Partzilla mini-rant

Back on May 13, I placed an order with Partzilla. 8 different sku's totaling ~$325.

Included was (12) carb insulators.

I get the confirmation email and receipt from Paypal right away.

Next day I get a promotional email to join a VIP Partzilla club.

The next day I get this email from customer service:

Showed everything in stock except the insulators. No ETA on those.

OK, I figured they would go ahead and ship what they could right away and the rest later.

13 days go by and I don't hear anything nor do I get a shipment of anything.

I called customer service and was told they could go ahead and ship the things in stock now and then the insulators when they come in (by now they had an ETA of July 1) but there would be a $7 charge to do so.

But....the CSR could (do a one-time) waive it for me today as a courtesy.

Sheesh.......

"OK, please ship what you have and thank you for waiving that $7."

Wasn't all bad because I added an item to my order I hadn't thought of before - that little sleeve for the rear caliper. I added 4 of those.

My "complaint" is lack of communication of what was happening other than that one email showing me the inventory status of my order.

They should have had something there giving me some options of what to do at that point.

Never mind being out of such an important part as a carb insulator. That part could be debated - but waiting for over 6 weeks for them? That's a bit crazy.

When I was in the supply business and I had a customer who wanted something and I didn't have it on hand, I located it at some other location within' the company and either had it sent to my store as a transfer or direct shipped to the customer.

And it was rare that I was out of something crucial to the business because I did all the ordering and I stayed on top of it!

Mini-rant over......

 

when the big company doesnt care, sometimes small ones are better.

www.hordpower.com

 

There was an eBay seller who was offering these insulators at a reasonable cost - less than what Partzilla wanted. But his pricing went sky high and Partzilla's went down a bit to what I was paying for them before.

There's an old sales joke about the customer walking into a hardware store to buy light bulbs at a low price. He asks for the price at this particular store and is told $5. He replies but I can get them for $3 down the street. The hardware store owner asks why he doesn't just go buy those, then. He replies because they are out of them. Then he replies well when we are out of them, we sell them for $3 as well!

 

Thank you - I just placed an order with them for 8 insulators. Hopefully they have them in stock! Pricing was 50 cents less than PZ, per insulator. Free shipping with the amount I ordered.

Will let you know if they have them......

 

Yeah F partzilla. they suck. they are slow, and haven't shipped exactly what I ordered several times. I don't use them at all anymore and just pay more elsewhere. I must admit that a lot of my recent purchases are out of country thanks to non-US version small bikes. Once I get to my RC36 then I will be buying CONUS.

 

Thank you. I just got off the phone and they too are on back order from Honda, except they are showing an order fulfillment of 6-8, so not as long of a wait.

I will just leave my order intact with them and check back on 6-8.

Luckily I have some already on hand I had bought from that eBay seller before he raised his price so much. So will make do with those and bid my time a bit.

When you mention aftermarket, back before I fully understood the significance of these things, I tried some aftermarket less expensive insulators and they sucked...lol. You would THINK the companies that try to make these aftermarket style would freaking make them more like the factory ones. It's not really the material that doesn't work - it's the overall dimensions and shape.

Will keep the thread up to speed as things develop. Thanks to all for the input!!!

 

The only aftermarket insulators I will touch are K&L and TourMax. Used them both and they were OEM quality... At least for the applications I installed on.

Hawk GT
RC36

 

I know the RC36 insulators are no longer available from Honda so aftermarket is the only choice there (and I too have heard good things about TourMax). In fact, I have a set of them to use when I do my RC36.

My situation/mini-rant is just for the Gen-2 RC-26 bikes.

 

Got this email today and really appreciate the communication. Gonna let the order ride as I know I will need these later in the year.

I will send this supplier a written letter of appreciation also and let them know why it was important for me to hear from them with this update.

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We're sorry for the inconvenience, but an item on your order 292175 has been placed on back order with the manufacturer.
The parts BELOW are on a backorder with a expected ship date of See BELOW.

To allow for efficient processing of your order updates, please DO NOT CALL, Please reply to the email as it has the order info needed for me to update this order.

You have the option of CANCELLING THE BACKORDER item for a refund before the ESD date and we will ship the remainder of the order out for you.

Please let us know how you would like to proceed. IF WE DO NOT HEAR BACK FROM YOU. WE WILL HOLD THE ORDER FOR ALL THE PARTS BEFORE SHIPPING.

HO 16211-ML7-000 INSULATOR, CARB esd 6-Jul

ESD is the date the manufacturer ESTIMATES that they will ship it to the store. So the date to ship your order will be TWO to FIVE days later.
If a part has NO ESD ( TBA ) check back with us in a week or so.
I try to keep a eye on them and update them but I can miss updates do to the large numbers of backorder parts.

ESD= Estimated Ship Date
TBA= To Be Announced
BOR= BackOrder Released

CAUTION: Do not make firm commitments based on this information dates are subject to change.

Thank you
RonAyers.com
Customer Service

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