I've had the most incedible buying experience at GM Parts Direct and after the latest email from them I now feel that it's appropriate to share my expreience with the rest of the Fiero community.

On April 5, I ordered several items from their website. When I went to checkout, they all showed up as special order items; none of them were in stock.

On April 19, they billed my credit card for the full amount.

On April 20, they shipped the parts via DHL. I got the tracking number from their 'order status' page where it said the order was complete and gave the tracking number. I checked DHL's tracking page and saw that it was scheduled to be delivered on April 25. Three week delivery seems to be about par for them.

On April 26 I was wondering where my parts were. I checked DHL's tracking page again and it showed that the shipment was refused by recipient on April 25. That didn't make sense; there was somebody home all day and no delivery was attempted.

So I called DHL up to find out what was going on. What they told me was that on April 21 they received a call from John Apple at GM Parts Direct and he had diverted the shipment to a different address in Virginia. I get the tracking info for the re-routed shipment and see that it was delivered to a residence in Virginia. So I went to GM Parts Direct's website and looked for contact information. They don't give a phone number, address, email address or any other form of contact info, just a web form that you can submit requests through. I submitted my request; where's my parts?

Checked my email the next day; no reply. No contact at all from GM Parts Direct since I placed the order, in fact. So I did some research: GM Parts Direct is run out of the parts warehouse at Flow Chevrolet. They're part of the Flow group of auto dealers and after bouncing around their websites I finally found the Flow corporate site. There were phone numbers there, so I started calling. After a couple of tries I was finally able to speak with John Apple. After explaining to him how the path led to him, he did some checking, made an excuse about tracking numbers (couldn't happen that way, the first falsehood) and told me that it had been sent to - well, I won't mention the name although John didn't mind sharing this other customer's info with me. I explained to him that that there was a problem - they'd taken my order, billed my credit card, but I didn't have the parts. He said he'd see what he could do and call me back with his solution.

A little later he called back, told me that the other customer had my package and that it would be shipped to me overnight with Saturday delivery. I agreed that this would be acceptable and asked him to send me the tracking number for the shipment. He assured me that it would be in my hands Saturday, April 30. Somehow he forgot to send me that tracking number...

Saturday came and went; no parts, no tracking number, no email or phone message from GM Parts Direct. They're closed for the weekend so it wasn't until Monday, May 2 that I was able to reach John Apple again. I reminded him that I was still out the money for parts I never received and that he'd assured me Saturday delivery. He blamed DHL, claiming that their scheduling prevented the shipment from being made. Once more he claimed that the package would be shipped overnight - I insisted that he provide the tracking number for that shipment and pointed out that this was the third time around on this 'shipment' and I was starting to lose patience.

Later he sent me the tracking number. I went to DHL's tracking page, punched it in - and was informed that this tracking number wasn't found in their system. I waited a few hours, tried again, got the same result. Oh well, time to give Mr. Apple another phone call. He insisted that the tracking number was right and wanted to get me into a conference call with his supervisor and DHL; I declined this opportunity. He started getting a bit abusive and was complaining that all these shipping charges were costing him money - acting as if this was something special that he was doing for me rather than simply recovering from his own mistake. I reminded him that they'd taken my order and taken my money - and now it was required of them to deliver the merchandise.

A little while later I tried tracking the shipment again and the number was valid. The package was finally delivered late in the afternoon of Tuesday, May 3. My parts are here at last...

The next day I took the time to reply to his last email and let him know that the shipment had been received. I also offered some suggestions on how things could be handled better in the future: things like keeping the customer informed, following through on promises made to the customer, etc. I explained why I was unhappy with their service and wouldn't be doing business with them anymore and also mentioned that I was considering sharing my experience with several thousand other potential customers.

Got a reply from them today; a nice abusive one full of threats. I'd love to copy / paste it in here so you could see, but it wouldn't be appropriate for me to post their private email to a public forum. I was informed that my account was cancelled and that I would not be able to purchase anything from their website again. No problem; I wasn't planning on subjecting myself to their "customer service" again anyway.

I'm not going to try to tell anyone else if they should or should not do business with this company - I just want them to be better informed then make up their own minds.

And if you'd like another option, www.partszoneonline.com offers the same parts and their price is comparable; a little higher on the parts but much lower on the shipping / handling.

To get the last laugh, get with your credit card company and dispute the shipping charges off your bill. Since you paid for the shipping service, but they were not shipped to you the first time and not shipped in a timely manner, most companies will charge back/apply credit for that part of the bill.

another thing to keep in mind when buying from GMpartsdirect:

They will not stand behind the products GM warranty. If you have defective part they will tell you to take it to a local GM dealer in your town to get a replacement (Easier said than done). GMpartsdirect denied any responsibility and wouldn't help with my defective module.

The problem is that most GM dealers won't honor a warranty on a part you didn't purchase from them. I had to go to three different places to return my faulty module. At the third place I basically had to kiss the guys butt to get him to do an exchange.

I now buy all my GM parts from the place that did my exchange. They cost more but it is a local owned auto part store and I don't mind supporting them.

Dave

[This message has been edited by ditch (edited 05-07-2005).]

hey whuffo,

Unfortunately, things happen. I work for a fortune 300 retailer and we receive drop shipments all the time. And yes, there are times that packages are inadvertently rerouted to the wrong address. Those packages are usually received by bar code scanners at the distribution center. Ever have an item ring up as the wrong item at a store? Same thing. I think maybe you should realize that you did receive the parts that you paid for, and that life is too short to get so upset about these kind of things. I also find it VERY hard to believe that you received an unwarranted scathing e-mail from a corporation. Your recollection seems very cool and collected, but it seems evident that you must have really caused a bigger problem if that is the case. Next time you run into a similar problem, remain polite,professional, and humble, maybe people would be more willing to help you out.

Thanks for the heads up

It appears that one of the worst GM parts suppliers is now using the worst shipper, creating the circumstamces for regular mightmares.

I stopped ordering from GM Parts Direct 3 years ago, after I ordered left and right brand new aero rocker panels. It took 4 weeks for them to arrive. The left one was brand new, the right was slightly used - someone had sanded and primed it with the incorrect primer. GM Parts Direct refused to do anything about it after repeated emails and calls. I ended up resanding and painting them myself.

I spoke with one of their reps at the GM Nationals at Carlisle that same summer, and he was not overly interested in my experience or comments.

I will never order anything from them again. The excessive shipping and delivery time more than wipe out the slightly lower prices.

Time to call your credit card company and begin fraud proceedings.

quote Originally posted by Denny: I spoke with one of their reps at the GM Nationals at Carlisle that same summer, and he was not overly interested in my experience or comments..

I have had nothing but positive experiences from them so far. The shipping charges are high but they admit that's where their profit is...

GM Parts Direct is not affiliated with GM other than Flow Chevrolet being a GM dealer. If you were talking to a GM rep they would not have had anything to do with Flow Chevrolet or GM Parts Direct.

quote Originally posted by jscott1: I have had nothing but positive experiences from them so far. The shipping charges are high but they admit that's where their profit is... GM Parts Direct is not affiliated with GM other than Flow Chevrolet being a GM dealer. If you were talking to a GM rep they would not have had anything to do with Flow Chevrolet or GM Parts Direct.

I was speaking to a rep from Flow Chevrolet/GM Parts Direct. He was there promoting the GM Parts Direct website.

[This message has been edited by Denny (edited 05-07-2005).]

quote Originally posted by fph6666: hey whuffo, Unfortunately, things happen. I work for a fortune 300 retailer and we receive drop shipments all the time. And yes, there are times that packages are inadvertently rerouted to the wrong address. Those packages are usually received by bar code scanners at the distribution center. Ever have an item ring up as the wrong item at a store? Same thing. I think maybe you should realize that you did receive the parts that you paid for, and that life is too short to get so upset about these kind of things. I also find it VERY hard to believe that you received an unwarranted scathing e-mail from a corporation. Your recollection seems very cool and collected, but it seems evident that you must have really caused a bigger problem if that is the case. Next time you run into a similar problem, remain polite,professional, and humble, maybe people would be more willing to help you out.

Mistakes happen, true enough. How you deal with those problems makes all the difference... Before you jump to the defense of a bad vendor, realize that if I hadn't gone to the trouble of contacting DHL, searching for a way to contact the vendor, etc, I would have NEVER received my parts. And the abusive emails are real; as I said, I don't feel it appropriate to share private communications in a public forum.

Heck, you should go ahead and order from this vendor - several times. Then you'd understand...

Whuffo,You handled it in the appropriate manner.You also posted the information in the right way.I'm glad you got your stuff.

On second thought I did have a close call on my last order from GM Parts Direct. I got the confirmation email that my order was processed and it seemed to be taking a long time to get shipped. After about 2 weeks I sent an email asking about it and the following day my order was shipped. Coincidence? I don't know but I was happy to get my part with only minor inconvenience.

If Flow Chevrolet was uninterested in helping you solve your problem that's not a good sign. Granted he was probably a marketing rep with little knowledge or training in customer service. But still he should have at least tried to help you.

GM parts direct is great. I look up a part on the website. The website spits out a part #. Then I search for the part # on google and buy the part cheaper else where. If the part is not listed they look it up for you and send you the part # in a couple days.
I do buy from there sometimes. The only messed up order I had was in my favor. They sell northstar bearings per bearing and they sent me a box of 8 plus 7 singles.

Sean

You can post the email content without the address, why can't you show it that way? I never had problems with them but this tells a lot about their customer service.

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Palm Beach Fieros
http://pbfieros.tripod.com

Thanks for the feedback. I just deleted GMPartsDirect from my Favorites list and added PartsZone.

If everyone didn't buy from a vendor because of one or two reported bad experiences, no one would buy from any vendor, let alone any Fiero vendor. No one has a perfect record for whatever reason. My experiences with GMPD have all been positive with delivery within a week of order. I currently do not buy from them but use their site to get the GM price to take to my local dealer who saves me the difference between my state sales tax and GMPD shipping. Delivery is about the same since the dealer gets it from the same place GMPD does, which is somewhere in the GM parts system. If not for supporting a local dealer and saving a few bucks, I would still buy from GMPD.

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Notchbacks RULE

"Let a man drive a Fiero and he'll own one.
Teach a man to fix a Fiero and he'll own eight."

[This message has been edited by Fierobruiser (edited 05-08-2005).]

Using DHL is the worst mistake of GMPD, they use DHL for cheapness, and get cheap service.

when Im not driving a Fiero im driving this....

We recently ordered a seat belt for the Tahoe...the part that we ordered was not the part that was shipped to us AND they refuse to take it back. Talk about "good service." We have all the information documented but they have a no return policy even if THEY screw up.

Jen

quote Originally posted by Fierobruiser: If everyone didn't buy from a vendor because of one or two reported bad experiences, no one would buy from any vendor, let alone any Fiero vendor.

If this was the first time I had a problem with them I might feel differently - but it's not. A while back, I ordered a part using the 22P parts guide for the number - when the shipment arrived (3 weeks later) what showed up was something different than what I wanted. I could see that the number on the box was the same as the number I ordered, and could see the GM 22P parts book showing that number for a different part. What went wrong? Wrong part in box, mismarked part, 22P in error?

I emailed GM Parts Direct with my little mystery and got a one line reply:

NO RETURNS ON SPECIAL ORDER PARTS.

I finally got the facts from friends here on the forum - it was the 22P guide that was in error. The wrong part I got turned out to be something I needed so it wasn't a loss. And the part I wanted is no longer available, so nothing more needed to be done.

Of course, the vendor could have also researched the problem to see what went wrong - but rather than help me out they were purely interested in making sure they kept my money.

I noted the same thing this last time as well - although I pointed out three separate times that they had my money and I didn't have the merchandise - even when it was clear that the merchandise was no longer in their posession - not once did they consider refunding my money. If the person who received the parts hadn't been kind enough to forward them on to me I'd probably still be trying to get my money back.

Here's the way I think things work there: you give them an order and they check to make sure your credit card will carry the charge. Then they either pull the parts from their own warehouse or order the parts from the GM warehouse (in bulk along with other orders) then when they arrive, charge your credit card, box the parts up and ship them. Once that shipment leaves their dock, the matter is closed and they won't accept the parts back for any reason - nor will you be able to receive a refund. If this works for you, then order away - but be aware that if anything goes wrong at any stage of the process YOU will be the one who suffers the loss, even if the problem is their fault.

What are the chances of problems? All I know about is my experience; in four orders I've had two successes, one problem, and one major problem. Those percentages combined with their "never our fault" policy makes this a bad vendor in my book.

But why take my word for it? Read this whole thread and you'll see several others telling similar tales of customer service gone wrong. How many of those who had problems had them successfully resolved by GM Parts Direct at the vendor's expense? I count zero - how about you?