special tool

That's all good and everything, man - but to be honest with you, I probably would have thrown your *** in the bottom of my next concrete foundation pour for asking me that question.

P944forScott

FWIW Pelican just went through a big expansion, probably hired some new people, they do carry BMW parts so they have a big inventory. Maybe you got a new guy and it was an honest mistake.

GMS

What mistake? The original poster of this thread wrote to Pelican and they replied correctly. The mistake was not one of Pelican Parts (I have no relationship with them).
The belts for the 944S and 944 8V are different, which is why they are different (duh!). If I was asked the same question, I would have given the same reply, possibly, I might have expanded it to include the information about the 16V belts.

mcavour

I agree with the fact that the Pelican rep was rude. He should'va asked for clarification if he didn't exactly understand what the customer meant or asked. His job is to answer questions so that the customer can be better served and continue to bring his business to the company. Besides, the customer IS ALWAYS RIGHT! I think that we have forgotten that little fact lately. (We as in the American people...)

Swagger93

Heh

It is funny that this post really orginiated because of MY timing belt. Anyways, in some ways the letter was over the top, and in some ways not.

Look, ZIMS probably gets five billion parts questions a day on the phone, and I had quite a few, and they were super nice. 944Online, on the other hand, treated me as if i were dog poo.

I don't care what vendor you are, you are running a business for the customers. What if I took that advice from that guy at Pelican and put that thinner belt on and it snapped and trashed those 85 dollar apiece valves on top of my engine? Don't even answer the question if you arn't positive of the answer, especially when dealing with t-belts or other parts that you pocketbook relies on.


Business is business, treat the customers right. Paul did use WIDTH in his original question email.

And special tool, why would you do that? That is a perfectly valid question that Paul asked. There is plenty of justification I could think of for believing that the 8V and 16V belts are the same, primarily based on the fact that the front of the engine is almost exactly the same.

So, although I've had fairly good luck with Pelican (although not as good as Zims because of this T-belt thing) I still believe that business is business. Where I work if you don't have awesome customer service you'll go down in flames. I guess the market eventually corrects these things.

Ok, now lets just talk about turbos and superchargers and P&P's and Konis other fun things!

Nabeel

After working in retail, I don't agree with that at all. Customer satisfaction is a vital part of running a good business, but at the same time nothing can be perfect. If one particular email or exchange rubbed you the wrong way, 9/10 times the businesses did not mean for it to be that way. Rather, it is just that in between having to deal with a large number of customers- many overly demanding- and sometimes inept suppliers/merchandisers, it is simply not feasible to give the red carpet treatment to each and every customer. It is best to take things in good faith, because very rarely do businesses choose to be overtly negative in their transactions. Of course, if something is really wrong- such as a part was not received, or they were delaying shipment excessively- then the customer has every right to give the business hell until they get what they ordered. But otherwise, a mutual understanding and good faith between the customer and business is the best way to view things. That concept- mutual understanding and cooperation- is more in keeping with the values of American people imho.

Swagger93

i dunno if mutual cooperation and understanding play as vital of a role in a country that defied the UN to such a great extent.

i do agree with you to a point, nabeel. you can't satifsy the customer every time. but you're supposed to aim for that. and really thats all relative anyways. that was kind of an important question that paul asked. asking if the t-belt they sent you will be ok (which it won't) and them telling you it is is kinda substantial, it would have some significant ramifications. this is especially true since the pelican guy answered so matter-of-factly.

if some guy asked if he should run 30 weight or 40 weight i would have told him to eat some poo and ask me again when his face is brown.

special tool

Swagger - joke, dude

GMS

Without getting too boring about this; there are two belts for 944 models; one for the 8 valve and one for the 16 valve and so you would have received the correct (less wide) belt for the 951.

Legoland951

"Customer is always right" goes to the philosophy of *** kissing for customer's money. It does NOT mean the customer is right. Just means that they will put up with more crap from people who MAY or MAY NOT be right. I have a simple philosophy: if I don't like to be in the receiving end of it, I don't give it. My personal opinion is there is too much "entitlement" feeling with the typical "American" including myself at times.

Danno

"Customer is always right" is actually a mistaken permutation and distillation of various MBA programs ideology of "make the customer happy". What it takes for that varies with each instance and you have to be tuned in to the customer's issues and understand their position. Then you can figure out a way to resolve the situation to their satisfaction. However, in some cases, there's really nothing you can do as some people will always be unsatisfied no matter what. And if it comes down to your front-line employees getting abused by customers, management has to side with the employee and send customer away.

Geo

Oh boy, this can really spark some philosophical controversy....

To understand the expression "the customer is always right" you need to think of the corollary, "no one ever won an argument with a customer." Think about that one a bit.

Manning

Danno and George, you both hit it right on the head. Some really bad shoppers have this perverted notion that if the beat up on the sales person enough they can walk out with a bunch of free stuff. Some customers are stupid ********* and needed to be rushed out the door in my 10 years of front line retail sales and management.

Shutemup

I got an email from Pelican today that made me remember this thread.

"This email is to inform you of the status of your order.

Unfortunately, the following parts from your order are not in stock, and we are at this time unable to say if, or when they will be in stock again: These are:

PEL-MAGN45192 Magnecor Wires Set, 944 (1982-89), 944 Turbo (1986-89), 924S (1987-88)

Please contact us so that we may adjust your order accordingly, and to see if we have any recommendations for locating your hard-to-find part(s).

We apologize for any inconvenience this may bring you.

Thanks for your patience and understanding in this matter,

- The Pelican Parts Customer Service Team"

The reason I am not happy

Monday, June 7, 2004 at 17:27:23 Order Placed On-line

Wednesday, June 9, 2004 at 09:34:49 Order Checked-In Checked in by tom

Peckster

To run a successful business, you have to be smart enough to know which customers you want and which ones you don't. You don't want all of them.