[Ccass]

Originally Posted by Forrest

My Point was not nessesarily the shows. it`s what shows in stock or what`s not in stock, I deal in mostly 70-72 gto`s and what I see from most venders is alot of items not in stock ( going down the list in the online cat. and see ALOT of "not in stock" or just calling and asking), it`s just dissapointing and fustrating when you need certain items and may have to wait god knows how long to get a part you need to get on with a job, if the items are available please have them, or give a date (honestly!) when it will be available. When your in the resto biz and you need parts on a regular basis, it gets fustrating

I understand your frustration. I'm just posting some of the 'behind the scenes' happenings just so you can be informed. That in itself should help you with your parts requirement planning. The part of my post about the shows was more directed toward answering Jeff's post in this topic. The quoting of 'out of stock' lead times is the hardest part of the business. As you read from my other post, a mfg's lead time varys greatly sometimes. As a general rule, we OVERestimate the timeframe. Trust me, we have learned our lessons over the years that a quoted 2 week backorder that turns into 3 months, is a guaranteed lost customer. Still, we occasionally get a bad lead time from a mfg and consequently this scenario still exists....and we lose customers because of it.

I also didn't mention that at this time of the year, parts are coming in and going out on a daily basis much moreso than the rest of the year. So when you check online stock one day, the next day may look completely different.

Let me tell you a story that just happened to us last month with the supplier of the infamous aluminum tripower intakes that have been on backorder for 2 years. The president of the company informed us that 25 intakes were finally ready to ship. Well, we've been told that for two years so we made him take a picture of the pallet with all the intakes on it 'ready to ship'. Once we had seen the pallet of boxed intakes we air expressed 'prepayment' for this order. (Yes, that is the way some mfg's operate in this business). Upon receiving that news, we called and e-mailed approximately 25 customers with the good news. Well 1 week later we received a pallet 1/3 the size of what was in the picture. 8 intakes instead of 25. No phone call, no note. When we called asking how this could happen, we were offered a ridiculous excuse and a 'don't worry, we'll get them right out to you.' Well 3 weeks has passed and all we have been able to do is leave voicemail messages when we call.

I'm not asking for sympathy, just trying to show you how 'sh%$ happens'.

[Rugratman]

That sucks, Chris.
Pure deception, I would demand a partial refund or stop payment on that sucker.
I'm sure it was certified funds though.......

[69*Goat]

Well....

I must say that I was surprised, when I called to order the interior, and a few exterior pieces for my 69 GTO, I was able to get 99% of the parts right away. I was very discouraged though when I was told that there were NO grille pieces in stock, or tail light bezels.

That Figures.......

[kate`s67gto]

I go to Carlisel every year and order parts before i go usually a month a head . I have not had a problem with out of stock parts from PY when picking up my order. This year however i`m not going and i do need some new parts. My only complaint is UPS man what a rip off they are, bend over grab your ankles :mad: . I would like to get my orders through USPS better for me. :)

[SCOTT ESTERLE]

Chris, I feel your pain. We run into the same issues that you do & probably more. We try to give cust honest information on when we may receive a product but were at the mercy of the manufacture & we have no control over when & if they will make a part. If we run into this problem often with a manufacture we will basically drop them from our product line. Un-fortunately its the nature of the business. Look at Microsoft with there X-boxes where they only came out with a limited # of them & people had to wait in lines in the cold to have a chance to get one.

[rlfonad]

Originally Posted by Forrest

another point I may add is that you must beware of the part you are ordering because, there are some parts that are inferior compared to the same part from another manufacturer which will be correct and much better quality, lessons learned in the biz!

I like AMES Performance's catalog. They indicate the quality (good or bad) of many of their parts and insert footnotes that are often helpful when searching for "stuff".:clap2:

[silvergoat67]

I was a buyer for a small division of CAT for about 8 years, doing both product developement and and purchsing of new Items. I can really appreciate what the folks at PY and Ames go through. While I had the Cat name behind me to back me up when it came to negociate price and Quanity discounts it was still a strugle to keep the prices so that customers could afford to buy while still making a reasonable markup. And I had really deep pockets behind me and could order and forcast for several years supply 1000's of pieces at a time and it was still tough some times to buy US made products ( which I did when ever I could). Today it would be impossible.

Chris C. and Steve Ames , Kevin Beal and Everyone else at these companies really do not receive enough credit for all of the parts research and tech
inspection that they do to get us the correct part. That is as good or in some cases better than original. My hat is off to them

silvergoat67