Poor Customer Service

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StrokedWJ

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 13, 2009
Location
Fletcher, NC
I'm leaving names out of this discussion for now because the situation is still pending a resolution. But I'd like to hear your opinion on whats going on. Here's the story...

- Ordered 4.56 gears from Company A. Paid for name brand gearset and installation
- 3rd party professional installed gears
- Broke in gearset (rear axle) & swapped fluid
- Discovered wrong gearset was installed (5.29's instead of 4.56), more on that in a minute...
- Company A's response - "shit happens"
- Company A replaces gearset with "value line" gearset
- Value line gearset makes loud gear noise even with proper setup

I have now had to tear down my rear axle a total of 5 times due to the mistakes of Company A and have gone through 3 gallons of gear oil (not the cheap stuff either...). The way I discovered the gears were the wrong ratio was by putting the TC into 4wd on-road @ about 15 mph. This caused my tires to lock up and I skidded off the road. I can't believe it didn't break anything.

Both I and the gear installer have talked to Company A on the phone regarding the 2 issues (wrong ratio and cheap gearset). Their response is, "All gearsets are the same. There is no difference between high dollar name brand gearset and value line R&P". Company A has offered to send me whatever brand gearset I want, since they're "all the same", with caveat that it will make noise and I cannot return it for any reason, or a refund of the gear price. I just so happen to be traveling to Company A's location next week (about 300 miles) and would prefer to take them the 3rd, and have them install the name brand gearset that I paid for. So, what is your opinion? What would you accept as resolution?
 
Company A should fix their mistake, instal the proper gears for you and give you a nice fat coupon for your next purchase (in the hopes that you dare purchasing anything from them again).


My 2 cents.


Sent from a carrier pigeon.
 
The box was labeled 4.56, but the ratio was not verified. Which it should have been.
 
That is what I was thinking -- part/most of the responsibility would lay on the installer for not verifying....BUT, if the box said 4.56, then it's all on the supplier...a reasonable person would not be expected to check further than that.
 
Assuming there is not another side to the story I would talk to them and get all your money back and then take it somewhere else.
 
so, supplier grabs wrong gear set that is clearly labeled with the gear ratio. Buyer either reads gear ratio and says it doesn't matter, or doesn't read label to check product is what he ordered. and Installer Assumes he is supplied with correct part and doesn't bother confirming.

3 fails no matter how you split it.


I'm sure it's not that cut and dry, but sounds like everyone needs to be splitting the bill on this one.

1. Gear installer should install second set of gears, free of charge. and he better confirm the gear set being installed is the one the customer wants to have installed.
2. Supplier F'ed up and sent wrong set, they are now liable for replacing with correct set of equal quality and value.
3. Customer should check out his product and confirm received product is what he ordered. otherwise it's going to cost you Gear Oil, shipping, fuel for travel, etc.

Everyone looses and learns a lesson.
 
1. Gear installer should install second set of gears, free of charge. and he better confirm the gear set being installed is the one the customer wants to have installed.
2. Supplier F'ed up and sent wrong set, they are now liable for replacing with correct set of equal quality and value.
3. Customer should check out his product and confirm received product is what he ordered. otherwise it's going to cost you Gear Oil, shipping, fuel for travel, etc.
Click to expand...

I agree with the the second 2 points here but I dont understand number 1. The Gear installer obviously installed the first set of gears correctly and they made no noise. The installer did not buy the gear for the customer they were supplied to him by the customer. He did his job and there is no fault there. I think The supplier if anyone should pay to have the new correct gears installed. The installer has no fault here.
 
88bronzetrooper said:
I agree with the the second 2 points here but I dont understand number 1. The Gear installer obviously installed the first set of gears correctly and they made no noise. The installer did not buy the gear for the customer they were supplied to him by the customer. He did his job and there is no fault there. I think The supplier if anyone should pay to have the new correct gears installed. The installer has no fault here.
Click to expand...

He did everything correct except confirm parts he was about to install. i.e.
Customer: Please install these 5.29's
Installer looks at box: You mean these 4.56's?
Customer: S.O.B.!!! I'll be back in a couple of days.
 
Is a gear installer required to know every tooth count combination for every gear set in every brand of axle? Mistake is almost certainly on the gear mfgr if the box actually had the right label on it. But the vendor should have definitely made it right with the correct set of gears you paid for and honestly depending on what kind of company they are should have paid for or done the second install, it could have ended up a lot worse. It isnt hard to guess the people here you're talking about, hope it all gets fixed.
 
mbalbritton said:
He did everything correct except confirm parts he was about to install. i.e.
Customer: Please install these 5.29's
Installer looks at box: You mean these 4.56's?
Customer: S.O.B.!!! I'll be back in a couple of days.
Click to expand...

Except the customer said "install these 4.56s" and the box said "4.56 gears".
 
88bronzetrooper said:
I agree with the the second 2 points here but I dont understand number 1. The Gear installer obviously installed the first set of gears correctly and they made no noise. The installer did not buy the gear for the customer they were supplied to him by the customer. He did his job and there is no fault there. I think The supplier if anyone should pay to have the new correct gears installed. The installer has no fault here.
Click to expand...
Sorry I didnt clarify...I purchased the gears through the installer and did not supply them.
 
IMO...
Just re-read that the installer supplied the parts. Hate to say, but the burden lies on the installer. He ordered parts, before he installs them, it is up to him to verify they are correct. Has this happened to me? Yep, twice this year already where I got a mis-boxed gearset. Luckily I caught the mistake before installation began. I learned a long time ago to double check that sort of thing.

Company "A" is responsible for getting you the proper items that you ordered or a refund. Either way, they should settle up with you.
As far as the noisy gearset is concerned. Some lesser quality gears are more difficult to get an acceptable pattern out of and may not be as durable. I install "house brand" gears, a lot, with great results. They just take a little more effort to be ideally setup where a more name brand may not.

I know the company, they are a stand up company that have worked with me when they made mistakes.
I know the installer too. He is a good guy with good skills.

Guess we'll see how this works out...
 
Ultimately the fault probably lies on the gear manufacturer. However the supplier as that manufacturer's rep has an obligation to make it right. Hell I'll go step farther and say the supplier has an obligation to check that the product is right before it leaves their possession. (And yes I think asking them to open every box and confirm stamping matches labeling is a reasonable request.)

Two things really jump out to me and woulld really concern me regarding future buisness.
1- The supplier's statement that all gear sets are the same. If true that this statement was even made it shows a pretty clear lack of salesmanship/professionalism in my opinion. Even if that is factually true or is just the supplier's honest belief, it is irrelevent. If you s a customer paid for brand X you are entitled to brand X and a good supplier should do their best to makke you feel confident and happy in your purchasing decision. That leads to a happy confident buyer who will return. By saying "well that brand is o better than brand Y" even if true you have created potential for buyer's remorse. Bad mojo, in my opinion.
2- The point about we will swap them and you never complain again. Either A) they do not trust your chosen installer, which if true Id dig into, hard and find out why. If a supplier doesn't trust someone who sales their product that probably is a bad indicator. Jody ays the installer is competent and Jody's word is good as gospel to me so I'm not going to harp on this point. or B) The supplier lacks faith in their product or just wants you to "go away" eiether way ot the relationship I want with who gets my money.

Hope it works out.
 
if you paid the installer, for parts and labor, it is all his fault.
shit gets boxed wrong everyday in this business. he should have checked them before installing them.
you should not been involved at all unless you were the one that paid the supplier.

now as for the installer, shit happens. it sucks for you, but on the plus side, i bet you never install a set of gears again without checking ratio first.
it sucks that he will end up doing the job again, but that unfortunately is part of this business
 
I didn't mean for this to turn into the blame game. Obviously that has some effect on the situation, because the party responsible needs to make the most effort to correct the mistake, but my main reason for posting was to get your opinion on what you would want to happen if you were in my shoes. I personally would like to take the 3rd member to Company A next week, drop it off with them and let them set-up the diff with the proper ratio and brand that I paid for. Being a Ford 9" third, I would not expect this to be very difficult for them or take more than 1-2 hours in the hand of an experienced tech. I could see a big difference if I was asking them to completely tear down my axle and perform a difficult install (1/2 day to full day of labor). Do you think that is asking for to much?

The installer and I are pretty good friends, he has done a decent amount of work on my jeep in the past including setting up 4 R&P's all to my satisfaction. We have discussed and agreed upon some alternatives if Company A is unwilling to set-up the 3rd.
 
I think you should call out the supplier. Word gets around quick. If you will call them out, an they still dont make good on it then they arent worth a :poop: no way. An if they dont make your problem good, them who else are they going to get?
 
I think that would be an ideal way to rectify this. They can setup the diff to their specs and be covered by their warranty. Their parts+their labor= warranty IMO.
That would be a nice gesture on their part to keep you as a customer.
 
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braxton357 said:
Is a gear installer required to know every tooth count combination for every gear set in every brand of axle?
Click to expand...

God forbid he's got to do some maths....

How many times does 9 go into 41 again???
 
To make sure I got this right;

You took your vehicle to a qualified installer to have 4.56 gears set up.
You ordered all the parts through the installer? (the installer order the parts)
Installer received Gears in a box labeled 4.56, He installed the gears to later find out they were 5.29's

You don't need to be involved beyond that. The Installer is your supplier and if his supplier sent him the wrong stuff that's his problem. All you should here from him is "its going to be a few more days, how about %5 off?"

There is no reason for you to be contacting the gear supplier, or excepting anything less than what you paid for anyway. Maybe I'm missing something but seems to easy to me. Good customer service is hard to find these days though.
 
250krawler said:
To make sure I got this right;

You took your vehicle to a qualified installer to have 4.56 gears set up.
You ordered all the parts through the installer? (the installer order the parts)
Installer received Gears in a box labeled 4.56, He installed the gears to later find out they were 5.29's

You don't need to be involved beyond that. The Installer is your supplier and if his supplier sent him the wrong stuff that's his problem. All you should here from him is "its going to be a few more days, how about %5 off?"

There is no reason for you to be contacting the gear supplier, or excepting anything less than what you paid for anyway. Maybe I'm missing something but seems to easy to me. Good customer service is hard to find these days though.
Click to expand...



that's exactly my point.
it isn't between you and the company he got his parts from (unless you paid for the parts directly from the supplier)

why should the supplier be punished (by having to set it up for free)(a qualified tech at 2hrs labor is possibly $200-300 of billable labor) when all they did was sell a ring and pinion.
the installer overlooked the ratio, he should have called the supplier, explained the situation and handled it accordingly.
how many times do you rotate the ring gear when setting one up? 20-30-50 in all of the times it rotated he never looked at the numbers stamped on the ring gear.

i'm sorry for the installer, but that is part of this business, you should have never even been involved,except for the installer explaining the situation to you.

if i went through this every time something was boxed wrong, i wouldn't work, i would just sit on the phone bitching at suppliers all day.
 
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