Scathing Article on ECS- New Owner of PP
 

I'm a regular reader of Jalopnik and saw this article this morning:

https://jalopnik.com/spying-on-employees-screwing-buyers-what-went-wrong-a-1827474482

Its a pretty damning look at ECS who recently bought Pelican and as a big fan of PP and this community it is concerning to say the least. Thoughts?

ECS is the Comcast of German car parts

Ouch! That's gotta sting!

This rapid expansion, some ECS customers believe, has brought with it a degradation in customer service, and now—especially after the company bought popular Massachusetts-based BMW parts retailer Turner Motorsport in 2015

I did not know this.

I have a tin foil hat theory about all of this, that I probably should not share

Probably best not to fred. Would hate to see you get a vacation when this thread inevitably gets locked

So, any pelican parts buyer complaints? Sure haven't read any here. All my Pelican dealing were before Wayne left the helm.

Doesn't take a tin foil hat theory.

Successful companies (profitable ones) have easy access to capital once they hit $50MM in revenues. Conventional loans are cheap still, and private equity groups are competing viscously against each other for places to invest money in exchange for equity. The result is rapid growth through acquisition and industry consolidation. Acquiring companies dump the "redundant expenses" (a.k.a firing lots of good employees). Now you have a big company without the intellectual capital to sustain innovation and a good service.

In some cases, the the consolidation happens so quickly that the large companies eliminate virtually all viable competition creating duopolies (the SEC seams OK with duopoly :confused:) The duops don't give a S#it how bad their service is because you have no where else to go e.g. Home Depot and Lowes, LabCorp and Quest, PetCo and Petsmart, Fresenius and DeVita, etc, etc, etc. I don't know why auto parts and distribution would be any different.

This is old news.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-911-technical-forum/1001212-pelican-parts-ecs-tuning-heres-what-you-should-know.html

Come on, spring it on us! :D

Same. I haven't bought anything from Pelican in over a year but all my past experiences over the prior 10+ years have been positive. It saddened me to hear they sold to ECS. A company I've only had one experience with and it was a negative one.

He'll do that next April.

You beat me to it! Let us know if you guys have any questions or concerns. Below is a link to Wayne's two cents as well.

https://forums.pelicanparts.com/10096716-post14.html

A lot of us here on the OT forum don't look at the tech forum, at least I haven't since I sold my SC.

I've personally only had slightly negative experiences with ECS. Their shipping is typically not very fast, and I ordered a transmission fluid/filter change kit for my S8 that was about 3 liters short of fluid to complete the job. I typically went to ECS for items that Pelican didn't have, it was always a second or third choice. Guess time will tell us what changes are implemented at Pelican.

We originally posted it in both sections, we'll keep future updates in both.

Link to thread: https://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/1001213-pelican-parts-ecs-tuning-heres-what-you-should-know.html

Meh, I just ordered a bunch of 911 odds and ends and it went smoothly and quickly.

I just hope Wayne is enjoying the time with his family.

Suggestion/feedback box for brainstorming?

I thought that Pelican was sold to the holding company that owns both ECS and now Pelican....not technically sold to ECS.

I keep a pretty steady flow of parts coming off of Pelican's shelves and onto my own. I have noticed no difference in service, price, or anything like that since Wayne sold.

Hi everyone! Thank you Tobra, I just finished an 80-day (yes, 80) road trip in the 24-foot Winnebago with the three kids, wifey, and Labradoodle in tow. And yes, still married, and all three kids (and dog) made it back to California a few days ago. After working to build Pelican for more than 20 years, it was / is certainly time for a break and perhaps a change in direction for myself. To update everyone, I haven't quite figured it out yet - been very busy repairing all of the cars and things around the house that have been neglected for the past 20 years.

As for this article, my phone has been ringing all day long with people talking about it. While the article is well written and I think fairly factual, it does omit one or two important facts, as I see it. The original founders of ECS were/are indeed true enthusiasts and they built the company based upon those principles (much like myself). ECS has listened carefully to the enthusiast and specifically designed and manufactured hundreds of unique products and has tailored the ECS website to support their enthusiast customers. The proof is in the pudding - following that mantra, and paying close attention to the customer’s needs, ECS has grown tremendously over the years. Sure, they've had some growing pains over the past few years – the Turner acquisition indeed seems like it was a painful learning experience (I wasn't around for that, but I certainly heard an earful from people in the industry). They’ve also seemed to have had some shipping and Customer Service issues, much like Pelican has had in the past. But, the new management seems good and well intentioned to leave Pelican alone, all the while focusing a lot of energy on improving the ECS experience. I do indeed feel that the baby (Pelican) that I created and nursed for 20-years is in good hands and that you guys (the enthusiasts) will be well taken care of well into the future...

-Wayne