Parts Supplier - Not Happy!

[stephenpolhill]

Hi,
I dont normally like to 'moan' about suppliers but I can't stand poor customer service and wanted to share with others. I bought 4 new wings (pattern) along with the necessary bolts etc from a supplier and had them sent straight to the bodyshop who are respraying by car. Firstly the seam on the front corner of the wings looked very poor and although I am advised this is normal on new wings, I wouldn't expect to pay the amount I did for poor quality. The wings also took an awful lot of moving and adjusting to actually fit and my car is original. They still need slight filler along the bonnet edge as they aren't straight.
It cost me a bit extra in labour for this and the bodyshop and I were of the opinion that the supplier should be approached for their view (customer feedback always helps anyway). I phoned and was mostly given a 'so what do you want me to do about it' attitude. I said after spending £560 and mostly on the wings that they would be of better quality and wouldn't cost me MORE just to put right. I was told that although they were pattern wings, the heritage wings are exactly the same and I wouldn't have benefitted from buying those (phew) but they are fine and an exact mould of the originals. The conversation ended with 'well you can send them back for replacements but thats all you'll get from us or anywhere else so your call'.
I wasn't best pleased and I won't be returning to buy any parts from there. Even an offer for half of the extra labour would have been appreciated.
It may seem a small thing and i'm naive but I seeked advice before and most were in agreement. A Shame!
I would welcome others experiences and Mods - if I shouldn't be naming, please advise and I'll edit

[stephenpolhill]

Here's a photo of the poor seam. Its completely smooth on the original. It's now been neatly welded and filled.
I know original parts are far more superior but at over £100 a pop![frame][/frame]

[les]

You're not alone, crap is standard sorry to say.

[Matt]

That is normal on the pattern wings - its been like that for years and years.

I didn't think the heritage wings had that though?

[SUE482]

Your quite right, heritage wings do have the same seam. I purchased one and it needed a lot of effort to get it presentable and it still needed an extension piece welding underneath to make it fit, whilst the NOS I managed to find looked great and fitted perfectly. Somebody is not doing their job properly.

[les]

I don't recall all that recessed area from the headlight downwards.

[Matt]

No I don't either Les... unless its a trick of the camera flash?

[leafie]

I'm sorry to say it appears to me that suppliers have three priorities when it comes to parts 1) profit 2) profit and 3) profit. If good customer service and supplying quality parts reduces profit and supplying junk increases profit then the more junk the better.

[kennatt]

Don't think its anything the traders can sort out, it would be the same wherever you got them from ,they all come from the same supplier,all body panels are now(Unless you can get NOS) A COPY OF A COPY OF A............its just something we have to put up with.if we want to keep the cars on the road,just accept that panels will need fettling to fit.

[stephenpolhill]

Thanks for the replies. I would expect a bit of fettling of course - you get that even on modern car parts. But after alot of fettling and the finish to still be poor and it not line up...?
I know its a widespread issue but when I'm told by the supplier that they are made on a mould from exact original parts and there shouldn't be a difference between original and these pattern parts, thats not true is it. As far as I am concerned, I have just spent alot of money with a company and I wasn't happy with the products i'd bought. I was just completely miffed by the attitude and I've had great service before from other suppliers so this time, it wasn't great.

[irmscher]

I think this is the standard of most replacement panels rubbish

[jagnut66]

Hi,
The wings on my car were replacement panels when I bought her, they too had a seam running from below the headlight down, which was rusting nicely (along with the back edge)............
I replaced mine with the best pair of second-hand originals I could find and repaired the edge by the doors on both (where they always go), being originals they were a perfect fit first time, with no nasty extra seams visible.
If they expect us to pay a fortune for rubbish then everybody should vote with their feet.
Refuse to buy them and source some semi decent second-hand originals to repair and make good or repair the originals already on your cars (if you're lucky enough to still have them fitted that is).
As, from this, I see we will have to re-weld and fettle the replacements and still they don't look right anyway, it won't cost us any more to save an original pair.
And hopefully, if they see a massive decrease in panel sales / loss of profits, it might force them to look at the quality / accuracy of these parts, if they want sales to resume that is.....
Best wishes,
Mike.

[DaisyMayFozz]

Here is a pic of one of my NOS wings, the seam has been welded and ground smooth from the factory. I would expect Heritage wings at least to have had this done.[frame][/frame]

[POMMReg]

Seems odd that 50 yrs ago we made replacement wings which would simply bolt on - 50 yrs later we cannot.

Even worse for Astra mk2 fnt wings, ie. only pattern ones are available, if you don't have genuine GM parts you're
knackered!

[taupe]

I have an alternative view.... a new steelcraft front wing for an MGB roadster is £400 + A Heritage one is nearer £500, these are hand finished and even these will often need a great deal of adjustment to get a Perfect fit.

Whilst it would be great to have perfect fitting pattern wings they are really not that bad and I doubt most minor owners would be prepared to pay nearly £500 for wings that bolted straight on. In most cases some adjustment would be required anyway as the cars door fit etc will likely have changed due to past repair works. Im not saying that its a perfect situation or one that shouldnt be addressed but to buy a repair panel and expect to paint it and fit it without any adjustment is I think a tall order. That front seam could be fully welded though .

Perhaps the suppliers should be encouraged to get a small batch adjusted, seam welded and electro finished as premium fit wings and see if any sell !!

Some of the other repair panels available really are a poor fit and the steel is not of sufficient thickness....

Taupe

[Matt]

I would point out the quality of some of the panels is now better than they were previously! The panels I have had from ESM recently (produced using hadrian/henrics tooling) have been very good - but I havent had any wings

[Budgie]

As an ex. toolmaker perhaps in a few words I can shed some light [not excuses] on why these panels don't fit even though they are from original tooling .Every few hundred pressings ,where I did my apprentership the quality control guys would take a pressing and place it on a master jig and if it didn't pass this test for alignment and quality it was our job to fettle the tooling until such time that the Q.C. guys would PASS the sample and continue to allow the pressings to roll . I doubt that this mechanism is in place nowadays from what I hear of these problem panels.

[chuffit]

So can anyone recommend where I can get body panels from ? Really need a catalogue type with prices if poss ,thanks in anticipation

[irmscher]

I think you get what you pay for nowadays but imho the panels that came out of Sri Lanka were rubbish and the metal was terrible .The tooling don't forget is 40 odd years old and has not been changed as it costs thousands to reproduce in a tool shop and of course Qc is neglected as Budgie said and that's why BRITISH ENGINEERING is not the best in the world anymore and we rely on inferior foreign imports with no QC

[MarkyB]

fettle the tooling

What did this involve?