judd944

As most of you know I have bought a 5-speed tranny from Automobile Atlanta and After 18 days I am still yet to receive the transmission. I called down there today and they still have not sent it out! No one down there knows why it has not been send out and assure me it will be sent out today. (they have told me this for the last week) I decided that I would buy a few other Items off of them to replace things that I should do while I am in there. I found their website at www.automobileatlanta.com and printed out the pages for the sunroof gears(3.54), CV joint bolts (.63) and a shift lever(44.85). I sent an email to the person I got the tranny from on Ebay (JASON) with the parts numbers and the quantities of each Item I would need. I told them to ship the Items together and ship them ASAP. After a week of calling they shipped all but my transmission on Friday. I got the package yesterday and the invoice includes my transmission but I did not receive it. To my surprise the Items have different parts numbers and the prices are different! now my sunroof gear costs 6.85 each, CV bolts cost 2.10 each!, and my shift lever costs 52.95! WTF! I called them back at the number on top of the www.automobileatlanta.com website where the parts are still listed at the low prices and they said that because I did not order them at the website I do not get those prices. I was never informed they would be more money. now I am afraid that when I do get my transmission it will be the wrong one and I will have to send everything back! I would send everything back but they have a 20% restocking fee!
If anyone on here works for Automobile Atlanta tell me why you cannot adjust my prices! NO ONE BUY FROM THEM! CALL THEM AND TELL THEM THAT FROM ME! 1-800-792-4944 Tell them Judd Sent you!

OH yeah press 5 for parts because they do not answer 0 because it is customer support.

Irish-1313

Feel free to insert my ex wifes name as # 3.

Quaz

My friend just had a horrible experience with those goons not too long ago. He ordered a rebuilt alternator for his 911. Well of course they sent him the wrong one. So he called them back and told them. AA told him they were back ordered on the correct one. They told him if he updated his fan shroud it would fit and they had those instock for some astronomical price. He told them he would just return the wrong one.

Well he got the right one from another supplier and sent the wrong unit back to AA. Two months later still no credit to his account. So he had to reverse the charges with the credit card company to get his money back. Finally AA called him back and asked him why he reversed the charges and where the alternator was. He had a tracking number which confirmed delivery to their warehouse and he relayed this to the person who then found the return in the system, told him he should have waited for the credit and hung up.

What truly amazes me is how places like this can stay in business and function.

fraggle

Ok another I'll avoid...

No auto atlanta for me!

doesn't anyone understand customer service anymore? They've been taking lessons from banks.

Ron_H

Quaz:

Once there was a VW dealer in an area that was mostly populated by military personnel, and thus there was a high turnover every 3 years in the population. The service at that dealership was terrible, almost immoral. The premise, a successful one, was that no one would be around long enough to make a difference in their sales business, and they went on ripping all of their customers off happily ever after. They also became the first Porsche dealer in the area and did the same to their Porsche customers.

That's how they stayed in business for a long time.

Grey Guy

I've had my 928 since March '09 and have learned so much about the car. It's AWESOME.

Automobile Atlanta (BAD) recently clipped me for an extra $50. Here are the gory details. Weeks after buying my car and spending the obligatory 4-5 grand on getting it shaped up, I decided to buy an oval-tipped RMB. Nobody had it available except AA, they wanted $199 for a black painted version. The dual-tipped version listed at $149. Weeks went by with no RMB, I called and they told me it had been back-ordered and was being shipped the next day. AA charged my card $199 plus shipping. When the RMB arrived it was the dual-tipped black painted version. I called AA and told them of the mistake and they told me that the oval-tip was no longer available and they would refund me the $50. Since then, there have been several phone calls and emails. This all began in April. Just got off the phone with Sandy, customer service rep and daughter in law of the owner, and she explained to me it was the cost of doing business and that I would not be getting the $50 difference. In the mean time, I had ordered brake parts from 928 International (GOOD) and came to find out they had my info in their system, eventhough it was my first order from them. AA had bought the RMB from 928 International and had them ship it to me. BTW 928 International sells the dual-tipped black painted version for $149.

Couple of things I've learned is that you should check for previous complaints on vendors and the most important:
Part of the basic upkeep of the 928 is the support of the 928 service community. It's a false economy to save a few bucks on a particular part and jeopardize the availability of all the others.

blown 87

I have heard many, many things about AA, and none of it good.

mcholdfast

^^^Same here.

largecar379

while I am not in the habit of bashing suppliers/dealers/service centers and the like, I can relay this:

Dad took his '79 928 (non-interference engine 4.5L) to the above dealer for a timing belt failure.

the TB/h2o pump job was completed, and on the way home the crankshaft pulley came apart.

Note: Dad is 75 years young, however he isn't in the habit of beating a motor to death while driving....if the crank pulley was bad--possible, but unlikely--they should have caught this. if the crank pulley was installed incorrectly--that's another story.

Car goes back to AA for the crank pulley issue.

Total bill---- near $3K for TB/H2o pump, crank pulley issue, and related towing charges...and two months downtime (being without the car) for all this trouble. Equally frustrating, is the fact that I had the parts needed to get the car back to running status---

I personally had met with the management of AA, and they gave me the immediate impression that the 928 was NOT a Porsche, that they didn't like the 928, that they'd rather work on a 1918 Model T (speaking figuratively), and actually said the best thing for Dad to do with his car was to sell it (he had just purchased it, at that time).


Lesson learned---

A Porsche is a Porsche, regardless of model designation. If you advertise that your shop works on Porsche's, then work on all of them, not just the ***-draggers.

for those who run businesses like this, you should be out of business.

--Russ

H2

AA is a large dealer...but after my 2nd bad experience and rude response to an inquiry about a wrong part sent and billing larger than quoted on the phone, I just wrote them off. I don't shop there anymore. For my 968 I usually get parts from Sunset in Oregon, Pelican Parts, or some smaller shops. There are no really top notch 968 specialty parts shops in the same class as the big two or big four or whatever it is today for 928s. AA is so large I'm guessing that customer service is not so important to them as some other shops.

That's just my experience. Obviously, if you've ordered from them and all well well, you'll have good things to say.

H2

syoo8

I wish I had read this thread before ordering from them.

I order parts A, B, C, D, E 10 days ago.

Receive an invoice, with the WRONG shipping address (misprint in the state column.)

Receive an e-mail saying that B is on back-order.

Call to follow up on the shipping address, and they claim that A, D, and E are no longer available.

Ask why was I not notified that A, D, and E are no longer available. Guy on phone replies "that's the way Porsche does things."

Totally rude, but more importantly, incompetent.

SeanR

Another example of why to support the Big 3 here on Rennlist.

shmark

You can tell by the dates in this thread it's been going on a long time. I've personally dealt with them since about 1997 or so and the only way I would buy from them is to show up in person and get exactly what I want. Haven't done that in a long time since I sold my 914s. I actually live less than 10 miles from the place, but I will order from Mark, Roger or DR in a heartbeat rather than go there. Definitely stick with the 928-specific vendors.

However George does have a couple really nice 914 rollers I keep drooling over, would be great for a six conversion. But he wants way too much money for them.

Tom928

Several years ago, when I got into 928's a friend here told me not to trust "those Atlanta guys".
He said that he had heard more complaints about AA than ANY other vendor and stated he didn't know how they were still in business.
I've stayed with the 928 vendors and Porsche.

Cheers,

Lizard928

So that's where Mason is getting his business lessons from....