personally I cannot wait for the synergies

I've only had my '80 SC for a year now, and I agree that this forum is invaluable. I just installed the O2 Sensor plug mentioned above, among other things. I have only had good experiences in my purchases from Pelican - everything has arrived as promised and they've been very responsive to my questions. I haven't had any interaction with ECS Tuning.

My only point in this post is to voice my appreciation of this forum, site, and online store to Wayne and Bryan, thank Wayne for starting it (and for his books that have also been invaluable), and to encourage Bryan in keeping this forum and site as the great resource it is!

Interesting comments by everyone. It's great to see everyone's passion for "doing the right thing". Don't know Wayne personally but from what I've heard and can see by what he built the decision to sell his company was probably tough and assume he selected the group that best suited Pelican Parts"his baby" and went with a company(buyer) that could continue his legacy. As Wayne stated there is a lot of things that happen behind the scenes that the majority would not understand or never understand. If it was easy everyone would do it. If the company isn't profitable it's not a business it's just a hobby and change is evident so embrace it and wish Pelican continued success.

This is the right attitude, and I agree whole heartedly. Having come to the Porsche Club from Audi and other Japanese makes, I found my way to this forum to be able to do a lot of work on my car by myself, met some amazing people, found some amazing vendors, etc. I have also bought a lot of parts from Pelican over the years (and from other vendors). Yes Pelican has had some shipping/stocking issues here and there. I have found more issues at a few other places though, and would say Pelican has been one of the better Porsche vendors to deal with by far. As an ex-Audi guy, I had a few issues with ECS, but nothing huge or life changing.

I would venture to guess that no one posting on these forums is doing so because they have not received any benefit from Wayne & Co' s efforts at all, in fact quite the contrary. It is always interesting to see how many Philadelphia Lawyers there are out here on the inter-web, and how many "amazing businesses people" live on forums like this who "know how it's done."

We are not some group of wimpy snowflakes who are owed anything by Wayne and Pelican. If he had sold out to Bertam and they just closed Pelican Parts and opened it up as a "Porsche Tab" on ECS'.......that would have sucked, but it's fine. Once it's their business, it's their business to do with what they want. We hope they do right by us, and we want them take care of the employees etc......but its their business.

Life changes people. If you don't like Bertam, go somewhere else. If you don't like how Wayne & Co handled the announcement, go somewhere else. If you don't like the Pelican Cartoon, go somewhere else. It's Wayne's business, and for many years he has poured his heart and soul into it and given us AMAZING service (here in the forums, by even providing them, and his parts company etc).

Has anyone else, or any other company done as much positively for the community as Pelican and Wayne? I cannot think of any. It's his business, and if he wants to slow down and sell it we should all be grateful that he cared enough to start it and run it for as long as he did to help us all out. That's it! Beyond that he only had an obligation to look after himself and his family as part of the sale. For him to do more is being gracious, and he has been very gracious. As harsh as it sounds, he did not even have an obligation to the employees as part of the sale. However as a good business person with personal relationships with them he sure tried, but he did not have to. For him to try to do the best deal he could for himself, the employees, AND us.... to enable to continuity of the community and the parts company, is above and beyond. To think otherwise is just frankly un-American, and a sign we all need to spend less time not the internet being "experts," and more time wrenching on our beloved cars, and driving them, and enjoying the real interpersonal relationships this wonderful community has for years fostered.....again THANK TO WAYNE & CO.

+1. Kind of cool for us Ohio guys. Pelican Parts just feels closer now.

I'm happy to report as a PP customer and supplier nothing has changed, IMO.

Ryan

and the Buckeyes just thrashed Michigan again :D

Oh yeah😏

Interesting read. Not sure how I missed this in the middle of the summer. Having been thru what happened at ECS, in another industry, I can sympathize.

With that said.....

I have been building my own hot-rods, Porsche and others for along time. Suppliers are very important. You can't make a supply company "get it" while others simply do. "Get-It" to me is honesty and integrity in dealing with me. I don't need to be told something just to make me happy, I need the truth so I can plan.

Only time will tell if Pelican maintains it's First Class status with me. So far it's been pretty damn good.

BTW....I love this forum and I hate the word "synergies".

Same here, poor communications, especially with special order parts. I am actively exploring other parts sourcing options.

I agree, the biggest thing I've seen is in shipping. Pre-sale everything was here in 2 days. Always. Now I'm lucky if I see it in 4 days, and 5 is not uncommon. Not sure what they've done there, but it is not as good.

I've been wondering why the service at Pelican has gone downhill, and stumbled onto this thread, and the fact that Pelican was sold to a private equity firm.

I've had a lot of issues with Pelican in the past year. Outrageous shipping charges (I think $17 for a circlip that weighed maybe 1/4 Oz - and then it was gonna take a week and a half before they could ship it), the Momo steering wheel that was gonna take a month and a half - two months to ship (that I got in two days from a large competitor), wrong parts delivered (brake rotors for a 944 NA when I'd ordered the rotors for a 951) to name a few.

Reading this thread and the one about Turner Motorsports, it all came into focus. This ain't Pelican anymore. It may have some outward aspects which seem familiar. But it's just smoke and mirrors. Pelican's gone. The people who made Pelican special - people who knew Porsches - where if they you bought a part, you could rest assured it was the right part and would fit perfectly - those people are gone. Obviously.

And so all that's now left is just another big corporate conglomerate that doesn't really care about its customers, and doesn't know Porsches. You might as well be dealing with Auto Atlanta. Or Autozone.

Since I got my first 944 in 2006, I've spent thousands of dollars at Pelican. But from this point on, I'm gonna take my trade elsewhere.

RIP Pelican. What a sad demise.

I've noticed it too. There are still some guys who work there that know their parts and Porsches, such as Glen Sager. He owns a longhood and knows them well. When I need advice, I call him and place my order through him.

Pelican has been great imho. I was worried 5 years ago when this happened, but my biggest complaint was the website makeover was a little wonky. I still have trouble with the car selection stuff (kicking to automatically become a BMW throwing off my parts search) but aside from that service has been outstanding. The employees have been great. I've spoken to 4 or 5 people over there and you get the sense that they are regular people who are familiar with the big machine they work for. They know how to help and they do a fantastic job of resolving issues. I got a damaged fuel tank earlier this year and Pelican replaced it and the whole process was well handled by the sales staff and the warehouse techs. I guess I'm trying to say it still feels family owned to some degree from an outsiders perspective. I'm really glad they exist.

Some shipping pro tips. You absolutely have to plan your parts purchase and spend $100 to get the free shipping. Pelican offers tools too, so if you aren't quite at $100 then buy yourself a nicer lug socket or something like that. It's worth it to save the shipping.

The other pro-tip is to be on the email list. I regularly get appreciation offers for $5 to $20 off. I can use these to offset shipping or tax.

And don't forget about the PCA once a year discount! If you have a big project coming, you can save a grip using the one time discount.

In Feb 2005, I drove my 2000 VW NB 5-speed with a 1.8T and 76,000 miles over to ECS near Akron for installation of a custom transmission to handle the 345 ft-lbs of torque my big turbo with GIAC software was producing.

The ECS Service Dept put in a six speed Eurospec Addon Kit with a .95 over drive 5th and a .75 overdrive 6th gear. Also a Sachs Power clutch, Peloquin LSD and some other goodies to handle the engine power.

I hung out in the parts dept and watched Internet orders come in on a big stack of dial up modems. It was clear with Tom that this was the future.

The Service dept closed in 2006 and today I have over 100,000 more miles on the Transmission, Clutch and LSD that they put in in the three days while I hung out. It was some nice work!

Good times back then....


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