I'm glad this topic has sparked some discussion. For the record, the first thing I did was contact Pelican, which is where I received the story about the manufacturing, which sounded shaky coming from the employee I talked to. They DID offer my money back, but that's hardly the point here. I'd like to respond to a few of the comments but before I do I want to be sure everyone reads Macroni's comments above. Unlike some of the other posters, he has a very clear understanding of how contract manufacturing works, why it's good, and why you can end up with inferior product using the same factory Porsche used.
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Originally Posted by JerryL
Matt, Sounds like you want it both ways, you want the exact dealer piece in the P car bag BUT you dont want to pay the $$$
The P.Parts item is $29.50, I would imagine the price difference had more effect on you selecting Pelican for the purchase than your dedication to supporting the forum.
I think your apparent disgust with our slimey tactics host here is thinly veiled. Regards
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Jerry, I actually never made it as far as you think I did. I needed the pedal and went to my first choice -- Pelican -- where I found an OEM (oops, not) pedal for sale by searching the Porsche part number. Even if I had checked Stoddard and seen the $100 pedal, I would not have been surprised that Pelican had the same (or what I would have assumed was the same) part for 1/3 the price, Stoddard isn't known for their competitive pricing and you can often find the same part for gobs less someplace else. I'm always willing to pay the premium for OEM parts vs China, I jut found the Pelican pedal first.
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Originally Posted by berettafan
Dunno about 'deceptive' though. My guess is Pelican is just too big to accurately assess every product they re-sell and as such you're going to find bits here and there that aren't what you thought. The implication of 'deceptive' is that Wayne himself held the part in his hand along with an NOS part and said "hmmm....not nearly as nice so lets just dance around the truth in the description so we can sell these damned things". I just don't believe that is the case.
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I'll stick with deceptive. With other parts available you can click on the manufacturer name and get a good description of who is making it. With this "OEM" thing you get a picture of a German flag and a dozen words. When you search you aren't given a list of pedals that include a true original and this repro, just this repro (even though Pelican sells the original). I don't know whether Wayne (whose name I have NOT brought up myself) checks repro parts for quality before he orders them, but he should. I worked for a VERY similar operation in the 1980s, we sold original and repro parts, for restoration and vintage racing. Whenever an opportunity came to stock a new repro part, the owner and retail manager would check it out before it was ordered. Then when it came in the warehouse manager (me) and the wholesale rep would also check them out. There are a lot of gatekeepers even in a small operation, and TRUST ME Pelican is not big enough for the ownership to be hands-off.
Besides, the problem was not with the quality of the part, which was below OE grade but not horrible by any stretch. The problem is in how it's being represented on this site and how the "errors of omission" stack up. I'm not trying to burn Pelican or its creator. I obviously use the forum and appreciate it, and I'm obviously not one of those people who use Pelican for the forum but goes elsewhere when they need to spend money. But I think this labeling practice is misleading at best, and deceptive at worst. I wanted to alert the public in the hopes that it will be changed to a more clear system.