Who else has been ripped off by automobile atlanta?

P.S by the way they sell parts they dont have. Take the money and then the attitude is screw you.

Interesting first two posts.

If you have a story to tell, tell it.

Won an auction on ebay, sent parts that were misrepresented and used old crap. Returned to them at my expense, now their attitude is were so sorry but screw you!! All in all an awful experience. Beware!!

I recently spent about 2000 dollars with AA. I was quite satisfied with the products and service.

If you have a problem with one of the clerks there, email George directly: dr914@autoatlanta.com.

Be civil when you write, send pictures if you have them, and a link to the original ad. Every time I've talked/written to him, he's been very accomodating.

I hope he can help you - it's frustrating when a deal goes bad. I think we've all been through that with one vendor or another.

-Rusty

Rusty is from another dimension where you get hosed by Pelican and good service from Atlanta. I thought my life was weird, but his must really be interesting.
-Ben M.

I also find them helpful.

They frequently have things that others don't.

I just bought a set of AA repro GT Steel Flairs off of Ebay.
What an ordeal.
Right before the bidding ended I got an email from AA saying we noticed your bidding on our flairs and we will sell them to you for $699.00.
The bidding was already up to $860. I asked AA should I try to cancel my bid.
They said the $699 price was more messed up flairs and they sent me the email by accident.
I ended up paying $910 for the flairs plus shipping.
Everytime I called up and hit 0 for shipping / order status I got there voice mail.
I ended up leaving multiple voice mails and emails and nobody called me back.
I ended up calling there order desk and they picked up the phone everytime and were very helpful.
They said the flairs are dropped shipped and they have no control over the order status.
They finallly showed up a month later.
The flairs look fine as far as I can tell except the bottom has extra metal that will need to be cut.
There was a note in the box that said this was normal.

Anybody know of a good body shop in Southern Cal that can put these steal flairs on and paint the car???

thanks,

Steve

Or,

who hasn't?

I sent you over here from Rennlist and to answer your question I think "Scott" was right, Who hasn't? Almost everyone who deals with them is screwed and made to pay more than what was listed. And don't even waist you time trying to call them because the only think it will do it cost you money for the phone call and cost you time out of your day. So here is to AA for caring too much about yourselfs.

DING!! your # is 9,562.

kevin

I have purchased items from AA three times and all three were pleasant experiences. On the last order, I explained a tight time issue (my fault for not ordering earlier) and they were able to get the parts to me on time and honored the 'previously negotiated' shipping discount I'd talked to them about when I made the order.

I have not had the same pleasant experience with other vendors so I no longer give them my business. Not purchasing from a vendor seems to me to be a fair way of dealing with poor service. I've never understood the 'XXX vendor screwed me AGAIN' posts....if they didn't meet your expectation the first time - why go back?? If its the only place to get that particular part - and you have to have it - then purchase with the knowledge that you have no leverage and you know the risk. If you are price shopping and choose to go to a vendor you've had a bad experience with - then weigh the 'hassle factor' into the cost benefit analysis and decide if its worth placing the order with the "bad" vendor to save the amount of money you'll be saving.

This philosphy doesn't seem like rocket science to me...not even as difficult as 'carb science'.....am I missing something???

Pam aka Toolwench

AA does better with mid america and east coasters.....my opinion is that they are afraid that any bad business, the customer will come down and kick the shit out of them.....

Always always the case. The local guy takes care of you. In turn... take care of the local guy.

Like Pam said. If you have heard bad things or experienced bad things why go back for more ??

Pelican takes care of SoCal..

AA takes care of Atlanta..

Automotion USED to take care of NorCal..

When you need a part.. ask us.

B

I dealt with AA almost exclusively when I restored my 72 back in 1993. It was overall a good experience. However in the last couple of years, I have had several poor experiences, the worst being a promised credit to my credit-card on a part that was junk. I never got the credit and after numerous attempts fix it, I gave up. Also, George seems hit and miss. Some days very helpful and others pissy and no time.

When looking for a hard part, though, they are tough to beat. Sometimes it is just worth the hassle to find what you need.

I used to think I would only use them for "hard to find parts" then I realized (back in 96) we have the web. No need to EVER talk to them again. If I need something.. I ask the boards. I know who supply's them with 99% of their parts. If I need a semi decent used part... HPH all the way. Higher prices but the proper part every time. HPH is much bigger than AA.. he just doest have the catalog.


B

did aa offer you a smoke and a ride home? or did they just leave you a bill for shipping on the nightstand?

That's really the case?
I mean I've been to HPH a couple of different times, and never to AA,
even tho I lived in Atlanta for 11 months.

HPH just doesn't seem like a Huge operation, know what I mean? I
know Rich does have a lot of stuff, even some parts divided for whether
they are Drivers side or Passenger side.

You, ok I, get the impression that AA is this BIG Gigantic warehouse full of
914 parts. 'They' just can't find them when you want to order one.

my bedroom is bigger than a a. it's not that big.

Pelican takes care of Northern Ontario Canada too?
Maybe they think it's Ontario California, lets just keep it a secret.

And South east Michigan, too

Scott... I meant parts wise. Rich has disassembled more cars than AA has ever seen. Its doesnt take 30 people to run a business. AA might have 4-5 people.


B

Oh I don't doubt what you've said Brad...

my point was that aa *seems* like this big, montrosity type of place.
Of course, *seems* only comes to my mind from the way that aa
likes to talk about/market themselves.


Can't think of a reason for anyone this side of the us to choose aa over HPH,
or GPR or PP. (pp = pelican, NOT perfomance products)

Hey guys, what is HPH?

I've bought from AA a few times, with mixed results, but I've decided that I'll limit business to walk in only, when I happen to be in Atlanta.

Mike

Its a west coast 914 parts mecca. Your better off buying local (to you) from AA.


B

Mike/maf914 wrote: Hey guys, what is HPH?


High Performance House. cool name, huh?
Rich can tell you what you need to know about your 914,
and then show you how to drive it REAlly fast.

Multiple-time champion driving a 1.8! Brad prolly knows the exact number.

I love HPH. If they don't have the part or can't get it then it is a part that is next to impossible to get. If they do have the part then the price typically beats Pelican and saves me shipping. I typically will go to HPH first before I try anywhere else.

My complaint with HPH is sort of a "consumer experience" thing. HPH appears to be primarily an auto shop, and secondarily a parts store. So when you go there and you ask for stuff, Rich is always running around like crazy trying to take care of 5 things at once and you have to walk through the shop area and it's a total mess. I mean I have never seen a shop so messy in my life. And then to get a part you have to go with Rich into the back wherehouse where there are rows and rows of shelves and no light! Not a single hanging light! So it's close to pitch black. And Rich is holding flash light and rummanging through parts and parts spread all over these shelves. Some of them are organized in neat labeled boxes but some parts are lying out on the shelve in no particular order. He always finds what I'm looking for but it just always strikes me as a hassle that he has to hold my hand to find a part and that he's always in a rush so you feel pressured to remember all the things you need at once.

Rich even has this cool "store" area with an under glass rotating display (it rotates like a little ferris wheel; it's really cool). But even this area has no lighting and is totally messy with junk sprawled eveywhere, old stereos, posters, seats, batterys, 20 year old promotion dispays, all kinds of parts under glass or just laying out, etc. And you can't get to the "store area" without an escort because the door is locked, and it's in the way way back behind an entire yard full of parts, many of them rusting in the exposed air.

I've always thought that if Rich cleaned up the yard and cleaned up the wherehouse (or paid some kid $8 an hour to do it) then he would have the same sort of "browsing" foot traffic that Parts Heaven has. I know that there's probably a shitload of stuff I would probably end up buying if I was allowed to just leisurely browse the stacks (assuming they were organized in some way and had decent lighting; I don't think giving customers flash lights would be a workable business model). I really think that Rich could make a lot more money if he concentrated on his parts business more, and maybe did a mail order or web based business. He certainly has the parts, even if they are disorganized.

I'd probably even help him if he wanted that kind of help. But you know how it is. He's been in business for a long time and it's hard to teach old dogs new tricks. It's too bad. I sort of wish we had a clean, modern, and browsable Porsche parts store on the peninsula. I don't know why we don't. We certaily have enough Porsches here.

Douglas

I'll talk to you offline Doug.

The entire building has lights... he is too cheep to turn them on..ha ha..


B

Probably right. I live in Florida now and try to be real nice to people. If I was back in Chicago, I'd go in after hours with my cousin Salvatore and do a Tanya Harding in the guy's knee caps.

I had one fine experience with AA. just don't buy the repro rubber seals...

Didn't this thread have another name?

WTF is up with that?

Looks like someone doesn't want the secret about AA to get out.

Like there is some way to save their reputation.

The thing I like about HPH is that you can talk to Rich and he'll tell you the quality of the part. No BS. And prices are relative....i.e., what is the cost of something you need that comes in wrong or misrepresented.

Guess we're lucky to be in the Bay Area. We can walk in and be face to face with lots of suppliers, as opposed to hoping that the ordered parts will come, via mail, as represented.

Wish I had a $100 for every parts purchase fiasco I've had playing the long distance game.

I was lucky with AA as the first thing I bought there was crap and I haven't been back since.

One of my favorites: I got talked into buy a set of "special" brakes, off the internet, for my Suburban (heavy truck) that I have now taken back to my mechanic 10 times. Man, did I get sucked in - and it's not over yet.

Anyone else out there think we should have a voting place on this site for bad or good experiences with vendors, so that people can go and see how many people had what experiences.

It never hurts to have some intelligence about the people/companies who keep our little machines running.

I think Brad really wants to keep this forum vendor neutral...dont think the admins would go for an area that you could vote on vendors...

It sucks when someone has a problem with a vendor. Sometimes you live and learn...

AA sounds bad enough
AA on E-bay run don't walk !!!!!

We've discussed the idea of a vendor forum. For now, the answer is no.

v/r
Lawrence

Where is HPH located? I am coming up to the bay area here soon and want to check them out.

Here is the contact info:

2431 Spring Street
Redwood City, CA 94063

Redwood City. Saturday is a great time to go visit HPH. I think Rich is there until 2pm and it's usually pretty quiet since the service shop is closed. Ask for a tour.

I'd say call on Saturday just to make sure.

Wouldn't it be nice if you could search ebay and eliminate the vendors? (or can you already do that?) I find way too much stuff from AA and Partwerks, they just waste my time looking at them.

You can eliminate all the Buy-It-Nows by clicking on the auction tab.