I placed an order with a member vendor here because I thought it would be nice to support one of our guys. I contacted him to ask him how to send payment, etc. and received a reply right away. Then I sent my payment via paypal and waited, and waited...

I received a message after about a month telling me that my items would be sent out "this week". I started sending messages about a week after that to find out the status of my order, but have not received a reply. It has been a few months since I sent my payment and nothing.

I have been told that he is a good vendor and that I will probably receive my parts after a while because it takes a while for him to get around to shipping. I see that he logs in here and some other club sites pretty regularly, but he doesn't reply to my messages and he is apparently not replying to other members either.

It is my opinion that vendors who give this kind of poor customer service should not be allowed to post their produts here. I'd like to hear what others have to say.

It would be a shame for everyone to have to learn the hard way about this vendor's poor customer service.

Your argument makes sense and I'm inclined to agree with you. If you're bad enough even ebay will boot you and It's not a social club like this.

Yep, I think if there is proof and a pattern(not saying I don't believe you but there is always two sides) that the vendor is nonresponsive, then I think he advertisement in the Member Vendors section should be pulled. No sense for others to go through the same experience.

My two centavos...

Funny, I just had a similar experience with a member-vendor on a certain other site. After waiting waaaay too long for a refund, and many empty promises, I finally filed a dispute with PayPal. Not a claim, a dispute...just the first step. Low and behold, the issue was resolved within 48 hours of filing (along with an apology). It sucked to have to get the man involved, I'd hoped to just handle it like reasonable adults. But when that failed and the vendor quit communicating with me? The official approach was effective and I got to quit

My take ~ let the Admin team here know. If a vendor gets complaints from members on an even close to a regular basis, I'd like to think that he or she would not be allowed to continue advertising here.

The Pond! Throw her into the Pond!

Take it up with the vendor and resolve the issue. And put you name in your posts so we know who you are.

i guess i'd warn the vendor first before opening a thread.

then, assuming you have all the dates and pm's, you could lay it out and let the court of public opinion rule.

I am in the same situation with the same person and have been waiting since February. This person has always been a good vendor, so I'm a bit bewildered at the current scene. I really want the product. I didn't vote, I just wish the communication were there, so this situation would not exist.

I will state a fact or two.

We dont know who you are.
You have 55 posts, so you are not really super active in "our community"
We dont know the real situation.
The vendor has a real day job.
The vendor may have life issues that are preventing him/her from fixing you problem.

I would say CALL the vendor.
If there is no phone number in the member vendor area, there should be.
All vendors should provide a phone number, physical address, and be responsive, period.

Rich

You should talk to Eric Shea or a forum moderator first. Call him, handle it yourself, in private. In fact, I bet I know who you're talking about and I bet I've even told you this in the particular thread too. I hear he's a good guy and doesnt use email the way us computer addicted people do.

Try calling... start the muckraking after the call nets you no result.

Sometimes having to wait for the reproduction of a OEM part that is NLA is worth the wait. I believe there is also a border crossing that needs to take place for hassle free shipping. US border customs is a bitch.

I thought this was a generic poll about ANY vendor that doesn't respond after payment, not just vendors N or S of the border. I responded not to hammer a particular individual.

I see a few suggestions about calling said vendor first after talking to an admin. Is that to say the admins have vendors phone numbers to contact them with? I don't see that all of members here listing their phone numbers in their ads or in their profile. But maybe that should be a requirement if your a Member Vendor.

I didn’t vote in the poll because I don’t think those are the only or proper ways to go about this. I personally would handle it this way and in this order…

1. Make a serious and good faith effort to resolve this with the vendor. While you shouldn’t have to do this, use multiple methods to try to reach the vendor. Email, Call, maybe even see if there is a mutual friend or someone else on the forum who personally knows the person can find out what is going on.
2. If you get no satisfaction and you have paid money, try to get a refund. Either directly or via something like your credit car company/PayPal.
3. Let the forum admins know. Especially if this person runs banner ads, etc. It is up to them to decide how to handle this from a forum vendor perspective.
4. If you get to this point, I personally don’t see anything wrong with posting a factual and non-emotional comment regarding your experience. Be straight and to the point. My goal would not be to give the vendor a hard time, but rather to prevent other people from having a bad experience. Something along the lines of “This vendor seems to have a good track record in the past, but something is not right at the moment. I would be wary of using them until whatever issues have been resolved”. You are obviously going to have to call out the vendor by name, so you should do the same and make sure everyone knows who you are as well. I would make it a point of identifying yourself (signature with your real name and not your forum handle) because anonymous feedback is not good.

It’s not too hard to do a search and figure out what and who this is about. I have not used this vendor, but the person seems to have a good history both as a community member and vendor in the past. I would assume that something is going on and that some slack should be given, but at the same time the vendor DOES have a responsibility to his customers. Especially if money has been taken.

Not all the vendors are store fronts. Not all vendors are even a real business. Some have very demanding jobs. Some of our guys and gals make one off parts in their kitchens and garages because they probably needed a part for themselves once an couldn't buy one. So out of the need was the birth of their parts source. The guy your posting about is a good guy. Here's some things you may either not know about him or didn't think of. He lives in a place where cell phones either don't work or when they do they suk. If you have one your paying through your ass for little or no service. The part your waiting for cost less that the tank of gas he has to purchase to drive your part across the border in order to avoid a shipping and customs nightmare. He's slow at getting this done. S#!t happens. Were lucky to have some creative folks willing to spend their spare time making stuff we can't otherwise get. I wouldn't want to discourage anyone from trying to make a part or stop making stuff because someone doesn't understand there is no factory in the "vendors" garden shed.

This vendor does have a great track record and has been with the club for a long time. Unfortunately, posting when emotions are runnig high can lead to others posting as well...which is happening in this case. Reputation is everything on this board...let's not jump to conclusions. Your point is well taken "when you have exhausted all the normal channels to resolve and issue"...what should you do?

Totally understand.

This is not aimed at anyone vendor, but if the above is the normal situation for a specific vendor, then they need to set those expectations up front. If I was a vendor and that was SOP for me, I would put that in my information. Something along the lines of "you are getting a great deal, but I will say it may take me anywhere from a week to three months to send this to you depending upon my current situation". We probably have a wide variety of "quality of service" with vendors here. So some may raise the bar for others and if you end up at the bottom of the service scale, then you probably should let your customers know what to expect if it is a bit out of the ordinary.

I really shouldn't be posting on this topic as I don't have a dog in the fight.

I have nothing to say I just thought I had better post becuase I haven't posted in a while, I would hate to be looked upon as not active in the community...

Wait till ya party with "this person" to find out what he/she/it is all about. Yeh, he/she/it is sometimes really busy and mail/phone goes unanswered, but that's just the tenor of he/she/its' country .... they're all slow The product will come.

Hiya ...he/she/it! Cya in Sept ... God willin' and the creek don't rise.

Oh, I don't vote.

Bear in mind I'm not trying to be an asshole here, but what does that have to do with anything? Just because he's not "super active in our community" doesn't mean he deserves to get screwed. Or better yet how does the number of posts a member has tell you anything about how active they are here? I've only got 60 posts (61 now) and I've been a member for almost a year- and it's because I only get access to a computer once, maybe twice a week. It doesn't mean I'm not "super active" it just means I only post when I think I've got something worth posting... and when I have the time. More often than not if I have a question I try to dig up the answer in previous threads because I doubt there's very many topics that haven't been discussed at one point or another.

I agree with ya- there's a lot of things we don't know about this situation; and yes there's better ways of handling it. But the number of posts he has shouldn't matter because the bottom line is, he's trying to do business with someone through 914world.com, and he's just trying to get the situation resolved.

Just my two cents... if it's worth that much around here...

I'm going to go post in the "Don't have to reply to every post" thread now.

Whats going on here? I just got up and there is trouble??? Fuchin' Canadians again? I say let's get it over with and invade Canada. You know it's going to happen eventually. They MUST be harboring terrorists. I bet they even have WMD!

No I am not in your shoes, but I have been in there's. You put out money, you expect something for it, I understand that, I am sure the vendor does too. There are others here that say the same about George at AA. Big Hassle...Didn't get it...Wrong Part...And he has a big ass place. Can you buy this from George? If it is a specialty part, was it made just for you? Its up to you, I would cut a little slack.

I also did not vote.

Although I agree that the issue should try to be resolved privately, there is a good reason to post here if you are unable to get any reasonable response. Recently, 914parts.com seemed to quietly close with a few of our members being left without their orders being completed. This is no knock on the guy that had the store, I don't know the situation and in my previous dealings, he was always a stand-up guy.

But circumstances change. I was appreciative to see the postings that our members were having difficulties in reaching the vendor. Soon after, the web storefront went in "maintenance" mode, and finally went off-line.

The postings by the members here possibly prevented other members from losing money in dealing with this storefront.

IMHO, a lot of this is dependant upon the intent of the poster.

First, sorry to hear that you're having problems with someone. If you'd like, feel free to PM me or Eric about it. We're not mediators, babysitters or personally responsible for what happens in the classifieds, but if we can help, we try to.

That said, some member-vendors aren't exactly vendors... they're guys who cook up "group buys" and front all the costs personally. They do it out of their garage or spare bedroom. They do it for the love of 914s and 914 people. There is not significant money in selling little repro bits for 914s unless you're willing to open a storefront and diversify way beyond that.

Speaking very generically and also from personal experience: sometimes life happens. Sometimes people bite off more than they can chew. I don't know the story behind your story and decline to guess at it to

I won't support a requirement for anyone to be forced to post their phone number or address on this forum. If you feel an advertisement has insufficient information, don't buy.

-Rusty

HEY!!! KNOCK THAT SH*T OFF!!!

Don't you realize their money is worth more than U.S. Dollars now???

We like Canadians. They are our friends now. They are no longer stoopid. "Eh" is an accepted greeting. And that guy that came in from Canada trying to blow up Seattle, he probably wasn't really a Canadian citizen.

GREETINGS PEOPLE OF CANADIA

Shhhh!!! Eric, they have oil... Don't repeat that out loud but if we keep the focus on WMD and harboring terrorists we can get their oil... PLUS we get their money

Non-delivery is a non-issue (to an extent).

No communication is totally unacceptable.

So is bashing people for their post count... he could be up to 4,444 by this time next year, or he could leave and not participate again because he was treated rudely. Roughly 3% of our members are the type that remain "active" while the remaining 97% lurk or have come and gone. We all have different personality types. Some don't "do" forums well. Some don't communicate well.

His post count engourages me to welcome him and explain to him that we like it when you put your real name in your signature. (nearly 1/2 the posters in this thread don't have their name listed)

I would go so far as to say "most" of our member-vendors are not store fronts. Most are not real businesses and most have demanding day jobs. Cell phones or no cell phones, when you log on here... you can type. I'm aweful about getting to my phone a lot of times but... I return calls and PM's ASAP. I remember a situation with Rupherts911SC (or somthing like that) where I was getting my @$$ prodded big-time by the machine shop I was using at the time. He was getting pissed about his hubs... I was pissed at the machine shop, empty promises were buzzing around like flys on Slits but, I tried to keep him in the loop every time he asked. Not fun communication but simple communication.

When someone gives you money you owe them the common courtesy of knowing what the status of that order is (a moose ate your order... ).

I agree that many of the member-vendors have risen to the occasion to help fellow 914 owners by producing missing pieces in their garden sheds to keep these awesome cars on the road. I will defend them to my death as they are not only giving to help the others here... most do it with little or no profit.

Communicate. Reply to the PM's. As Wilfred would say, "It's the right thing to do." I hate being in the middle of this shit.

It's aboot time we welcome such friendliness with our northerly neighbors. Let's go oot to a hockey game, eh?

No way .... they get all pissy when ya try to show them how to fly their flag correctly.

Plus, they can't cook eggs and bacon worth a shit.

AND

They have one major strike against them already ... Quebec (It's a French thang ya know)

If we need their oil we'll just do what we normally do ... bomb the crap outta them till they're the size of Clay, then they can swing at our kneecaps all day long.

Eh?

Hockey?

I'm staying out of this, but that was a funny ass quote Eric

Very well said as usual Eric.

As a vendor and a member I know communication is the key.

I don;t know all of the particulars, but I do know one of our northen contingent was badly hurt a while ago. Hopefully he is on the mend.

Now back to my shed - gotta hammer out something.


Mark

That's a pretty cavalier answer man. It's not a requirement that people tie a real name to their ID here, in fact a lot of people are very careful not to do so for privacy concerns. Beyond that, it seems like maybe you didn't read his post closely:


It sounds to me like he's been trying to contact the seller with no response....and it's been a couple months that he's been trying. If he doesn't have a phone number for the vendor, then how do you suggest he "take it up with the vendor and resolve the issue"?


Exactly. I hear a lot of people saying "not everyone is a store front, some are normal guys/gals with demanding jobs". That's fine, and I agree. But do you really think it's ok to take money, not deliver parts, and then not reply to PM inquiries when the parts don't show and months have gone by? Seriously?

I understand parts can take time (sometimes, a long time). But if you can find time to make a deal and take members' money, you can find time to answer a PM asking for a status if the parts take longer than anyone expected.

Reid (with a mighty 297 posts and counting... )

i believe i know who this person/vendor of question is and i remember hearing that he was injured badly on job in public saftey, i have met this person in person and he is a stand up guy, he does take longer than what would seem reasonable in most consumer expections but he does produce something that have very small production runs and has to go to great length and personal expence of time and money for vertually no profit. i know that you have put money forth and would like what you ordered delivered, but be patient he is a valued and respected member of our community and produces some thing that no one else feels is worth producing, he will when he is able to make good on your order.

p.s i believe his access to internet is very limited at his main residence

Hey, I resemble that remark!!! Opps, I mean... oh never mind!

Do you have the ability to contact the vendor and let him know of the buyer's concern/stress? That just might solve the problem.

...takes the money.. has a "reasonable" time to deliver.
no excuses.
If he cannot, communicate and/or offer to return money.

IMHO.

Oh Reid...

no i do not have his phone number and all contact has either been in person or on this board. he lives in a fairly remote area. i don't know any one that has regular contact with him.
i truely believe that he will make this right as soon as he is able too. his job is very hazardous/dangerous and it caught up with him.

In regards to the post count issue.

I make this comment because I see alot of people join our community and the first or only post is in the classifieds.

If you join a community, its just that, a community.
A group of friends who harrass each other, suppport each other, and hang out together.

Jumping in and raising an issue with ALL member vendors as a new member just does not seem to feel right to me.

There are no rules, but the community polices itself.
Jump in and ask for rules to be established in a community, IMHO, would require that you have been an active part of that community for a long time...

It is the same thing as the new home owner who joins the HOA and right away goes and starts changing rules, or lack thereof, rules that were previously established when older members joined.

I am fine with disputing a specific vendor, private or public...I actually like the public forum method for getting these things resolved..
He tried in private, had no luck...so put it on the forum and ask for help..
That works, people seem to know who this is, I dont...but it will fix the issue.
I never said to stop that.

To ask to change the rules for ALL member vendors (which I am not one) based upon one specific event is wrong.

Just my opinion.

Rich

As far as I can tell, the original poster has been a member since June of 2006, which would make him a two-year member. As for posts, I probably post too much, but that doesn't mean I know sh*t.

So the question is; If a member doesn't post often does that make his comments stoopid??? (or does that make him smart???)

Besides which, I think he asked a valid question of how the BBS polices itself for non-responding vendors?

Soooooo, anyway, is there a policy regarding vendor behavior and do you enforce this policy???

Hello and thanks for all the feedback.

For those of you who are concerned or untrusting of me
because I didn't put my name in my post (and for others as
well) it is Jamie Hoffman (I'm a guy). I didn't mean to
offend anyone or hide my identity, I just didn't think about
putting my name in my signature.

I have tried to handle this matter privately by trying to
contact the vendor directly, but I haven't received a
message from him in over a month. I have also tried getting
help from some admins, but they have apparently not been
able to get a reply from him either. You can do a quick
search to find out the situation, but I purposefully didn't
use this person's name in this post, nor did I use any words
to describe him. I told the people I have talked to about
this that I am not interested in causing trouble for this
individual. I really only want the items I paid for.

I do, however, think that if a vendor has posted an ad to
sell his products, he has an obligation to provide at least
decent customer service or remove his ad if he is unable to
fulfill the orders - no matter how rare or special or
coveted the parts may be. In this case, I contacted him to
ask if he had some available and how I should pay and place
my order etc. I received a message promptly that he had the
product available and he let me know how to pay. I would
normally expect a confirmation within the week telling me
that my payment was received, but I didn't. I would also
normally expect some form of communication, but I haven't
received that either.

I have been told that he is a really good guy, but it is my
opinion that if he is really a good guy, he would at least
drop me a note to tell me why he hasn't shipped my parts or
that he is going to ship my parts or to give me some sort of
timeline. I was told that he injured himself, so I waited
to hear from him when he felt good enough to get back
online. He did that over a month ago when he told me he was
going to send them that week. I have been told that he has
spotty internet and phone connectivity, but I see when he
logs in and I know he gets notified about his PM's when he
does connect. I don't have his phone number and I don't
know how to get it. I know other people have it and they
have even talked to him about this. I would gladly call him
on my dime to find out what is going on.

People hold him in high regard because he has posted here
many times. I choose not to post when I don't have anything
all that wonderful to add. There are people here who know a
lot more than I do, so I'll let them provide the useful
information. I'll learn as I go and benefit from the
questions and answers that other people post. Most of the
time, by the time I see a post that I think I know something
about, someone has already said what I was going to say, so
there's no need for me to put in my two cents.
Nevertheless, it shouldn't matter if I have never posted one
message or even logged in. I deserve the products because I
paid for them. If I'm not getting them, I deserve some
feedback about why I don't have them and when I should have
them - because I paid for them.

I think the way I have handled this problem is not
unreasonable. I kept this private for a while, but the
longer it goes on, the more public it has to become.

Thanks

Jamie Hoffman

Rich,

You going to stop by for pizza or BBQ this summer?

-Jim

The particular member vendor has been notified, when he gets back to me, another admin and/or the buyer things should be satisfied. The vendor somethimes has unavoidable "time outs" from our community due to his job.

As one that sells aftermarket items, sometimes your supplier gets, how you say....sent to jail....like my asshole vinyl guy that has all my art work, laptop and vinyl machine locked up and I have to pay off his raw material supplier(s)....but that's another matter...

If we are all patient, it will work out.

Someone called for cleanup in aisle 5 again?

I miss all the fun.

BTW -

Some of you guys sound you like you think we admins have some sort of responsibility for the vendors and advertisers of this resource we are all using. We don't. No more than you do. They are using this (free) resource just like you and I do. We have no relationship with nor responsibility for any of the vendors and advertisers that post here. Hell, we don't even get a discount.

My $.02 -

1. When I give up my money, two months with no communication is too long.
2. 2 posts or a million, see rule #1.
3. I should probably also point out that I too consider this vendor a friend.

That is not why people hold him in high regard.
I post here all the time and people still hate me



This person you describe though, is a good man.
I understand your frustration, as you are not as familiar with his absences from contact as are the rest of us. But I assure you that he is an honest man. He recently purchased an engine from me, of which he paid in full, but has not arranged shipping yet. You would think he wants his product too.

Anyway, welcome aboard


And I still think we should throw him into the pond!

Jamie

It is my opinion that you and others have this members "vendor" status valued much higher than it is. in fact most everyone in the "Vendors" section are really just Non-members like the rest of us.

He/she/it sells items that he/she/it makes. that is it


Ive read nowhere on this site that makes a member "vendor" any differant than any other "member" selling there goods in the classifieds.



on to your complaint, yes this amount of time is unreasonable, but it may be what it take to get these items...

if you had done a search you would have seen there was the same occurance about 1 1/2 years ago, He/ she / it made everything right. but it let me know to expect a wait if i purchase through him /her / it.

The "vendor" is know as a good guy not from post count, but because many have met him over the years.

Just say who it is already..............

It's Hillary Clinton

And we should definitely throw him/her/it into the pond

Jamie, I understand your frustration with the delay.

That said, the guy in question is my friend. I trust his ethics without question. I will send you your money out of my own pocket. PM me your email address. I will PayPal you the balance.

Please accept my offer. It's sincere and will solve your problem.