why advertise what you never have

ok guys please let me know what the deal is with auto krafters. they advertise on ebay and they have a catolog for the maverick/comet. the problem is 90% of the time they have nothing in stock. if its not in stock it takes 3 weeks or more to get. now i have said this before, i will not be negative towards a person or buisness off of word of mouth. i form my opinions by my personal exsperiance with a person or company. if you buy something from them on ebay its not in stock. why advertise what you dont have. now i know what a few of you might say, you are going to say they wait until they get a large order together and then they will make a purchase through thier supplier. sorry but i dont agree with this. if you have a profesional buisness and you advertise a part you should have it in stock or list that the part is not in stock and time frame that it will be in stock. i called them on several items and not only do they not have them but they never know when they are getting them. its always maybe 3-4 weeks but we are not sure? someone really needs to open a parts store for these cars.

 

It is called "back-order".
It sucks, but sometimes, they advertise it but don't actually order it until they get 3 or 4 people interested, then buy them, and ship them to you.

Better than that Canadian company that never even stocks their fiberglass parts. But charge you for the CD catalog and then state, "sorry, we don't carry those anymore. But you can put price of the CD toward your next order" as if, by some stroke of luck, I will make another order with them.

 

I am currently waiting for 13 items from AK that are on backorder... Its the nature of the buisiness with our cars when ordering/buying parts for em. I try to get what I need weeks/months before I need to put it on the car. (you should see my extra room)...LOL... Its been allmost 2 weeks now since I received my "partial" order. If I dont see any account activity by friday, i'm gonna have to call em too. Sometimes you just gotta be patient. Good luck!!!

 

Dealt with autokrafters for the last 14 years and there customer service sucks and its the same thing with all there parts not just the Mavericks so I call Dearborn Classics for all my other stuff Ron the owner could care less have met with him on several occasions not at all personable only use them as a last resort!

 

I would think that the Maverick/Comet segment of their business is pretty small, so they don't tie up lots of money on stock that doesn't move quickly. Plus with all the bashing they have received here, where they have read it..I'm surprised they continue to offer anything at all. I'm amazed how demanding people can be, then in turn bitch about the pricing...
Also, when the majority of Maverick parts are just Mustang parts that you can buy anywhere (with the exception of weatherstripping)
I've bought quiet a bit from them, never had any issues, back orders are what they are, I deal with them everyday.

 

I can see a catalog order being back ordered...but a eBay item should be existing before it’s presented on eBay.

 

They might be the only vendor with a catalog dedicated to Mavericks but they're not the only vendor to get Maverick parts from. Melvin's Classic Ford Parts can get the same parts.

 

I have ordered stuff from AK; probably, not as much as a lot of folks here w/ multiple cars or in the auto trades. I have not had any issues to speak of. 95% of what I have ordered I eventually recieved. Most of it came in same shippment, though I have had some wait time on some things. Backorders are part of the mail order business. I have had to wait for stuff from large vendors also - So that's the nature of the business.

 

I agree, I have waited 9 months to a year for a part from them only to have it discontinued. Sometimes they are the best available though.

Life of a Maverick owner.

 

when im at work and a person asks for a part i cant find,i just tell em "hmmm it seems to be on back order right now,try in a couple days" lol just kidding

 

Back orders are the norm in these times. You should see the new parts back ordered at work.(Chrysler dealer) Its crazy. You think our Mav parts are late getting to us. Try having your main vehicle down for weeks cause Chrysler has no parts. Happens a lot. So my Mav parts being delayed I consider normal and a minor annoyance.


I do agree that if they are advertised on Ebay then they should be ready to ship. That would tick me off bigtime.

 

Several reasons:

- These companies (all aftermarket suppliers) do a lot of "drop shipments"...where the part is shipped directly to you from the supplier. No need to stock it when the manufacturer can do the stocking and shipping (less overhead for the company)

- If these companies stocked EVERY part in EVERY catalog...then their warehouse would be HUGE. Big time overhead costs that would have to be passed on to the customer.

 

AK is like alot of other companys these days.... I hope they continue to carry parts for our cars... I will add, they need to retrain there sales staff.. If the guy or gal on the phone is pleasent and gives you honest answers, you will find your self being a little more willing to wait.... I can tell you there prices on weather strip is low compared to other companys, I paid $159 + shipping for roof rail stips because I didn't want to wait... AK was $129

 

It's precisely that attitude that they think entitles them to act the way they do. Like they're doing everyone a favor by being in business. They're in business to make money...and in this economy, you'd think that they would be catering to their customers to secure every expendable dollar out there. If you act like you could care less whether people buy from you or not...then eventually, they won't.

If they're continuously getting bashed...a smart owner would take a step back and see what the issues were...and do something about them. Not just keep acting like we should just be happy that they even offer anything at all.

In this day and age...if THEY can get something from a supplier...then someone else can as well. If it means doing some research and discovering who makes what...and contacting them directly...I'm definitely capable of doing so if I want something. If I have to pay a little more to not get the privelege of being an AK customer...that's fine as well. Because...if the supplier will take a credit card...and drop ship...they'll deal with you. The only thing you won't have to worry about is AK's markup for the privelege of dealing with their staff.