GREAT Businesses to deal with...and one not so great

After getting my car back on track, and now having to rebuild it (again), I have been on the phone lately with many companies. Here are some of my highlights:

LTB Motorsport: Overall one of the best businesses (racing and non-racing) that I EVER had to deal with in my life. LTB is extremely pleasant, honest, and VERY fair. Louis will do anything to make sure that you, the customer, is his #1 priority. He has extensive product knowledge, and will follow up on any issues that you may have. I cannot give this company enough praise…I had heard others say they are a great company, so I had to place an order myself. Let me tell you, anytime I need a non OEM item, I will call LTB first, and see if he can get it.

Phil’s Tire Service: Incredible customer service, tons of product knowledge, honest and very fair. Phil stayed on a Saturday till almost 9pm mounting 16 tires for me. He allowed me to chew his ear off for a good six hours as well (if someone can listen to me ramble for six hours, that is pretty amazing). Also, Phil is meticulous when it comes to balancing tires, he uses an adapter which holds the wheel by the lug holes, which simulates the rim/tire being on the car even better than the typical center cone. Also, he took his time with each rim/tire, and made sure it was perfect. Even after forgetting something at his shop, it was promptly shipped the next day. Again, I will be going to Phil for all my tire purchases in the future.

Shine Racing Service: People have heard me preach about them before, great service, one of the best VW builders out there. Great business overall, honest and fair. I purchase all OEM and VW racing products through them exclusively (as well as all street VW stuff).

Now the bad:

Racer Wholesale: Ordered $450 worth of products online (not the biggest order, but still a decent chunk of change). I received a total of FOUR separate packages (not being alerted that some may come from alternate locations) over a span of 7 business days. Upon receipt, I noticed my Kirkey seat shoulder restraint was missing the bolts to attach. I called RW and asked for the bolts (mind you, I am talking about $3 in parts) to be shipped to me….after arguing for 30 minutes on the phone, my two options they left me with were: A. go to local hardware store and buy the bolts WITH MY MONEY or B. Ship back the product AT MY COST and they will ship me a new one with the little package of bolts. Point of the story, if they cannot take care of a $3 package of bolts, I will be damned if I will trust them with a larger order, or any order in the future for that matter. Oh yeah, another little frustration point, all of the covers for the Kirkey supports where of different make…on had an embroidered Kirkey logo, one had a rubber one, and one had none at all…kind of tacky.
NOTE: I just received a new RW catalog, on the cover it says “Under new ownership, better customer service”….maybe they got the hint from others.

I was not encouraged to post by any of these companies, I just think others can benefit from their services (or benefit from avoiding them..RW)

That's a little weird. I was reading your post and had a deja vu - wondering if I had written it late last night and forgotten...

I would heartily second the praise for LTB Motorsports (don't forget the 's' when searching on the web AND philstireservice.com for all of the reasons previously cited. I have no idea how Louis gets stuff to me so quickly for just a few bucks or how Phil can be price-competitive on tires including shipping costs. How they can do that AND be so danged nice is really amazing.

I've also had good luck in the most recent phase of the car's upgrade with Bildon Motorsport, for OE and race bits for the MkIII GTI. Prices are really amazing and Bill S. can source VW racing stuff that is pretty rare.

I need to be on record as saying that we DO have promotional relationships with both Bildon and Phil's but want to add that I'm at a place in my life where I have the luxury of being able to choose to work only with partners who are REALLY good...

K

itbgti, I sure would like to find out who you talked too here at RW and when. I checked your profile but no email address was listed. Please send me an email to [email protected] or call me at (800) 397-7811 Ext 201. I will get to the bottom of the problem. Thank you.

Howard Bennett
Racer Wholesale

Sorry - let me chime in again and say that in my experience, Howard did indeed get to the bottom of a problem that I had and "made it right" with me.

Thanks again for that, Howard.

K

UPDATE: Howard Bennett researched the problem has corrected it....and as Kirk put it, "made it right with me".

Thank you very much, Howard, for taking care of a back-dated issue. What really impressed me was the approach he took was..."You are not satisfied, here is what I can do to make it up, or let me know what else is required".

I am glad to see that vendors actually look at these boards..

I bought my helmet from Racerswholesale a few years ago. Nice service then.

I must say I dont like the fact that they no longer have a retail location or place i can pick stuff up.. They lost a ton of my business because of that. I like to try most items on.. (suits etc...)

Ill add Trinity 1945 Inc. to the places NEVER to do business with. They sell automotive paint. The paint is great but you can only take the owner telling you to "go f yourself if you dont like it " so many times.. I dont think anyone needs that.