Having lived in Richmond NSW for two years and having been fortunate enough to be present for the birth of vintage motocross nationals in 1991, Australia holds a special place for me.
That said, I have read with interest the trials and tribulations of many of the members of this board when ordering parts aboard, including with our company.
In an effort to make it easier and less frustrating, I have put together ten tips that may help on your future orders:
1.) The internet can be your best friend and your worst enemy. It can make a small company look big and a big company look out of date. Just depends on the quality of the information and how it is presented on their webpage. Our could and will be better soon.
2.) If you really want to get a feel for a company, take the time to call and talk to them about the parts you are interested in and their expertise. If no one answers the phone, you may uncover the fact that their business is a hobby business and not a full time operation.
3.) Once you have established a relationship with a company you have the options to call, email or fax your order in. Email is obviously the cheapest and seemingly the most efficient but I can tell you that it is not without its problems.
4.) Request a confirmation of price, in stock status and tentative ship date for the order. If you do not get the confirmation don't immediately assume that you are being ignored. Email does not always reach the intended destination or in some cases it does but it goes into a spam box or other filters.
If you don't get the confirmation, pick up the phone and call. We tend to forget how efficient that can be in this age of email, instant messaging and texting.
5.) If there is a lead time on an item, I always ask when I am ordering if that is optimistic or realistic. Most of the time you will get more clarification and that leads to less frustration. The vintage business is tough on many levels but not the least of which is making parts in low volumes. Hand made parts like pipes are particularly difficult because the guys that still know how to build them consider themselves as artist and have all the attitude and pace that goes with it. Between that and teenagers I have more than my share of gray hair. Machined parts (billet anything) is much the same. Machinists operate on a feast and famine basis and when they are in famine mode they will make vintage motorcycle parts. If a feast job comes along, the vintage stuff gets pushed aside pretty quickly. This is not uncommon with apparel manufacturers, graphics companies, air filter builders and many more. It is hard to argue with them when they are building 50 to 100 items for you and they get an order for 10,000. If the person that you are placing the order with is forthright about the lead time you will at least know what to expect and in most cases, that helps considerably.
6.) Ask about specials or discounts. You never know until you ask. If you can combine an order with a friend you can save money on the shipping and you can many times get a better deal the bigger your order is. This doesn't hold true for every vintage vendor but it does with us, provided the parts being ordered have a decent profit margin.
7.) The cost of shipping anything, anywhere has jumped dramatically in the past year. That combined with the onerous post-September 11th paperwork that has to accompany every international parcel has made international shipping a pain for seller and buyer. There are an increase number of companies that are refusing to ship internationally and they are some of the biggest companies in the motorcycle industries, not the vintage industry. We have not gotten to that point but there are costs attendant to international orders and it is unrealistic to expect a dealer to sell the product for less of a profit margin just because the order comes from outside the country. The buyer need not pay radically high fees either. Here again ask the questions on the front side. Super low shipping costs simply mean that the seller has enough margin in the parts that they are willing to lose money on the shipping.
8.) If you want the cheapest shipping have your buddy put the parts in his suitcase on his holiday to the States. Short of that US Postal Service is the cheapest means but their tracking system is sketchy, the insurance ends when the package leaves the US and their maximum size restrictions prohibits many larger items for being sent USPS.
9.) UPS, DHL, Fed Ex and others are heaps better when it comes to everything except cost. Tracking, insurance and size restrictions are all better with these carriers but with service you get cost. My rule of thumb is if you can't replace it don't mail it. Spend the money and go with the big three.
10.) Once a vendor puts the package in whatever system they have no control how long the process will take. Customs in either country can stuff up the process. Rural locations can add time and then there is Murphy's Law, if it can go wrong it sometimes does. We had two packages go out the same day. One to France and the other to Australia. The Fed Ex driver has to pull out the invoice/bill of lading to sign, date and write in the pick up time. He made the mistake of pulling both out at the same time and replaced them on the wrong packages, so of course they went to the wrong locations and both customers we hot and wanted a pound of flesh for the stupid move. Guess who lost weight that day?
Sometimes things happen even with the best systems and intentions. It is how the vendor works out the problem that makes a difference.
If there are other questions I can answer regarding international orders please feel free to contact me at
[email protected].
You are also welcome to use the same address if you would like to know more about our products and services.
I hope there is some information here that helps you on future order, regardless of who you place them with.
Regards,
Rick Doughty
VINTAGE IRON
