Problems with Pelican/Clewett Order - Learn from my errors

[Duc Hunter]

Maybe there is something to Pelican changing hands after all. A while ago someone started a thread about how Pelican had been sold and that we should expect service to get worse. I defended Pelican there, as did many others. After my last experience though I had to come here and vent, and maybe help others. To be sure my particular issue this time is between Pelican and Clewett, and frustrating. It is also not the first time something has gone so wrong on a Pelican order that it has caused me to miss an event with my car, to have to ship things back (or just keep them out of frustration and while ordering the right parts), etc. It is the latest frustrating transaction with Pelican.

My Orders Challenges
On Monday 5/6/19 at 9am I placed an order for Clewett wires, new dizzy caps/rotors for my 964 motor that is in my 1975 car. Everything showed in stock at the time of ordering, but as the order processed the wires appeared not to be. I wanted everything by 5/11/19 to be able to do the install and take the car to an event 5/12/19, so I paid for over night delivery just in case. Upon seeing that the wires seemed to be not in stock I called Pelican Monday afternoon to talk about the order. We went through what I ordered, what engine it was going on (1994 964 motor) etc. They said they were just waiting on the wires to come in later that week, and I need not worry. On Wednesday (5/8/19) afternoon I noticed no movement, so I called just to check in. I was told their system showed the wires would be at Pelican Thursday, and would go out so I had them Friday. I questioned that they could turn the order around to me on the same day, but they assured me it was not an issue. They also said they would call Clewett to make sure, and call me if there was an issue. Great news.

I checked the order on the Thursday night (5/9/19) and there was no status change, meaning it did not go out to me. So I called back Friday morning (5/10/19) and was told they would again call Clewett to ensure the wires were on the way. They also changed the delivery to Saturday delivery "for free" to ensure I got everything in time. They were very confident I would have them. Nope. As of Sunday the order status was unchanged.

I gave up at this point, the order would arrive when ever Clewett and Pelican got their collective acts together. Then on 5/14/19 Pelican got the parts and charged me full boat, including the over night shipping, to get the order to me on 5/15/19. This was great news even though I missed an event 5/12/19 (sarcastic tone). The over night shipping was to get the order to me by 5/10/19, and then 5/11/19, so why not at least credit me the shipping because everything was late? Being proactive a little goes a long way towards making customers feel better, right? But I digress. Ok what ever, the order was on the way, I would have everything I needed, and could make my 5/20/19 event right? Wrong again.

I knew I had one broken spark plug wire end where they go into the dizzy before I ordered my parts, hence replacing wires in addition to the caps/rotors. Everything went well on the install today (5/19/19) until I tried to put the wires on the dizzy. The wires are not for a 964 dizzy, they are for an early style dizzy. I know a fair bit about these cars, but this is only my second plug wire change on an air-cooled car (the other was on a 3.2). As a result I did not recognize the ends were wrong. Since they are labeled properly for a twin plug, they are setup for the early style 12 point dizzy. Yay me. Before anyone jumps down my throat, I did notice the wires connectors to the dizzy were the inline style, as opposed to the stock 964 90 degree units. I just thought these were early'eque boots on the wires, and never assumed I got the wrong wires after all my conversations notes above. Anyway, so my car is up on ramps, ass sticking out of my garage, and is now useless. During disassembly the old wires had 2 more ends break at the dizzy, meaning I now have a total of 2 lower, 1 upper broken. This means the old wires cannot go back on and make the car drivable. At best it will be down a cylinder just to get it off the ramps, which will make it real fun to get back up again to change the lowers (light weight flywheel and all).

Now I have to call Pelican on Monday and see what they will do. I know they will exchange the wires, and they will prob have to wait again for Clewett to send them the new ones (why can't they drop ship I don't know, I asked that initially). Given the last orders performance this would mean 9 more calendar days before I get the correct wires. Pelican will also probably ask me to pay shipping to send the stuff back (past returns they have).

I am sorry but this is very poor customer service, and not the first time recently something like this has happened. I ordered the 964 Clewett's, I talked to the Pelican rep about what I needed the same day I placed the order too. I also had several conversations about the shipping through the process, so there is no excuse for getting this all wrong. Even if I had clicked the wrong part not the Pelican website, they could have corrected that when we talked that same day. Had Pelican said "it will be 2 weeks to get them from Clewett" I would save been ok with that. I might have called Clewett directly to see if they would be faster, or maybe just planned to take my 3.2 to the events. It needs a new strut, but I could have done the and been fine. Pelican told me they had called Clewett though, so I made no such plans, and trusted them.

Advice
Pelican has good prices, a great selection of parts, their people are all very nice & most are pretty knowledgeable, and these forums are invaluable. That said my word of caution though is do not believe their web site if it says things are in stock, ever. Call them if you need anything fast, and if they cannot physically put their hands on your parts, it will take a while to get them to you. Any parts they have to order from someone else will take time, no matter what Pelican says. Some of these parts are drop shipped from the supplier, and some have to ship to Pelican first and then get shipped to you. I have found Pelican struggle with both, and that could be thanks to the parts suppliers for sure. Either way the shipping info never seems to be very accurate. As a result if you need the parts that are from another supplier quickly you may be better off ordering direct from that supplier. Also you order parts to do a project just shelve the project until everything comes in, and inspect everything with a fine tooth comb. Even doing this to the best of my ability on this order, I am still stuck with a car that is now SOL until I can get the right parts from Pelican. That can happen with any parts supplier, and unfortunately seems to be happening more often with Pelican than it use to.

In the past I have ordered parts and had a similar experience, but I was not doing the work myself. In those cases I had to pay my mechanic more labor to undo and redo things once the correct parts came in. In a few of those cases over the years the car was stuck at their shop (maybe even on their lift) while I sorted things out with the parts. This is extra cost I cannot demand back from Pelican reasonably, but is not insubstantial and is their fault in a way. So don't make the mistake of ordering parts for your mechanic to do something for you, unless they agree to go through the parts themselves first, before starting the work. This may seem like an obvious thing to do, but we all forget to do this often, as do our mechanics. This is also not exclusive to Pelican, it can happen from anyone. I have taken to finding the parts prices myself, and just ensuring my mechanic does not charge me more for the parts than I would be paying from a Pelican, or whomever I price check parts with. I don't care about a few $$ here and there, but sometimes Pelican or others are substantially less than the parts suppliers out mechanics may use.

We all have issues with various vendors. This particular issue is with Pelican and I thought it was important to call it out, esp since it seems to be happening more frequently to me and is being mentioned here more often as well. I also think the advise, and the ways to avoid the issues I ran into on this order, are valid for all of the vendors we work with. I am as guilty anyone of counting on stuff to arrive, and planning an event etc down to the last minute, only to have an issue like this one screw everything up. Maybe by hearing about my experience others can not suffer the same challenges.


Probable Resolution
l am sure Pelican will take care of me, get me the right parts, and be very polite the whole way through. They always are. If I ask nicely I will probably be given free shipping on my initial order, maybe even on the new one. Based on this orders performance between Clewett & Pelican this will mean I get my correct Clewett wires 5/29/19, some 23 days after I ordered them initially. That is also 23 days after talking to them about my needs and desired timing, and 19 days after I was supposed to get my order. In hindsight I bet ordering direct from Clewett would have gotten me the right wires to my doorstep the first time in a more timely manner.

My post about my wire issue....https://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-911-technical-forum/1029925-help-clewett-wires-came-wrong-ends-maybe.html