Somehow...someway....I have been made aware of this thread and Dave Layson has a response I am going to post up......
I think "somebody" has their FACTS just a little mixed up......
From Dave Layson:
I would like to spell out here what actually occurred so that the statements made that are incorrect and untrue – are corrected. Mr. Sims here created this thread and has made some statements her that are from assumptions or are not correct. His WEB based order came into us on September 21st 2023 from which we that next day sent out an order confirmation and that the lenses were on backorder. NO CHARGE of the lenses was ever done. We do not bill for backorders – so his statement about being out $139 and if he should be concerned is just not correct. The card was not billed until the day the parts eventually came back in stock and shipped – on April 3rd, 2023.
All Mr Sims had to do was to check his credit card statement and verify the charge he claims occurred in Sept 2023 – never occurred. Or contact us of his concerns and we would have confirmed that no charge had yet been done. Again – from credit card rules as a vendor – we are not supposed to charge a customer but within 48 hours of shipping. Otherwise, how does a customer have the ability to do a chargeback? We know other companies that do charge up front for the entire order – even if parts are on backorder and that hurts the rest of us as many just “assume’ that everybody is doing that – NO not those that follow the rules. We do not know how others get away with billing for parts not shipping up front. It is not technically “illegal” but you risk losing the ability to use credits cards with a merchant service company and that is the death card for most business – so why risk that?
As those that have been around for a while – the “Paddock” was a mopar parts supplier and the reason why they went out of business (to what I have been told within the industry and the bank that contacted us if interested in buying stock at 30 cents on the dollar) is from cancelations from the 2009 economic crash.....that they did not have the funds to pay back. They had billed all backorders up front – think Year One does this as well to this day – and when the economy collapsed – many customers of the Paddock called to cancel those backorders...Paddock had already spent that money ..so had no ability to “refund” on those backorder that were then canceled by their customers in such volume they got into trouble with merchant services and the bank and ended up being eventually liquidated and what was left over was sold and purchased by Classic Industries and that is how Classic Industries got into the Mopar market.
Also – I will point out that many times the first week of January – his claims that nobody was answering the phones – we may have longer lead times to a customer service team member to answer a phone in the que system as many of us are out counting widgets on the shelves for year end inventory.....so yes that would be bad week to get a quick phone call in.
Lastly – the issue that others he claims got parts and not him – we go based on oldest order to newest order. The oldest order has priority over the new dated orders. By the time we got to his order we did not have enough lenses to fill his. All this was communicated to him first week of January that we were not sure if we had enough lenses to get to his order and that with “year end going on it will be a few weeks yet before we know”. By January 20th – we got to that answer that we were going to be still short to fill his order and was in contact with him on phone and an e-mail both. We had to wait for the next batch run which eventually came and we processed his order on April 3rd. So timing is everything and the time period this post was placed is during year end and yes – we are going to be less responsive and harder to reach during this time period – but we do eventually get back to everybody. We do not “intentionally” leave anybody hanging for information.
We have been supplying parts for this industry since 1994 so we have to be doing something right with the majority of people. No business is perfect – especially a family owned one. We make parts that nobody else wants to make or think there is “profit” in it. We make MANY parts not on profit motive but because they are needed in this industry AND if made correctly – profit will come eventually. We make parts on the basis we are going to use them ourselves and every attempt is to make a better than original part for reproduction. I don’t see many ONE SOURCE manufacturers out there making as many parts for this industry other than US and what I can count on one hand. There would be over 2,800 plus less parts on the market if we were not around (that is actual count rounded down)...not to tout our own horn – excuse the pun – but frankly getting tired of the continue bashing of us when mis-informed people portray us in a bad light from bad assumptions and mis-truths others then pile on.
First off, the order wasn’t a web based order, it was placed on the phone with you Dave.
The problem is no phone messages were ever returned months upon months after the order was placed. And most everyone who knows me in this community knows that I don’t bug the daylights out of venders for parts and orders, I get a response from them and I’m good, it’s noted of course and when that time goes by and no word or sign of the part by the expectancy, then I make a call, as anyone would. I go on a man’s word, all that would have been necessary was to return my call, and give me a truthful update. But that never happened. My calls were not returned, ever. So I reached out to the community and got replies from customers who had the same problem, no returned calls. I finally had to reach out to one of your employers whom was named in this thread as a member to reach out to him for some kind of help or reply on the order. He was very helpful and I’m grateful as I got my reflectors eventually. They are very nice and thank you.
It’s been a minute or two since this happened, I can hardly believe you made this long winded attempt to defend your service with stating the real untruth on your part. Your customer service lacks the attention to respond to customers who put forth trust and faith in your service. Regardless of the nature of the payment. I don’t have to dig through my bank statements for a year to find out if I’ve been charged for an order. I gave you my payment info when I ordered and was never told the charges won’t hit until shipped, which is a rarity quite honestly. Try that with legendary interiors or AMD or AutoInstruments or jsut about anyone in this business. I’m quite sure you respond to your frequent buyers with more attention, this however was my first time to do business with you on a very small but important item I needed, I got crickets
We all know how the business goes, this isn’t my first rodeo so please spare us all this routine of your defense. I’ve never had anyone in this community have one cross word with me on my business of buying parts….EVER!
I’ve said my say. You have a nice evening sir.
