[GTOWAGON]

2 weeks ago i ordered a flexplate and a heater core grommet when i placed my order i was told that the pars were in stock and would ship next day.Now 2 weeks later still NO parts, SO i called and was told that the flexplate is on backorder and not expected in for 2 or 3 more weeks. I understand that sometimes parts are not in stock but why was i not informed of this untill i called today.I ordered it from another vendor and they had it in stock and i will have it in 2 days. Had i been told that it was on backorder 2 weeks ago i would never have ordered it from PY and i would have been going to the TA nationals this weekend

[theYman]

This is NOW the industry standard for all parts places. They stock nothing! No risk or investment this way.
I have been struggling with this all summer trying to finish up my 69 TA clone. Even something as simple as window rollers and hardware is back ordered 6 weeks. It really takes the fun out of this "hobby".....oh wait it is STILL a hobby right?
Trent

[GTOWAGON]

Its not the parts not being in stock i understand this happens i have been in the parts buisness for 25 years, Not being told at the time of the order is what bothers me, when i am waiting for the mail every day hoping to be able to finally get the engine in the car and getting it back on the road.

[RR67GTO]

What I do when thios happens is to contact the CC company and dispute the charge. It will cost the vendor. If it happens enough then the CC is loseing money and we all know they hate to lose a penny. SO, the vendor is placed on probation and if they have a fe more that's it for that card company. Also, the card companies share info and others can also pull out. Vendors should never lie about an item being in stock when it's not. They have a bunch of excuses most the time. AMES, just sent me a small part from an order I placed over a year ago. And a couple months before that, one other small part. If you know it's not in stock ya have a choice. BUt being flat lied to is simply uncalled for. And, an insult to both the people who support the companies, as well as a reflection on what you may expect as far as parts go. And, then support after the part wont fit or work as stated. Also, there is a law against simply teling a lie in order to charge a credit card. It's called theft by deception, and a class C in most places for any order over $250.00. Other places require that it be $500.00 before making it a class C. Ask for them to check on it and not just say yeah!

[77birdman]

I used to be in the parts business myself, and often the computer inventory shows the wrong count. When a count was 3 or less I double checked to make sure the part was actually was on the shelf.

[428PHIL]

I know for a fact that our host does not charge your credit card until they ship a part, also know PY has over a million $$ worth of parts on hand, but can't always have every part in stock all the time due to shows and day to day ordering by guys like us. If you were told something was in stock and it turned out not to be ,that was just an honest mistake, not a lie!, Just my 3 cents.

[Firedup6975]

I've been doing business with PY since 1984, and I'll say what Phil just said, and that's my .04cents!!!!!

[PONTIAC DUDE]

Follow up is a time consuming ordeal. And can be two or more different departments.
Ya place an order. The sales department takes it. The paperwork goes to the stock room and pulled. Then another department boxes and ships. If the original paperwork is Zero'd on a specific item and never sent back to the order desk then you will never know. If you were billed for only the items sent then it is something that might need looked into as far as customer service? If it's a once or very rarely occuring thing, then it just was one of those deals that happens but looks bad.

And yes a mistake as the front office only processes the orders from inventory shown on the computer. Also something else to consider. They might have had one and depending when, it coulda been sold the same hour to another customer.

[GTOWAGON]

Originally Posted by 428PHIL

I know for a fact that our host does not charge your credit card until they ship a part, also know PY has over a million $$ worth of parts on hand, but can't always have every part in stock all the time due to shows and day to day ordering by guys like us. If you were told something was in stock and it turned out not to be ,that was just an honest mistake, not a lie!, Just my 3 cents.

NOT true PY billed my CC the same day i placed the order I did not get a credit on my card untill 2 weeks later after i called to find out where my parts were and was told the flexplate was on a 2-3 week backorder and then i cancelled the flexplate.Once again I understand the flexplate not being in stock but My sole problem was not being told when i placed my order or being notified, I did not find out about the backporder untill I called 2 weeks later. I was very happy with the heater core grommet but would have gotten it much quicker if it wasn't waiting to ship with the flexplate.

[Hitman]

Hey yman, this went from a hobby to a business as soon as the first car was gaveled off the block at Barrett-Jackson, Mecum and so on.

[JimFB400HO]

Originally Posted by 428PHIL

I know for a fact that our host does not charge your credit card until they ship a part,

First I will say that I hesitate to comment because I do not wish to publicly disparage PY. They are my favorite vendor and I have always enjoyed doing business with them. That said, I will differ with your statement.

I placed an order last December. All items shipped but one, the big-dollar item which was 58% of the total bill. It was said to be backordered. PY and all vendors are still having difficulty getting this so I still don't have it 10 months later. PY billed my credit card for the full amount of the main order. During one of my (customer initiated) order status checks, I challenged PY about the fact that I was billed up front several months earlier. The PY response: "PY does bill all orders up-front." - email Thu, 31 May 2007.

[428PHIL]

Originally Posted by JimFB400HO

First I will say that I hesitate to comment because I do not wish to publicly disparage PY. They are my favorite vendor and I have always enjoyed doing business with them. That said, I will differ with your statement.

I placed an order last December. All items shipped but one, the big-dollar item which was 58% of the total bill. It was said to be backordered. PY and all vendors are still having difficulty getting this so I still don't have it 10 months later. PY billed my credit card for the full amount of the main order. During one of my (customer initiated) order status checks, I challenged PY about the fact that I was billed up front several months earlier. The PY response: "PY does bill all orders up-front." - email Thu, 31 May 2007.

I stand corrected, I worked there two years ago and at that time parts were billed upon shipment. I guess since then they have changed the billing proceedure? There were times if a part was short on a large order the customer would be asked to OK billing for all with the shortage shipped later.

[GTO Noob]

Well I placed a couple of large orders with PY this spring. Both times the orders had to be split due to back orders. All of the shipments were not charged to my credit card until they actually shipped.

Maybe somebody from PY can step in here and clarify what their billing practices are.

[Ccass]

There are probably 20 threads on the PY forums about this going all the way back to the start of the forums. PY DOES bill credit cards when orders are placed. It would be a paperwork nightmare to bill only on the shipped portion of an order. Sometimes larger orders have 3 4 or even 5 separate shipments because of mfg backorders. And as COMPENSATION for this slight inconvenience, we don't charge shipping for the backorders! Most customers seem to be ok with this process since we ship 90 percent of our orders within 24 hours. And even the 10% of the items that we don't ship right away, again, most customers seem to be ok with the credit card being billed. One of the ways to avoid these type of problems is to place one order for what IS in stock and one order for what is NOT in stock. If an entire order is NOT in stock, then we will hold the order until it is ready and then bill the credit card when it is ready to ship. What's is NOT ok, is the billing of a high value item and not shipping it for an extended period of time to the point where the customer see's the charge on their statement and not the parts. This happens only occasionally and is just unavoidable for us. If it does happen, and a customer brings it to our attention, we can immediately credit your card. To anyone that this has happened to, we certainly appologize.

[Ccass]

Originally Posted by theYman

This is NOW the industry standard for all parts places. They stock nothing! No risk or investment this way.
I have been struggling with this all summer trying to finish up my 69 TA clone. Even something as simple as window rollers and hardware is back ordered 6 weeks. It really takes the fun out of this "hobby".....oh wait it is STILL a hobby right?
Trent

Y-man, this is NOT an industry standard with us. The classic car parts business is the 'model' for how NOT to manage your inventory. To accomodate our customers, for many items we must buy parts that we know may sit on the shelf for a year or more. This is poor inventory management by most business standards but necessary because of issues like production run requirements mfg lead times, supply issues and many other factors. Some of your frustration is because you are cloning a very rare car. I suggest another part of it is the nature of this business. I'll agree that very few suppliers are going to stock the shelves full of 69 Trans Am parts. We do have to draw the line somewhere. No supplier in this arena will ever be WalMart or Home Depot ;)

[theYman]

Originally Posted by Ccass

Y-man, this is NOT an industry standard with us. The classic car parts business is the 'model' for how NOT to manage your inventory. To accomodate our customers, for many items we must buy parts that we know may sit on the shelf for a year or more. This is poor inventory management by most business standards but necessary because of issues like production run requirements mfg lead times, supply issues and many other factors. Some of your frustration is because you are cloning a very rare car. I suggest another part of it is the nature of this business. I'll agree that very few suppliers are going to stock the shelves full of 69 Trans Am parts. We do have to draw the line somewhere. No supplier in this arena will ever be WalMart or Home Depot ;)

Chris,
I didn't MEAN this to be an attack on PY. You did come through several times in the past...I am glad that you stock most of the parts people need. But it is a standard for most other places. Even the chainstores.
It seems the number of people restoring old cars has drastically reduced in my area. This along with the crappy economy has killed the "joy" of this "hobby".
Trent

[PONTIAC DUDE]

Go to AutoZone, etc and see if they stock all the older or few sale cars stuff. LOL.
They stock what moves. They can next day because of inventory control and having their own trucks at thier warehouses.

And then they don't stock everything. I needed a 12 rib #559 Gates belt. No can get. Next day at Napa or Carquest.

I run my warehouses out all the time. One month ya sell 5 oil pumps the next 25.

Maybe a better selling business practice would be to take the orders, send the orders ( 2 part copy) to the warehouse/shipping (3 columns to check for parts *taken order, warehouse, shipping and then one goes in the box ) and then that top original copy back to the office for billing or notifying the customer of said back orders. That way you can see what is Zeros and adjust your inventory accordingly?

Inventory control I could do that. Ya hiring?

[Ccass]

Originally Posted by theYman

Chris,
I didn't MEAN this to be an attack on PY. You did come through several times in the past...I am glad that you stock most of the parts people need. But it is a standard for most other places. Even the chainstores.
It seems the number of people restoring old cars has drastically reduced in my area. This along with the crappy economy has killed the "joy" of this "hobby".
Trent

Trent, I don't think I interpreted your post as an assault. I'm just trying to answer you while educating other readers to the way our business and others like ours works. The more information we all have, the better for all of us.