Suspension & Brakes Springs | Shocks | Handling | Rotors

UMI Performance

Thread Tools
 
Search this Thread
 
Old 03-03-2007, 07:48 AM
  #21  
TECH Fanatic
iTrader: (1)
 
Splitz's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Fort Worth / Crowley / Burleson, Texas
Posts: 1,097
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts

Default

Originally Posted by JEB99TA
What ever happened to the days before Internet ordering? If someone told you their product would ship a certain day and arrive within a certain timeframe, it did ... in my experiences.

If you order from just about any company (again, from my experience) these days, you'll usually get your parts in a reasonable amount of time. It's a pretty solid fact from the tons of items I have ordered online.

The problem I had from a certain company (not UMI) is that I had a specific time my car was going in the shop for sameday/turnkey motor work and dynojet tuning. I needed the dual exhaust setup I ordered. I called a sales rep (of a company I will not mention here) on the pre-condition my dual exhaust would be here and I would have it installed before the next Saturday just before the car was scheduled to go in the shop the following Monday. The Sales guy assured me over the phone he would get it shipped the next morning, which was on a Friday ... giving the exhaust about a week or so to get to my door. I stated VERY clearly I did not want to order unless he could guarantee it would ship the next day (Friday).

Guess what? It did not ship that Friday. Guess what else? I didn't have it before the car went into the shop 10 days later on the Monday following the weekend I was supposed to install the exhaust.

I had already taken the day off and could not re-schedule that. Being a salaried employee, I had to work 'til midnight to catch up from the previous day. You see, I work in a job where you can't just drop work and get paid for not doing it. I got paid for the day off, but, it cost me dearly the next night and I had to drive away from the shop only to drive away with substandard power all because of the exhaust ... worked past midnight the following day to make up for the work I had not completed ... 16-hour day. I was in the military for for 21 years ... you get paid for days off, but, you still cannot 'just not do you work'. This is over-stating the fact, but, I'll say it. If we decide to kill 40+ terrorists one day, we can't take off work and not finish the job .... thinking they will just die on their own and not be there to blow our head off the next day ... hey, we get paid for it, so, doesn't matter if the job gets done, right? Wrong. Sorry to rant about that, but, just the general principal of anyone indicating salaried employees can just walk away from their work unfinished just because they still get paid is OK ... well, it bothers me because that has not been the case in either of my two careers.

Could I have re-scheduled the motor work? Yes, but why should I have HAD to just because I was lied to. If the company was so overwhelmed they couldn't get the duals out to me when they guaranteed me they would ... why didn't this guy just simply tell me? To this day, I wonder if the competition was so tough that he was THAT desperate to make a sale? I truly don't know, but, I do know when the exhaust system arrived, I had to send it back because it was too late to install it. The owner or manager (whichever he was) of the company agreed to accept the shipment back and refund my money.

That was good, but, he continued to say the same thing I'm hearing from some folks here. We're overwhelmed and have hired more people on. It's a really busy time of year and we are sorry, but, we're just SO backed up.

I'll never do business with that company again. Someone else has been getting my business. The owner or manager kept defending the Sales guy openly on LS1TECH.COM and believed the Sales guy ... only to continuously defended him ... came just short of calling me a liar openly on here.

If you ask somebody for a guarantee and get it verbally, shouldn't that be honored? Should you have to be called everything but a liar? Especially when you told the guy you did not want to order unless he could guarantee it went out the next day like he suggested it would? Even guaranted it would? It didn't even go out the following Monday. I was lied to AGAIN and was told it did. I explained to him what would happen to me if I did not get it when he promised. He dropped the ball and then I was made out to be the bad guy.

I'm getting ready to buy a new K-member and upper/lower control arms from UMI. I believe they are a good company or I would not be buying from them. I hope they ship the products when they say they will. I believe they will. All I ask is that any company I purchase from honors their shipping policies or they notify me of a delay. That was my problem with the OTHER company. They guy who made the guarantee didn't care and never notified me ... knowing my exhaust would not get here when he guaranteed it would ship the next day.

He finally sent me an email, but, it was after I called and raised hell with them over the phone when I called to check on my parts and was told ... OOPS! They didn't ship Friday ... OOPS! We're so busy and backlogged. OOPS! We are so far behind.


P.S.: The carrier did not drop the ball on the exhaust delivery. It was purely the company I purchased from ... guaranteed ... after clearly stating I will not order unless I can get that guarantee. Some folks word is simply not their bond these days. I miss the days when you could depend on what a man (or woman for that matter) told you. It's called honesty and Customer Care.
So, what do you REALLY feel about that situation?

I feel ya, i was a little bit miffed as well after being told on a webiste that it will ship 2-3 days after ordering,, then it was an entire week! D'oh! Very annoying.

I feel the same way when it comes to be salaried/or hourly. Even being an hourly employee I don't just work 7:30-4:30 M-F. I work a lot of weekends BECAUSE the fact there are tons of things to work on.

I to work in an extremely hectic environment. I work in an avionics shop that repairs required avionics equipment on Airbus and Boeing aircraft for airlines around the world. Avionics equipment MUST be operational for an aircraft to take off. What's funny is, that if I can't repair and ship out a unit, the airline can actually bill MY company for lost revenue for that flight because the aircraft couldn't take off as scheduled. Shipping/receiving is as important as the people that are performing the other parts of the business. When my boss comes to me and says this unit must go TODAY...guess what....it goes THAT day (and before the 5pm drop dead ship time for UPS/Fedex).

I just don't stop working either....i have high intergrity and CARE about my work.
Old 03-03-2007, 08:14 AM
  #22  
TECH Veteran
iTrader: (2)
 
2_wacko's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: WestTexas
Posts: 4,274
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Default

I have UMI LCAs, PHB, Relocation brackets great items, great customer service.
Old 03-03-2007, 08:18 AM
  #23  
TECH Fanatic
iTrader: (1)
 
Splitz's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Fort Worth / Crowley / Burleson, Texas
Posts: 1,097
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts

Default

Originally Posted by 2_wacko
I have UMI LCAs, PHB, Relocation brackets great items, great customer service.
Cool, that's what I've got going on my car today....how they working out?
Old 03-03-2007, 08:45 AM
  #24  
FormerVendor
iTrader: (77)
 
UMI Performance's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Philipsburg, Pa
Posts: 5,473
Received 5 Likes on 3 Posts

Default

Hello Everyone,

We are very back logged right now, I am sorry. And we do have many customers waiting for parts, I greatly apologize to anyone still waiting and I really appreciate the patience. I am not going to make up excuses or list a bunch of reasons why some of our shipping is behind, but below is a quick explanation. And trust me, we are climbing out of it so don't worry! I ensure everyone is getting a high quality item and it is worth any kind of wait you had to go through.

Our items have became very popular and the demand has grew faster then we expected. We are very grateful of this, however at the same time some customers have to wait and some orders have been delayed. So what are we doing about this? Well in the last 2 months we have added an addtion to our facility as well as a few pieces of machinery and three new employees. This will help to produce orders much quicker and we should be back on time in the shipping department in about 2 weeks. The downfall to all this is, adding new equipment, employees and additions all require set-up, assembly and training. This is why it can't happen over night but is very close to the end, we promise.

As for no shipping notice on our site, it would be a good idea yes. The problem is there is no way to tell which items are back ordered right now. For example we could have (5) sets of a certain SFC in stock right now and tomorrow have (5) on back order, thats how quick some of this stuff moves. So its just hard to keep which items are back logged up to date. But I agree something on the site stating this would be nice, I apologize. But trust me we are working on all orders and we appreciate everyones patiences!

Best Regards,
Ryan
Old 03-03-2007, 09:09 AM
  #25  
TECH Junkie
iTrader: (10)
 
chupr0kabra's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Pearland, TX
Posts: 3,778
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts

Default

JEB99TA: I won't argue that the company is at fault. If you call and talk to someone and they tell you it will ship by a certain day, it should ship by that day. That's the sales guy's fault.

However, what I've learned from this hobby is not to schedule shop visits or schedule time off until I have the part(s) in my posession. When I ordered my headers and y-pipe, I tracked the packages, hoping to receive them on a Thursday so I could get the car into the shop that evening and have the car back for the weekend. When I received my package, it was just the y-pipe. I called and asked where my headers were and the guy said they were drop shipped from Pacesetter. I asked for a tracking number, he gave it to me, and I received the headers the next day. I ended up dropping the car off on Friday afternoon, meaning I didn't get it back until Monday evening. I didn't have to take off work, so it's not as bad as your situation, but it taught me not to time things out in such a way that I get stuck.

There's a difference between what some people should do and what they will do. This doesn't just apply to our hobby, it's a life in general thing. Should the sales guy have promised something if there was any doubt he couldn't deliver? No. Did he? Yes. That's his fault. As much as I hate having new parts sitting in my garage, waiting to be installed, that's how I've started approaching this hobby. When I actually have the parts in hand, I'll make plans to get the parts and the car to the shop for the install. Until then, I don't depend on anyone else. There are just too many variables.

As for the work thing, nobody does my job either when I'm out. To me, that's part of being a responsible adult, which you obviously are. I'm lucky in that my boss is understanding of the fact that we have personal lives, so as long as I request time off correctly and my work gets done, he's cool with it. I work a lot of nights and weekends too (being a server admin, people don't exactly like it when you start taking down the server they're using during the middle of the work day...), and he knows that. So if I go to him and say, "Hey, I'd like to leave at 3:00 today so I can take my car to the shop", he's totally OK with that. I know everyone isn't that lucky.


-Mike
Old 03-03-2007, 09:15 AM
  #26  
Teching In
Thread Starter
 
Redfire03gt's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Posts: 4
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Default

Judging from my conversations with Ryan, it does appear they hold the customer in high regard and are trying to meet everyone's demands while maintaining the quality of their product. With only 12 employee's, I commend you.
Old 03-03-2007, 09:32 AM
  #27  
TECH Addict
iTrader: (32)
 
JEB99TA's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Florida
Posts: 2,712
Likes: 0
Received 2 Likes on 1 Post

Default

Many of the reasons mentioned is why I AM buying my front suspension from UMI. People seem to be overall satisfied with their customer service.

A lot of good feedback here and I truly did learn my lesson well after the experience I described above ... car doesn't get scheduled to go in the shop until parts are in hand.

Ironically, I'm just leaving to go to work ... called by a courier service ... 4 hour delivery scheduled for a CISCO router blade to meet me at the MDF .... looks like I'll be taking down the SAN cluster to do a simple so-called hot-wap ... LOL!!!! Believe me chupr0kabra, feeling the pain of that salary right now ... hehe! Usually put in 50-60 work weeks ... still never catch up ... so understaffed. Take pride in my work though ... enjoy every hour of it.

Hope the courier doesn't decide she will get sick on the way and wait to deliver my router blade on Monday ... about 550 employees will be out of work ... and so much for failover ... haha! Always fails over until you need it to most ... go figure.
Old 03-03-2007, 01:29 PM
  #28  
TECH Junkie
iTrader: (10)
 
chupr0kabra's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Pearland, TX
Posts: 3,778
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts

Default

SAN cluster
Simple
Hot-swap

These words don't seem to fit together.

In my experiences, "failover" is more like "fall over".


-Mike
Old 03-03-2007, 02:58 PM
  #29  
TECH Addict
iTrader: (32)
 
JEB99TA's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Florida
Posts: 2,712
Likes: 0
Received 2 Likes on 1 Post

Default

You can say that again ... and again ... and again. Only thing really dependable for hot swapping it seems is the drives when a bad one fails over to a spare. Anyway, as long as a company shoots straight and is honest, I don't mind waiting on parts.

Deadbeats like Scott Jantzer are a different breed altogether. One lie after another ... think he finally got booted off here for awhile. Thought he did put out a high-quality product, he screwed a lot of good people. Not sure if he still is allowed on the forums here ... anyone hear of him before?

As for UMI products, not sure if you've seen the poll, but, there's an opinion poll here about whose suspension parts are best. UMI ranked #1 in that opinion poll ... by a landslide, so, they must be satisfying a lot of customers.

If Strano sells their product, I would say they are top quality ... amongst the controversy, SFC's gotta' be good for more than just a jacking rail
Old 03-05-2007, 11:40 AM
  #30  
LS1TECH Sponsor
iTrader: (41)
 
Sam Strano's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Brookville, PA
Posts: 9,591
Received 142 Likes on 92 Posts

Default

Should've, could've, would've.

Don't EVER schedule work unless you have the parts in hand. Sh*t happens, people screw up, it's life. I shipped a battery to Virginia last year that the guy (one of best friends) needed desperately. And it was on a FedEx truck that flipped over on the DC beltway. Is that either of our faults? No. Might not have been the truck driver's fault either, some butt-hole might have cut him off.

Further, you need to inspect part to insure they are correct, etc. Things get damaged in shipping. Things get lost. I sent a set of springs to Canada, and when they arrived, two were missing---gone.

And as for "staying late" and shipping. Doesn't work that way either. UPS, FedEx, whoever picks up at a certain time. For me, here at my shop, that's about 2pm. It either gets out or doesn't. Also, things gets hectic. When things are slow, businesses lay folks off, when they pick up they hire back. And because items cost money to build, NO company wants to keep too much stock on hand because it's huge amounts of money spent, and out of pocket. It's snowing here (and since Ryan and I are so close, I'm sure it's snowing in Bigler too). It's winter. I know I've had a Jan/Feb that were easily twice as busy as any other before. I didn't expect that, and Ryan can't be blamed if he didn't either. Are we supposed to just have people and product sitting around on the off chance a huge run pops up? And are we supposed to jump because someone waited 6 months to order something and then it became a "I need it tomorrow" thing?

If you NEED something by a certain date, order it EARLY. Most don't because they don't want to spend the money until they HAVE to. But yet, as businesses we are expected to. That gets you broke. GM, Ford, Chrysler all have way too much stock. And they are in the tank financially.

I think it's pretty clear UMI is good with people, and care about their customers. I know I've never had any issue I couldn't work out with them. Frankly, they are one of more painless places I deal with on a regular basis.
__________________
www.stranoparts.com --814-849-3450
Results matter. Talk is cheap. We are miles beyond the success anyone else has had with the 4th gens, and C5, C6, C7 Corvettes,
10 SCCA Solo National Championships, 2008 Driver of they Year, 2012 Driver of Eminence
13 SCCA Pro Solo Nationals Championships
2023 UMI King of the Mountain Champion
Old 03-05-2007, 11:55 AM
  #31  
FormerVendor
iTrader: (77)
 
UMI Performance's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Philipsburg, Pa
Posts: 5,473
Received 5 Likes on 3 Posts

Default

Thank you Sam and very well put I appreciate that.

Yes the snow has hurt us in more ways then one. One the biggest is missing a few hours of work here and there do to bad roads, accidents, powder outages ect. Sometimes the office will open an hour or two later in bad weather because I don't like to see the women drive in 6"s of snow. So then we miss calls here and there because other states the weather can be nice. But we deal with it.

Thanks again everyone,
Ryan
Old 03-05-2007, 12:43 PM
  #32  
TECH Apprentice
 
98hardtopSS's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: MASS
Posts: 315
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts

Default

i am too am currently waiting on two orders from umi but i understand from reading on here they are backed up and things like this can happen. i wonder why people keep complaining about the wait when they see it on here that they are busy. you will see once you get your parts they are well worth waiting for
Old 03-05-2007, 10:40 PM
  #33  
TECH Junkie
iTrader: (32)
 
02TransAm/Batmobile's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Southside Chicago
Posts: 3,179
Likes: 0
Received 2 Likes on 2 Posts

Default

I like them so much. I added them to my signature! Like that UMI?
Old 03-06-2007, 06:06 AM
  #34  
FormerVendor
iTrader: (77)
 
UMI Performance's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Philipsburg, Pa
Posts: 5,473
Received 5 Likes on 3 Posts

Default

Originally Posted by 02TransAm/Batmobile
I like them so much. I added them to my signature! Like that UMI?
Looks good
Old 03-06-2007, 04:17 PM
  #35  
TECH Apprentice
 
98hardtopSS's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: MASS
Posts: 315
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts

Default

got my tracking order today via email...stuff should be in soon, cant wait!!
Old 03-06-2007, 08:03 PM
  #36  
Launching!
iTrader: (8)
 
Derek_02's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Posts: 210
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts

Default

Got my panhard rod today. It's a very nice piece. Thanks guys.

Derek
Old 03-06-2007, 10:03 PM
  #37  
TECH Enthusiast
iTrader: (5)
 
Silas2k's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Lubbock, Tx
Posts: 707
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Default

umi lcas and boxed sfcs here... love the product, love the customer service
Old 03-11-2007, 07:13 PM
  #38  
10 Second Club
iTrader: (22)
 
xxtheonlyxx's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Columbus, Ohio
Posts: 225
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Default

I have their PHB, LCA's, and ordered a torque arm and sub frame connectors last month. Like a few of you I'm waiting for parts, but this thread has cleared up a lot of info for me. Ryan, ignore that PM I just sent you
Good quality, great price, and worth the wait!!!!
Old 03-11-2007, 07:30 PM
  #39  
Alt
TECH Resident
iTrader: (6)
 
Alt's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Hampstead, MD
Posts: 766
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Default

I'd like to get a pair of SFC's but I'm still waiting on UMI to come out with a convertible compatible version. If you're still checking the thread, are you guys still pursuing that avenue?




All times are GMT -5. The time now is 06:02 PM.