I will never buy from Eckler's again!

In October of 2005 I went to the Eckler's Reunion and took advantage of their 10% deal. I bought a Corsa catback exhaust and a bunch of other things spending over $2,000. That same day, I bought the Z06 stainless steel sill protectors. Turns out they were on backorder. I called once a month for 5 months and they were still on backorder, giving me a new date each time saying there was a licensing issue. I canceled the order and got them from West Coast Corvettes by the next week.

About a week after that, I received the sills from Eckler's even though I canceled it! I called and they said for me to ship them back and they would take care of it...at my cost! I couldn't believe it.

I let them sit for a while and finally sent them back when I had to return my flex fit mask for some warranty work. I opened up the sill box and added the mask to that box. I went to the Post office and sent them back...without delivery confirmation. My mistake apparently. As most of you know, I work for the Post office. Everytime I have ever got delivery confirmation on something that was being sent to me, it didn't work. I would always get the same message. We have received electronic info on this package to sent, but never anything after that. Even after it is delivered, same message.

A few weeks go by and I receive my flex fit mask back from C5 Creations apologizing for the problem with the mask. I decide to check my credit card bill...and no credit from Ecklers. Called them up and they say they have no record of ever receiving the package. You gotta be kidding me! They obviously did, cause the mask was in the same box. Of course they ask for proof that I sent them back (delivery confirmation) and I don't have it. I am a Postal worker, it's not something I would lie about. I sent them back. I take pride in my job. It obviously affords me many opportunities, including owning a Vette.

Have had several conversations back and forth and they no longer answer my emails. Do I just give up? I'm definitely putting the story out there and I can honestly say, I will never buy anything from Eckler's again! I'll even pay more to get it from somewhere else.

:rant: off

Scott

It's amazing how narrow minded some people think. I worked for over 30 years at New Car Dealers and I was always amazed how personall want to fight and argue with customers, many times over the simpliest of things. Thats what happens when you pay people on commission. I always told my help if a problem arose that they couldn't solve to get me involved and I, being a Manager would solve it. It is a proven fact that if you piss a retail customer off they will tell at least ten people of their bad experience.

You spent $2000.00 on parts, they are probably marked up at least 40%, so conservativley speaking they probably made at least $500.00 off you. They should have taken you at your word and refunded your money and retained you as a customer so they could make more money off you in the future. It is truely amazing the people in business who have no business sense. Hindsight is 20/20, but you should have sent it back return reciept requested, but they still should have issued you a credit. It's not like you bought a long block or something. I would call and talk to a supervisor, if that doesn't work I would talk to the General Manager, then the Owner, I wouldn't be rude, but I wouldn't be afraid to go up the coporate ladder as far as you can if you are right. Unless the recieving clerk is a total moron and he stole or threw away the sills you returned, they should be able to check their inventory and see if the count vs. product on the shelf matches. If the shelf has one more than the computer says they have you win. Either way they should take care of you for the measley cost of the sills. Unless the customer is a total jerk, or just out and out lying, a smart businessman always satisfies the customer, and lives to sell them something another day.

Did you attach a note reminding them of the sills? Hopefully you did and kept a copy? If not, then it's your word against theirs. So the only thing you can do is to convince them that you are an honest person and in fact you did return them. Maybe if you show them the receipt from the other vendor that you purchased from will help. This will show the date purchased AFTER your initial order with Eckler's. No reason why you would order 2 sets.

Try talking to a manager if you have not done so already. Screw the e-mails, make a phone call and talk to them. Let them know what happened. They probably have one area for returns/repairs. The person who recieved the box opened it and probably put the sills on the side. Human error.

Just remember....You get more results with Sugar than you will with Vinegar.

Good luck bro!

I agree, face to face is even better. Their annual October Reunion show is coming up in about 4 weeks, go in person and get a name and face of the person you hold responsible.

I've talked to them several times on the phone and gotten the "we'll do a search of the warehouse and let you know". The last time was a few weeks ago. I guess I'll have to call them again and go up the ladder.

It's starting to get a little frustrating though. I never once raised my voice to them. I'm very civil and understanding when it comes to that kind of stuff. I used to be in retail. And at a bank, no less. Dealing with peoples money can be, well rough sometimes, especially when you are talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars.

I had a big letter inside the box explaining about the warranty item (mask repair) and the return of the sills. They were either misplaced, thrown away or stolen by an employee. Simple as that.

Thanks for the input everyone.

Alan, I originally bought the sills at the reunion last year if that gives you any indication of how long this has been going on. By the time I've gotten them and returned them, it was around June!

Madn3ss,

You said that you sent a letter in the box with the return of the sills and the return of the mask for warranty repair. You are on this site a lot, so I would be shocked if you wrote the letter long hand. Go to your computer and print another copy of the letter for them, and nicely hammer on the point that if they received the mask then they received the sills. Even if they cannot find the sills, they would have a record of the mask since they would have sent it out for the warranty work.

Obviously, you need to kick this upstairs. The people that you are dealing with are not motivated to fix the problem, for whatever reason. But someone there should be.

Good luck and be as nice as you can be, even if it kills you!

:iagree: with Rich427. It just makes sense. Somebody in their management needs to help you with this

I know i would be a little pissed too if i went thru all that and then get the shaft:toetap05: . Remember squeaky wheels gets greased :thumbsup:

There is a lesson for everyone here. When you return an item to a vendor or manufacturer you should ALWAYS get delivery confirmation. Then, there is no question whether or not it got to them. I have never had a problem with delivery confirmation with USPS. Too many things can go wrong once that package leaves your possession. You have to be able to prove that the package got to the destination.

FL_BILL_23U said:

There is a lesson for everyone here. When you return an item to a vendor or manufacturer you should ALWAYS get delivery confirmation. Then, there is no question whether or not it got to them. I have never had a problem with delivery confirmation with USPS. Too many things can go wrong once that package leaves your possession. You have to be able to prove that the package got to the destination.

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:iagree: :exactly:

There's another lesson to be learned here...ECKLERS hasn't gotten any better:toetap05: :thumbsdown:

I was within a couple of miles of thier facility on Monday and didn't even have the desire to stop in I'd rather go to RON JON's and I don't even surf!):hehehe:

Scott, if you'd like we can take a ride over there together and chit chat with management face to face. While we're there, I'll introduce you to a good friend of mine (used to be a police chief in the Melbourne area).

I'll bet we can get this worked out

Well what do you know? I finally get someone on the phone that knows how to provide good customer service. I originally asked for a supervisor but I briefly explained my problem and mentioned that this is going on a year in a couple of weeks. She put me on hold for about two seconds and said "This is ridiculous! I'm just going to issue you a credit. I don't know why anyone hasn't taken care of this for you before". :dueling: done!

It's finally a relief to have this taken care of. Thanks for all the advice.

Way to go, good for you. An email or phone call to her supervisor might be the right thing to do for her help and common sense in resolving your dilema.

It has been my experience that the true measure of a company is not how they go about being an "order filler", but how they handle the rough spots in the road when they inevitably show up.

The question that ALL customer service reps should ask is "What can I do to resolve the problem?", and then just to it.

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: Congrats!

Nytro said:

Way to go, good for you. An email or phone call to her supervisor might be the right thing to do for her help and common sense in resolving your dilema.

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:thumbsup: Absolutely. Praise the young lady for her swift and customer service oriented actions!!:thumbsup:

You really needed to get a delivery conformation. Eckler's probably gets hundreds of packages a day. Easy for something to get lost or go wrong.

Shadow said:

:iagree: :exactly:

There's another lesson to be learned here...ECKLERS hasn't gotten any better:toetap05: :thumbsdown:

I was within a couple of miles of thier facility on Monday and didn't even have the desire to stop in I'd rather go to RON JON's and I don't even surf!):hehehe:

Scott, if you'd like we can take a ride over there together and chit chat with management face to face. While we're there, I'll introduce you to a good friend of mine (used to be a police chief in the Melbourne area).

I'll bet we can get this worked out

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...Not sure who YOU are, but if your post either presents yourself as "being local" and perhaps "know the management" or "just passing through the area". If the case of the former why not just point him to the CS manager, the Sales Manager, the Wholesale Manager or get in contact with the Eckler's personnel and send them a link to this post??

The original poster lives a few hours away and I'm sure if he wanted to "cruise over here to fix the issue" he would have done so in the last year.

I apologize I haven't logged into this site in a while...if I had a few days ago I could have helped you resolve your issue by getting the right person involved. I don't know who you spoke with previously or why they didn't escalate it. I will pass this on to a few of the supervisors there so they are aware of this situation and can find out and address where the breakdown occured. Hopefully in the end alleviated someone else from experiencing what you experienced.

naples said:

You really needed to get a delivery conformation. Eckler's probably gets hundreds of packages a day. Easy for something to get lost or go wrong.

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At time I wonder with all the vettes around the country and out of country...and taking into account all of the other corvette parts reataielrs out there...How many people order parts from Eckler's on a daily basis. It seems any given day there is delivery truck after delivery truck. Semi's dropping off and picking up from the warehouses. RPS moving pallets. Multiple UPS and Fedex trucks. Looking at the warehouses it wouldn't *seem* like they have THAT many parts, but they they constantly have a LOT of volume going in and out DAILY. That said...I can see how something could get misplaced.

On the otherhand, typical the sales receipts have a return form on the back. The original poster said he wrote a letter, but did not indicate whether or not he included the order number. Keep in mind, returns don't go to someone sitting at a desk. They arrive at the warehouse. The warehouse personnel opening a package with two items and a letter may have something to do with one (RA for the mask), but no order # for the sills. The person in the warehouse may not have the capability to look up your name and search through your orders to find when you bought the sills. So it moves to someone else or another pile or stack so someone can look it up-or it can go to someone to look it up. When you call someone in the sales office or customer service they don't see it returned, they probably called someone in the warehouse who checked such a pile or bin for those category of returned items and didn't find anything...so then it becomes a research issue. If the order number was included or you had an RA for both items, then this is a mute point.

Also, if your returned the one item for warranty repair work, your package may have simply arrived at Eckler's and been forwarded to whoever the vendor was....

Personally, I have ordered from Eckler's several times and never had any problems at all with my orders. Every retailer has problems now and again. The larger the volume, the more chances for that to happen. One out of one thousand transactions going bad isn't so bad if your volume if just 500 packages a year. But if you are talking about 200,000, then the odds are that there will be 200 screw ups to contend with. :shrug01:

Hi everone. Timing is everthing. I too have had a very recent experience at Ecklers that I was very unhappy with. I sent an email to them and when I got no response, I posted it on the C-5 forum as ELTRONVETTE on Corvette forums.com last week. It is based on my observation and my experiences and my expectations. Apparently I'm not the only one unhappy.