Thanks for the tip.

 

What a shame? Eckler's customer service is still in Titusville, I spoke with them just the other day. Living in Florida, you tend to go to their events, meet their people and such. They're nice people, they know what they're talking about. It's easy to build a rapport with them.

Eckler's, like everyone else, is having tough time. I will continue to business with them because I like them and they've been good to me. They aren't the cheapest, but sometimes that's okay.

I would have taken your check, but I would have sat on your stuff until it cleared.

 

i live 25 minutes from Ecklers and will only do business with them as a last resort. I had bought many items from them until both the quality of their parts and the parts they stocked went downhill. I have a friend who works there and verified that no longer do they get the best quality parts they get what they can get the cheapest. They have also lowered there inventory stock as if you order something you have a 50-50 chance they will have in in stock. If they dont be ready for a wait unless you call them and cancel the order. They also do a lot of drop shipping so sometimes you never know where your part is coming from. Ive done business with them for a many years and can tell you they USE to employ people who knew corvettes but thats no longer a requirement. Yes there are some nice people there but most know little about corvettes. Ecklers is one of those companies that I can see going out of business within the next year or so and thats just my opinion ....G

 

I have ordered several items from Eckler's over the last three years. I have never had a problem. Corvette Central and MidAmerica either.

 

Heres a recap of my recent problems with ecklers.

I purchased two door carpet pieces for the door panels, door panel trim, and inner door panel weatherstripping on 4/9/09. The carpet pieces came in on the 16th and I ordered the wrong color. I sent those back on the 17th and my UPS tracking number shows the carpet was delivered back to ecklers on the 21st. It is now the 29th and I had not been refunded for the carpet yet, so I called them and the customer service woman was extremely nice. Ecklers' return department is backed up over two weeks apparently (that should tell you something) and I should get refunded in the next week or so. I also should note that the inner door seals were nice. Next, the door panel trim did not match the original trim. The new material they sent me was more of a vinyl instead of a plastic. It looks good, but not close to original for the real enthusiasts.

Last, I purchased two rear hatch struts, one right and one left. I got rush delivery processing and it took them over a week to process the order, and another week for them to ship it to me. After the struts got here, they sent me two left struts. Obviously, this would not work because of the defoggers. I sent the struts back and now almost two weeks later, I have not gotten the right strut yet. So I called ecklers and the woman started to read off the notes and I quote "We currently do not have any right struts....." and her voice faded off. So basically I got out of the conversation, I ordered a right and left strut, after two weeks of not having a right strut they just went ahead and sent me two left struts thinking it wouldn't matter. The lady said that they still do not have a right strut and it should be another week or two before they get another one in, but I am FIRST on the list! Thank goodness for that right! She gave me my rush processing money back (3.95) thankfully. Also, one thing worth noting is that the strut I did get, was good.

Last thing I will leave you guys with is
http://www.orlando.bbb.org/newsearch...07330027000317

If you follow the link, BBB (Better Business Bureau) shows that on a scale from A being the best and F being the worst, Ecklers received an F.

To summarize, their customer service is very friendly, however the business is very slow, non original parts (some poor quality) and did not folow through with their promised rush processing.

I will never buy anything from ecklers again.

 

A customer of mine ( Mike) is the parts manager at Valley Auto (Fort Kent Maine). He gets me some killer discounts on the real deal GM factory Corvette parts. His service has been exceptional - Give him a try......

Valley Auto
13 West Main Street
Fort Kent, Maine 04743
(207) 834-3191

 

I've used Eckler's for the last 3 years and they've been just fine. I ordered a set (4) shocks for my 94 LT1 with the soft suspension week before last. They were cheaper than anyone else, didn't have them in stock, told me it'd be 2 weeks before they got them in and could ship them. I got the shocks the week they told me they'd be in ( a week earlier than expected).

Bilstien shocks and everything was just fine-and a week earlier than they expected, also, the cheapest place I could find. They are now on the car and I'm tickled to death. Good price, Good service just like always.

bill

 

From my experience Ecklers sucks and I only order from them when no other place has the item. Their catalogs are often incorrect as far as which parts fit which model years and every time I called them their tech support people don't know much either. On top of that they are expensive.

Also after they admitted they sent me a wrong part the last time I ordered from them they would not even pay for shipping the item back to them, they said I had to pay and they will reimburse me later. That is just cr*p, I shouldn't have to pay more money for their mistakes even if they do reimburse me later... just another example of a company with poor customer service.

 

cam355aro-
Thanks for posting the BBB link.
I never thought to check their BBB rating.....
F !!!!!
Well deserved, too.

 

Gary,

Thanks for the kind words. I try to keep as up to date with things going on in this forum, while still taking care of customers walking in and calling in to our store. We are here to help out in any way we can.

Thanks!
Kevin
www.KeenParts.com
800-757-5336

 

I never was aware of your company, I certainly will look to you in the future...you are pretty close too!
BUT....
you need to check out your website. A by year search produces this:


You have an error in your SQL syntax. Check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near 'AND '1987'>=BEGYEAR AND '1987'<=ENDYEAR ORDER BY SUBNUM,VIEWNUM

 

We would love to hear from you. I am actually looking into that problem on our website. For now, you can just pick the home button on any screen and it will sort of reset the website for you. I hope to have a fix very shortly.

Thanks!
Kevin
www.KeenParts.com
800-757-5336

 

My 2 cents:


I've bought parts for them for many moons and never had issues with product quality or mix ups in any way shape or form....guess I've been lucky.

 

While the Keenparts guy is in this thread, I would like to voice my opinion about one of his employees as well.

I went to the enormous car show at Lowes motor speedway in Charlotte, NC like I do every year, and was looking to find a corvette dealer in the big group of vendors. I stumbled upon keenparts and couldn't believe that they were there because I had heard so much good things about them in the past and was planning on buying off their website. Now that I found them in person I wouldn't have to pay for shipping and wait for the item to be delivered. I asked the guy if he had any door panel inner seals for an 84. He basically looked at me like I was stupid and said "theres no such thing." I said the weatherstripping for the inside of the door panel. He continued with that look on his face like I was the biggest moron and said "there is no such thing." After describing what it was, where it was, and that I PROMISE it is there, he went into the trailer to ask someone or go look I guess. He comes out with a right and a left side seal. PERFECT! He wanted 47.00 for each, 94.00 for both, so hearing good things about keenparts in the past, I thought this was a good deal for these. I asked him if they were OEM seals and he said "oh yes, it says it right there (pointing to the item number and barcode). Nowhere on there did it say, OEM. I decided, what the heck I will get them anyways. As I got my money out to buy them, my mom walks over and looks at one of them and notices that the weatherstripping looked like it had been chewed on by a dog. I only looked at one, not thinking to look at the other, and was glad she noticed this. I told him I wouldn't buy that one and he went to get another. He brought the next one back and this one, the weatherstripping was completely twisted and bent like a banana. I walked away.

Basically, I am a 20 year old kid looking for auto parts for a corvette and he thought I had no clue. First, he had a bad attitude, treated me like crap, tried and almost overcharged me by almost 50 bucks (ecklers has them for 1/2 the price), almost sold me two junked seals, and lied to my face.

According to BBB, they got an A-. Maybe the guy was a fill in for somebody, maybe he was having a horrible day, but I personally will never think of them the same.

End of rant...

 

"cam355aro" , I sent you a PM.

Kevin
www.KeenParts.com
800-757-5336

 

I have found that Zip has the best prices; and the few things I've ordered came in a timely fashion; I only use Ecklers as a reference. And I have used Wilcox with great success as well; and those guys actually read our threads. I wonder if anyone from Ecklers actually has the cohonnes to read this thread and respond...........crickets...........

 

I ordered my carpet from Wilcox (who is giving us a great deal on the forum specials anyway), and a few hours later I got a call on my cell. It was a guy at Wilcox, just checking that he had the year and color correct for my car's order. I told them that it was right, and got everything a few days later. Now THAT is customer service! Stopping the problem BEFORE it starts!

 

The funny thing about this is that if you look around, you can almost always find what Ecklers and MAM sell cheaper/better some place else.

 

When we bought our c3 in 1996, Ecklers was pretty much whom we got all our stuff from. Then around 2000-2001 had a couple of really bad experiences with them....never again.

 

I only have good stories about Corvette America, Southearn Car Parts, Willcox, ZIP and Keen, all who have been perfect on shipping correct part quickly, billing and quality. Ecklers and MAM seemed to always be back ordered so I don't even look at them anymore. I'd always rather give my business to a suppoting vendor anyway. Partsladi is also very good. JMHO.