Advice for when you are using a dealer for parts...

Today I wittnessed ( I think I spelled that right...) a guy that lost his cool and acted like a total SPAZZ on account of the parts guy not making an order for him over the phone. Now, if it wasn't for the fact that I know the parts guy and his diligent work ethic I would agree with the customer, but that is not the case. The parts guy always tells his over the phone customers that they have to come in and prepay for any orders that are made for special delivery. I always deal with this guy and I know the quality of his customer care policies. I thing they are great. Any way, the customer never came in, never prepayed for the parts he wanted ordered and it was some how the fault of the parts guy that the customer came in to get the parts and they were not in... My question is... WTF, bro?!
My advice to all my peoples is that no one in the industry will just order parts for you automatically unless you actually pay for them in advance. Of course, there is the odd moment that you and the place you deal with are cool like that and you do get parts with out pre paying. That's a different story. LOL! My point is that if you don't buy parts frequently at a particular place and they don't know you well don't expect any special services like ordering with out prepay. I'm only trying to make things easier for all. I hope this helps.
 
How you drive is your buisness. Remember that you're not the only one on the road!

yeah, I know, I always prepay for it. But sometimes they let it slide and order anyways if it is a moderatly common part though. One that would sell anyways within 5-6 months. I had to order a window motor and they did without prepay cause apparently it fit like 15 different years of cars/trucks.  

You got lucky. Once, I prepayed for a part and it was sold to 4 people, 4 times. The same part I ordered and paid for! I waited for phone calls from them and I never got one. I got furious about the wait and the hack service after inquiring about the part and went with my receipt in hand to the dealer and demanded to speak with the dealers owner. I got the general manager, but I still laid into them over the crap service they gave me after I paid for the part that I never got, but was sold to 4 other people, 4 different times with out my knowing. I was told by one of the techs who I knew at the shop. He looked into it for me. Needless to say, he was pissed off as well about it. How can some places do that? I can understand if I never pre paid, but I did and I still got porked with out vaseline. Geesh!
 
How you drive is your buisness. Remember that you're not the only one on the road!

ouch. Thats why I go to the little non-chain places to get my car fixed. Would be working there too, but nobodies hiring a 16 year old boy to do the cleaning ect.  

I would hire you in a heart beat. How else are you going to learn and grow as a technician of automobiles? Some times shop owners forget how they started out in the trade and make it that much harder for young cats, like your self, to get a leg up on the trade. They don't do it on purpose or to be malicious in any way, they just forget how hard it is to be young and to find your way. It was hard for me and I wouldn't put a young guy through that. You have to start some where, right?
Dealers aren't any better at making young cats and nubees feel like they are learning any thing. There is guy at my shop that is fairly new at the trade that knows some brakes and suspension work, but he is new and like most nubees needs direction. My boss doesn't even make an effort to have any one begin to show him the "dos and don'ts" of brakes and diagnosing. He can't correct a squeeling brake issue if he doesn't understand why they squeel to begin with. That's just one example and there are many more, which I could write a novel about, but not now. LOL!
If you want quality parts, you have to get OEM or aftermarket higher than OEM quality parts. That's where Stillen.com and sites like them come in. I work on my own cars and deal with tuners and transmission people and body people on the daily. I could never send my car to a shop for some thing I could do my self. My experience with this dealership over my "missing parts", as they put it, was a one time issue with them. Needless to say, I never used them again for my OEM parts. Served them right.
There is this mom & pop auto shop in my town that tried to play me for a fool when one of my customers had an issue with his 88 200sx. The distributor was causng some driveability issues and I hadn't got my diag tools back from a buddy of mine who went to Florida with them. I got them back a month later... served me right. LOL! Any way, after two weeks in this shop, my customer got a hold of me and asked if I could go with him to see what the delay was. We spoke and I asked a few technical questions to let him know that he wasn't dealing with a regular person and he began to tell me that the spark plugs were bad and that's what it was that cuased the issue. I looked at my customer as he returned the same look to me. A week before my customer left the car at this shop, I had installed all new ignition components; spark plugs, wires, cap and rotor... I even had my ECM from my 200sx in the car, because I suspected his. Had I had my diag equipment to test things I would have done it my self... Any way, to make matters worse, the owner of this shop pulled out what he said was the cause of the problem. He showed me a rusty old Motorcraft spark plug and the number that was on the spark plug wasn't even the number associated with the car even if it had been a Motorcraft plug that I would have installed. I used NGKs and I marked all of the plugs with the initials of my fav color, BLACK (BLK). I had a plug socket on me and proceeded to remove one of the "SUPPOSED" new plugs they installed. My customer began to laugh really hard when I showed him the plug I removed. He was with me when I did the tune up and knew of my engraving my initials on the flats of the plugs. It was time to cancel a payment and then call the BBB and some local officials to investigate such a travesty. I was not impressed with his lie and the notion of him thinking that I was stupid. Can you believe that? Networking is a mother ******! People got to know their local shop really well after that. I can't tolerate cheats. I wouldn't do that to an enemy. I would still give him the respect he deserves. I would rather be known as trust worthy and honest, even if you keep me as an enemy. You know?  
How you drive is your buisness. Remember that you're not the only one on the road!