PMB changing focus?

[sundevil64]

PMB has done great work and I respect all the effort that Eric has done to grow his business. All that said, the customer experience has not been great for me recently. Has something changed?

My recent experience has been reduced to text some pictures and your questions with the end result of unanswered questions and no responses in the last two days. Strangely the young man I spoke with didn't know much about brakes.

This is not a post to beat up PMB. Rather, checking to see if this I an isolated incident and a matter of company growth and being distracted. I hope it is isolated because Eric has worked so hard to build a business that has done some really great work.

I am going to try calling again today as they are not responding to the text line as directed.

[vick]

I bought new calipers/rotors/pads etc a while back. Quality of the parts is excellent, took forever to process my core refund and a few phone calls. When they finally realized the check never went out the got it done and called to update the status. My impression was they just have a lot going on.

Experience with their text line to tech support was the same. Took a few days to get a reply, but once they caught up for the info I needed

Overall feels like a busy and honest small business. I’ll be happy to bring my business to them again

[PeteKz]

A lot of businesses are having trouble getting and keeping good employees. I'd cut them some slack if you're happy with the quality of product.

[sundevil64]

I am trying to be patient. The did get back to me but it is a slow process. The text me and wait a day or two is painful for me. If I did that with my clients, I would have to worry about responding because they would go away.

I was used to what it used to be. They do still do very good work. I guess that is new undeclared cost of working with quality vendors. Everyone is stretched thin and there are less vendors.

It's the new way I guess. Eric is a great guy and has a good business it's just changing and so I guess I should downshift my expectations.

[47silver]

Had calipers done last year no priblems at all

[FloydPink]

I also had a slightly rocky experience, but the end result was still 4 refurbished calipers that looked way better than the 35 year old set that was previously on the car. I'm satisfied with the result, but will probably stick to local vendors in the future. I feel like dropping my parts off in person and talking to someone face to face works better for me.

[BrakeL8]

Originally Posted by FloydPink

I also had a slightly rocky experience, but the end result was still 4 refurbished calipers that looked way better than the 35 year old set that was previously on the car. I'm satisfied with the result, but will probably stick to local vendors in the future. I feel like dropping my parts off in person and talking to someone face to face works better for me.

+1


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[PeteKz]

If you can get your brake calipers rebuilt locally, by all means do so. Most of us have to send them somewhere far, far, away.

[Cairo94507]

Eric's business is growing and the quality of their work is the reason. He runs a great shop and they get it done. They are slammed with work and anyone who has seen the general caliber of young employees these days knows it is difficult to find those gems who actually understand work and a work ethic. It is difficult to find the gems that will work and represent well your business.

[Marine Blue]

The quality of their work and attention to detail is excellent, I’m very happy with the restoration they did on my two front calipers. My only gripe was the time it took (nearly 4 months) to complete the work. I believe in my case it was due to them moving into their new facilities.

[Eric_Shea]

Hi John,

Thanks for posting your grievances with our customer support team. We take these issues very seriously. I was alerted to this thread after hours on Friday.

I've had the opportunity to discuss this with my team this morning. There are a couple of things that I would like to point out in a public forum so others reading this may have a better understanding of the issue here.

It is my understanding the issue at hand is regarding our new text line and the time between exchanges. Isaac stated the reason for texting was to get pictures of the calipers you were having an issue with. His initial text is as follows: "Hello! This is Isaac from PMB." This initial exchange was to give you our text number so you could send those pictures. This was at 4:11pm on 5/17. He followed up with answers to your master cylinder questions at 4:30 and 4:31 that same day. You then replied at 5:44 after hours here. We still hadn't received the pictures that we requested.

We then received a "Hello?" at 4:21pm on the 18th. This is where we fell down. The text line is monitored by three agents here and there are quite a few texts coming through and bumping each other up and down in the string. Isaac did not review his text string with you the following morning. I've stressed and overstressed the importance of customer service with all of our team members again in our morning meeting today. We've implemented steps in each morning, afternoon and closing routine to make sure that checking texts are a part of of these processes. Believe it or not, a company "text" line is a rather new thing for us here and it has proven to be a very helpful and busy component of our business. There still aren't too many company doing this. In the end, we are all human so I tend to let those who haven't made a mistake cast that first stone. Personally, I'd take 3 more Isaac's if I could find them. He is very thorough and he cares about the issues and the people he deals with daily. He's a young Porsche owner with an amazing 951 that he built himself.

In the end it's my responsibility to train and initiate procedures so I'm very sorry, on a personal level, for the hardship this has caused you.

Regarding training and Isaac (and others here), We have what we call "Caliper School" here on a regular basis. If you can imagine training a younger associate who was born well after the 996 debuted what a 67 911S caliper is and how it differs from a 70 911T caliper you can begin to understand the task at hand. We're not talking about piston and pad sizes etc., we're talking about castings, finish techniques, fasteners and history... the training is very detailed and ongoing. It's a flood of information. I'm very proud of the fact that our team is trained to this level and, they care enough to get the exact castings for these vintage vehicles. We recently removed "Big Box" calipers that were absolutely incorrect for John Oats 67S and found the perfect fit. Isaac has literally been trained to say "I don't know" vs. attempting to make up an answer. This could be the case. I don't know the exact issue that would cause you to say he doesn't know much about brakes but, you have to admit that diagnosing your problem over the phone without pictures can be impossible, even for someone like myself.

At 8:31 AM on the 19th Isaac replied to your "Hello?" of the following evening with: "We haven't had any pictures come through yet. Can you try sending them again?"

At 9:05 AM on the 19th we received your pictures. Once we received your pictures, we knew instantly what the issue was and things started to progress rather well (I think?). That said, we do close at 3:00 on Friday's and the phone is an automated VOIP platform. Your last texts at 3:07 and 3:46 were not received until this morning.

Your issue (as you know but others herein do not) was someone put late model Carrera calipers on your 73 911. You ordered the correct calipers for your year, make and model car. We shipped the correct calipers for your car. The obvious fact is 1973 calipers won't fit over 1984 rotors but... without having your pictures, that's almost impossible to diagnose.

Holly, our Customer Experience Manager, has taken over with your texts this morning. Please feel free to reach out toll free if there are any questions you may have 855-786-7101.

I think you've made the right decision in keeping with your original rear calipers as it keeps your bias ratio in factory spec. If it were my car, I would pull back on the 24mm rotors up front as well while keeping the A-Calipers (we would have to swap out spacers and fasteners). I would put 20mm rotors from a 70-83 car up front. This would be a standard 911SC setup on your 73. This would cut down on rotating mass while maintaining the same level of braking performance. You will never fade a 20mm rotor in your car (well... unless it's some extreme circumstances) Remember, the factory won the GT class at Le Mans on 20mm rotors in 1970.

Thanks again. Your thread has helped us implement a new policy for texts. Please call us if you ever have a problem. Toll free 855-786-7101

[sundevil64]

Eric,

Thank you for the thorough response and the recommendation. I am glad you saw this as an “opportunity” versus a “dig” on your team and company. I have always enjoyed the contributions you and your team have made to our car community.

However, I was concerned that growth was going to have a negative effect on a trusted source for quality work and parts. Hopefully, this will quiet any other concerns that service is dropping I know it has for me.

Unfortunately, I have fallen into the expectation of super quick responses. There are a few other vendors many of us on this forum have just become accustomed to waiting a week or longer. That’s a compliment to you and your team that you have set the bar high. Heck, there was a time you used to field all the calls. Unrealistic, I realize.

I am glad you are building a team with members such as Isaac that you can build your growing business on.

I will try your recommendation of going to a 20mm rotor. I don’t normally track the car , but may take a jaunt out if the opportunity comes up. I will be sure to have good pads, plenty of cooling and of course fresh brake fluid.

Please excuse any typos and such I am sitting on a cramped plane typing this on my phone.

I look forward to working with your team in the future.

Respectfully,

John

[917_Langheck]

Bravo @Eric_Shea.

[vick]

Well done Eric, it’s businesses like yours that makes
keeping these cars on the road fun. Tell your team we appreciate their passion and efforts. I’ll do my part by braking harder and calling you soon for fresh parts

[JmuRiz]

Of course Eric comes through

[Cairo94507]

As always, Eric is a class act and so is his crew.

[dtxscott]

We NEED companies like PMB to continue to operate. They are very open about supporting the community when it would be easy to put profits first.

Example: I rebuilt the calipers on my '89 about 18 months ago. I had the ways/means to rebuild and refinish my calipers so I ordered the rebuild kit from PMB along with some new pistons. They arrived quickly with some advice given over the phone free of charge from a smart young man.

Most companies in the "new economy" would not be willing to sell the parts stand alone. They would only offer the parts as part of a rebuild in order to capture the revenue.

We also need to remember that these companies are dealing in a highly specialized aftermarket niche. If you want instantaneous responses after hours, shop at Summit or Jegs. If you want to see terrible service, wade into the vintage Mustang restoration world...... Yikes!

Many thanks to Eric for running a solid business.

[Showdown]

The measure of a company is not if they make mistakes because those are inevitable, but how they come back from said errors and make things right.

Well done, PMB. Pretty sure you earned some new customers just now.

[rokemester]

This thread is with Eric’s response is a MASTER class in how you respond to critical posts about your company. Extremely well handled! The thread title is unfortunate, but that’s the good and bad of tech forums. They can help and sometime sting.

[47silver]

Pmb did stellar work for me. Amazing actually. They will resolve any issues no doubt.