It's been a MONTH. No response whatsoever to half a dozen e-mails and 3 or 4 voicemails. What the hell else am I supposed to do? This company is a joke.

 

Hey Chris, sorry to hear about that. I know Randy's a nice guy, but there's definitely no excuse for the way you are being dealt with. I share your mentality 100%.

 

Why shouldn't he be? Business is business, money is money.

 

That's what I'm sayin'. You go Chris.

 

I guess this sort of situation is hard to understand in this day and age of technology and portable communications when email can even be checked/forwarded to cell phones. I can understand the frustration, for customer satisfaction availability/turnaround should be indicated prior to placing the order or, if not possible (like sudden out of stock status, etc) should be notified directly after so the customer has the option of cancelling. I'm sure he is a great guy as people say, but it sounds like he needs someone to be there to help customers and address stuff if he can't be available- its what usually happens if you have a successful business and need to handle growth.

 

Just got my Milltek installed. Ordered from WMS in early July with a very quick turn-around. Maybe because I paid in advance. Nevertheless, I just ordered my next trick parts from Moss.

 

I've personally had nothing but positive experiences with Randy Webb. Yes, he does get busy and when on the road doing pulley parties, he will wait until he is back at home base to get to the emails and phone calls. I'd like to see how many whiners we'd hear from if Randy stopped doing pulley parties and stayed in Littleton to answer phones.

 

Interesting to see this response as it reminds me of myself a while back. Also interesting to see that so much fewer come to Webbs defense. I've bitten my lip on this subject for quite a while and will continue to try and do so.
Many here have been through this ordeal. It's so repetitive it's freakish. I don't see these kinds of post about other vendors here. I also have never had another back turned to me before either.
In all, if you don't want to go through this stuff then go to other vendors. Ones who care about past customers and aren't just looking for the 'newbie to mods' so they can woo them with self praise.
Time to bite my lip again .....

 

I'm sorry, but I don't think the fact that you had a positive experience justifies what chrisnl has to go through, or calling him a whiner.

I'm not on anyone's side here, I guess I'm just trying to back up chrisnl a bit, because I know how he feels.

 

I will preface this by saying that I respect your opinion and do not doubt you have an excellent reason for taking your business elsewhere.......

I have been doing business with Randy since I got my early 03 MCS - in other words - a little over 2 years. I have received excellent service and support that has surpassed any other Vendor I've dealt with. In fact Randy has personally handled issues with my car (that were not his doing) that have most likely cost him quite a bit of business due to the time he devoted to my car.

In one instance, he prolonged his stay in the Bay Area by several days while he hunted down an issue (unrelated) with my car, swapping parts out of the Mule in order to track down the problem (those parts are still in my car). He and James worked through the night trying to sort out these issues. I literally had to order him to go home.

I have had bad experiences with other Vendors on this Board and have taken my issues up with them privately. There are two site sponsors that have treated me like crap that receive heaps of praise on this forum.

Oh well..........

 

It sounds like the guy is a VERY small operation, and just doesn't have the resources yet to carry a real brick and mortor store with normal product turnaround time. With such a huge chunk of time dedicated to non-store activities, maybe he needs an employee. Or maybe it needs to be better communicated to his online and phone customers to sometimes expect very long delays of shipment and communication.

 

He also lives in a relatively small market and a goodly portion of his business is travelling around the country doing Pulley Parties. If he lived in a larger metro area, he might have more in-shop business.

Unfortunately, his current set-up involves spending a large amount of time away from his shop, his computer, family, etc.

Additionally, a lot of calls are for advice. These people do not want to talk to a secretary or a shop hand - they want to talk to Webb.

A compromise may be to have one of his two helpers spend a couple hours a day statusing orders and filtering messages for order and shipment issues.

 

I do need to shut up about my gripes here, and I will.

Webb HAS done a huge amount for Mini owners and he IS a good guy. I should not take that away from him here.
I will say that by your post Skip, you were obviously on higher ground then I was with WMS.
This thread re-emerging just got me going hot because I had posted on it early on in strong defense of WMS, as I had done many times here on NAM. It just P'ed me off to see that it then so quickly it went the other way. Kinda a slap in the face thing.
That's it .....

 

First, to Chris, let me say that I hear ya, and I can empathize as I too have had difficulty reaching Webb in the past. It is frustrating, especially in a time of need.

With that said, a great deal of what I've learned about the MINI can be attributed to him. Between his How-To's, and many hours chatting on the phone with me over the past 2 years, he has helped me much; often when a transaction was not part of the conversation. Heck, he's even talked me out of buying things that he figured were not ideal for what I'm trying to achieve. I believe this was said before though...

Knowing that he spends like quality time with others, multiplied-out, he's a hot commodity in scarce supply. He knows this, as do many others, and he has hired some help, and even recently set-up a shopping cart on his website, which he resisted for quite some time as he ideally wanted to speak with everyone before making a purchase; just to be sure that the product(s) ordered fit the desired goals. This was commedable, and full of good intentions, but not scalable, and with that practical, unfortunately...

Just a couple of weeks ago I was wishing that I didn't know Randy as the good guy that he is, and the guy that I've learned to care about. I couldn't reach him to get some clarification that I really needed... I hung in there, keeping-in-mind all that I like about the guy, what he's provided to me and the Community, his over-extended situation, sacrifices he's made (there have been many), and once we finally connected, all was well.

He's always taken care of me fairly, albeit not always in a timely fashion. For me, I continue to be a supporter, understanding that he might not always be available when I would most like him to be. I factor that cost into my cost-benefit analysis, and for me, I find that it's worth returning. For others, they will feel differently, and all I can say is that I understand, really.

Chris, again, I hope you don't take any of this expression as an attempt to lessen or minimize your experience.

 

Tony B - great post

As I see it one person's good experience with a dealer/person/shop does not invalidate someone else's bad experience with the same or the other way around. People are allowed to vent their frustrations and share things from their perspective without being degraded by name calling ('whining', etc).

Others can read in the context with everything else on the boards and make their own choices and determinations from the pool of info - that is one of the reasons I like forums, for all of the shared information, and I'd rather have people share their experiences then otherwise; if everyone kept things on the down low (or were censored) there'd be no point.

 

Everyone- Great insight and a great discussion. I myself haven't had that much experience with Randy, but I can say that he's always treated me well, albeit a little belatedly . When the GRS went on group buy in the UK, I was in contact with him, and he did/is doing what he can to try to get a deal worked out for us here. I think that the fact that he was willing to do extra work just for a likely small contingency amongst us shows that he really cares for something more than just his profit margin. That is something you rarely find these days.

 

I too have done business with Randy. And, I've gotten P'sed at Randy.

Randy is a wealh of knowledge. No question. And, he's good for the MINI community. But as I see it, he spreads himself way to thin. He tries to run a real shop but without any real help. What he ends up with is a "mom & pop" operation without the mom. Sorry to say that but it's true. Then he journey's off to various parts of the country to do the parties to make seriuos money to support his business back home. Problem is, there's no mom to hold down the fort while he's gone. He doesn't update his voice mail or email message to inform customers what's happening. Hence customers get P'sed.

Randy is on the edge all the time. Trying to balance his family, his business, his customers and the parties without proper management or support. Given a few changes, WMS could be a real player. But until that happens, Randy will be chasing his tail.

You have to choices. One, accept and understand his situation. Be supportive and try to help him get over the business hump.
Or two, take your business elsewhere, which you have every right to do.

Although I've been really angry at some of things he's done, I believe he's tring to do the best he can with the limited resources he has. In the end, I want him to succeed for the good of all of us.

my $.02

ripley

PS, Randy, if you read this...GET SOME GOOD HELP!!! IT WILL BE BETTER FOR YOU AND YOUR CUSTOMERS!!!!!

 

Just thought I would add my 2 cents. I was at AMVIVII and I won of all things $200.00 from Webbmotorsports. I talked to Randy about a week after we returned, and told him what I wanted. I have e-mailed several times over the past 5 months (coming up on 6) a few times he responded but mostly not. as far as I'm concerned he can go fly a kite. I never got a thing, but I'm hoping he get's his

Sandie

 

To the ones criticizing Randy's business acumen, please stop. He may not be a "good business person", but I prefer he be an exceptional engineer and crap business person, than the other way around.

Either have the patience to be serviced by one of the best MINI tuners in the world, or take your business to a place that has alot less calls and customers. There is no reason to start hissy fits and threats of cancelling charges for goods already received.

It really is not a big deal if you havent heard back from him in a month. Why get upset? Seriosuly, WHY? My PM's have been unanswered by Randy, so have my emails. I sent an email 2 months ago, still no effing reply! So WHAT?? Troops die every day in Iraq and I'm supposed to care if Randy doesnt respond to my emails?

NO! I'll just wait. THen send it again. And keep doing so until he either replies or until I take my business elsewhere.

It's not like the man STOLE from you??!!! He just hasnt replied to your calls/emails... WTF????!!!!!

Some of you need to have some patience and understanding.

 

I thought Randy had hired someone to help out at the office. He has mentioned this on numerous occasions. It seems the complaints are more directed at orders than advice or pulley parties. Therefore with Randy being gone on pulley parties, if there was an assistant to fill the orders, that would appear to take care of almost all the complaints. The people who are defending him are the people who have gotten advice from him or have worked with him first hand. That is great. But almost all the complaints are about order placement, and just getting a response on the order. Waiting a month or two for an order would be pretty bad. Randy keeps getting these ordering complaints, and has been since almost day one back in 2002. I truly thought hiring an assistant would have helped this problem. Maybe not. I would say if you aren't getting enough service from Randy there are a trillion other vendors who are providing excellent order placement. This just doesn't seem to be Randy's forte. If you are looking for technical knowledge, than I would stick with Randy.


Also, it looks like Randy is branching out into other cars. The Lotus Elise now. Will this impact his operations with Minis?

 

Uh oh...bye bye Randy

 

Ah, Free-speech - its an amazing concept.

 

In the past 3 weeks, I have called and left 3 phone messages. So far nobody has returned my call. This is after the post about the Milltek exhaust thread where Randy jumped in and said he would match pricing.
I also want to buy some other things, but nobody seems to want to try to earn my business by returning my phone calls.
I can't imagine how frustrating it would be if I had purchased something from them and needed technical support! So now I am looking elsewhere to make my purchases.
I'm sure they are busy or whatever.. but this is no way to run a business, but it's good for the competition.

 

First of all, let me clarify. I did not call anyone a whiner, re-read my post. I said I'd wonder how many whiners we'd hear from if Randy stopped doing pulley parties and just answered phones. It's true, people who want quality work done on their MINIs and do not live within driving distance of his shop truely benefit from a guy who will drive his trailer all over this country to attend 1 or 2 day events to wrench on cars. Do we feel that he's making alot of profit? Try hauling a trailer behind a pickup coast to coast to modify a handful of cars and see if you get rich. I've been to his shop and one of his pulley parties, he loves what he does and we benefit from his knowledge.

 

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