I have been trying to get a hold of someone over at WMW for about a week now. I have sent e-mails, called 10 times a day and left a voice mail. All I want to do is order some KW V3 suspension with Carbotech brakes. It is a little frustrating that they are the only place to get the TSW Spec'ed coilovers, but you can't order them.

Has anyone else ever had a problem?

 

Why not order them from his website. He gets the orders daily?

 

I tried doing that but there were 2 problems with it. First, It wouldn't give me a shipping option. Possibly because I live in Canada. Second, I wasn't able to select which pads/compound I wanted.

I did talk to him once a week ago, he seems very knowledgeable and I really want to support his company.

 

Does not sound normal to me? H'm

 

That is really weird, he has always picked up whenever I've called. I'm sure you will get a hold of him soon!

 

I tried ordering an item from him but he advised me that he doesn't ship to Canada (?!).

 

Really? Well that's a little disappointing.

 

That was my thought as well - very surprised for a business to not ship outside the US!

 

I guess I will have to get them shipped to someone I know in the States and sent to me from there. Kind of a PITA, but what can a guy do.

 

I got parts from him a few times over last few years. Yes, his web site is not set up for Canadian orders, but I always ordered directly over the phone and payed by cc. Shipping was really affordable and by mail (not by ups, if you know what I mean...). Try him again, maybe they are out of town on shows or...
He is a great guy and I am sure he will accommodate new customers from Canada...

 

Yes when I tried ordering through the website I realized it wasn't set up for Canadian shipments so I emailed him. His response was 'sorry, we don't ship to Canada'...

 

i called him once and he answered.

best part about way, is he ships the same day, and i get them 2 days later!

 

Sorry but due to some scammers they have ruined it for everyone. We no longer ship outside the US, or accept international credit cards, or even answer non US numbers. You can thank the people that have tried scamming us, and wasting our time on the phone when we could be helping other customers. We do have some of our dealers that are willing to take the risk and we can put you in contact with them. I'm happy to give out the names of the scammers for them to be hunted down if anyone wants

 

Maybe you should remove the International phone number from your site if you are not even accepting phone calls from non-US numbers? Might even help to put a note that is fairly easy to find on the web site indicating you do not do business outside the US? Could help cut down on some confusion.

 

What happens when he finds out that scammers are numerous in the US too?

 

With a US scammer there IS legal recourse....when a scammer is on the otherside of a border, things get much more complex, and very hard to prosecute (and folks seem more willing to scam an "outsider than a local").
In all defense to WMW, he works very hard, and in a very competative bussiness, one or two hits that you have no hope of recovering $$ from, maybe a tax bill, or item stuck in customs, delayed for a few days or worse....some things can be more trouble than its worth.
mini's are WMW's owner life, prdide and joy, but you must always weigh risk vs reward for any endeavor.....
Look at tye scammers that show up on this sites own marketplace...and it atleast has a way to warn, or guage the risk by looking at a members prior sales/join date....when the phone rings...you have none of that...then add currency conversion, shipping, legal, and even contrats that limit the region some products can be sold in...gets pretty sticky very quickly!!

 

I have to say, there's lots of folks on ebay and vendors out there who don't deal internationally. It's not because they don't want the money or to turn away the business, so you have to think that it has been enough trouble in the past that there's a pretty good reason to make this a part of your business policy.

 

I think it's fine to decide not to do business in other countries, but I think it would be fair to let consumers know.

Maybe RX3 is a scammer and maybe he is not (I don't think he is) but he raises a good point with this thread. Let people know on your website. Otherwise you are leaving a bad taste in people's mouths - legit customers who help your business stay afloat.

Just my $.02

 

If you got names Way then post them and describe the scam so that all Nam members and vendors can be protected.
Ed

 

I can remember as a kid saving up my paper money and sending it thru the mail, (cash), to buy some little trinket out of the back of a comic book.

It took what seemed like an eternity, but then a box would show up. Things are not that simple anymore.

The more the little guy gets taken, the higher his costs are and therefore his prices. There are numerous ways to get taken, both here and outside of the US. I have been screwed by ebay sellers that took my $$ and never shipped. Even with paypal buyer protection I received nothing because the seller didn't exist any longer and their account was emptied.

Credit card companies allow for disputes and chargebacks really easy. I work for a retailer that gets a good number of "i didn't buy from this company" type of disputes monthly. Even though we have records of them and that we shipped the product to their home, they argue and get it for free. Even if we fight it, it costs time and people, which costs money.

 

I once worked for a store that sold Harley Davidson parts and we did a great worldwide business. The only country that I had to stop shipping to was Canada. I don't know why but it seemed like when I would send anything up there it would not arrive to the proper destination. Also most of the orders the scammer that gave the credit card number would dispute the charges and we would be stuck without the product or the money.

I don't blame Way for not selling to Canada because this is just not a good business if he wants to stay in business.

I never met anyone from Canada I did not like so it is hard to understand why this even happens.

This is correct in every way:Then if they say they want the items and you send them they refuse to pay their countrys duties and you get the box back three months later all busted up with parts missing and still have to pay the return shipping.

We rarly had problems with sending to Germany, France,England or any other country but CANADA was a different story. We had all sorts of problems shipping there so we just cut them off.

 

I know there are. But I have no problem personally hunting someone down here in the US it's pretty easy. Also I have a good network here of thousands of customers that can be very helpful.

Actually MINI vendors do talk and we often compare notes to help each other out with protecting ourselves. Aaron at Outmotoring and I were just recently talking about this and he was telling me last year he lost several thousand dollars on similar scams.

We haven't removed the international info because when we did, the scammers then change identity and it is so much harder to catch them. So we are trying to come up with a way to let customers know, but also keep the red flags that pop up on the orders alerting us.

FYI I'm not calling anyone a scammer here on NAM. That is only 75% the reason we don't do international, the other reason is TIME. International orders are time killers. The cust will send an email with a long list of parts they want a shipping quote on. Then we have to box it all up, size, and weight it then put the info into UPS. After emailing back the quote 99% time it is too expensive so the cust wants to remove items and requote it, and then repeat this process till they are happy with the shipping. Then we have to fill out several pages of customs paperwork. Then the CC processing fees are a lot more cause of the risk. Also UPS looses packages internationally more often. Then customers also want us to lie on the paperwork so they pay less duty and tax which is illegal. And sometimes they don't pay the duties which comes back on us. All of this cost time and money.
My customers know I will spend a lot of time with them on the phone trying to give all the info and help out, I can't take time from those customers for a few extra high risk sales.

 

As someone who spoke on the phone with Way last week, I can attest to his customer focus.

I called him last week to discuss suspension mods, JCW tunes etc. He seemed happy to spend as much time as needed walking me through my options and giving his suggestions. (thanks again Way!)

I'm not a retailer, but my experience selling things on eBay meshes with his as well - limited recourse for international scams, and no one wants to pay what it actually costs to get something *reliably* shipped.

Don

 

Honestly, I have heard nothing but great things about Way. Personally, I can say, my first experience with ordering from him was top notch, but then again, I am in the states. I can understand why smaller companies avoid international orders.

 

Very dissappointed (being Way's customer from Canada)!

It looks like all we do here up North is sitting and thinking how to scam vendors from US... Not true! I am getting the sense in this post that nobody should send anything to Canada because they will loose money... Come on!
Way, if you had scammers from Canada, there are ways to deal with it here as well. Nothing impossible, than getting them in US...
To be honest, scammers are in US as well and not as "fool proof" as you would think...
This kind of attitude from US private bussineses not to deal with Canada or other international customers will cost you on a long run... For sure...
I just can not believe that way or any other vendor in US, found a better option to loose all Canadian customers (and profit), because of scammer(s). How many scammers?

Well, I guess I will have to buy my mod parts from Japan, UK and Europe...They don't fuss about sending to Canada, and having to fill out paper work and custom forms (come on, people?.. I do this every time when sending the item I sold to US...)... And don't complain about Chinese stealing bussines from US either...

Way, I wish you all the best with your bussines but you made a mistake