to get crushed by Amazon.

With the exception of places like Savvy and a few other small outlets, I buy exclusively from Amazon.

Can’t match their customer service or shipping time.
 
ever try returning something thru amazon? my wife bought my daughter a watch for Christmas, first time she wore it it broke, wanna talk about making you jump thru hoops. if it was a local merchant .you could walk in and drop it on the counter and get a new one. Remember Sears was once one of the biggest stores in the world or at least their catalogue was and you could buy everything you wanted from them (houses, cars. etc.)
 
ever try returning something thru amazon? my wife bought my daughter a watch for Christmas, first time she wore it it broke, wanna talk about making you jump thru hoops. if it was a local merchant .you could walk in and drop it on the counter and get a new one. Remember Sears was once one of the biggest stores in the world or at least their catalogue was and you could buy everything you wanted from them (houses, cars. etc.)

I return things through Amazon all the time. Easiest experience I've EVER had, every single time.

You don't even have to call them up as long as it's within the return window. You simply print the shipping label and return it. 90% of the time you get the refund before they even receive the item back.
 
I've had both the experiences in returns, I think the difference in my case was one purchase was through Amazon Prime and the other was a private seller.

On the one hand, Amazon spooks me because they are the behemoth and getting bigger all the time, but the reasons for that are obvious when you use them.

The company I was speaking of (Summit Racing) could easily follow the same model since they have primarily been a catalog/mail order parts house for decades, but their out-dated business practices will eventually lead to their destruction. Back orders, drop shipping, inflated prices, deceptive "In stock" listings etc.

I would LOVE to buy my stuff from local auto parts guys, but they simply suck at customer service AND having the parts. Our local KOI auto parts just closed up shop. The manager blames a recent construction project near the store. But the truth is that the guys that worked there ignored customers in favor of BSing with each other and friends that came in to visit, and pretending to be working hard on the computer while you stand there waiting to be acknowledged. Not to mention they never seem to have what you're looking for. "We can get it by next Tuesday" The other local parts place advertises "free battery installation", but the day my wife went there, none of the 3 employees could do it because of "medical problems". Hahaha!

I've had good luck at O'Reilly, but they're 2 towns and 20 minutes from here.

I'm pretty much all about Amazon and Rockauto these days.
 
I've had both the experiences in returns, I think the difference in my case was one purchase was through Amazon Prime and the other was a private seller.

Yes, that's likely the case.

If you order a product shipped and fulfilled via Amazon directly, the return process is literally the most painless thing ever.

If it's from a third party, it can go either way. This is why for the most part I try to order products that are fulfilled and shipped by Amazon directly.
 
On another note, I like when I go into the local auto part store and they don't have a part I need in stock (as is usually the case). They tell me, "We can order it for you and it will be here in X days. Then you just come in and pick it up when it arrives."

I always tell them that I can order it online from my phone or computer, have it shipped directly to my house (usually via 2-day shipping), and none of that will involve me wasting gas or leaving the house.

I'm not trying to be rude of course, but in this day and age if you want to succeed, you have to understand that people have easy access to the internet, fast shipping, etc. Unless you stock a part, offer a part no one can get somewhere else, or have an outstanding level of customer support, then you aren't going to last long in the modern day and age of online business.

I don't even use local auto part stores except for the most basic things anyways. They don't stock Mopar OE parts, they use shit quality brands like Duralast and other cheap crap.

If you pay attention sometimes they'll have good brands like Timken, Centric, Moog, and others, but you have to know what you're looking for.
 
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I always let the home office, regional manager and store manager know why I am a dissatisfied customer.
They appreciate it because the owners know their job is to make money and the way they do it is by satisfying their customers.
 
I'm one of those old geezers who would rather pick up a part and hold it in my hands before I commit to buying it, and for that reason I prefer to shop at brick and mortar stores whenever possible. That being said, I was shopping for some weather pack connectors for my fog lights last weekend to replace the toasted ones I have. I needed both male and female ends (two each) and all the parts stores in town had either one or the other, but never both. The closest I came was at a Pep Boys that had two female plugs and one male. They said that the computer showed the other male connector in stock, but they couldn't find it in the store. Not helpful. I got home, fired up the computing device and within five minutes had located exactly what I needed on Amazon. Ordered, paid for, and two day delivery, all set up in minutes, and the price was lower than anything local. I'll still visit the parts stores for most things I need, but the interwebs provide a handy option when needed.
 
I return things through Amazon all the time. Easiest experience I've EVER had, every single time.

No doubt, I can’t even conceive of a single way Amazon could make returns any easier? Open up your orders, click return, print label & tape to box. I guess when you place something in your cart Bezos could have his AI Unit read your mind, pre-determine your dissatisfaction & eventual return, flash a screen alerting you to this, remove the item from your cart, apologize, then send you a pillow mint for the inconvenience.
 
No doubt, I can’t even conceive of a single way Amazon could make returns any easier? Open up your orders, click return, print label & tape to box. I guess when you place something in your cart Bezos could have his AI Unit read your mind, pre-determine your dissatisfaction & eventual return, flash a screen alerting you to this, remove the item from your cart, apologize, then send you a pillow mint for the inconvenience.

I think what gets me is that about 90% off the time I get the money back in my account the same day I drop the package off to be returned to them!

That's absolutely amazing.
 
On another note, I like when I go into the local auto part store and they don't have a part I need in stock (as is usually the case). They tell me, "We can order it for you and it will be here in X days. Then you just come in and pick it up when it arrives."

I always tell them that I can order it online from my phone or computer, have it shipped directly to my house (usually via 2-day shipping), and none of that will involve me wasting gas or leaving the house.

I'm not trying to be rude of course, but in this day and age if you want to succeed, you have to understand that people have easy access to the internet, fast shipping, etc. Unless you stock a part, offer a part no one can get somewhere else, or have an outstanding level of customer support, then you aren't going to last long in the modern day and age of online business.

I don't even use local auto part stores except for the most basic things anyways. They don't stock Mopar OE parts, they use shit quality brands like Duralast and other cheap crap.

If you pay attention sometimes they'll have good brands like Timken, Centric, Moog, and others, but you have to know what you're looking for.

My local store has Spicer HD u joints. That's saved my ass before when I broke a cap doing front u joint replacement.
 
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I've had both the experiences in returns, I think the difference in my case was one purchase was through Amazon Prime and the other was a private seller.

On the one hand, Amazon spooks me because they are the behemoth and getting bigger all the time, but the reasons for that are obvious when you use them.

The company I was speaking of (Summit Racing) could easily follow the same model since they have primarily been a catalog/mail order parts house for decades, but their out-dated business practices will eventually lead to their destruction. Back orders, drop shipping, inflated prices, deceptive "In stock" listings etc.

I would LOVE to buy my stuff from local auto parts guys, but they simply suck at customer service AND having the parts. Our local KOI auto parts just closed up shop. The manager blames a recent construction project near the store. But the truth is that the guys that worked there ignored customers in favor of BSing with each other and friends that came in to visit, and pretending to be working hard on the computer while you stand there waiting to be acknowledged. Not to mention they never seem to have what you're looking for. "We can get it by next Tuesday" The other local parts place advertises "free battery installation", but the day my wife went there, none of the 3 employees could do it because of "medical problems". Hahaha!

I've had good luck at O'Reilly, but they're 2 towns and 20 minutes from here.

I'm pretty much all about Amazon and Rockauto these days.

I use Summit for a lot of my parts as they have a Nevada ship point so the orders arrive quickly but my biggest complaint is their search system which sucks. I will tell you my vehicle info so show me the parts for my vehicle. Every time you search you have to choose the vehicle to get specific fit.
 
I was missing parts off my Antirock I ordered from them. I had a new one before the other one hit their store.

Yep, I've had similar experiences before and it was always resolved without issue.
 
No doubt, I can’t even conceive of a single way Amazon could make returns any easier? Open up your orders, click return, print label & tape to box. I guess when you place something in your cart Bezos could have his AI Unit read your mind, pre-determine your dissatisfaction & eventual return, flash a screen alerting you to this, remove the item from your cart, apologize, then send you a pillow mint for the inconvenience.
The returns are easy if you do stuff from Amazon or fulfilled by Amazon and you select the correct reason for the return. I've had items before I learned better from 3rd party sellers that I eventually tossed in the trash because I had to pay to ship it back and the shipping was higher than the refund or close enough that the 3 or 4 bucks wasn't enough to mess with it.

When I complained to Amazon, they said they would take care of me in the interest of customer satisfaction but not as a matter of policy which sided wholly with the seller. Those experiences have pushed to into just about ignoring all 3rd party sellers.
 
The returns are easy if you do stuff from Amazon or fulfilled by Amazon and you select the correct reason for the return. I've had items before I learned better from 3rd party sellers that I eventually tossed in the trash because I had to pay to ship it back and the shipping was higher than the refund or close enough that the 3 or 4 bucks wasn't enough to mess with it.

When I complained to Amazon, they said they would take care of me in the interest of customer satisfaction but not as a matter of policy which sided wholly with the seller. Those experiences have pushed to into just about ignoring all 3rd party sellers.
Blaine, my way around that is there is an option that is "did not order" hit that a bunch of times and free shipping back popped back up.
 
Blaine, my way around that is there is an option that is "did not order" hit that a bunch of times and free shipping back popped back up.
I tend to couch my responses in those situations into some realm where I'm comfy with myself and being as truthful about why I am returning something as possible. I also figure it will be easy for them to check my order page and bust me for not being truthful. I will and do stretch it as far as possible but only so far. I could have had it covered by Amazon but I prefer to do the "can you answer this question about this product" thing when it pops up. I tell everyone it is the biggest piece of shit made and then I send a copy of my reply to the company.
 
The guys at the auto part store and the people at a certain off-road shop that rhymes with “more feel parts” crack me up with the “we can have it in 3-5 days!

Well, yeah, but I can have it tomorrow via amazon, so thanks. I’m going to order it before I leave the parking lot.

I order from summit for some things because their east coast warehouse is 30 minutes or so south of me. Everything else is Amazon
 
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