I agree with Randall completely. Yesterday I bought a windscreen
rubber for a Lotus Elan from Ken Gray at Dave Bean Engineering.
Ken told me they were not completely happy with this batch of
seals. He said the quality was good but they tended to be a bit
oversized and would have to have a piece removed. He could have
sold me the part and let me body man fight with it, but didn't. I
appreciate this kind of service and tell everyone how good they are
to deal with. I bought the part and told the body man what needed
to be done. Everyone's happy.
The Fat Basset Garage
661 Stilson Canyon Road, Chico California USA
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Randall Young [SMTP:randallyoung@earthlink.net]
> Sent: Thursday, June 29, 2000 7:00 PM
> Cc: 'british-cars@autox.team.net'
> Subject: RE: parts
>
>
>
> On Thursday, June 29, 2000 4:29 PM, Dodd, Kelvin
> [SMTP:doddk@mossmotors.com] wrote:
> >
> > If a part can be made to work, or is unpretty, then a decision has
> > to be made. If possible we will rectify the product. In some cases we
> will
> > still sell substandard parts because that is all we have. No one likes
> that
> > situation, and yes we are taking advantage of our loyal unsuspecting
> > customers. If we do that enough, then they will no longer remain
> customers.
> > The flip side, is that if we eat too many of these production problems,
> we
> > won't care about customers any longer as we will no longer be solvent.
>
> Kelvin :
>
> Might I suggest that there _is_ another solution, that of letting your
> customers know that you are unhappy with the part you are selling ? Yes,
> your sales of that particular part will slow down, but there will likely
> be
> some people still willing to buy them (you may have to offer a discount).
> The benefit to you is fewer unhappy customers and fewer returns. If you
> are selling a reproduction that doesn't look the same as the original,
> tell
> us. I, for one, will probably still buy it, especially once you develop a
>
> reputation for honesty in advertising. And, you might even be able to
> sell
> those tools by saying "We're not happy with these, but we're stuck with
> them, maybe you can get them to work" and offering them for your cost.
>
> Selling shoddy parts loses you sales anyway, because the word gets around
> "Don't buy xxx from Moss, they're selling junk." I rather suspect that
> the
> rumor long outlasts the fact, so you may even lose fewer sales by telling
> the whole truth. There are already far too many people running around
> saying "I'll never buy from Moss again".
>
> I obviously can't speak for everyone, but I think most of us would greatly
>
> appreciate a little more honesty from the big suppliers.
>
> Randall
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