engine and drivetrain Why are so many 02' parts vendors so lame?

[napa02]

I've ranted about 2002Ad and their ridiculous customer service skills before. But now Ireland engineering steps up to the plate.

I called to order a 45DCOE for my Lynx setup on Friday the 26th, talked to a gentleman who seemed quite helpful. Told me he could get the carb and jet it for the Lynx, and ship it Monday the 1st, cool all is good.

Given the fact I am in Norcal, and they are in Socal, I should see the carb Thurs or Friday. Again all is cool, I can work on my car that weekend. So today is the 10th, still no carb. So I call them to see what the hold up is. Spoke to a gentleman (different one this time), he knows nothing about the order. He says he'll check it out and call me in 10 to 15 min, no problem. So 45min later, still no call, It was nearing closing time, so I call again. I get they same guy who was going to call me back, said he got busy, whatever. Sooooo how bout' the carb? Well apparently they didn't have the proper jets, thus the carb has not shipped. Well that's just swell... Is a phone call so out of the question? Sure had time to bill my credit card last week, but not enough time for a simple phone call? I truly was hoping to noodle with car this weekend, but nooooo! Why is communication so difficult with 02' vendors? That said, I have have had awesome service from Aardvark and Blunt. Some of you may know( from previous rants) that I sell auto parts for a living as well. There is no way that sort of stuff would fly at our shop. With a relatively small customer base that the 02' specific vendors have, you would think that they would go out of their way to retain every last customer they could. Bottom line, one simple phone call last week, and this post never happens, and I am am retained as a happy customer. Now I will probably shop elsewhere... Thanks for your time folks, this concludes my rant

[c.d.iesel]

cancel the order

get a refund - stop payment with your credit card company

and get your parts elsewhere

[pboucher]

and if you do ever do get the carb from IE- if my experience holds true- its won't fit (exhaust system), the parts will be mislabeled (front and rears springs swapped) but will include duplicate orders on your invoice that they won't correct (I have an extra set of imaginary poly bushings).

I buy elsewhere now.

[Jim_75Sahara]

Send more business to BLUNT. He does not disappoint his '02 customers.

[jrkoupe]

I have had ALOT of good 02 vendor experience...Blunt...Dave V...even IE..but I would agree that w/ a small base group, o2 houses should be EXTRA on top of things.

Dont forget...every shop can have a rough day or 3., and you can find some1 w/ a bad story about any shop.

IE, Blunt, Dave is not 02 only as far as I know...

I dont think its "02 only" vendors at all....thats a silly thought...its just a sign of overall cust service falling by the wayside. I mean overall, CS is usually just a bunch of voice prompts...followed by a accidental hang up.....after you were just speaking to someone in India that you could barely hear..lol.

. Or maybe its a sign of us getting older...and more crotchety.

[philv]

My thought on this is that places like IE and TEP are not just parts houses. They are primalry shops that have gotten into the business of selling their race parts and other supplies. It would be nice if their customer service was better but I wonder if they even have a sales staff who do nothing but answer the phone and take customer orders? Probably not. You probably get the first guy or gal in the shop who happens to be by the phone when it ring. If you need specialty race parts, go to these guys but if you need brake pads, gaskets, etc. Call Blunt or one of the other vender on this site.

[Meintii]

I have been hearing alot of bad things about IE lately, I wonder how many time they DONT get a item wrong gets positive reveiws compaired to all the bad stuff. I've never seen anyone make a post just to say how happy they were with the products and customer service of IE.. so here you go Jeff!

I have ordered nearly all of my upgraded parts from IE in the past four years, and it has been a joy doing business with them. I have ordered Stage one springs, turbo flares/trim, coil, ignition wires, pertronics, etc. The only problem I had was they were about 2 inchs short on the turbo flare trim, and they sent me another HUGE roll, for free, and it got to my house the next day (from cali to GA). I will continue my business with them and continue to refer them to my 02 buds that need great products at great prices with great customer service.

AND when I called their number, I got to speak with someone (Jeff) that knows what he's talking about right when I called, willing to help out and give advise, and NOT SOME AUTOMATED SYSTEM or some dude supposedly named "mike" in India. I support American customer service.

Any business will have some quirks and bad reviews but these guys really are a huge part of the 02 part world, and they really deserve A GOOD comment every now and then.

As said before these guys are also a shop and race car builders.. THEY ARE'NT BAVAUTO.

Hope this helps clear thing up for those that haven't purchased from IE

[scestes]

You speak to the root of my problem with IE and why I've not ordered anything from them in over a year now. When my guibo failed, I ordered from the side of the road before the tow truck even showed up. I asked if it could be shipped that day and was PROMISED it would. I had an event I wanted to attend that weekend. I got a call at 5:30 saying my card must have been written down wrong, and thusly, the guibo did not ship. Problem is, this wasn't the first time I was promised something would ship and someone dropped the ball. Jeramiah used to do this to me regularly, promise he'd get something ship and then flake and give some lame excuse, but this time it impacted my plans and I was pissed. Did they upgrade the shipping to get it to me faster because of their error? Nope. Then DHL lost the package for a week and a half. Mind you, I don't blame IE for that. However, when I called IE to ask them to get the shipping refunded the response was "Well, we'll look at it, but if it's a hassle, we're not going to go through it." Seriously, that is almost verbatim. I was actually told they didn't want to deal with the "hassle". I guess it was a hassle because my shipping never got refunded, and I never bought anything from them ever again. I sent an email to Jeff and got a response about how he wasn't part of the order, and Flavio didn't understand how badly I wanted/needed the part (which is BS because I told him it was fine if it couldn't ship that day as I would just call and find someone who could ship it because I wanted it so badly). I was told in this email that DHL would "probably" be refunding my shipping costs and that I would be credited when that happened. Well, I guess it never happened right?

I ordered a lot from IE. Sway bars, new steering linkage components, wheel bearings, seals, urethane bushings, brakes, radiator, LSD spacers and bolts, another guibo, CV boots, etc, etc, etc. You'd think with just what I've listed (and I'm sure I've ordered other things, just don't come to mind right now) that refunding shipping on a guibo should be a pretty big no brainer... So, I now just don't deal with the "hassle" of IE. I buy parts elsewhere.

I can't imagine ever telling one of my customers that I wouldn't do something for them that they deserved, EVEN IF it was a hassle. My opinion is that there are enough new people getting into our old cars that they will continue to get orders, and will continue to get orders wrong. People will come and go, and that's the only thing that will keep them going. The attitude there needs to change drastically before I'll ever order something from them again. I have a CS and a 2002 I'm building up as race cars and nothing for those cars at this point will be sourced from IE.

[calicolorado]

I don't want to discount from any experiences anyone else has had with IE, but I have been buying through them alot recently and could not be happier. I live close enough that I (or a friend) have been able to pick up the parts in person, which is a plus. I have spoken on multiple occasions with Jeremy Chandler there and he has dispensed helpful and plentiful advice regarding my car. The most recent being a Weber 38 jetting prescription. Once, when I had driven up there to pick something up, he gave me some tips (stitch welding the control arms for one) that likely comes from racing knowledge of '02's. I have their sport springs, front sway bar, urethane bushing kit and Weber throttle rod and I have bought in the last two months: new tie rods, SS brake lines, shorty header, distributor parts, wheel bearings, a refurbished battery tray and some other parts).

I am grateful to them for the nice parts they make and for the advice I've gotten there.

[Paul7002]

About that jetting prescription... What'd they give you.

BTW, I've had nothing but good experiences from every vender I've ever used

[jibbajabba]

IE is a very good company.

Been dealing with them for years.

EVERY company, large or small is going to have goof ups - were human.

No parts company in the world is perfect. No company in the world is perfect for that matter.

[calicolorado]

Hi Paul,

The prescription I was given was:

130 main

175 air correction

55 idle (I think it was 55)

After reading lots and lots of jetting combos here, this seems promising

What came with the lightly used carb was:

142 main

185 air

45 idle

#4 venturis

I have stock pistons, Weber 38/38, a tii distributor and the IE shorty header. Also, I'm using the mechanical fuel pump. The prescription was given with all of these considerations.

The car isn't put back together yet, so I'll post on how it runs.

Brendan

[scestes]

EVERY company, large or small is going to have goof ups - were human.

I will totally agree with you here. This is a given. I've had other places I buy from screw up too. You know what though, it's how they deal with their screw ups that shows their true color, and their true dedication to satisfying their customer. I have had small blunders with almost every place I've bought parts from (with exception of Blunt and Aardvark), and they've always gone out of their way to make things right. IE didn't even attempt to make things right with me. To have a vendor tell me that he's not going to do something for me because it's a hassle is a pretty good way to get me to stop using them. I'll have to say that if anyone else here would accept that answer from a vendor, I'd be incredibly surprised.

[SteveJ]

Vote with your dollars.

If ~any~ company is not interested in taking your dollars, I'm sure there is another one that would love to have them. If enough people take their dollars elsewhere, it makes a business take a look at their processes, or at least they should.

[TobyB]

I like Ireland just fine. BUT:

when it really matters, I ask "Hi, is this Jeff" and if the answer

isn't "yeah, what?" or "No, it's Jeremy" I usually ask when either

of them is going to be around, and call back then.

90% of the time everyone else there does fine, too, but

for those times that it really matters, I make sure to talk to one of them.

Things you learn...

t