Anyone noticed this thread? Answers a lot of questions I had

[mikepellegrini]

Pelican Parts and ECS Tuning- here's what you should know

Things just haven't seemed right here for the last 6 months or so. Now I see why.

This ain't Pelican anymore. It's just another operating unit of a private equity firm (Bertram Capital) - doing what private equity firms do best (run companies into the ground).

They did the same thing to Turner Motorsports a few years ago: https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/turner-motorsports-and-pelican-parts-bought-out-by/141044/page1/

Such a sad end to what was a great company; a company that was a great boon to Porsche enthusiasts all over.

RIP Pelican.

[djnolan]

With everything I have learned reading this forum, maybe I could get a PT gig with pelican in retirement!

[Monkey Wrench]

Enjoy the forum but pelican wont ship to Canada so they aren't really a viable option for me anyway. If they are bought out then maybe they will change the company policy and be able to ship outside the US.

[mikepellegrini]

Pelican was sold in 2017-18.

[Monkey Wrench]

so the company was sold to a new owner but they do seem to be in business. I did read the article along with a couple of negative comments but maybe it's overreacting to call this the demise of the company? It does make sense that some company's are holding on to a stock of parts and perhaps feeling a bit stuck with inventory as they will of course have less customers as some each year get taken off the road. Ive noticed the lists of available parts shrinking on the rock site and I assume that's just due to many reaching end of life and decreasing sales. I've shopped locally for some things like a muffler that had a 200 dollar shipping charge on the rock site, found it locally for about 70 bucks. I think the awkward shape just meant a big huge box and shipping rates have increased a lot. Maybe a place like that will eventually buy the inventory if things come to a point where the business isn't making so much profit. many of the thinks I have purchased online did seem to come through the shippng system in quite reasonable times especially considering the cross border package inspections and paperwork for brokerage etc. I havent seen any packages opened so maybe they just see the shipper and never , or at least not often, find bad things in those boxes. In the past Ive used USPS or UPS transfering to Canada and UPS applying rediculous brokerage fees or holding parts for weeks that were unfortunate enough to find themselves opened and inspected. I assume most of those issues are with the border agents and not the shippers . I ordered some stuff through amazon that took so long that I made dozens of phone calls and got irresponsible answers and promises. on one order I filed with the better business bureau after patience became jut a ridiculous wait with no logical answers, and the BBB fixed it pretty fast. The problems in that case were mostly with the delivery service that amazon uses here, my parts go stuck in some giant local warehouse and I got repetitive delivery promise emails but no delivery and complete refusal to escalate.

at one time I bought most things locally from brick and mortar but things change, they are all really high in pricing, likely due to online distributors taking the lions share of their business, so i buy most online. I find that even with a bit of shipping delay I'm at least not driving around much so I just have to be a bit more preemptive. I try to buy all or most of what I need and then take something apart now, rather than buying them in real time, after it's apart, like I could with brick and mortar stores.