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Old 10-02-2019, 06:54 PM
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Unhappy SC&C shipping times

Is anyone else waiting an excessively long time for anything from Mark?

Placed my order on 8/19 was supposed to be 3-4 weeks until they shipped. Called 3 weeks ago and he reminded me it hadn't been 4 weeks yet. I have emailed requesting an update and haven't had a response in almost a week.

We need to fit the body back to the frame and my body man is almost 4 hours away. The weather is changing and honestly this is getting a bit too long for parts. I have built enough cars to know to expect a while on one-off items and custom built pieces, but I didn't think the parts are being specifically created just for me.

I realize everyone is busy, so am I between two businesses and a lot of employees so I get it. Anyhow, just frustrated.

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Old 10-03-2019, 05:33 PM
brad900 brad900 is offline
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I placed a order on 9-15, after 15 days I emailed them. Mark emailed back saying they just finished a batch & will be shipping out 10-1, still shows processing when I log in today

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Old 10-03-2019, 07:47 PM
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What did you order? I ordered the stage 3 with the Howe joints and new shocks

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Old 10-03-2019, 10:37 PM
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Chassis Brace

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Old 10-07-2019, 04:27 PM
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Originally Posted by KGTO View Post
Is anyone else waiting an excessively long time for anything from Mark?

Placed my order on 8/19 was supposed to be 3-4 weeks until they shipped. Called 3 weeks ago and he reminded me it hadn't been 4 weeks yet. I have emailed requesting an update and haven't had a response in almost a week.

We need to fit the body back to the frame and my body man is almost 4 hours away. The weather is changing and honestly this is getting a bit too long for parts. I have built enough cars to know to expect a while on one-off items and custom built pieces, but I didn't think the parts are being specifically created just for me.

I realize everyone is busy, so am I between two businesses and a lot of employees so I get it. Anyhow, just frustrated.
Just saw this today, i placed an order for upper control arms on July 17...……..still haven't gotten them, called today, said they should be here next week, im not holding my breath...…….when using a e mail, might as well be talking to yourself...……

Rich

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Old 10-07-2019, 05:29 PM
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Mark got back to me Friday and gave e some similar news. ....July 17? maybe I shouldn't complain!

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1967 GTO 416 5-spd streetcar 11's on HP low 10's 150 shot
1965 GTO 10-71 Littlefield high-helix retro/Bird (untuned) 8.44 @159 3500+lbs 10.5W's SOLD!
1964 421 GP-Sold
6.0 cert. Fiat bodied altered blown alcohol Pontiac IAII-Sold
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Old 10-08-2019, 11:10 AM
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Wow, that kind of delay simply isn't acceptable without the buyer being informed about the wait *before* ordering. It's a really good way to get your reputation as a company slammed by people online, and word gets around very quickly...

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Old 10-08-2019, 02:02 PM
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Well to Mark's credit he did give me a 3-4 week lead time before parts began to ship, the other issues sound like they were out of his control.....That said it it affected more than one of my parts. Shocks were on backorder for weeks, then an issue with the company that makes the A arms...IDK...

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1967 GTO 416 5-spd streetcar 11's on HP low 10's 150 shot
1965 GTO 10-71 Littlefield high-helix retro/Bird (untuned) 8.44 @159 3500+lbs 10.5W's SOLD!
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6.0 cert. Fiat bodied altered blown alcohol Pontiac IAII-Sold
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Old 10-09-2019, 12:19 AM
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well worth the wait

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Old 10-10-2019, 08:45 AM
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Everybody has an issue, slow is Marks, typical engineer lol... You could of ordered the arms from SPC and the tall ball joints from Howe and put them together yourself..

If you order a box with this set up, order it through Lee yourself.. I used the three ear 800 Series box, 14:1 ratio with a 30 lb valve. I like a lot of road feel with a fast snap back from center..

I have the Stage III on my 69 el Camino and its pretty decent.. It's not a DSE but its pretty good... Get used to tightening those arms up every so often if you use your car a lot.. I still might go back to factory rubber control arms but use 1973-77 A body uppers with tall .9 ball joints to get the caster in the 5 degree range...

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Old 10-11-2019, 09:18 AM
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Originally Posted by 389 View Post
Everybody has an issue, slow is Marks, typical engineer lol... You could of ordered the arms from SPC and the tall ball joints from Howe and put them together yourself..

If you order a box with this set up, order it through Lee yourself.. I used the three ear 800 Series box, 14:1 ratio with a 30 lb valve. I like a lot of road feel with a fast snap back from center..

I have the Stage III on my 69 el Camino and its pretty decent.. It's not a DSE but its pretty good... Get used to tightening those arms up every so often if you use your car a lot.. I still might go back to factory rubber control arms but use 1973-77 A body uppers with tall .9 ball joints to get the caster in the 5 degree range...

Good info thank you.... I have a quick ratio on it now but of the older design where it feels like too much assist. But it does work well. I'll likely upgrade at some point

I began looking at piecing it all together and felt like why commit to the brain damage, just order it all in one place. Well now I have my old parts back on, loaded the frame in the trailer last night so Monday I can bring it back to the body shop. I'm about ready to cancel the order and just go back to piecing it together...

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1967 GTO 416 5-spd streetcar 11's on HP low 10's 150 shot
1965 GTO 10-71 Littlefield high-helix retro/Bird (untuned) 8.44 @159 3500+lbs 10.5W's SOLD!
1964 421 GP-Sold
6.0 cert. Fiat bodied altered blown alcohol Pontiac IAII-Sold
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Old 10-16-2019, 03:19 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 389 View Post
Everybody has an issue, slow is Marks, typical engineer lol... You could of ordered the arms from SPC and the tall ball joints from Howe and put them together yourself..

If you order a box with this set up, order it through Lee yourself.. I used the three ear 800 Series box, 14:1 ratio with a 30 lb valve. I like a lot of road feel with a fast snap back from center..

I have the Stage III on my 69 el Camino and its pretty decent.. It's not a DSE but its pretty good... Get used to tightening those arms up every so often if you use your car a lot.. I still might go back to factory rubber control arms but use 1973-77 A body uppers with tall .9 ball joints to get the caster in the 5 degree range...
Today is 3 month wait for me on the upper control arms, kind of wondering what you mean by slow...…….kind of went with Mark because of the on line support...…….but im wondering what kind of on line support you get when hes on the phone explaining why everyone is waiting 3-6 months to get what they ordered.

Don't mind waiting for quality stuff...……….but this seems a little extreme to me, you can get an engine built way faster than waiting for parts from Mark.

Im thinking of going as KGTO said, just cancel the order, and maybe going with the umi stuff which I can get in a few days...………

The more I think about this whole deal, the more I think im just out of $750

Rich

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Old 10-17-2019, 02:09 PM
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1) Called SPC today, there was no significant production setback, a small one, but orders were still going out. Definitely NOT the six week backlog Mark told me. SPC drop ships to the customer for SC&C they do not have record of my shipping info. It doesn't look like they were ordered yet.
2) Called Hellwig and sway bar # 55703 is available and Summit has it in stock I could have it in 3 days. Been over two weeks since Mark said it "shipped" still no tracking number or bar.
3) Called Chassiworks, shocks are on the shelf. Can either order through CW or SC&C.
4) Called Howe, the ball joints are special made for SC&C, I don't have a part number to give them and since they are made for Mark I can't buy them. I would likely have to use another Howe set or use the ones that come with the SPC arms.

Below is the last email from Mark, hasn't returned my last two emails asking for a tracking number. Emailed him this morning and left a message on his phone. I will dispute the charges and get the order refunded. I always want to give the benefit of doubt to someone in this business, I feel I am usually patient and understanding, but this is BS and furthermore, lies. If I am wrong on all of this somehow then SC&C should work on communicating with their customers. If the orders were never placed yet then customer's are providing cash flow for other customers. I've seen this happen before in business.


On Fri, Oct 4, 2019, 1:13 PM Sales scandc <sales@scandc.com> wrote:

Hi Ken,

So sorry for the long lead time, we`re working on it! Your sway bar has shipped, we`ll send tracking. The shocks were on back order for weeks but they just started shipping out back orders on them yesterday. Yours should be going out early next week. SPC parts are 80%, we`re just waiting on them to finish a batch of our lower A arms with the Howe ball joints installed. They had a big computer melt down (nasty virus?) about 2 months ago that shut their manufacturing facility in CO down for almost 6 weeks. They`ve been back up and running at 125% for a few weeks now but they`re still lagging a bit behind on some of the short run specialty parts. We just sent them more Howe ball joints for the lowers, they should have them done next week. Let us know if you would you like us to ship the rest of the SPC parts in the mean time or ship it all together when the LCAs are done?

--
Thanks, Mark Savitske
Savitske Classic & Custom
610-381-6100

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1967 GTO 416 5-spd streetcar 11's on HP low 10's 150 shot
1965 GTO 10-71 Littlefield high-helix retro/Bird (untuned) 8.44 @159 3500+lbs 10.5W's SOLD!
1964 421 GP-Sold
6.0 cert. Fiat bodied altered blown alcohol Pontiac IAII-Sold
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Old 10-17-2019, 03:18 PM
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While Mark is a nice guy and certainly very knowledgeable about how to make these cars handle properly, it appears that he doesn't have the organizational skills necessary to successfully manage his company's orders, he's too busy or both.

I dealt with this when I ordered my stage 2+ kit as well, but not to this extent. I purchased the bars separately from summit and the lower control arms I picked up at SPC since I'm only about 40 minutes away.

Like you I couldn't get in touch with Mark via phone as he's usually on it with other people. I also didn't receive responses to several e-mails. Unfortunately I had to resort to the threat of a chargeback. I contacted my bank to see if that was an option, when they stated it was, I gave a call and let him know that I needed some solid communication, or the parts on my doorstep, or I'd have to chargeback and use a competitor.

I had a call the next day, and parts shortly after.

When I decided to complete the setup with lower control arms, after finding out SPC is local to me, I was able to coordinate with SPC on it so I knew they had parts available. That forced Mark into having to put the order through right away. I picked them up a couple days later after SPC built the parts.

SPC is altering some of these parts a bit for Mark, but their uppers and lowers are readily available from summit for the F body and A body cars. The stage 2+ system uses a .9" tall ball joint which is available easily through ProForged. That joint is fine for street use and mild track use. If you're doing high speed stuff with R compound rubber, I wouldn't use it.

What this means is you can to an extent build mark's packages from off the shelf parts. The 2+ kit also comes with a tall tie-rod end to correct bump steer. If the car is primarily street, you may not notice it's absence.

That gives you some options at least to consider.

I've hesitated to comment in this thread, because I believe in letting an individual and a company figure out their issues without dragging anybody through the mud. But at the end of the day I also know what it's like to have money out of your pocket and getting the run around while you have no parts on hand.

I would still encourage you to correct this issue with Mark directly instead of airing it out in public, but I do think you're going to have to be a bit more forceful at this point to see action.

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Old 10-17-2019, 04:06 PM
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Jason,

Appreciate the response and I agree. I am not a person to normally take this to a public forum, I'm not one to stir the pot and I do not engage in drama. I have had contact (offline)from more than one individual regarding the matter who have had similar experiences and some who have been waiting longer than me. If someone is riding the fence on who to order from they should know it's an issue. The main complaint I have, aside from lack of communication, is that what he told me was going on isn't true. Stuff happens, I get it but telling me that the delays are someone else's fault is not an appropriate response. I have owned multiple businesses, so I am empathetic to those "perfect storms" with a customer were it seems everything goes wrong. I get it. Do something about it, maintain communication. Disclose it.

If I have to make threats to get parts shipped to me, I'll find another vendor to purchase from. That's not how you run a (good) business.

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1967 GTO 416 5-spd streetcar 11's on HP low 10's 150 shot
1965 GTO 10-71 Littlefield high-helix retro/Bird (untuned) 8.44 @159 3500+lbs 10.5W's SOLD!
1964 421 GP-Sold
6.0 cert. Fiat bodied altered blown alcohol Pontiac IAII-Sold
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Old 10-18-2019, 10:38 PM
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I got my Chassis Brace yesterday. 1 month after ordering. I had to order from them because they are the only ones I know that makes it. If you can order the parts from somebody else I would cancel the order since he is giving you the run around

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Old 10-19-2019, 12:50 PM
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To update-

Mark finally returned my call and after a discussion with him I chose to give him one last shot.
It still doesn't make sense, I can see if one company had a back order that held up the order, but for Chassisworks, SPC and Hellwig to all have had production issues is still odd to me. Plus he had to wait for the ball joints from Howe. I told him I would wait for the SPC items but there was no reason for him to spend a bunch of time trying to locate the sway bar when it was in stock at Summit and I could have it in 3 days. Same for the shocks from CW. He insisted that he complete the order for me, so I relented. He is just now sending the ball joints to SPC and they should drop ship to me so I may see them by next Friday if it goes as planned.

I've never heard of a product complaint from SC&C, and I know he is knowledgeable and respected in the industry, but the efficiency and communication is severely lacking.

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1967 GTO 416 5-spd streetcar 11's on HP low 10's 150 shot
1965 GTO 10-71 Littlefield high-helix retro/Bird (untuned) 8.44 @159 3500+lbs 10.5W's SOLD!
1964 421 GP-Sold
6.0 cert. Fiat bodied altered blown alcohol Pontiac IAII-Sold
  #18  
Old 10-19-2019, 12:53 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by brad900 View Post
I got my Chassis Brace yesterday. 1 month after ordering. I had to order from them because they are the only ones I know that makes it. If you can order the parts from somebody else I would cancel the order since he is giving you the run around
I think he makes these in house, correct? That I could see taking some time if they are build to order. I was going to buy that same one but bought the BMR version because it was readily available. I do like the design of Marks with the triangulation, I think its a better piece.

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1967 GTO 416 5-spd streetcar 11's on HP low 10's 150 shot
1965 GTO 10-71 Littlefield high-helix retro/Bird (untuned) 8.44 @159 3500+lbs 10.5W's SOLD!
1964 421 GP-Sold
6.0 cert. Fiat bodied altered blown alcohol Pontiac IAII-Sold
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Old 10-22-2019, 01:57 PM
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To update-

Mark finally returned my call and after a discussion with him I chose to give him one last shot.
It still doesn't make sense, I can see if one company had a back order that held up the order, but for Chassisworks, SPC and Hellwig to all have had production issues is still odd to me. Plus he had to wait for the ball joints from Howe. I told him I would wait for the SPC items but there was no reason for him to spend a bunch of time trying to locate the sway bar when it was in stock at Summit and I could have it in 3 days. Same for the shocks from CW. He insisted that he complete the order for me, so I relented. He is just now sending the ball joints to SPC and they should drop ship to me so I may see them by next Friday if it goes as planned.

I've never heard of a product complaint from SC&C, and I know he is knowledgeable and respected in the industry, but the efficiency and communication is severely lacking.

Just to update, I bought the stage 2 plus upper a arms from Mark, ordered them on July 17...…….called after waiting 3 months, Mark said, sorry, they are on the way, well today I get the ball joints, no arms...…….as usual not answering the phone.

I was under the impression he sends the ball joints to SPC and they put them together, seems like I have to put them together. This is no way to run a company,

Rich

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Old 10-22-2019, 02:13 PM
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I have the Stage III but frankly, if I was to do it all over, I would save up for the Detroit Speed set up.. I love the way they have there caster adjustment..
https://www.detroitspeed.com/1964-19...ont-suspension


Last edited by 389; 04-25-2022 at 05:43 PM.
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