Date: Tue, 18 Feb 97 08:19:45 -0500
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: "Bob O'Shaughnessy" <oshaug@infinet.com>
Subject: Re: Parts Place and neat tools
>Subject: Re: Parts Place
>Sent: 2/17/97 6:33 PM
>Received: 2/17/97 6:51 PM
>From: vwbus@netbiz.net
>To: Multiple recipients of list, vanagon@lenti.med.umn.edu
>
>> >
>> > Hi again. I'm still trying to put my '81 into factory condition. I have
>> > some stuff coming from the Parts Place. Are they usually reliable?
>>
>
>Unlike some on this list I have always been perfectly happy with them
>over 10 years of use. Have saved me a lot of money over the years,
>they are not always the best price (but always a good start, never
>pay more than them) and I have had more than my share of returns to
>them but like everything else mail order use a credit card, be very
>plain but descriptive when ordering parts, and if forced to return
>speak forcefully but peaceably and you will never have a problem from
>them. They do some neat tool rentals (FWD wheel bearing puller) that
>no one else does.
I'd have to chime in on the nay side for Parts Place. They have
shipped me the wrong parts nearly every single time I've ordered from
them and given me an amazing ammount of hassle on the subsequent returns.
Their pricing is confusing and strangely fluid "And I'd like the $10
discount that you advertise for the package on page 10" "Well that
inculdes the discouunt" "But that is the same price as buying the
individual parts on page 11" "Yes it is" "Well then it isn't a package
discount is it?" "Uh....." They also have sent me various broken or
useless "recycled" parts, like a radior expantion tank with a huge crack
in it and a half-assed silicone repair job.
Unfourtinately, since they send their catalog to every person who
ever registered a VW in the Known Universe, many of the uninitiated think
that they are the only VW parts dealer *in* the Known Universe. Luckily
for me, I have a very good local shop who has a strange sense of pitty
for me ("You need the *whole* exhaust!? For a *Vanagon*?!? Oh God....")
and sells me parts at or below shop price.
Most of their cool tools can be purchased direct from thier
supplier, SP Tools of Anaheim Hills. Their catalog is a must for any
mechanical type who works on any type of car. Their number is
714-693-7666 fax 714-693-8558 (usual discalimers, I don't work for them)
Of note to Vanagon types is the nice rear wheel bolt offset socket that
lets you bang on the socket with a sledge to help the bolt off.
Bob
84GL and 85GL project
___________________________________________________________________________
_
Bob O'Shaughnessy
oshaug@infinet.com
72632.432@compuserve.com
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