Whats better?
 

Hey Ladies and Gents,

I have a question I was hoping you guys could help me answer. It is more a topic of debate I suppose.

When looking for a parts supplier, OEM or performance what do you look for?

If you had to choose between rock bottom prices?

or

Higher prices with customer service, free technical advice and free extended warranty for 3-5 years depending on the type of part?

I am curious everyone's input.

Thanks

I guess it depends how far apart the prices are and the reviews on everything. If its cheap but gets good reviews I usually still give it a shot...

Hmm, interesting. Thanks for the input.:thanks:

Higher prices with customer service, free technical advice and free extended warranty for 3-5 years depending on the type of part

That.
I hate bad customer service. I've had a bad customer service experience with XXR's and i'd simply never buy them again due to the shitty customer service. A warranty is great and free technical advice is a plus.

There's a speed shop near me that sells the oil i use, supplies parts i'd buy, etc. But i'll travel even further to buy from another place, such as No Limit Motorsports, they're 30 mins from me and i still rather go there because they aren't douches.

I am curious on what you mean by douches lol. Owning a shop is being in the customer service industry. How do some of these places act for you to feel that way toward them? Are you speaking from a manufacture stand point or an independent shop? No manufacture warranty's parts for ever a year, with few exceptions. I am speaking of a independent shop providing a warranty past the 1 year to extend into 3-5 years.

If you don't mind me asking?

I'm working with a vendor that sent me a defective part and made me pay to ship it back to him. To me, that's bad customer service if I'm not reimbursed for the shipping costs.

I hear thats one of the nightmares of dealing with bottom dollar vendors. They never want to take returns. Did he offer to pay the shipping once it was found defective?

When you go into a shop to buy something and they act like you are bothering them. That's one. Or when they tell you one thing on the phone, then when you get there, they say another thing.
I'm speaking on both points, they can both have shitty service. I've experienced both.
Any extra warranty is good, on any part. Unless you have to pay for that warranty, which depends on the product, etc...different argument.

I've talked about bad experiences before on here, i'll link to one. Though it's more so a place that offers services...

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=61843

Still in the process of working with him. I sent him photos of the defective item not working. I had to jump through several hoops and consistently stay on top of him to get him to send me the address to ship it back to, but even then he hasn't offered to refund shipping. We'll see how it turns out. If he's willing to cooperate, I'll give praise, but if not, I'll be letting people on the forum here know.

What are you selling?

I don't want to list my site or what I sell since I am not a supporting vendor. Besides I think my prices are too high lol. I deal mainly with Euro cars but was curious what the JDM market opinion is.

I asked this question on a Genesis group and it was almost unanimous rock bottom prices and they didn't care about customer service, tech info, or a warranty. The FRS/BRZ group I asked were 50/50. All the Euro guys I asked were unanimous for service, tech info and warranty.

In all honesty I don't offer free shipping unless its our own error. I figure you are getting a new part and I always offer free shipping to you anyways, even on the replacement. If its a defect out of the box I might consider it. Other then that there is no hassle.

I would give this guy the benefit of the doubt. A lot of these guys that sell rock bottom are literally only making $20-50 dollars per part. If he pays for shipping he takes a loss. Its the nature of the beast.

You get what you pay for.

It is not absolute, however, it is a very big indicator of performance and support generally speaking.

For example: I bought a cheap sports car, its not going to be on the level on a 911.

Please excuse me for making a generalisation (I used to be the CFO of the national importer for MB and Porsche in several Asian countries):

European cars, especially upscale ones, are different from Japanese cars. Even the most expensive European marques, they suffer frequently from numerous big and small faults. And therefore, owners of European cars are very wary of quality problems.

Japanese cars, even the cheaper models, are supposed to be trouble-free in the first five years of service or longer. They generally have a much better record of reliability. Since reliability is already presumed to be there, owners of Japanese cars just naturally focus on price for parts. But that doesn't mean owners of Japanese cars care not about parts quality, only that they assume quality should already be built-in.