Who are your favorite LR vendors?

[Momo]

Parts Vendors

I gotta say I am surprised by the negative comments on British Pacific. I've been dealing with them since '97 and have only had two problems, one was the wrong part sent (immediately corrected) and one was a defective part out of the box (immediately exchanged).

They even used to ship me stuff via USPS even though it's more work for them.

I will say that I have lived within 30 minutes drive of BP for about 8 years, so I know them pretty well.

One of their parts guys is kind of hard to read over the phone, and I can see why someone might think he's being unfriendly. In reality he's just kind of shy and a man of few words.
I think the decision to discontinue BP's catalog was based on the dynamic uncertainty of Series parts availability and cost vs. benefit. The new website is pretty good. I think TerriAnn keeps a separate pop-up for the price because prices change often. Remember there is a currency conversion.


I've had only one poor experience with RN. The guy on the other end interrupted me and tried to talk over me as I explained what I needed. Pretty bad, but I think he was watching the clock as it was late in the work day. I will still order from RN...why grudge them because of one kook?

Also, I love our hosts' website and catalog(= branding and marketing) and all the extras they provide. But, I also recognize that they must pass the cost on to me as a customer. I would do the same were I the boss. RN's marketing and branding is about as professional as it gets in their industry and I admire Mark's hard work. he's built an iconic company.

DAP has been great to me, no frills, helpful service.

Ike (Pangolin)- a bit of an iconoclast, but he bleeds Series rigs and he's honset and talented.

AB- they are after the coiler crowd, I don't bother.

RDS- George is a character, but an honest character.

Wise Owl- Well, they used to be good till Ray sold out. I think the new guys are disorganized as hell and over their heads.

Rocky Mountain- Ray is awesome. Always top notch service, parts and advice.

Paddocks- UK parts house. So-so. Don't order anything cosmetic, interior,
or expect any durability in general. Typical aloof English customer service.
The English aren't very fond of us in the first place so it puts one at a disadvantage. In fact I think the English don't like anyone, even themselves.

[zayante]

I agree with the consensus opinions here. I'd add that John Craddock Ltd. has been a good source of "unobtainium" parts. It helps to know the LR part numbers when searching, though.

[TedW]

Be careful if ordering from the UK........

I visited Paddock once when in England (got my soft top and hoopset there - pretty funny when I wheeled this huge LR box up to check-in at Virgin Atlantic in Gatwick). Nice enough in person and good quality stuff. However, I have to agree with the comment above about British customer service. Not much of a priority for them, I guess.
I also went to the Land Rover Supermarket outside Liverpool. You wheel a shopping cart up and down the aisles just like at your local Safeway / Publix / Piggly Wiggly. They have their own brand of parts. However, I bought all new stuff there to rebuild my swivels and, Just like Mark Letourney warns us in his catalog, some of it didn't fit. The king pins were about 1/4" too long. I ended up using my old ones instead. And the door tops I bought rusted out in no time flat, even with an up-front Waxoyl treatment.
I have bought a number of small parts from Land-Rover Orphanage on ebay. They are great, and delivery has been super fast (a week or so). But you get creamed on shipping if it's anything bigger than a tail light.

[TeriAnn]

I think TeriAnn keeps a separate pop-up for the price because prices change often. Remember there is a currency conversion.

There are 2 reasons for the pop up price window.

#1 is as you mentioned. BP tries to be the low price US based vendor for genuine Land Rover, OEM and aftermarket parts.The margin is deliberately kept low and the company runs lean. What this means is that as new shipments come in the price is adjusted by the actual landed cost and currency exchange rate at time of their purchase. The price list database is uploaded at least monthly to reflect procurement costs. If this were not done then BP would have to build in an extra margin padding into the prices. BP decided that people prefer low prices to paper catalogues. But from this discussion it appears that some people don't mind higher prices in order to have a paper catalogue.

#2 reason for a pop up price window and not a standard on line store is that not all parts lend themselves well to standard on line store formats and it is a pain to try and find the part you need using standard store search engines. I have all the accessories and off road gear in regular html pages just so that I have the freedom to add pictures and descriptions that can better help a customer figure out if this is the part they went.

I don't know about you guys but I've had the devil's own time trying to find parts in traditional online store layouts. It costs a lot of money to photograph inventory and to write good descriptions. Most Land Rover parts vendors who use an internet store package have few pictures and lousy or no descriptions. I tried to buy parts from UK internet stores a bunch of times & have basically given up on them because I could not find most of the parts I was looking for or wasn't sure if what I found was the right part.

BP currently has the accessories, off road gear and fast moving service parts on regular html pages. When you can click on part number the pop up price window displays the current price. The regular parts are listed on pdf pages which are virtual paper catalogue pages. It was the best price/ performance/ ease of use compromise we could come up with.

The disadvantages that I have found is that it is a pain to have to type a part number into a different window to get a price and that you have to print the current catalogue on your own printer if you want a paper copy.

Any solution any company comes up with costs money to implement and maintain. That cost along with all the other operational costs are passed on to the customer as part of the purchase cost. It is all a compromise based upon what management feels the customer is most receptive to, how best to reach the customer and close a sale and the costs of doing business. Each company has a slightly different take on the best combination and each customer has different combinations of preferences.

No one company will ever be the best for everyone. Customer feedback is valuable, keep it coming.

[greenmeanie]

What you have to understand about the parts places in the UK is that to us it is basicaly an old farmer's truck or a working vehicle much like an old Chevy/ford pickup and not so much of a classic car 'toy' as it appears to be in the US. As such the UK owners generally have a very heavy emphasis on cost and, for the most part, couldn't care less about how nice the service is as long as the parts are cheap.

As my local Landy indy in the UK used to say "If you want to have a great service experience go and buy something new and shiny and go to the dealership." Of course, this has been cleaned up considerably from the full quote.

Cheers
Gregor

[jp-]

I dunno.... sometimes I still go to dos-shells for commands, just to see if I can remember them anymore (it's been ages since I've argued the X-Windows-versus Open-Windows for Sparcstations)... ArcGIS and AutoCad still keep command line windows.... heck, I think I still have a copy of Seismic Unix on a CD somewhere, had to run a UNIX emulator to run it on the PC's in the computer lab...

And w/ all this fun, I've never gotten around to messin' w/ Linux.....

Dos is easy. For a list of commands just type "help." One Dos command that doesn't show up on the list though is "mem." Try it.

AutoCAD command line is super handy. Even in mechanical desktop, they eliminated some of the icons, but the old commands still work if you can't find the button.

[jp-]

Abso-damn-lutely.

I want to second that.

In this day and age, you'd think it would be easy to combine the two. What dumb-asses.

If your prices are the best, don't be shy, display them. If on the other hand, they are high, don't hide them; nobody likes a sneek and we'll find out anyway.

[yorker]

FWIW I don't know of any of my friends who order from BP either simply because of the lack of a paper catalog. A lot of Rover nuts aren't even online- I know that might seem strange in today's day and age but a surprising # aren't online at least on a regular basis. Besides the lack of a physical catalog means less reading material on the throne- another drawback that I don't think anyone has mentioned.

I'd rather pay $5 for a catalog than have to resort to an online catalog, and I'm on the net all the time. It is like reading an E-book, perhaps I am too traditional but I hate that too.

[TeriAnn]

In this day and age, you'd think it would be easy to combine the two. What dumb-asses.

I'm sorry you find me to be such a dumb-ass. It wasn't my intention to be one.

Combining the two requires a back end database that doesn't exist and an inventory software package that can talk to a server. None of which BP has. Alas I'm just a dumb ass web designer and not a database or a server side programmer.

My failings are my fault and not BP's.

My apologies

[scott]

gee i don't know about dumbasses, but i think bp's site isn't the easiest and as a management analyst, not a programer not a web designer, just a dumbass mgmgt analyst (heck i even got ass in my title) i think up work arounds, like open 2 internet explore windows one for their prices list one for their parts and just toggle between the two.

[BackInA88]

[quote=yorker] Besides the lack of a physical catalog means less reading material on the throne- another drawback that I don't think anyone has mentioned.

OH YEAH!!! It's taken the place of the Sears Christmas Wish Book!!!!!!
(or old Playboy's depending on what age we're talking about)

[BackInA88]

gee i don't know about dumbasses, but i think bp's site isn't the easiest and as a management analyst, not a programer not a web designer, just a dumbass mgmgt analyst (heck i even got ass in my title) i think up work arounds, like open 2 internet explore windows one for their prices list one for their parts and just toggle between the two.

As long as you have a high speed connection (I do), some of those PDF's are big, I can imagine it being a real pain.
You'd have time to go to the throne and check out a paper catalog and place an order (thanks yorker ) in the time it would take to load.



.

[jp-]

I'm sorry you find me to be such a dumb-ass. It wasn't my intention to be one.

Combining the two requires a back end database that doesn't exist and an inventory software package that can talk to a server. None of which BP has. Alas I'm just a dumb ass web designer and not a database or a server side programmer.

My failings are my fault and not BP's.

My apologies

That wasn't a personal attack, just my opinion on a very bad decision by BP management. This is a problem that has turned many customers away and should have been fixed years ago. If RN can do it, why can't you? All you have to do is put a disclaimer in the front of the catalog that says, "Some prices subject to change without notice."

Beyond that, we know that a price list does exist. Because every time you call, they are able to rattle off the prices pretty quick. Maybe they have them memorized, but I doubt it.

If you personally are unable to do it, find someone that can. I see this everyday at work, someone gives up because they can't do something. Believe me, if I am stuck on a problem, I'll find someone with an answer.

[TeriAnn]

I'd rather pay $5 for a catalog than have to resort to an online catalog

You just don't get it do you.

BP recently estimated that sending a SINGLE page folded mailer just to customers who have purchased within the last 6 months would cost $10,000. The Series catalogue is 86 pages. All costs would be paid by the customer in the form of additional product margins plus an added margin would have to be factored in to cover any projected price & shipping costs for each part during the life of the paper catalogue.

Go back to an earlier posting by someone else:
Rovers North - CLUTCH SLAVE CYLINDER - SERIES IIA SKU:RNB599Price:$125.48

British Pacific - Part #:266694 Product:SLAVE CYLINDER IIA Price:$64.50 Thats almost a 50% saving

Both companies have access to the exact same selection of genuine Land Rover parts.

This alone should give you an idea of the kind of margins are needed to support paper catalogues and news letters. It isn't just $5.00 and you pay for it with each order.

BP listened to the large number of folks who state their #1 vendor selection criteria was price and their #2 was part quality and tries hard to provide both. If you lower your margins, something that takes up a lot of overhead costs has to go. Paper catalogues was the big overhead budget item that got sacrificed to make large margin cuts to meet customer's #1 stated reason for picking a vendor.


However, not everyone has the same preferences and if paper catalogues are that much more important than cheaper prices to you, go ahead and follow your preferences.

Personally I prefer to save my money for the fuel tank over paper catalogues and I also own a printer. I can print out catalogue pages if I need something to read in the bathroom.

[jp-]

TeriAnn,

Not sure if that post was for me or Yorker, but I am not against online catalogs. I'd just like to see the price next to the part I'm looking at.

As for the paper catalog, Yorker is correct, you could easily sell the catalog and print only as needed. The catalog doesn't need to be in color and they have high speed printers that could shoot out 86 pages very fast. $5 a copy would be about right. Just print it from the .pdf file, which you update regularly anyway.

Sometimes it hurts to be right so often...