Date:         Tue, 3 Oct 2000 20:02:24 -0400
Reply-To:     The Bus Depot <ron@NETCARRIER.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         The Bus Depot <ron@NETCARRIER.COM>
Subject:      Re: Complaint concerning Bus Depot
In-Reply-To:  <LPBBKDADBGDOCLHILFEBMEDOCLAA.danrich@ccmaui.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

> After a month of waiting on parts from Bus Depot I'm left either stranded
> without parts or the wrong parts...
> I think it's important that we know what where in for when
> dealing with the intricacy of ordering parts and the great need for better
communication on
> both sides and taking a few more minute in getting it right.
> I not the bad guy here just frustrated with there poor service.
> I've spent allot of money with them only to be in inconvenience to there
> "where to busy, can't find your lost parts, can't find your parts. don't
> know how to find your parts, there on there way babble.


Don't even get me started about Dan Danrich.  I know, I know, they say the
customer is always right.  Well, bulsh*t.  Sometimes the customer isn't
right.

Danrich has been downright abusive to just about every salesperson in my
shop and to me, not once but multiple times.  I mean abusive.  Yelling on
the phone and via email about stuff that nobody can control, such as a MINOR
part like a bumper bolt being backordered by VW, etc. He has treated my
employees in a manner that nobody on this list would likely put up with for
very long without slugging the person in the nose.  Nobody here wants to
take his calls, because he's screamed at just about everyone here at least a
few times.  Once he sent me a nasty email deriding me for sending him
something he didn't order, and demanding a full refund including shipping.
When I sent him back a copy of HIS OWN EMAIL to me saying "please send me
so-and-so" (the same item he claimed he never had ordered), he didn't even
have the decency to apologize.  Other times he sent me conflicting emails
about what he had and had not received from us, and got angry and frustrated
when I was confused by them.  All along the tone has been one of rudeness
and abuse, from day one.  He has acted like he was the only person who ever
had a backorder occur, and that waiting for a bumper bolt or brake hardware
kit was so horrible that it gave him license to treat everyone in the shop
like total garbage, repeatedly.  What gives anyone the right to treat other
people like that?

The problem was so severe that at one point I even emailed Danrich telling
him that I'd just as soon refund all of his money and have him take his
business elsewhere.  He apologized for the particular abusive tyrade that
precipitated my email, but then a few days later he called and yelled at
Brian on the phone.

Three items were backordered on Dan Danrich for any length of time: a bumper
bolt, a gasket, and a brake hardware kit.  All were backordered by our
suppliers, a situation which I cannot control.  We made him aware of the
backorders, and he always had the option to cancel. When he asked how long
the delay would be, I told him the honest truth, that the backorder was on
the part of my suppliers and I didn't know how long it might be.  Also a
small order was lost by the post office (nobody's fault), and we sent him a
duplicate of the order even though we had not yet (and still have not)
gotten paid by the post office for the lost mail claim (a process which
requires him to sign a form stating that he did not get the package).  When
he received an incorrect door handle grommet and brake hardware kit, we not
only refunded for the one and exchanged the other, but also reimbursed his
return postage, despite being verbally abused by him for the error.

You know what, the honest truth is that if Dan Danrich wasn't so nasty and
abusive when dealing with everybody here, he'd almost certainly have gotten
better service.  We're all human, and nobody likes being treated like a
piece of trash. The honest truth is that the ones who get the best service
are the ones who treat us like human beings.  That is just human nature.

To answer a reference in Danrich's post, no, we generally do not look up
part numbers on the microfiche here.  We are a no-frills mail-order
business.  We emphasize highest quality parts at lowest prices.  Frankly we
don't have the time to look up door handle gaskets and bumper bolts on Etka,
or other people's orders won't make it out the door.  Not that I couldn't
hire more people to sit around looking up Etka part numbers for customers
all day.  But if I did, everyone else's parts would cost more so I could
finance the cost of that service.  That would be great for the guys who
can't or won't look up part numbers themselves, but bad for everyone whose
prices went up to subsidize those people. Your local dealer can provide that
service for you, and he charges enough for the parts that he can pay a guy
to sit in front of a microfiche reader all day long.  Or you can get a hold
of Etka for free (or so it seems) and look the number up yourself.  If you
want to patronize a dealer who can look up the parts for you, then that's
perfectly understandable. I make no bones about what I am and what I am not.
My goal is to provide the best quality at the lowest price.  I do not
promise same-day shipping (unless you specifically order it).  I do not
promise a parts lookup service.  I do not promise availability of
experienced mechanics to help you with tech support.  I don't even promise
never to make a mistake and ship a wrong part or whatever. I make mistakes
all the time! We all do!  I do not promise to be all things to all people.
All I promise is to give you the best quality parts I possibly can at the
lowest possible prices. That is the one thing that I really, really try hard
to do.  If that matches your needs, buy from me.  If not, don't. That's why
there's chocolate and vanilla.  You don't go to Sam's Club expecting Macy's
service, but you don't pay Macy's prices there either.

As for the Dan Danriches of the world, frankly I really would just as soon
they buy their parts elsewhere.  I'm fortunate enough to be in a position
where I don't have to bend over and take abuse from customers or anyone
else. And I don't have to make my employees take abuse either.  (G-d knows,
they get enough abuse from me when I'm in a bad mood. :-)  Life is short,
and there are things more important that Volkswagen parts.  (Yes, really,
there are.)   How would you feel if you're at home after a long day at work,
playing with your 2-year-old toddler, and you stop to check your email to
discover a nasty, abusive, name-calling email from someone who is going
absolutely nuclear over receiving the wrong door handle gasket.  Then two
days later, another one about something else just as minor, and then
another.  You walk away from an email like that feeling like garbage, and it
just ruins your whole evening with your family.  It is really worth it?  It
isn't that I don't feel bad when a mistake happens, and not that I haven't
made a doozy here and there that maybe (okay, definately) _deserves_ a
hotheaded and abusive email, but sending a wrong door handle gasket just
doesn't call for that.  So if you're a hothead, please do go buy your parts
elsewhere.  If that makes me sound like the VW version of the Soup Nazi,
then fine, I'll live with that. But frankly, I'll gladly give up the
business from abusive customers, even if they have big money to spend.  Like
I said, life is short, and there are things that are more important than VW
parts, such as my peace of mind and that of my family and employees.

My $.02 ...

- Ron Salmon
  The Bus DepotŪ, Inc.
  www.busdepot.com
  (215) 234-VWVW