Strange Engineering

[Stan Weiss]

Originally Posted by Carl Siwek Jr

My grandfather did.

Carl,
I know I am no youngster but that makes me feel really old. lol Does he still enjoy the races?

Thanks,
Stan

[Carl Siwek Jr]

Originally Posted by Stan Weiss

Carl,
I know I am no youngster but that makes me feel really old. lol Does he still enjoy the races?

Thanks,
Stan

Yes. We just picked up a stocker. We will be out racing next season.

[Dragsinger]

Some Wednesday morning thoughts in ref to service and products.

Personal service is well noted with me because of being a business owner and customer. With any business transaction, I notice the service I receive. A pleasant, polite, respectful experience is always my desire, and when received, itis muchly appreciated. The thing is, if I do not pay attention, I can easily slip into my "entitlement" mode. I can easily think I am important; after all, I owned and operated a successful business for 48 years, civically active, a board trustee for Kilgore College, and have earned respect from my peers. [tonge in cheek]

On the other hand, I consider the product I am buying. Sometimes I overlook less than ideal service if the product is what I expected.

Think about the other side of the sales counter. Has that person had a stressful customer just before you? Has the salesperson had to deal with a rude customer who did not know what he wanted? Does the salesperson have a sick child or spouse?

In my mature years, I have learned to be more tolerant of things. I do not like poor service, but it seems a business transaction that can focus on the complete transaction if you are pleased with the product.

In summary, after having ordered, installed, raced, and sold Strange products for 30 + years, I remain happy and remain a loyal customer.

[Jim Caughlin]

Originally Posted by Dragsinger

Some Wednesday morning thoughts in ref to service and products.

Personal service is well noted with me because of being a business owner and customer. With any business transaction, I notice the service I receive. A pleasant, polite, respectful experience is always my desire, and when received, itis muchly appreciated. The thing is, if I do not pay attention, I can easily slip into my "entitlement" mode. I can easily think I am important; after all, I owned and operated a successful business for 48 years, civically active, a board trustee for Kilgore College, and have earned respect from my peers. [tonge in cheek]

On the other hand, I consider the product I am buying. Sometimes I overlook less than ideal service if the product is what I expected.

Think about the other side of the sales counter. Has that person had a stressful customer just before you? Has the salesperson had to deal with a rude customer who did not know what he wanted? Does the salesperson have a sick child or spouse?

In my mature years, I have learned to be more tolerant of things. I do not like poor service, but it seems a business transaction that can focus on the complete transaction if you are pleased with the product.

In summary, after having ordered, installed, raced, and sold Strange products for 30 + years, I remain happy and remain a loyal customer.

OK, I'll bite. First off, I have no issue with products from Strange, over the years I have made numerous purchases from them for shocks, struts, 3rd members, axles, brakes and more. My issue specifically is their customer service specifically over the phone. This is not the first time I have got off the phone pissed off at the way I was treated by their customer service, I had the exact same experience with them last year but here is my most recent experience. I noticed that Strange was having a sale over the next few days so decided to purchase some parts for an upcoming project. Among other items I needed a set of the long stroke FWD conversion struts. I wanted to duplicate exactly what I had previously purchased from them which deviates from their normal package and, as I couldn't seem to get their online contact to work, I called instead. What I needed was to substitute the medium brake package for the heavy duty units, I needed a lighter spring than was listed and I needed the struts revalved. Initially, he told me that this couldn't be done, I told him that they had done this for me in the past and I could send him a photo to prove it. He then recalculated the price which resulted in a higher price than the list price on their website. I asked how it would cost more to put the heavy duty brake parts back on the shelf and give me a less expensive part. I figured so be it, go ahead and shut up and proceed with the order. I then asked how I proceed with the order as I was not able to get their online order form to work (it didn't work for me last year either), if nothing else give me an email address and I will outline the specifics. He said I can't have the discount unless I order it online. At this point, I'm getting pissed. First off you tell me that I apparently don't have the struts that I do have, then you want to charge me more for a less expensive part, lastly you tell me that I can't have the sale price because your website doesn't work properly.

And after all this you want to imply that I have an attitude?

[Dragsinger]

And after all this, you want to imply that I have an attitude?

No, not at all. I think in the same situation, I would have had a similar reaction. You described one of my pet peeves, failure to accommodate and flex for a repeat customer.

Thanks for giving more explanation.

[rognelson777]

Originally Posted by Jim Caughlin

OK, I'll bite. First off, I have no issue with products from Strange, over the years I have made numerous purchases from them for shocks, struts, 3rd members, axles, brakes and more. My issue specifically is their customer service specifically over the phone. This is not the first time I have got off the phone pissed off at the way I was treated by their customer service, I had the exact same experience with them last year but here is my most recent experience. I noticed that Strange was having a sale over the next few days so decided to purchase some parts for an upcoming project. Among other items I needed a set of the long stroke FWD conversion struts. I wanted to duplicate exactly what I had previously purchased from them which deviates from their normal package and, as I couldn't seem to get their online contact to work, I called instead. What I needed was to substitute the medium brake package for the heavy duty units, I needed a lighter spring than was listed and I needed the struts revalved. Initially, he told me that this couldn't be done, I told him that they had done this for me in the past and I could send him a photo to prove it. He then recalculated the price which resulted in a higher price than the list price on their website. I asked how it would cost more to put the heavy duty brake parts back on the shelf and give me a less expensive part. I figured so be it, go ahead and shut up and proceed with the order. I then asked how I proceed with the order as I was not able to get their online order form to work (it didn't work for me last year either), if nothing else give me an email address and I will outline the specifics. He said I can't have the discount unless I order it online. At this point, I'm getting pissed. First off you tell me that I apparently don't have the struts that I do have, then you want to charge me more for a less expensive part, lastly you tell me that I can't have the sale price because your website doesn't work properly.

And after all this you want to imply that I have an attitude?

Many companies now only offer online discounts and not over the phone discounts. It sucks but they do that because it saves them money.

[4284spd]

I am lucky, MW's is a 20 minute drive for me. I did the addition to Mark's house back in the 90's. Nice house!

[Jim Caughlin]

I felt that it would be appropriate that I post a follow up on this subject. A few days after I posted on Class Racer and Facebook on this subject, I got a call from JC Cascio at Strange as he had been made aware of the posting. He obviously wasn't happy to hear that people were having issues with tech help and said that there would be internal discussion to improve the situation. In the end, he got my order clarified and I have received my orders. As I had previously stated, I have never had an issue with Strange as far a the quality of their products, this was just a communication issue. I hate to dump on JC after he helped me out on this but I would suggest that you keep his name in reference to Strange in case you run into similar issues. Happy ending to my experience.

On another subject, here's to wishing everyone a better racing year than our last one.

Jim Caughlin
SS 6019