who woulda guessed....

[esi]

100% deposit is totally unacceptable. Explain to me how 50% deposit is a bad thing....let's say i came in and ordered a product worth $1200.00. I gave you $600.00 as a deposit. You get the product in. So I either come in with the other $600.00 or YOU(the shop) gets to keep the $600.00 and the product which you can then resell!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Seems like really good business to me. The only exception, would be if the product is very rare or strange. And if you didn't want to sit on it, I'm sure the restocking fee and shipping fee wouldn't total $600.00. 100% deposit is total B.S. no matter what anyone says.

RACKMAN

If you come in and leave 50% deposit, you don't come and get it for a month, I resell it for the outstanding balance and usually at cost no mark up just to get rid of it quickly so that I'm not stuck on anything, Most products are marked up between 10 and 15% Theres not much room for screwing around with backed out on products. If its seems like BS to you then by all means  start a numbered company, come up with around $15 000 for a buy in for each distributor that you want to buy from, then find a shop, drop some more money on tire equipment tools maybe a lift, welder and plasma cutter, and start a jeep shop that stocks everything and make everything and see how much time you have to be wondering if that guy is come and get the stuff that is half payed for that could take 8 months to sell. Sending products back to US distributors is a pain in the azz. Your going to pay for the product in the end whats the big deal with paying once.  Its different when you look at it from a different perspective.

[RACKMAN]

#1. Why would you have to sell the product for only the outstanding balance? You would resell it for the full price and keep the original deposit! WIN, WIN, in my opinion!
#2.Paying full price upfront for something that comes in a reasonal  amount of time ,like a week or 2 is NO PROBLEM! Paying 100% upfront and waiting for weeks or months IS B.S.!!!
#3. Mopac in Calgary can order stuff with 70% deposit(still too much in my opinion), why can't you?
#4. Hey....it's no big deal anyway to me anymore....if local shops(big or small) want to do business like this, I will just spend every dime through direct ordering in the US.
#5. I don't have to open a shop to prove my point about having stock ON HAND being good for business...as I stated, when I was younger I worked for a man at Canopyland who got very rich because he knew the value of a well stocked business.

RACKMAN
 

[esi]

Mopac has been around a little longer than I have and has a little more capital than I do, Product comes in 1 week usually not 3 months if its going to take that long I wait till the distributor has it before ordering it. Do you get to pay for the products from the US when they get to your door? I sell the back out of products for the remaining price so that if you come in and start complaining after you decide that you finally do want it, Its gone and you helped someone else buy it, I didn't make make your deposit back and pocket it.Its honest and works out for customers, would you complain if you got somethibg for half price

[RACKMAN]

Mopac has been around a little longer than I have and has a little more capital than I do, Product comes in 1 week usually not 3 months if its going to take that long I wait till the distributor has it before ordering it. Do you get to pay for the products from the US when they get to your door?

ONCE AGAIN.......IF YOU CAN GET ME PARTS IN ONE WEEK, I HAVE NO ISSUE PAYING UPFRONT....JUST LIKE ORDERING FROM THE STATES.

RACKMAN

[Bnine]

Restocking fees are in place for a reason. There is no need for 100% down before receiving the part. Sounds to me like they are broke. When I did order a lot from the local shops a few years back, I never put more then 50% down.


Northridge has never taken my money until the order has shipped.

He has sat on orders of nearly 20,000$ for 2-3 months, while waiting for the last of the stuff to trickle in.

Relationship is everything when it comes to mass ordering, but for the most part, Dave does that for everyone on a smaller scale.

Remember, we are Canadians. The nice guys.

The shops here would not last a month if they were located in the states. The customers there are just a bit more demanding.

[KrossLoch Fab]

Wow guys, this is a good read!
I get calls emails everyday for quotes on stuff. Mostly custom, and if I am not in the hospital almost dead(some will know that joke!) then custom builds on things like sliderz, bumperz, skid plates etc is within a few weeks, as I need the cash, and the max deposit I will take is %50 depending on materials. But, projects that are new designs or complex custom, may take longer. I do admit that custom rocks as one offs, but multiples are where the money is. I will build twenty sets of sliderz over a week, if there is concrete orders. But, when I only have two or three orders, I will only build a few extra sets. Steel is expensive, consumables add up, and overhead builds up pretty quick! So the hard part is getting the word out that you are about to build a run of TJ sliderz, and  make everyone happy with top quality and good price point. I am not retail, i am just a fabricator, so of coarse things are different. But, stocking anything and sitting on it will kill ya. So I am not making any comments to anybody, or about any shops (retail) or any othe fabricators for that matter! I am just saying how it is for me. You want to make everyone happy, but it doesnt work out easily. I want to be unique custom, but at the same time, you need to pump the multiples to justify. My last point is said not with the hopes of pimping shiite, but the truth; I buy local, as much as possible, whatever possible! Canadians are top quality manufacturers, suppliers and our money should stay here. Just my opinion though...

Cheers

[Bnine]

The problem with trying to buy canadian is the lack of demand, no RnD, and simply the lack of folks doing the work.

Canada has no poly performance, spidertrax, ballistic, blue torch, or currie equivelant.

For years Clayton and evo has been the closest thing, and while I support clayton a lot, as do others here, he doesnt have what a lot of the US companies offer either.

Even if you were buying local, you are just paying for some one to UPS a part to their shop (from the states) and graciously double the price for you................

Rubicon express uses springs built at standens. Guess what, standens wont sell you springs.

Now that the sport is spreading, and more people up north are getting into custom work, more options are opening up.

Until now, there simply was not any options from local retailers.

[RACKMAN]

More bad news for us consumers.....I posted earlier about Mopac  requiring 70% deposit(as compared to other shops demanding 100%), but as of this week, they have changed their policy....now 100% deposit is required! Man, I really don't understand this crap. Why is this not a 2 way street between retailers and consumers?? Their should be some sort of recourse for us if a product that you put 100% deposit doesn't come in when the shop said itwould. For instance....if the product is late 1 week you get 5% discount, 2 weeks late.... 10%, and so on.....but no...it's pay me 100% right now and it comes when it comes. And if shops are going to demand 100% upfront, they should be offering us 2 weeks or less to get the product in.

RACKMAN

[The Machinist]

As a potential supplier, I can get most off road jeep parts and I don't pay shipping so neither do you.  My biggest problem is that I can't compete with internet prices, summit, jegs, etc. buy sooooooo much stuff that they are selling at similar price to what I'm buying at.  When I first started my business I tried selling all this stuff, I spent too much time looking up parts for too little money, wasn't worth it.  I can't compete with ebay.  What I can do is order parts for my friends and myself with no shipping charges and the peace of mind that you get when you order and pay locally instead of giving your credit card number over the phone.  I can do this for you too, just email me your part number and what it is and I can look up a price for you, takes two minutes.  As far as deposits go, sure, I need a deposit to keep you interested in your parts until they get here, 3-5 days.  How much?  Well, enough to keep you interested.

[lil devil]

 i wish northshore offroad would open a branch in calgary. it sure seems to me that everytime i have ordered something they have it or are getting it tomorrow. i have never waited longer than 5 days to get an order. some definetly bigger than others. i do have a toyota and they sell trailgear stuff which i think is decent stuff. i have spend thousands over the years as many have and i know i would never want to go back to a certain shop in town here and see the owner doing nothing and acting like a big shot telling me he will get me whatever i need no problem. then i say ok lets do it up and i get 2 months or sorry they don't even make that anymore. too bad for you the tires took 3 months to get oh well. not even a sorry. how embarressing for him that he can't even get simple things as fast as i can on my computer from texas. northshore is canadian and they are great to deal with. front lift leafs cost under $300 and $25 shipping canadian. 3-5 days to your door. that's how you run a business. i don't think its a canadian or american thing i think its an attitude thing. owners thinking they are the sh#t because they own the shop and only caring about diesels and 20's. i can't afford to shop in calgary, sorry. i think calgary needs a change, maybe a couple new shops. jeep only, lots in stock.  toyota and samuria lots in stock. no rig rocket crap and limited tires in stock. i would pay 100% up front for tires if it was max 2 weeks away. but rock sliders better be in stock. i am sick of greedy people, you know i am going to need new tires again and i would tell my friends and you know i am going to break the part i just bought or a different one why are you screwing me on the silly stuff. why would i go back?

[Hi Lo Silver]

Am I just getting old, or are some of these posts without spaces, breaks and capitals extemely hard on the eyes to read?

Anyway, I thought I'd add an experience from this past summer. After nationals big sale in July I think it was, I realized I needed to replace my tree saver as mine was slightly frayed. Went in one week later and was told they had some coming in again right away. No big deal to me. I mentioned I'd be back to get one at that time. Went back 2 weeks later and they still hadn't received any.  I also stated to them that they are loosing business as little as that was and were forcing me to go stateside if they didn't come quicker because I wanted it for the holiday I was about to go on.

I checked back two months later, still no tree savers in. Remember this is a tree saver, not some specialty piece that only fits one year and type of rig. Lately my philosophy is to check with both our Calgary local shops and North Shore Off Road for the parts. If it isn't in stock at those three places,  then I order it from Quadratec from the south. Went home ordered one from Quadratec and had it up here with other parts in under 1 week.

The trouble is, National  only has one brokerage company they deal with apparently. Something I was told 1 1/2 years ago. That brokerage company is in the east, as the east National is closer to the crossing than Calgary so everything ends up getting shipped east. Picked up when they do thier run, then needs to be shipped west for the customer. Limited jeep parts.

Modern I'm guessing may only have the items shipped from distributors when the order is big enough to justify shipping costs. Modern does have the biggest supply of jeep parts in stock though.

North Shore Off Road I believe have them shipped very quickly and they are located close enough to the border to make a run there much quicker so the product arrives quicker even if they don't have it in stock.



So figure it out from there as to why things take forever to arrive here. Maybe they'll change that with the B.C. store open now. Who knows.

[esi]

I use the same distributor as national, and because of the Canadian warehouse(more of an office with people answering phones) being located in the east shipments come out of Pexter Pensylvania, minimum orders to cover shipping is around six hundred and take 5-7 business days to arrive. There are quite a few jeep parts, just not some of the more extreme companies.

[Bnine]

More bad news for us consumers.....I posted earlier about Mopac  requiring 70% deposit(as compared to other shops demanding 100%), but as of this week, they have changed their policy....now 100% deposit is required! Man, I really don't understand this crap. Why is this not a 2 way street between retailers and consumers?? Their should be some sort of recourse for us if a product that you put 100% deposit doesn't come in when the shop said itwould. For instance....if the product is late 1 week you get 5% discount, 2 weeks late.... 10%, and so on.....but no...it's pay me 100% right now and it comes when it comes. And if shops are going to demand 100% upfront, they should be offering us 2 weeks or less to get the product in.

RACKMAN

Sounds like the recession is taking its hold on everyone. I was able to order custom from Mopac last year for 50% down.

Even still, at least Mopac never has more then a 10 day turn around, unless something is back ordered and out of their control.

[JackstandJohnny]

. i think calgary needs a change, maybe a couple new shops. jeep only, lots in stock.  toyota and samuria lots in stock. no rig rocket crap and limited tires in stock. i would pay 100% up front for tires if it was max 2 weeks away. but rock sliders better be in stock. i am sick of greedy people, you know i am going to need new tires again and i would tell my friends and you know i am going to break the part i just bought or a different one why are you screwing me on the silly stuff. why would i go back?

Calgary needs to change in a whole bunch of ways. DON"T get me started lol

just a funny sidenote on the 100% down thingy.  last time i put down money (75%) on a set of tires at a certain place in Calgary i was given 100% guarantee they would be in in two weeks. they were...................  and promptly sold to someone else.  made me angry cause i had paid for them.   on a side note i was taken care of and problems were resolved and i was refunded my money.  i appreciated that....
SECOND problem with whole scenario.  After being fumed off at not having a set of swampers, I took 1200$ out of my little cash stash and went on a shopping spree.... i was getting a set of 35s..............

2 offroad shops and 3 tire shops later I was still tireless.35x12.50r15 mud terrains were apparently not worth stocking at tire shops... but could be gotten in 'a week' i said i need them tomorrow, my jeeps on jackstands...........

i eventually calmed down and found a set of used meats for a good deal but man was in 'impulse buy' mode.......... good thing nobody stocks anything.

[Rubi03 jef]

as for stocking normal none special orders like sliders and bumpers skids and things the most people want even those who dont realy offroad there jeeps
the local shops just dont seem to care about the little jeepers out here

its all about the big rig rockets

it would be nice for the local fab guys to step up and say look plan on making some sliders who wants lets get a big number together and fab them
boom everyones happy

the local shops cant even carry little things like throtle body spacers for a inline 6  but theyll have full intake systems for F350's and 44 inch rubber
and 500 dollar bead lock rims that no one that will EVER buy .

i do have to say if you go in wanting to buy something they will go through there little stock and try to sell you anything they have . but then you walk out wondering why the hell do you have something you didnt need .

and ebay is faster and cheaper then the local shops.    no reason to go to the local shops unless u really need something .. but chances are THEY DONT HAVE IT