Well look, I've made another new lifetime fan! All it took was one
perceived slight in a giant post full of helpful tech. Come on Phil, lighten up. At 56 you don't want to be lumped in with the "I need a safe space", easily ruffled Millennial crowd. At our age we are supposed to
make fun of those easily offended people!
Look, we get a lot of tire kickers and broke kids that ask us a ton of questions, some wanting detailed estimates, and often we spend an hour or more on the phone working with them. A typical MCS coilover sale takes 2-3 hours of consultation, via email and/or phone. But we take pride in helping people chose the
right suspension/camber plate/wheel/brakes/seat/etc that fits their needs. We ask lots of questions about what their goals are, where/how they drive, if they run in competition, street/track percentages, and how long they have been doing this sport or that. We are also often talking people
out of higher end parts (ie: making less profit) if it doesn't fit their needs. We don't beat them over the head with how many trophies we've won, but instead we listen and try to guide folks. It takes time and effort.
Often some percentage of these folks take that knowledge and then they go buy the parts we have recommended from TireRack or eBay or Amazon, to save a buck. Sometimes they literally only save ONE dollar, but that's enough for some people to "go cheap". And often they still call us for tech support after they bought elsewhere - during the install, for tuning help, etc - and are RUDE and INCREDULOUS when we ask them where they bought the parts.
"Why does it matter???"
Its frustrating as hell. But nobody seems to care - its the Amazon-ificaiton of our world.
I want it CHEAP and I want it NOW! That's not exactly what happened here - Phil just wanted affirmation on the shocks he wants to buy. Maybe I took a cheap shot at where he wanted to buy them, oh well. Whoever is selling those shocks and springs for $800 is making ZERO profit on the sale, I know that much.
It just makes me a little crazy when I see folks here - where Jason, Jon and I spend lots of time sharing tech and answering questions - buying things we sell from the absolute cheapest places, usually eBay or the like. Bilstein is one of the few brands we sell that has ZERO pricing policies, and they will let ANYONE WITH A PULSE sell their products at whatever prices they want. I often go to these "awesome deal" links and look up the parts, calculate the costs, and realize... these places often make less than 5% on selling some products. We've contemplated dropping Bilstein SO many times, but they do make some great monotube dampers and selling these "no profit" parts gives us access to their motorsport catalog, where we can custom build things like this.
Bilstein is a unique problem, for sure. On their shock kits, to be "competitive with the internet" I'm supposed to make a living, pay my employees, pay the overhead and keep the lights on, do testing in the shop and on the track, prove the parts we sell in competition, answer customer questions 24/7... for 5% margin on an $800 sale. That's
$40 profit, which is often lost in shipping. How? We don't just drop-ship Bilstein direct to the end user like everyone else, we pay to ship the shocks here so we can assemble our Bilstein shock kits (springs + top mounts) in-house to verify everything is correct and to save the end user time and hassles And since it usually costs me $50 to ship a set of shocks here, I'd
lose $10 on that $800 sale... its a farce.
Yet some kid working out of his mom's basement selling parts on an a website "while working in his bunny slippers" can do those painless, drop-ship sales and get by on $40. He has literally zero overhead, doesn't help anyone, just drop ships stuff
cheap. These bunny slipper salesman often don't have a phone, don't answer emails, and some don't even maintain their own website - they buy a pre-built web package that is maintained by a fulfillment center. They know nothing about nor have they ever seen the parts they sell. They violate MAP pricing policies with no regard, will troll forums with "PM me for the best price!" tactics, and if they finally get busted by the non-lazy parts manufacturers that actually care about their dealers... they just spawn up again with a new name a month later.
It is impossible for real shops to make a living selling Other People's Parts (OPP). I know most of you don't care -
you just want the best deal - but that's the reality of the situation. These "bunny slipper" online sellers are killing the automotive aftermarket. Eventually there will be no more Sam Stranos or Vorshlags to advise, help, consult, post pictures, do testing, or make new combinations of Other People's Parts. You'll just have TireRack - the WalMart of automotive parts - and Amazon to choose from.
Sam Strano has been doing this a while and I see him get very frustrated online dealing with these same problems - usually coming off with an even WORSE attitude than me.
But after doing this professionally for a dozen years I understand where he's coming from. Doesn't mean I agree with his parts choices, brands he pushes, setup strategies, or customer service habits, but I get why he's so cynical. And yes, I will acknowledge and respect his many victories in autocrossing.
Phil has to admit, I shared some good tech in that post (that took me 30 minutes to put together). But one
perceived slight and Mr Thinskin goes off and he now likely HATES me for LIFE. I see this all the time... if I don't candy coat the hell out of everything I post, coddle every customer, I'm branded a total A-HOLE. It sucks...
Oh well, like they say: "You win some, and you lose some". We will try to solider on without his business.
Hugs and kisses,