Date:         Sun, 11 Jul 2004 20:15:10 -0600
Reply-To:     "John Connolly, Aircooled.Net" <john@AIRCOOLED.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         "John Connolly, Aircooled.Net" <john@AIRCOOLED.NET>
Subject:      Re: "whiney ass customers that expect the moon for $.25"
Comments: To: Dagbear@aol.com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

You are taking what I said out of context. I said whiney customers, I did
not say all customers are whiney.

It's unfortunate that people think that with every business they can just
bring a part in, no matter how battered, abused, BROKEN, etc, and get a 100%
refund like they can at Wal-mart. Wal-mart is NOT the model for which a
business should be run. If you like the way Wal-mart handles your purchases
and returns, by all means buy your Vanagon parts at Wal-mart.

You are taking what I said completely out of context, and mis-hearing what I
have said. At Aircooled.Net we are on the leading edge of excellence WRT the
VW Industry. I am not saying we are perfect, but I KNOW we are a couple
orders of magnitude better then most (not all, MOST) retailers in our
Industry. I find it humorous that many people expect the lowest price, and
the highest service; it does not work that way. You can choose one end of
the spectrum or the other, or somewhere in the middle, but you won't get
both, and if you do find it, that will not be the case for long.

We ARE cordial, helpful and cooperative, but the customer is NOT ALWAYS
RIGHT.

The fact that I'm actually saying this is what's getting people's panties
all wrung up, but this is a simple fact, you are more then welcome to
disagree with me.

If someone tries to return someone else's part to me for a refund, I'm not
going to refund their money. All of a sudden I'm a #$)&*#)(&. Oh well.

I have refunded full purchase price or replaced a part that WAS the
customer's fault. But we are under no obligation to do so. The customer's
attitude is often the deciding factor on how they are treated, and I have no
control over their attitude coming in to things. I am not making the Big Wad
(that's a lot of $) selling VW parts, I can guarantee you that. I do this as
a hobby, even though it's a full time hobby. Customer's attitudes can keep
me happily involved in this hobby, working on developing new products that
are sorely needed, and finding others that already exist, and they can also
give me the attitude that " why am I doing this" to go do something else.

I stand fastly on my statement, and will add to it, I do not WANT the
business of whiney customers. But if a customer has a problem and talks to
me about it, almost every time they will come away feeling they got a fair
shake. We are the only company in the VW Industry that if you bought a cam
and lifter set from us, and had a cam or lifter failure, we not only
replaced the cam and lifters, but replaced (free, no charge, gratis, comp,
etc etc) the oil pump, rings, all bearings, and gasket set. Wanna' know what
happened? One customer had a cam go flat, and sent us the parts uninsured
via UPS, and UPS lost them. When we never got the parts, and I informed the
customer to file a claim with UPS, I got the "Whiney customer" mode; because
the customer didn't want to fill out the paperwork for the claim. So, after
several days of whiney e-mails telling me things like my parents weren't
married, I said "I do not need this" and did away with our flat cam
guarantee. So one bad apple spoils the program for the lot. I do NOT need
that kind of grief.

WRT the bumpers, ask anyone on the list that has bought them; they are very
nice. If you want a guarantee on the powder coating, like I say in the
product description, buy them bare and get them coated at a professional
INDUSTRIAL powder coaters, and expect to pay about $350-400 PER BUMPER. Our
price on the powder coating is a good deal at $50/bumper. But that
disclaimer is there to "give me ammunition" for the guys that expect a $400
Industrial Powdercoating job for $50; you pay for the quality, you do not
get a $400 job for $50, yet many people seem to not understand this basic
concept.

John Connolly
Aircooled.Net Inc.

Dagbear@aol.com should run for Public Office showing great skill at his
out-of-context quotation of my post, completely missing the point......

>   I would like to thank John at Aircooled.net for his description of come
of
> his customers.