Thread: Whats The Deal W-Body Store / Mike?

yeah...and props to this forum for the thread not turning into a crap slinging mess by FISH like the CGP one became (yes i did defend the thread and myself when he felt the need to thread bash, but I finally blocked him after I realized it would merely continue indefinitely and as you can see if you read it there...he did try to continue it even then...and I simply blocked that screen name as well.) I don't see why people feel the need to do that in a thread...ugh anyway I digress. back on topic.

I don't remember why they scrapped it for sure...I think it was an issue with not being able to find someone to produce them to their specs at the pricepoint they wanted or something.

Hey guys. I just wanted to take a moment to address this post. It was addressed on CGP many months ago but I never addressed it here until I saw the post when searching for something else on this forum.

First off, for an explanation to StreetWolf's problem please see the CGP thread here:

ClubGP Message Forum troubleshooting

Obviously it's easier to post a link there as those issues were addressed and I don't want to give myself carpal tunnel by re-iterating those points!

There's a couple things we used to do that we do no more... They were intended to simplify orginization on our end but sometimes just ended up pissing the customer off. One of those things was issuing tracking numbers for packages as soon as the order came in even if the order wasn't going to ship for a couple weeks. This wasn't done to mislead and we would in fact then update the order with the actual estimated shipping date. Despite us trying to be as clear as possible, some still thought we were trying to pull the wool over their eyes. That just wasn't the case. It was easier, at the time, for us to print the label and print the order invoice so that when the item did come in we could grab both of those, box it and ship it instead of log into the system, find the order, print the label, etc. That's since changed. We're now using UPS and USPS (for cheaper shipping to those that dare!) and if you receive a tracking number now it means your package has shipped.

I like how mike has ignored posting in reply in the thread but somehow its been magically burried under Classifieds>>>>Buyer Seller feedback LAME...man up and answer for your actions...not hey Mike N. move this post so it dissapears...VERY DISAPPOINTED!

Jeff, I absolutely would not do that. People think that because I give money to Mike he bows down to me. It's not anything like that, not even close. In fact, the only time Mike responds to emails from me is when I'm inquiring about giving him more money... I had nothing to do with that post being moved and even responded to it. In just about every post where someone has had a legitimate complaint I've been clear that it's their right to complain if they truly feel they had an issue. I won't deny anyone that right. We putz up just like everyone else and forums are an arena for people to vent about that. I understand that. I don't do anything to interfere with or censor that. Clearly I don't hide from these things; otherwise I wouldn't be subjecting myself to the punishment of reincarnating an 8 month old post that has probably been long since forgotten.

Its all in how you handle when your supplier is out of stock. Most suppliers will lead the vendor into thinking the product going to be here next week when its 2-3 weeks out. When your dealing with parts coming from over seas, its a guessing game. I have had containers get lost, i have had one get every single part inspected, took 2 months... I even know someone who had small parts with them all boxed into large boxes marked made in china, Since each part was not indiviual marked it would not clear. Luck they guy was a 1 day drive from customs. he had to drive his but there and stick stickers on ever item. All 30k of them so he could get them.

This was a big problem we were dealing with last fall. As money was getting tight all over the industry, suppliers were dropping inventory, lying to get orders, lying about where they were... B&G blatently lied to us time and time again. Unfortunately in the end all the customer sees is W Body Store giving him another ship date and then another ship date is wrong.

Now there's always going to be complaints that I don't agree with like the one about the springs on our shift kit. The website page clearly inventoried exactly what you would receive for your money and the springs were not one of those items. The picture remained up because the springs were going to be an option again when they came back in stock at GM. Towards the end of the old site I think there was even a quip specifically noting this and we would still get emails demanding the springs.

I can't speak to how long it took the one gentleman to get his GM bar but I do know that GM went on a 12 week backorder with these last summer and we made no effort to hide that from our customers. Not only that but we always left open the option of a refund if the customer didn't want to wait. We can't control the manufacturing priorities of GM and given their financial state at the time I doubt Regal strut tower braces were at the top of their priorities. Despite that, GM clumped the bars together with zip ties and shipped them to us (and dealers) bare. We ship them bare as well.

At the end of the day you get a few people with legitimate complaints that end up giving credibility to those with non-legitimate complaints. It is what it is. You take the good with the bad. I'm not going to pretend like there wasn't a good 6 month period late last year/ early this year where our shipping times didn't suck. We were making a bunch of changes (too many) at once and it got a little overwhelming.

I'd ask that people don't throw the baby out with the bath water. We're one of 2 vendors still putting money into this platform. We've been in business for 6 years and in that 6 years have developed a stellar reputation. We suffered towards the end of last year just like a lot of aftermarket performance companies did. Despite that, we still have almost no charge backs over a 6 year period. That's almost unheard of, especially in performance automotive aftermarket. There's a reason for that. Chargebacks are for deadbeats and while some orders did take awhile to ship we never arbitrarily kept someone's money without sending them goods.

So, here's what we did to fix things:

1. Site now automatically emails you tracking information (you don't have to request it)
2. If you receive tracking information it means your order has shipped or is waiting for UPS/ USPS to pick it up. We no longer print labels for backordered products that aren't shipping immediately.
3. The new website is 90% finished now and it specifically notes items that are out of stock.
4. We ship almost every order within 1 business day. If your item isn't in stock we'll advise you.
5. We're adding new items to the site regularly now. Brake kits, intercoolers are back, intercooler kits will be back, soon cams, etc

If you've had an issue with us in the past years let me know about it. I understand that some issues might be the customer mis-understanding and then blaming us and some might have actually been us screwing up. We're not going to all of the sudden stop making all mistakes but the process now is a lot better than it used to be and we're stocking more items than we ever have before.

If you want to give us a try again email me. I'll send you a coupon code for free shipping. The only thing I ask is that you update this post with your experience (good or bad) when the transaction is over. Oh, and I can't give you free shipping on the super heavy things like transmissions and struts... You get the point.

The bottom line is email me and give us a chance to win you back. I don't like to lose any customer and I don't like to have anyone walking away from a transaction feeling like they got the short end of the stick.

OMG Honestly? LOL

FWIW...I haven't ordered anything from WBS for a long time now as the last few orders I had made I got something totally different and/or shipping took MORE than 2-3 weeks. Products were still good, just not what I needed...sway bars were nice, but I needed valve springs

Well that would piss me off too!