fastkevman

Although this is true, I believe that more of the communication responsibility lies with the vendor.
I purchase a lot of parts and equipment for the company I work for and I spoil myself quite a bit.......whether its parts for my employer or parts for my rig, if you want my continued business you will treat me well and be very forthcoming with even the most minuscule issue and how you are going to make good on it.
The bottom line is the best way to hurt a bad vendor is to not spend your money there!
There are plenty of places to spend ones money.
I always remember good service, always, and it is rewarded with future purchases.
At work I make it a point to remind even my very best vendors that the competition is always after me to make a change and if my employer does not get great products at great prices with great service that I don't care how long we have been doing business, they are out and once you're out, its extremely difficult to get back in!
I still contest though that if I deal with a company that every one of you have had good dealings with and I don't, for whatever reason, it does nothing to try and resolve it with people who have no investment in the matter and cannot relate.
If Jacknifes goal is to get this off his chest and vent....great, if its to get the part he wants he should have simply dealt with Scott and left it at that, that's my opinion.......which is worth about .02 and some lint.

Houston5

Scotty has answered a number of My ?'s with out a problem.Just Buy A Jeep an you will not have to deal with him anymore!!

fastkevman

Addicted sells parts for Toyotas and Jeeps.

89silverpu

Wow...thats the best advice I've heard on this site to date.....

Houston5

I know the sell both but look at what is in Scotty's Garage.I just don't feel it was right to bash a good vendor until all the details are worked out I could understand if he left you without a part to get your rig on the road.

fastkevman

First let me say, I have never dealt with Scott and/or Addicted Offroad so this is not a direct reflection on them.

If you have purchased something from "Jon Doe Offroad" and you got exactly what you wanted in a timely manner they are a good vendor.
If you suggest them to your best friend and he orders the exact same part and he does not get what he ordered or it comes 6 weeks later than he would have wanted it to.......are they still a good vendor?
You may think so, your friend may not.....who is right?

My original post reflects this exact issue.
I can't help Jackknife, you can't help Jackknife.....Scott can.
Your good dealings with Scott skew your opinion of this deal to defend him with no regard towards how Jackknife feels.

There use to be two rules to a successful business:
1.) The customer is always right.
2.) When in doubt, see #1.

Ardent

http://notalwaysright.com/

Sorry, I have nothing constructive to add.

ScottyC

iTrader: (1)

Mark,
you have an email

CRafferty

I have never used any of Scottys services and have never even been to his site, for the record.

Mark,
I've been dealing with quite a few distributors and manufacturers in the past few weeks and it sounds to me like Scotty has done a very good job by contacting you and giving you contact numbers to reach him at if you had any issues. If you've got beef with his service then you need to let him know, he can't just tell, like; "Oh snap, I should call that one guy and apologize for the crap the thinks I am/am not doing to completely service him."
Scotty has done more than some of the companies *cough*Wanh*cough*Ind.*cough* that I have been dealing with and I think that you should've taken the initiative to contact him with your problems so he could help you, he gave you the tools, you just needed to use them.

ScottyC

iTrader: (1)

I sent this email to Mark a couple days ago:

"Mark,

I can understand that you may have had a similar situation with a different vendor/s, but I am not that vendor. I really do feel that this could have been avoided entirely if you had just called me or even emailed me back. Look at it from my side on this: How am I supposed to know something is wrong unless you let me know?

I honestly think you jumped to the conclusion that I was trying to screw you over. That was not the case at all. I was trying to get you a flange ASAP since it took a week to find out they were backordered to begin with. Yes, the cart for some reason didn't charge you shipping when it should have. At that point that I looked at the order I realized that it didn't charge you for shipping. However, I figured that because you had waited as long as you did, and the fact that it was backordered, that I would get a flange out to you and just not worry about the shipping.

At this point, I am more than willing to just refund you the $25 and allow you to order it from someplace else that has it in stock. I have no problem with that at all. Just keep the flange you have. Or, I can send you a used dust shield (since they are still on back order) and you can simply tap it onto the current flange you have.

Please let me know what and how you want to handle it.

Scotty"

Then today I issued him a full refund for the part that was ordered because he was not satisfied with the service that I gave him. Mark didn't ask, nor want a refund, but I gave it to him anyway based on the following email that I received back from him:



"I don’t want the refund. I got a fair price on the item I received. There is no reason for you to go through any more trouble. As far as I am concerned, this matter is over.



Here is what went wrong with the transaction:



1. You assumed that I was in a hurry. I never stated anything that implied this. As a vendor, you should never assume anything about a customer’s needs.
2. Because of the previous assumption, you made a poor decision to send an alternate item. If you are going to send out an alternate item, you need to verify with the customer if this is an acceptable solution.
3. When I contacted you about the missing dust shield, you gave the impression that you had replaced the item with a cheaper item because of the lack of shipping charges.



What I believe should have happened:



1. When you noticed that shipping wasn’t properly charged, you should have both canceled the order and notified me that there was an error in shipping or, a better option IMO, contacted me and gave me the option to cancel or pay the proper shipping.
2. Since, you apparently decided to eat the shipping costs (which I think is a poor decision for any small business to do), you should have contacted me asking if the replacement part was acceptable.





I work retail. So, I understand that dealing with customers can be a pain in the ass. If all transactions went as planned, retail would go quite smoothly. However, when problems occur, it is up to the vendor to communicate with the customer. You can never assume what would make a customer happy. Customers are stupid, dishonest, or even mentally deranged. It never ceases to amaze me that people will avoid something at 50% off however, they will practically kill each other to get the same item when it goes buy one, get one for $1. Don’t they have even a basic concept of mathematics to determine that they are paying $1 more for the same two items that they thought were too expensive yesterday?



I believe that you are an honest person who simply made a horrible mistake. So, let me go into more detail about why you should avoid this mistake in the future. The problem is that you sent the cheaper item (since a basic flange sells for $19 instead of $25) because you felt justified due to not charging shipping. However, there are laws that protect the consumer from vendors doing this. You may have noticed other stores that have a message in the fine print that states something like “We reserve the right to substitute an item of greater or equal value.” There is no right to substitute one of lesser value. That is because this is fraud. Please note that I never accused you of fraud, because fraud requires intent, and I don’t think you meant to defraud me.

When you saw I got free shipping you and decided that you would accept the price, we then had a legal contract where you agreed to send the flange with dust shield in exchange for the money I sent you. You violated the terms of the contract when you decided to send a cheaper item. You can not legally do this without contacting me first to see if I agree to the new terms.

As a retailer, it wouldn’t hurt for you to at least have a basic knowledge of the laws that govern your business

Mark"




Its amazing to me that someone would think that I tried to screw them over for a $25 part. Especially considering that I actually came out of pocket on the part itself to get it to him in the first place. Trail-Gear charged me $26.67 total on the part including the shipping to Mark to begin with. Mark paid $25.00 for it.

So, I issued the refund in whole this morning. Its the only way I feel comfortable dealing with this transaction at this point.

Mark, I wish you good luck with your build up. Have a good day.

Scotty
www.addictedoffroad.com

BigBluePile

iTrader: (3)

Wow...I don't get the "cheaper" part thing. He ordered a flange w/dustshield. Got a flange w/out the dust shield because the dust shield went backorder. It was the same flange that he ordered right?

Big_John

I'm sure Scotty doesn't make his living ripping people off on $25 parts. Jack... Your accusations are unfounded. You surely have the right to your opinion, I support that, but your e-mail borders insanity. THAT sir is my opinion.

Fink

I think both sides have a point and it sounds like it was resolved.

Scotty made the right choice by sending you the part without the dustshield so you didn't have to wait Lord knows how for the dustshield to come in.

It's like when ordering several different items online and one item is backordered.
It will usually have an option of "Hold entire order for backordered items?" or "Ship In Stock items now and backordered ones can be shipped later."
Not necessarily worded like that but you get the idea.

This situation seems to be resolved but I just wanted to put my $.02 out there.

Fink

RobD

"The customer is always right" was the worst slogan ever to come out of the sales industry. It does the biggest disservice to anyone who has ever worked retail or industrial sales. It fostered "customer terrorism" by allowing people to feel entitled to make unreasonable demands and forced acquiescing to said demands to become standard business practice. Ask anyone, and I mean anyone, who has sold any product and they will tell you horror stories about the demands customers place on companies.

It's BS. A company has the right to make a profit. A company has a responsibility to make sure that they do the best to meet the customer's requirements that they can. They have the responsibility to make sure their employees do not have to suffer from verbal or physical harrassment of customers.

You have the responsibility as a consumer to make your needs known and to work with a vendor in a reasonable manner. The vendor has the responsibility to live up to their end of the contract. It's up to both parties to ensure complete and accurate communication.

In reading this post and seeing both sides to the story, I have no doubt that I would deal with Scotty and Addicted if I ever required products that he sells.

My $0.02, pocket lint, and that strange, loose thread that you're afraid to pull on.

[N8]

I ordered a Trail-Gear rear bumper from member ScottyC last Tuesday and received it yesterday (Wednesday). I was pleased with the delivery time from CA to PA.

Scotty was pleasant to deal with via PM's here on the forum.

I'm aware that there's another thread in this forum about Addicted and that it was a bad experience per the poster, but I was surprised that there was no thread of positive experiences with Scotty & Addicted Offroad, so I created one.

AxleIke

Scotty has a good rep, and is a great fabricator. You don't see many threads because most people who are satisfied customers don't post up (unfortunately). I know member Volcom on here has been very pleased with Scotty's work and products. And Volcom up and beats his stuff, so you know the products will hold up to anything.

ScottyC

iTrader: (1)

Thanks guys. I definitely appreciate it.

881stGenRunner

Definitely another happy customer over here too. Quality of work and craftsmanship is awesome! Responds to emails very quickly and in a professional manner.

BigBluePile

iTrader: (3)

Indeed!! One of the best vendors/fabricators I've done dealings with!!!

AxleIke

BTW, I went and found the "other thread". The guy posting was a total douche. Scotty more than went out of his way to help the guy out.

Bump for another great vendor.