Brad Clayton Posted December 7, 2009 Share Posted December 7, 2009 Parts rant: First I must say that I hope the rest of you guys parts departments aren’t run as bad as mine. This week alone, I was handed two parts that were used and pawned off on me as brand new. If they are doing that to me, what the hell is the poor customer on the retail end of the counter getting? The first one was a dipstick tube for a 7.3L. It was painted black and had a green “o”-ring on it, two things that Ford never does. I looked at it and said this thing is used and bent all to hell. The parts guy ignored me. I needed some more stuff that wasn’t here yet so I took it and what I had. When it came time to put the dipstick tube on, it obviously didn’t fit. So I went back to the parts counter and said this one is no good and I need a new one. The parts guy said yeah we have one and it’s 40 dollars or so. I said this is the “new” one you just gave me and I told you it was used. I had to fight with him to change it out, and I told him to throw that one away before some other poor sucker ends up with it. The next one is just great. I mean you can’t make this kinda stuff up. I needed an outer belt tensioner for a 6.4L. They don’t have one and order it. When I get it, there is tape on the box instead of a staple. This raises a red flag right away. I take it over to my bench and open it and the friggin thing is broken. I look closer at the box and it has a warranty return R.O. number written on it. The boneheads put the warranty return part back in stock instead of the junk shelf. So I get another new one and go to put it on the truck and the idiots ordered me an inner tensioner. And last but not least, I got a quote on a PTU for an Escape. The parts guy brings it up on the pricing screen and it’s $999.00. He looks at it, and not knowing I am looking, bumps it to $1499.00. Just like it was nothing, can you say lost sale? There are many more horror stories that I can share with you, but this is enough of a rant for the moment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G. Bedford Posted December 7, 2009 Share Posted December 7, 2009 Heck, I wish we still stocked parts. We order everything these days. Daily Parts Advantage has been no advantage to the techs in my dealership. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaron Posted December 7, 2009 Share Posted December 7, 2009 I'd have told the customer the price at $999. I'm not going to get too carried away on the parts room at my store....right now that is.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Amacker Posted December 7, 2009 Share Posted December 7, 2009 BTDTGTTS. I've been down more bad roads with Ford parts departments that I care to talk about. I wrote a letter to the owner of our large LD/MD/HD truck dealer here in Cleveland a few years ago and he called me the minute he got it. Within an hour the GM called me and the parts manager and his assistant were at my shop with a box of donuts. Their asses were still bleeding..... I've got too many stories to tell, and they're not good ones. Unfortunately, I had much better luck buying GM parts (we have/had the fifth(?) largest GM dealer in the world in Cleveland, Classic Chevy, but this may not be current info since I sold the shop...) I include a lot of PN's in my books because Ford's software is bad and the parts guys are lazy. They want to sell you assys when all you need is an o-ring or some small component. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Browning Posted December 7, 2009 Share Posted December 7, 2009 My gripe is the pricing. Doesn't anyone stick to list price anymore? I consider that fair. Seems that most of the time we quote a price it is considerably higher than list. Ask a different counter man and you will get another price. Ask the front counter and get yet another. Seriously, we lose jobs because they cost too much now. The term "pricing ourselves out of business" is not too far off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaron Posted December 7, 2009 Share Posted December 7, 2009 We have Alist and Blist or something like that....there's COST down at the bottom, and about 7-8 steps up to Alist whtchi is the highest price level. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaron Posted December 7, 2009 Share Posted December 7, 2009 Shop I used to work at would bump all shop parts sale prices to list+10. So if a customer bought his pats at the parts counter and they charged him list, he'd save 10%. Walk to the service counter and hand the advisor the parts for me to put on the car. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DwayneGorniak Posted December 7, 2009 Share Posted December 7, 2009 My gripe is the pricing. Doesn't anyone stick to list price anymore? I consider that fair. Seems that most of the time we quote a price it is considerably higher than list. Ask a different counter man and you will get another price. Ask the front counter and get yet another. Seriously, we lose jobs because they cost too much now. The term "pricing ourselves out of business" is not too far off. I have never undstood wanting to price yourself out of the market either. Especially when there are other dealerships very close. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaron Posted December 7, 2009 Share Posted December 7, 2009 Especially when there are other dealerships very close. Which is especially bad in my area: KEN KNAPP FORD JOE MELOCHE FORD LARRY RENAUD FORD ROSE CITY FORD PERFORMANCE FORD VICTORY FORD SALES SOUTHPOINT (LALLY) FORD LALLY FORD All within about 40 minutes of each other, maybe except for Lally or victory, it's probably about an hour out. How would you feel if you called all of those stores and got a different price on the same part. Hmmm....i smell an experiment in the works. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mchan68 Posted December 7, 2009 Share Posted December 7, 2009 I have never undstood wanting to price yourself out of the market either. Especially when there are other dealerships very close.No rocket science here. It's all about the greedy owners and the mighty $$$$. Hey, SOMETHING has to pay for their Ford GTs, Bentleys and Ferraris, RIGHT? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbriggs Posted December 8, 2009 Share Posted December 8, 2009 Ya, i was just talking to our service/ parts manager after work tonight. She is in shit cuz our inventory is 160k, owner and gm want it below 100k. 100k? are they f**king joking? We have that in diesel parts, now going on 3 diesel engines on warranty, well need to stock all that as well? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DwayneGorniak Posted December 8, 2009 Share Posted December 8, 2009 Why is it that all dealerships have that target of $100k? It's some sorta fuckin Ford goal? Fuck that's a bunch of bullshit!It was like that at the other two dealerships I worked at here in Alberta as well. If you have a huge diesel clientel, you will not be able to fuckin stock anything else. It's just plain fucking retarded! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Adema Posted December 8, 2009 Share Posted December 8, 2009 It used to be a joke of ours at the Detroit/Allison dealer that our parts dept. was well stocked, if all you wanted was pipe dope and zip ties. Sometimes the zip ties were backordered. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbriggs Posted December 8, 2009 Share Posted December 8, 2009 Crap, the local lordco has 2 million inventory, i think the napa has 1 mil or close. We dont do nearly the volume they do, but i think 100k is absolutely a joke. I wonder if thats a # ford came out with 10 years ago or so. Maybe they need to revise? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Warman Posted December 8, 2009 Share Posted December 8, 2009 There are two schools of thought regarding inventory levels. We like one of them and the bean counters like the other one.... $100K isn't a Ford number..... it IS an "accepted industry standard" for a medium sized shop. Also... in this business, the bean counter will tell you that you need to have a minimum GPM... MINIMUM GPM... of 30% (FWIW... this is NOT 30% mark up... this is more) on every part that is sold. I spent a lot of years signing the FRONT of the cheques... and I suppose that probably colours my perspective a little... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DwayneGorniak Posted December 8, 2009 Share Posted December 8, 2009 Yeah, but you didn't have to have $100k alone just to warranty diesels. You're stock would have been strictly for retail and that's a whole different ball game. Christ....if you have three engines to warranty, a couple of DPF's, a couple tranny's and a crap load of injectors to warranty, you don't have much room left for anything else in stock. This is a new day and age. It aint 1970 anymore where you could get a drop in engine for $600 or $700 bucks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LARRY BRUDZYNSKI Posted December 8, 2009 Share Posted December 8, 2009 It amazes me still that D/P and owners want that kind of a number for inventory size. Usually when Ford launches a new vehicle you will get the auto-ship of mandatory parts. When Sterling started installing MBE's we got a auto-ship @90K just in engine parts. As for the pricing issue, My view..... The service dept is a dealers largest customer to the parts dept. But still most parts dept. will have wholesale dept. as well and usually will sell about half of what goes over the back counter. Why should customers outside the dealer receive a better price than the captive customer in service? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Warman Posted December 9, 2009 Share Posted December 9, 2009 I can't speak for the "auto ship" on parts. There will be this behaviour when tools are involved, but my experience with parts is that there is going to be a wait because everything is going in to production. Larry, I would have thought that you would have a grasp on this long before others... As for pricing.. each department in the dealership is usually a separate entity.... We don't see it but then we don't get to see the books... The numbers game is complex... if you don't understand it... don't pretend to - sorry - there's nothing more to be said... I( don't have a real good grasp on the numbers game ... I can say that even after I paid several good people a significant amount of money to help me understand it.... I thought I might help you guys understand the real world... even though it isn't my "JOB"... However... I get the feeling you guys can educate me in the realities of finance.. who will be first? FWIW... this is a challenge... put your purse down and cowboy up.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbriggs Posted December 9, 2009 Share Posted December 9, 2009 Management claims our parts dept makes no money, when we had a parts guy, we were in the red about the equivalent of his wage. I dont know how they "charge" the bills (utilities)to our parts dept, but i know parts and service pay all the bills, to make sales #s look better. Right now we have no parts guy, and they claim to barely be breaking even?? I think they need to seriously change something, but what? My whole argument is, the parts dept should at least be willing and able to help the service dept maintain and improve its efficiency. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
partsmanBB Posted December 9, 2009 Share Posted December 9, 2009 Most dealerships use a system of parts transfer, where the service dept gets back 50% at the end of the month. If we sell the shop-yes,our best customer-200k in parts for the month, and make 70k in profit, at month's end we transfer 35k back to the service dept. Seems pretty fair to me...everyone profits from the part sale. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad Clayton Posted December 9, 2009 Author Share Posted December 9, 2009 At the moment, my dealer is having trouble holding the parts personnel accountable for their screw ups. It is costing the techs big time and the customers even more. Looks like they are setting up an account to charge them for every wrong part that is handed out with a smile and shoulder shrugged off when told it is wrong! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbriggs Posted December 10, 2009 Share Posted December 10, 2009 Thats a whole other problem with us as well.....Im not even going to start. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Browning Posted December 10, 2009 Share Posted December 10, 2009 ...for every wrong part that is handed out with a smile and shoulder shrugged off when told it is wrong! That sounds like you have someone working there that "does not give a shit." That is the problem you need to address. I can live with people who make mistakes because we ALL make mistakes, myself included. I used to get pissed at my parts guys but some time back I realized that was not helping matters because the guy(s) having problems at least cared. I try my best to be helpful and patient and it helps... but if a guy needs a kick in the ass then you need to, well, you know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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