Ragnar Joensen

When I had my 928 GT, I was searching for the oil-level switch rubber cover. It is NLA and impossible to get anywhere. The rubber perishes and the part needs replacement after 15 years on all cars. On top of that it is also used on the 951, adding to the demand of this part.

But Auto Atlanta had them on stock - perfect !

I order it, and when I am at it, I might as well get one of those oil filters, as service time is coming up.

The confirmed my order and charged my credit for the parts and shipping. The oil filter arrived, but no rubber cover. I call AA, and they tell me that this part has been NLA for years.

As I live in Sweden I was charged VAT by customs for the entire amount.

I kindly ask them to reimburse my credit card for the amount for the cover and a fair part of the shipping cost and VAT. After quite a few days I got the cover reimbursed.

A few weeks later I receive an email message, telling me that AA, as a courtesy service, had charged my credit card for the VAT, as the goods were exported to Sweden.

I ended up with the most expensive oil filter on the planet.

Those people are no good crooks. Doublecharging and not delivering. If the amounts in my story were any larger, I would file a report with the police.

THEY CAN NOT BE TRUSTED AND ARE A BUNCH OF CRIMINALS !




Ragnar

AutoAtlanta

Mr. Joensen,

I am sorry that you had an unfortunate ordering experience back in 2008. It was not an oil filter, by the way, it was a Clutch Slave Cylinder that you ordered. The little rubber boot was discontinued, however, due to the way our ordering system works with Porsche, we don't know what warehouse the parts are coming from until after they have been ordered. Porsche sends us a BackOrder sheet once per day, and we don't know that your part is NLA until after we receive that sheet. If you could not get the rubber boot would you have not wanted the slave cylinder? The two parts are unrelated, and we had no reason to believe that you would be ordering a slave cylinder "just because".

I am not sure what the reasoning was for the VAT charge, it looks like we were charged that surcharge by Fed Ex, and were instructed to pass it on to you. Again, I don't know why, but there was obviously a reason.

If you have any further questions, please send me an e-mail (brad@autoatlanta.com) or a PM and I will do my best to make sure you are happy with the situation.

wellcraft290

surcharge? shouldn't of you told the client up front as soon as you knew?

Ragnar Joensen

Brad,

First of all thanks for Your swift response.

I can understand that You are sorry - so am I. But nowhere near as sorry as I was back then.

Whether it was yesterday or 2008 really makes no difference. Your performance is etched in my mind and I can not let my fellow Porsche owners go through the same experience, so I share my experience.

Whether it was an oil filter or something else doesnt make any difference either. As You can see I remember Your performance and have forgot basically everything else.

You failed to contact me and thats OK - You couldnt know. But You showed incorrect information, which I based my order upon, which then should have led You to contact me anyway and You charged my card for the rubber cover and that is plain theft. I had to go through some effort to get it back. Go ahead and line up Your excuses like in Your previous posts in this thread, I have bought my last part from You.

I have been charged twice for the VAT, but I do not want the hassle of dealing with You. I have been burned and I am just warning everybody else.


Ragnar

MRDUNLOP944

They burnt me for a front lower spoiler for my early 85 944. It was so badly beat from the factory mold it couldn't be fixed. I tried to send it back and was told by LEO and JASON who can both go to hell, That my body shop guy sabatoged the spoiler and they wouldn't be taking it back. Go eff yourself Auto Atlanta. Figure out who is spending money there and keep them happy. You lost a total rebuild on a 944. Thanks for reading. Don't ever buy from this cpany again.

MRDUNLOP944

Hey brad. Go eff yourself as well k.

993PET

I had very similar experiences with AA, as others on this thread. I would never order from them again.

FeralComprehension

Thx for warning.

altarchsa

I want to throw my 2 cents into the opinions about Auto Atlanta (no affiliation).

About 4 months ago I bought a complete leather interior out of a salvaged car from Auto Atlanta. The parts were listed on eBay in three separate auctions, so I contacted them to ask if they would package the entire interior because, since it was a color change for me, I did not want to run the risk of winning one and not all of the parts.

I had a lot of communication by phone and email with George and Mia during this time. They were both very nice and communicative.

We made a deal for me to pay for the parts over a 90 day period, then come to Atlanta to collect the parts to save on shipping. We also agreed that I would remove some additional parts which were still on the car and not included in the original listings.

As it turned out, due to work and money (this economy sucks), it took me over 4 months to finally get to Atlanta. I talked to George several times during the delay to keep him appraised of the situation. Each time he told me "No problem".

I was finally able to go through Atlanta this past Friday on the return from a business trip. Everyone at Auto Atlanta was really nice, especially George. He impressed me as a really classy fellow when I first met him. He took some time to described how they had been in business in Marietta for many years, and we talked about the incredible large collection of 914's that he had restored and displayed in his show window.

The parts I had purchased were stored indoors in a separate area where they would not be separated or lost. All the screws and other small accessories related to the parts were saved in a plastic baggie. George showed me to the salvage car and I had plenty of time to remove the additional parts, plus a few more goodies that I spotted. We settled up on the additional parts and George and one of his employees helped me load everything into the rental SUV. I headed toward the airport and dropped by a "freight porter" on the way.

As a side story, I had never heard the term "freight porter" before, but Saturn Freight in Atlanta let me use their warehouse to pack the parts in U-Haul boxes and place them on a pallette, which they provided for free. Then they shrunk wrapped everything, also for free, and it was delivered to the warehouse in San Antonio on Monday afternoon! - For half of what UPS was going to charge for 5 day ground shipping!

I was a little disappointed about some damage on the outside edge of the driver seat bottom. The car had taken a direct hit to the door and I knew the driver seat frame was crushed, mostly from the deformation of the body in the area where the seat rails are attached. I had asked George about the door panel, which he accurately described as pretty much trashed, but he said the seat was OK. I rationalized that he may not have actually seen the damage to the seat bottom, but I was still a little disappointed because it was going to be a little extra work when I transfer the seat skin, which was otherwise in great shape, to my good frame.

All this to say that I was pleased with the parts I got from Auto Atlanta and really impressed with the treatment I received. George could have made the delay in my collecting the parts a real problem, but he took the high road. There was never a suggestion of extra cost for storing the items during the delay.

I know some of you had a bad experience that you reported here, but I would not hesitate for a second in dealing with Auto Atlanta again.

amphicar770

I've not had the same nightmares with AA but I do prefer Pelican for what they give back to the enthusiast community. Specifically, the wealth of technical information which AA will usually sell instead of make readily available on their web site. For example, the DPD AC Install manual for the 914, $15 plus s&h from AA.

BigMikeATL

I live about 10 miles from them and wouldn't hit a dog in the *** with that place. I learned the hard way in the late 90's when I had my 944. They also stole parts off of my neighbors 356 that were rare and tried to blame it on some mysterious employee they fired when it was in for repair. Not sure how they're even still in business.

Mr.Alex

A bit surprised reading through this thread, I've ordered quite a few things recently with no issues and relatively quick shipping and good packaging.

Bondospecial

I took a chance and used Auto Atlanta even after reading the bad older reviews on here, because the prices were so good I figured it was worth a try. Four orders later, I have had zero problems w/ Auto Atlanta. Everything has come quickly, and when a few parts were backordered, I got frequent email communications that made it clear what parts were shipped and what were back ordered. The back ordered items all came in.

creaturecat

Pretty damaging thread title, given that the original poster got ripped off by himself - by ordering fed-ex overnight.
How does this become Auto Altanta's fault?

H2O LOL

"It says we have it in stock, let me make 100% sure and I will let you know tomorrow"

I bet that statement and simple follow through would have solved a lot of issues.