FT86 Speedfactory

[TheRichLife]

I recently placed an order for a roof spoiler and rear diffuser from FT86speedfactory. Both products were received within a week however the diffuser was damaged from the manufacturer. (at no fault to FT86)

A couple of emails back and forth with Brian at customer service and a refund was in my account within a couple of days. So far nothing but good customer service from my standpoint.

Hopefully these new changes increase the experience for everybody else as well.

[Cole]

Originally Posted by XdjlX

Hello,

This is David From FT86SpeedFactory, and I would like to apologize for the lack of customer service that has been provided recently. I know I have worked with a number of you in the past, and hope to do so in the future as well. We have undergone some changes recently that were not beneficial to the customers shopping experience.

The biggest change was that we upgraded to a new ERP. This was a huge undertaking, and while it will be beneficial in the end, the learning curve on the new software really slowed us down and put us extremely far behind. I am sure some of you experienced the extended delay in responses. The plus side to this is that orders should process much faster. Pretty much if the item is in stock, it will be sent to the warehouse for shipment in minutes of the order being placed, rather than days. However, this is software, and issues do occur, so if the item shows in stock, and you have not received a tracking update in 1-2 business days, please let us know.

We are finally getting the hang of the software, and are getting caught up on emails around mid-week, and responding typically within 24 business hours or sooner towards the end. I would like to get caught up earlier in the week, but the weekend can cause a bit of backlog for us to sort through come Monday.

I know one of the main complaints is, that we are hard to get a hold of. With us being more caught up, it should help the situation. However, we understand that some issues need to be addressed in a much more urgent fashion. That is why we are currently testing out a chat option that will be available during business hours. Unfortunately, I do not have a concrete ETA on when this will be rolled out, as we are still testing, but we are hoping sooner than later.

Brian and I typically respond to most of the emails. But we have added additional customer service reps to the team to help improve the shopping experience and decrease the response time. So if you see a name you have not seen before, please welcome them to the team, and keep in mind they may be new.

I will be monitoring the reviews from here on out, and try to check them at least once a day. If you have had an issue in the past and would like to PM your order number, I would be happy to look into any issues.

I would also like to open this up to any suggestions that customers may have to improve the shopping experience, as I would truly like to offer the best shopping experience we can.

At least it didn't slow down your instagram or youtube posts!

[AutoNewb]

Originally Posted by XdjlX

Hello,

This is David From FT86SpeedFactory, and I would like to apologize for the lack of customer service that has been provided recently. I know I have worked with a number of you in the past, and hope to do so in the future as well. We have undergone some changes recently that were not beneficial to the customers shopping experience.

The biggest change was that we upgraded to a new ERP. This was a huge undertaking, and while it will be beneficial in the end, the learning curve on the new software really slowed us down and put us extremely far behind. I am sure some of you experienced the extended delay in responses. The plus side to this is that orders should process much faster. Pretty much if the item is in stock, it will be sent to the warehouse for shipment in minutes of the order being placed, rather than days. However, this is software, and issues do occur, so if the item shows in stock, and you have not received a tracking update in 1-2 business days, please let us know.

We are finally getting the hang of the software, and are getting caught up on emails around mid-week, and responding typically within 24 business hours or sooner towards the end. I would like to get caught up earlier in the week, but the weekend can cause a bit of backlog for us to sort through come Monday.

I know one of the main complaints is, that we are hard to get a hold of. With us being more caught up, it should help the situation. However, we understand that some issues need to be addressed in a much more urgent fashion. That is why we are currently testing out a chat option that will be available during business hours. Unfortunately, I do not have a concrete ETA on when this will be rolled out, as we are still testing, but we are hoping sooner than later.

Brian and I typically respond to most of the emails. But we have added additional customer service reps to the team to help improve the shopping experience and decrease the response time. So if you see a name you have not seen before, please welcome them to the team, and keep in mind they may be new.

I will be monitoring the reviews from here on out, and try to check them at least once a day. If you have had an issue in the past and would like to PM your order number, I would be happy to look into any issues.

I would also like to open this up to any suggestions that customers may have to improve the shopping experience, as I would truly like to offer the best shopping experience we can.

David,

Why do you not have a calling service anymore? Sometimes its just easier to pick up a phone and talk to a person about an issue vs chat.

No offense but your 86 online store competitors have a phone number and it may make people want to use them instead of you for that reason.

[XdjlX]

Originally Posted by AutoNewb

David,

Why do you not have a calling service anymore? Sometimes its just easier to pick up a phone and talk to a person about an issue vs chat.

No offense but your 86 online store competitors have a phone number and it may make people want to use them instead of you for that reason.

We switched to an email only customer service years ago, but are looking into a phone option after we roll out chat. The main benefit with email and chat is that conversation can be saved if we need to reference previous conversations. I know there are phone options available as well, but we need some more time to look into them before we can get it set up.

I will make sure to bring this up to the bossman, and see what can be done.

Originally Posted by Cole

At least it didn't slow down your instagram or youtube posts!

The social media posts and Youtube are handled by our media team, which typically do not answer customers emails. Although Kevin helped out when he could.

[NoHaveMSG]

Originally Posted by XdjlX

We switched to an email only customer service years ago, but are looking into a phone option after we roll out chat. The main benefit with email and chat is that conversation can be saved if we need to reference previous conversations. I know there are phone options available as well, but we need some more time to look into them before we can get it set up.

I will make sure to bring this up to the bossman, and see what can be done.






The social media posts and Youtube are handled by our media team, which typically do not answer customers emails. Although Kevin helped out when he could.

If I had been able to call I would imagine that I would not have had an issue.


I understand that your media team brings in a lot of new business but it is frustrating to your customer base to see so much good effort go to media when day to day operations seem to be lagging. Look at your Facebook reviews, maybe it is time to re-prioritize.

[new2subaru]

Originally Posted by XdjlX

We switched to an email only customer service years ago, but are looking into a phone option after we roll out chat. The main benefit with email and chat is that conversation can be saved if we need to reference previous conversations. I know there are phone options available as well, but we need some more time to look into them before we can get it set up.

I will make sure to bring this up to the bossman

For the most part ordering online isn’t an issue as long as you CAN get someone on the phone in case shit goes sideways. It happens and hearing an actual human on the other end of the phone can’t be replaced with email or chat. Not for me anyways.

Not having phone access is a non starter right off the bat. I would imagine there are many who feel that way.

[XdjlX]

Originally Posted by new2subaru

For the most part ordering online isn’t an issue as long as you CAN get someone on the phone in case shit goes sideways. It happens and hearing an actual human on the other end of the phone can’t be replaced with email or chat. Not for me anyways.

Not having phone access is a non starter right off the bat. I would imagine there are many who feel that way.

Originally Posted by NoHaveMSG

If I had been able to call I would imagine that I would not have had an issue.


I understand that your media team brings in a lot of new business but it is frustrating to your customer base to see so much good effort go to media when day to day operations seem to be lagging. Look at your Facebook reviews, maybe it is time to re-prioritize.

We thought the chat would be a move in the right direction, but do see that some customers still prefer a phone call. I will see if this is an option in the near future, as we are getting caught up sooner, and should be able to handle the call load with current staffing.

Thank you guys for the input, and keep any other ideas coming.

[monkeybike]

Originally Posted by XdjlX

Thank you guys for the input, and keep any other ideas coming.

Revise your shipping options? They are ridiculous.

I’m looking at cat back shipping from the US to Australia.

These are the only options you offer. Prices are shipping ONLY.

Worldwide Expedited $524.04
Worldwide Express Saver $764.13
Worldwide Express $777.75

[SUB-FT86]

Bought some VLands from them and got it 2 days later! I mostly mess with them when I purchase stuff.

[XdjlX]

Originally Posted by monkeybike

Revise your shipping options? They are ridiculous.

I’m looking at cat back shipping from the US to Australia.

These are the only options you offer. Prices are shipping ONLY.

Worldwide Expedited $524.04
Worldwide Express Saver $764.13
Worldwide Express $777.75

Can you PM me your shipping details and the item you would like to purchase? I will then confirm the rates for you.

[wolffbite]

I hadn't ordered from FT86SF since 2017 when I placed two separate orders. They both shipped within 1-2 days of order. Had a small issue with one of the items being incorrect, but it was immediately re-shipped after I emailed them and was very happy with the service.

I placed my latest order on September 20, 2019 for two items to take advantage of the goodbye summer sale. Wasn't in a rush for the parts so I didn't really notice that I heard nothing for a week. Reached out to customer service via email on September 30 to get an update and also reached out to David via PM on the forums when I read this thread.

The response I got from customer service was within 24 hours but instead of an estimate on when it would ship I was told my items were coming from different warehouses, and they were not sure when they would arrive at the same warehouse to ship together. They asked if I wanted to ship the items separately to get them sooner. Since I'm in Canada, courier shipments get dinged heavily with fees coming across the border so shipping them separately isn't ideal.

David explained a bit further in his PM to me that yes they have two warehouses, and right now their system can take 4-6 weeks to transfer inventory between warehouses if you want everything to ship together.

Up until that email from David I had no idea that FT86SF had multiple warehouses. My multi-item orders in the past all shipped together and within 48 hours. I think this is something that should be improved on in regards to informing your customers... because all we can see is "IN STOCK" and not know what warehouse that refers to. This likely affects domestic shipments less as there would be no added customs fees to split up the order.

My question is would I have been contacted at all for the 4-6 week lag time to transfer between warehouses if I had not reached out myself and then agreed to have my items shipped separately?

Other than that I'm appreciative of the quick response from your CS team and from David here on the forum. After agreeing to ship separately I got item 1/2 last Friday and the other one should be here this week.

[ScoobsMcGee]

Originally Posted by wolffbite

David explained a bit further in his PM to me that yes they have two warehouses, and right now their system can take 4-6 weeks to transfer inventory between warehouses if you want everything to ship together.

4-6 weeks for (presumably) inter-company shipments? I have no idea who stood up that new ERP system, but if it was an external consulting firm I hope to hell they got their money back. If something wonks out with AV on one of our ERP servers at work and it slow shipping down for 10 minutes I have three people standing at my desk.

[XdjlX]

Originally Posted by wolffbite

My question is would I have been contacted at all for the 4-6 week lag time to transfer between warehouses if I had not reached out myself and then agreed to have my items shipped separately?

This is something that we are working on, as we most likely would have not reached out to you about the delay. We do mention this process on our shipping information page on the site, but I am guessing most won't look at this.

The biggest thing to resolve this is, being on top of future sales, and making sure stock is at all the warehouses, which will help expedite international orders. Until we are able to get a grasp on this, the inventory transfers are a bit slow currently.

I will see if there is something we can look at for being notified for international orders.

[wolffbite]

Originally Posted by XdjlX

This is something that we are working on, as we most likely would have not reached out to you about the delay. We do mention this process on our shipping information page on the site, but I am guessing most won't look at this.

The biggest thing to resolve this is, being on top of future sales, and making sure stock is at all the warehouses, which will help expedite international orders. Until we are able to get a grasp on this, the inventory transfers are a bit slow currently.

I will see if there is something we can look at for being notified for international orders.

Fair enough. I did not read that part of your website until just now and may have gotten lucky on my first couple of orders when they shipped quickly. https://www.ft86speedfactory.com/shipping/ for everyone's reference.

It could be something as simple as adding a shipping lead-time disclaimer to an order confirmation email when the shipping address is outside of the USA.

Further feedback though... the 3-7 business day possible delay stated on the shipping page is a far cry from 4-6 weeks.