Pelican Parts Forums - Where customer service is lacking-a bit long winded

With more and more online companies popping up offering discounted prices on just about anything, it becomes apparent that sometimes it's just not worth the savings. A friend of mine ordered a set of Dunlop D208 tires from Chaparral Motorsports a couple of weeks ago and seemingly got a good deal. Delivery within 7-10 days...not bad. After the 10 days, Chris calls up Chaparral to find out if they've been shipped. The person on the other end checks their records and says they've already been received. Well, unless his girlfriend signed for 'em and is hiding 'em, no one at his address has 'em. After confirming the address, she says that someone named 'Frank' signed for 'em. No Frank here, says Chris. She tells him that they usually have to wait 7-10 days for UPS to investigate, but she'll send out another pair anyway since she paid extra to get 'em there before his birthday. Another 7 days pass and still no tires. Another call to Chaparral and he finds that they're still waiting to hear from UPS even though they said they'd ship another pair. He explains that his tires are on their last ride and he needs these tires to be able to ride. Sorry, 7-10 days for UPS to investigate. Surely you can help me out. Sorry, 7-10 days for UPS to investigate. Chris lets her know that he heard her 7-10 days story the first 3 times and would like her to find out what they can do to help out a paying customer. Without any cursing, she hangs up. Now nothing gets my blood boiling faster that a 'customer service' rep who hangs up on you. Chris calls back and asks to speak to the manager. The same voice that just hung up states that she is the manager. Oh, you're the same one who just hung up on me. You don't treat customers like that and as a manager you should know that. Suffice it to say that he never got any satisfaction from 'customer service'. He asked for the tracking # and although they gave it to him they suggested that UPS would only deal with Jennifer (his GF) because that's whose card was used. How do you know I'm not Jennifer, you never asked for my name? A call to UPS revealed that they were mistakenly delivered to a motorcycle shop nearby, but when the shop realized that they weren't part of their order they returned 'em to UPS. UPS attempted delivery to another wrong address where they were refused. It turns out that they were sitting in the UPS warehouse awaiting instructions on what to do with 'em. UPS allowed him to go to the warehouse that was 5 minutes from home to pick 'em up and he had 'em that day. If Chaparral had done the same thing (their job) and called UPS themselves, they might have a happy customer, but it was easier to say that 'We can't do anything until UPS investigates...7-10 days.' His girlfriend called the company and left a message with the president as well as sending an e-mail. You would think that the president of the company would at least have someone try to smooth things over if he was unable to do it himself, but no response at all so he's obviously not interested. It becomes obvious that there is a systemic lack of customer service being promoted from the top on down. If the president doesn't care about the customer why should the people who work for him? They must get it right enough of the time that they don't have to care about the rest. Either that or once they get your money they figure they can string you along long enough that you'll go away. So, in the end, beware of the cheap price from the company with the multi-page ads in the major mc magazines (well, at least Chaparral). I'm in business as well and it is basic business knowledge that a happy customer will tell a friend while an unhappy customer will tell 10. Well, I'm friend # 1 and I'm just hoping to help him fill in the last 9 (or 9,000) because of all the bs he had to deal with for a set of tires.
I've got to say, I just got a new set of Metzelers mounted on my Replika by Washington Cycle Works in NJ. CYCLEROB mounted and balanced them with a smile and I got to ogle some of the cool bikes in the shop and others that just stopped by. I even got a slice of pizza that they had delivered for lunch. I'm sure that if I had a problem they would have handled it however they could within reason to make sure that I left a happy customer. To top it off, I don't think that I'd have paid much less buying online, and if I had to deal with the same BS that Chris did it wouldn't be worth the cash savings. Use your local shop for whatever you can, we need to keep 'em in business so that these crappy, impersonal businesses aren't our only choice.