CIP1 - Customer service FAIL

[Qurtys Lyn]

I have very few shops I use that I count on being reliable all the time. Most places are good, but everyone has their screw ups. Two orders ago, my order from CIP1 took 14 days to get here. It had to go from Vancouver, past my house in Salt Lake to Illinois, then back to Salt Lake. In this case, I'm pretty sure it was UPS that screwed up. It happens. (I have 5 or 6 friends that work or have worked for FedEx, I know what goes on in the warehouse, and can't imagine how anything makes it anywhere on time...)

John and Aircooled.net is always good. Course, I just pick my parts up from his warehouse.

[Lotrat]

I'm in Jbugs all the time. Gary is the owner. He's a straight forward guy trying to make a living in a world filled with Criagslist losers. He will work with you, but don't call the guy up screaming. He sells most of his stuff on the web by part number. He spends all day with people who order the wrong stuff and call screaming. People don't bother to figure out what they really need and take it out on vendors. Your title may have one model year on it, but it may not really be what the car is. The seats may have come out of another car. The body may have been swapped. Vendors have no idea what's been done to your car. Once he figures out that you're not a scammer, he'll help you out. If they put the wrong stuff in your box, he'll fix it for you. I spend 99% of my VW cash there and have no plans of going anywhere else.

[robbied31]

I have spent thousands of dollars with CIP1 over the years and one of the reasons is the shipping. It is/was litterly only a couple days wait 99% of the time. I have had minimal issues with them. I spent quite a bit with JBugs too. Aircooled.net also. These people ship a lot of stuff and quite frankly, stuff happens. To get fried over it isn't going to help. It will happen in the future again.

Like the previous poster mentioned, do your research before buying the parts. Know what it is you need!

Rob

[KarenTheBug]

FAIL! FAIL FAIL FAIL! I can't say that enough.

Here's the latest update from CIP1:

The last contact I had with them was with some woman (name escapes me) in their customer service department a few days ago, maybe a little longer, who said that FedEx would come to my door to pick up the box to return it, or if I wouldn't be home I could leave it on the front door step, or I could leave the box in my house, and they would stick a shipping label to my door and I could drop it off at any FedEx site to have it shipped back. I told her I will never, ever, under any circumstances be here at home during the day (God willing), because I work a regular 9 to 5 day job. She said that's fine, just leave the box inside and they'll stick a label to your door and you can slap that on the box and drop it at a location.

Great. So I'm about to leave for work today (later than usual), and a FedEx delivery driver knocks on my door and says he's here to pick up my box. I said it's not ready because I've been busy and he can just give me the label. He says oh yeah can't do that, I don't have a label, but take it to any FedEx location and they'll look up the information and ship it off. Ok, fine. I figured whatever was in their mystical computer cloud that told him to come to my house must be in ALL FedEx computers.

So, I throw the box in the trunk of my other car and head to the local FedEx site on my way to work. They say they can't find any door tag pickup for my address or for the company (CIP1). I am losing it at this point and ask can they just ship it to this company and bill to them, giving a truncated version of the story to this point. They said they can't even find the company in the database. I'm so pissed at this point I storm out, then when I get back to my car I notice that CIP1's 1-800 number is printed on the original label.

I call them and explain what's going on, and the same woman I spoke to previously (God how I wish I had her name!) tells me she'll have to ask someone else, then a gentleman gets on the phone and I explain it to him, asking for an account number or something I can give FedEx to ship this thing off. He explains that they've already paid for FedEx to come out once, that it's my problem now, and if I want a return I have to pay for the freight myself.

I said a few choice words to him, explained I was calling my bank to file a dispute, threw the muffler in my trunk a second time and headed off to work.

I was about half way there when my phone rang - guess who. They said that they were sorry for the inconvenience, that they were sending me another muffler ASAP (I told them to bubble wrap the HELL out of this one, because I'm not doing this again), and asked me if I could post a comment on TheSamba.com in the thread I began about this whole cluster explaining that they fixed the problem (I guess they don't read Shop Talk Forums). I said I would be glad to, WHEN I GET MY MUFFLER IN READY-TO-INSTALL CONDITION, and got off the phone.

Everyone makes mistakes, and we're all human. Here is how CIP1 has screwed this up:

1a. Initial issue - muffler damaged in shipment.
1b. CIP1 has the option to exchange / refund me, instead they tell me to just try to work it out.
1c. I don't get my exchange / refund until I threaten them with a bank dispute.

2a. Second issue - the FedEx return got messed up because their customer service was unfamiliar with how a door tag return works.
2b. CIP1 has the option to just pay for the return since I've already spent my time boxing this thing up and going to a FedEx location, instead they tell me to pay for it myself because they've done their duty in their own minds.
2c. I don't get my exchange until I threaten them with a bank dispute a second time, and they find that I've posted this whole long, drawn-out ordeal online.

In both cases, there was an honest mistake (and I'm being generous with the first one, because this was a truly poor packing job), an opportunity for CIP1 to make things right, and only after threats and public airing of my grievances did they even offer to fix the problem.

I will post an update IF and when I get my muffler in installable condition (I'm not holding out much hope at this point). I haven't posted any updates to my thread on TheSamba.com since the first message, since I want to see how well this ends before I decide how to word my "they fixed it" message. My blood pressure shouldn't have had to get this high this many times to fix a simple problem.

I will say that they've lost a LOT of business from me (my Bug still needs a heater channel, body rubber all around, stock rims and hub caps / tires, a dash board, and any number of other things I have no idea it needs at the moment but will pop up later).

CIP1 has learned one valuable lesson throughout this whole thing: a $150 damaged muffler is much less expensive to replace than a damaged reputation.

PS - JBugs took immediate action on my wrong seat belt message, and I thank them for that. Unfortunately, CIP1 has put me in a mood dealing with vendors right now. I almost don't even want to drive my Bug right now, I'm so angry in general.

[KarenTheBug]

I have spent thousands of dollars with CIP1 over the years and one of the reasons is the shipping. It is/was litterly only a couple days wait 99% of the time. I have had minimal issues with them. I spent quite a bit with JBugs too. Aircooled.net also. These people ship a lot of stuff and quite frankly, stuff happens. To get fried over it isn't going to help. It will happen in the future again.

Like the previous poster mentioned, do your research before buying the parts. Know what it is you need!

Rob

I know what parts I need, but what really I need is a reach around, since I'm getting ridden like they paid for the hour and plan on enjoying it. Everyone makes mistakes, it's how you work to fix it that matters. I make mistakes at work, I won't lie about that. And I own up to them, I apologize, I fix them, I learn from them, and I go out of my way to make sure whomever I screwed over is made whole again in any way I can. That's working, Son. Putting ownership of the problem on the customer - TWICE - is a load.

I'm sure they will make me whole in this matter, even if only because they now know I'm airing my grievances publicly. I don't care HOW I get my muffler, I just want my muffler (and heat - temps in Richmond, VA right now are 27 degrees, and will probably dip lower before dawn).

[KarenTheBug]

I'm in Jbugs all the time. Gary is the owner. He's a straight forward guy trying to make a living in a world filled with Criagslist losers. He will work with you, but don't call the guy up screaming. He sells most of his stuff on the web by part number. He spends all day with people who order the wrong stuff and call screaming. People don't bother to figure out what they really need and take it out on vendors. Your title may have one model year on it, but it may not really be what the car is. The seats may have come out of another car. The body may have been swapped. Vendors have no idea what's been done to your car. Once he figures out that you're not a scammer, he'll help you out. If they put the wrong stuff in your box, he'll fix it for you. I spend 99% of my VW cash there and have no plans of going anywhere else.

+1 to JBugs - they've helped me out in the past finding the right parts. They did respond IMMEDIATELY to my wrong seat belt concern - I didn't have time to call them back before I went in to work (and I worked the night shift tonight). I'm just burned out on vendors right now.

JBugs and AirHeadParts are the two best I've ever worked with. AirHeadParts +2, they really helped me out in the past and bent over backwards and then some to make a problem right. Their stock is a little more limited than most folks and their website is a pain in the ass with the search sometimes, but when they have what I need I'll lay my money on their counter any day.

[Bruce2]

I'm so pissed at this point I storm out, ....

I said a few choice words to him, ......

My blood pressure shouldn't have had to get this high this many times ......

I'm so angry in general.

You are your own worst enemy.

[Stray Catalyst]

It's understandable, though - when a vendor says "yeah, we screwed the pooch on your order, so let's rub some salt in the wound and make you jump through hoops" it's hard to shrug it off. I've never had trouble with CIP1, though I've had it with various other vendors, and the ones that try to make the situation right first and THEN try to save their money are the ones I go back to. If ever you call them again and wind up with the same customer service rep, write her name down and ALWAYS ask to speak directly to her - if nothing else, you won't have to explain things more than once. Keep in mind that she's almost certainly not the one that screwed up your order - that was the guy in the shipping department who failed to pack your order correctly, and the shipper that used your box for a Samsonite test.

[Jim Ed]

My 1973 Beetle's heater does not begin to work well until after I have driven it for about 10 miles.

But, also, it begins to work well when it is 50F or over outside.

I am using flaps and thermostat.

Is there a 'Winter setting' for the thermostat that they do not tell you about in the books?

[56ovalbug]

That looks pretty easy to fix. I would of fixed it and took the $10 gift certificate. I've order thousands of dollars worth of stuff from CIP over the years and only had a few issues which were always quickly resolved.

[Fahrfrumnuvw]

Wow, I feel so lucky! I have a very good parts supplier 20 minutes away, they are great, will order what ever I need and stock tons of stuff, I've taken them for granted I guess.
It must be difficult to have to order on-line or by phone, at least when I want something I can go and have a look at the part to make sure it is exactly what I need and if there is a problem, I can deal with it in person. I recall a problem with some inexpensive 009 distributors, they kept pumping oil up the shaft, the vendor I use had never had any problems and took two back, no questions then ordered me a Bosch unit which worked perfectly.

Lots of luck KarenTheBug! My Mom always tells me you attract more ants with honey than with vinegar, attitude is everything.

[BAJA-IT]

Wow!! I've had good dealings with cip1, last year I ordered some gauges for my sons car for Christmas and the tach came in with a broken lens. Cip1 had me e-mail them a picture of the damage. They sent me a new tach at no charge to me at all and I got it in time for Christmas. They didn't even want the broken tach back. I still have it in the garage, not sure what I'll use it for, maybe testing or some thing.

[Bruce2]

Peel the bezel off and make a new window from Lexan. That's what I did when my tach's glass broke.

[ssmalibu2]

Looking at the photo of the box with no damage, I would say it was already damaged before it was put in the box. That's how I see it.

[Jim Ed]

Why did they stomp on it?

Too much stuff on the floor and someone was having a hissy fit?