Date:         Fri, 6 Sep 2002 21:47:06 -0400
Reply-To:     Stephen Steele <steeles@HORIZONVIEW.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Stephen Steele <steeles@HORIZONVIEW.NET>
Subject:      Re: Parts Place, a good story
Content-type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

>>A fellow Westfalia owner who is not a List member asked me
>>if I knew of the Parts Place and whether they had a web page.
>>Anyone out there dealt with them and can give me any info?
>
> I believe the general opinion of these guys is that they are to be avoided
> at all cost.  I don't think I have ever heard anything good about them, and
> I have heard plenty of bad things on both this list and the Scirocco list.
>
> Bill

I'm not defending PP, but this is a true story.

A customer at my buddy's garage, knowing that I am a Vanaholic, called him
asked to get in touch with me. His '86/87 Syncro had been in a wreck and
suffered serious front end damage about 18 months earlier.  He had always
planned on getting it fixed. BUT as he is a VERY independent (like a pig on
ice) sort of fellow with no real job, he had decided to sell it "as is" and
move on with life. He had already spoken to PP and they offered him $500
site unseen. He gave me a chance before sending it to the big, bad PP. He
had had an unpleasant experience at one of PP's open houses.
SO,
I drove into the hills to inspect the van... no repairing the front end, it
would not start, no good bumpers and the interior was just okay AND I was
already the owner of three vans and didn't want this project even at $500.
Parts Place sent a kid down (5 hours each way) with the cash in hand and a
flat bed. He fixed the mouse-eaten starter wire and it then ran, so the
exchange was made.

Shortly thereafter the PO called me to let me know all this ... I discounted
his gloating tone that this "kid" had found/fixed the non starting problem
and I wished him well with his last and only VW, a diesel Rabbit daily
driver.

Several weeks later he called again to report that _______, the PP owner had
sent him a check for several hundred dollars more. He told the PO the van
was in much better shape that what he thought it would be in and he felt it
was worth more than the $500 that he originally paid!

Maybe the bad press and rap he got from the Melissa saga has sunk in and he
has developed a better business conscience. Maybe.

Anyway, I have dealt with PP in the past and have refrained from doing so
since "Melissa". I may decide to do some mail order with them but only when
no other list vender part is competitive and available.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

--
Stephen
Chillicothe OH