How much money have you spent with FerrariChat.com Sponsors?

When I am in the market for Ferrari items, these companies are the first place I check too. Unfortunately with helping my wife finish school, I haven't been able to spend what I would like to.....yet....but any sponser that helps support this board and keep it going gets my vote first anytime.

 

Rob; got $440 worth of Tubi test pipes from Heiko. Its seems like he is always online. I email him questions all the time and get a response back usually within a few minutes; even on a Friday night. He uses PayPal which was really simple. And no problems with Paypal so far. I would be insterested in getting some modular wheels for my 360 but didn't want to go through the dealer. Also got a engine check code of P1113 which not listed in the OBD2 manual....any thoughts. Enjoyed meeting you at the restaurant in Indy.. thanks tom

 

Rob, as you know, I had a bad experience with one of your sponsors who shall remain nameless for now. It took him over 3 weeks to get the 360 challenge grill (that he admits was in-stock) to the shipper. In the meantime, he ignored 2 weeks' worth of emails and phone calls in my effort to find out where my grill was. He then shipped it to the wrong address with utter disregard for my specific shipping instructions and then tried to explain it as a contractual obligation. What a load of bull.

I know this is just one sponsor, but I have knowledge of other incidents with this same sponsor. Even you admitted to me in a private email that this particular sponsor has a history of this kind of thing. I don't think it is fair for you, Rob, to request that F-chat members help our sponsors by purchasing from them if they do not abide by certain basic customer service standards. Your sponsors need to realize that many F-chatters have tremendous buying power, and it's not smart business to piss one of them off. Because that one person can tell 50 others.

A thought comes to mind. The print magazine "Popular Photography" has a large mail order section where the companies abide by PP's "Checkrated Program". The program consists of a set of standards that lists specific advertisers' obligations including complaint resolution. Pick up a copy of the magazine and check it out.

Please do not misunderstand, Rob. I think you are doing a great job with this chat site. But, I will tell you point blank right now that I will NEVER buy from that sponsor again. And I am kind of leery about buying from your other sponsors because of my bad experience. How do I know I won't get burned by someone else? Thus the need for standards.

I know I might get flamed for my views, but hey, I'm saying all this as objectively as I can without naming the offending party, and I ultimately want to improve the business environment which revolves around F-chat.

 

$100 with Cavallino Models; money that was extremely well spent... Can't recall any others at the moment...

 

I got all the stuff I needed for the 30k major on my 348 from TRutlands. They gave a 10% discont to Fchat members last year during the month of December. They don't have an ad, but it was nice that they gave the discount.

 

Does ECW count? I thought they wouldn't (for obvious reasons). If they do, then it's at least 2 users that bought through them.

Counting ECW, 20K+

Not counting them, somewhere between 1K and 5K, but only because you just brought in Norwoods.

I tried to get some info on a cat bypass/resonator I wanted, but couldn't get an answer from your sponsor and thus the impulse passed.

I do agree somewhat with the previous poster: if a company is going to advertise here, they should at least take the time to respond when people are trying to give them money. But it really doesn't matter to me, my money will just go elsewhere.

 

This survey will not show indirect referral business that is generated due to F-Chat. For example, I referred a few friends to Valence, one of whom I believe made a purchase. This person is not a member of F-Chat, but the sale came as a direct result of Valence's F-Chat sponsorship.

 

Not 50% of the site, 50% of the people who bothered to respond to the poll thus far. Big difference.

 

2 or 3 hundred with cavallino models. excellent service and products.

 

Spent quite a few bucks with HG Parts (whom I made aware of this site btw, he was all ebay before that), Cavallino Models and Ferrari UK.

 

Over 3K to date!! Been quite happy...

 

I bought a donor 355 gearbox from Nick at Forza...appx $3,000.

I couldn't have been happier with that experience. Fast to respond/ship/etc. I reccomend him without reservation.

 

Rob,
Thank you for your reply. I realize that many have had good experiences dealing with your sponsors. It was not my intention to smear them. I said very specifically in the second paragraph "I know this is just one sponsor". Nowhere did I say everybody else was guilty of this.

My point was that I had a bad experience with one of your sponsors, and it was an experience that others have had in the past with the same sponsor, and YOU have known about this person's behavior for a while now. And YOU have done nothing to address the situation with that guy. I did not name this sponsor because I did not think that would be appropriate. My goal was not to flame him, but to inform fellow members that I have had a bad experience, and one way to improve business with your sponsors would be to have a set of standards in place governing their conduct. Can't you see how that would get people to buy from your sponsors more? You wrote: "Please give me and the sponsors feedback on how you would give them more of your business."

I'm giving you feedback.

I don't see how you could disagree with how I've approached this.

If your sponsor is going to conduct his business part-time or as a hobby AND take my money, he'd better conduct his business like a full-time business. There is no give and take on that one. I think most would agree with me on that. I give the guy a thousand bucks and no product, no phone call return, no email return. No email return? Give me a freakin break. It takes 10 seconds to respond to an email. You ask me to be accepting and understanding of a situation like that? How could I be? Would you be "understanding and accepting" if someone took your $1000 and didn't give you anything or respond to repeated contacts for 3 weeks?

Tillman said it well: "if a company is going to advertise here, they should at least take the time to respond when people are trying to give them money. But it really doesn't matter to me, my money will just go elsewhere."

 

Please send me a personal email on which sponsor this is that you have had the problem with. I would appreciate it.

 

Hey Stromin..
I also would also like a privite e-mail, I do spend some cash on these sponsor's, need to know who to look out for!!!!
Thank's..Robert

 

Oops, forgot about Norwoods and I already voted! Oh well, add one to the '$5k to $20k' column.

 

Making more money would certainly be a big factor for me...

 

The point, Rob, is that YOU are in a position to put a bit of pressure on whomever SN is referring to. Sponsors on your site are putting a stamp of approval on your site "This is someone we want to be associated with." Likewise, by accepting their advertising dollar you are saying "I (Rob Lay/Ferrarichat.com/CurvaCom LLC) want to be associated with this company" and place your stamp of approval on them. The activities of your sponsor do reflect indirectly on Fchat, and so it is important that you choose wisely and, if necessary, remind your sponsors that a certain level of professionalism is required.

Let me be clear, I don't know who SN is referring to. As with many of my comments in the past, I'm speaking in the abstract. However, I think that you're doing a good job building a brand and mindshare within the Ferrari community. If you set some serious standards for professionalism, then it won't be long before being accepted as a sponsor will become a point of pride among the vendors. Sure, you'll probably lose a sponsor or two along the way, but eventually "Ferrarichat.com Approved" could mean as much within your market as the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval means in the wider world.

Anyway, that's all I have to say about that. Do with it what you will. Have a good holiday.

 

Rob - I think you are going at SN a little too hard. If he doesn't want to name names, that's his perogative. Perhaps he understands that his case may have been a "special" case, and does not want to smear the sponsor. I would assume that most of the users on this site are smart enough to not let his statements blanket EVERY sponsor here. I know that if I decided to buy something, I would first contact SN to find out who that sponsor was. It wouldn't stop me from buying, though.

You are kind of pressuring him to drop names, but maybe he doesn't want to for whatever reason. I appreciate him giving some feedback, and you should, too. Hell, if you are putting the sponsor on your site, you should be somewhat responsible (at least in as far as an apology) for thier actions, since you are "vouching" for their standards of conduct. If you really do not want to stain the image of all your sponsors (which is not happening, by the way), perhaps you should name the name that SN does not want to name. I mean, you know who it is, right? Maybe you should contact that sponsor and haven them respond publicly to SN's accusations on the board. Who knows....there's a lot of ways that you could go about doing this, but instead of defending one of your customers, you are passively attacking him and defending your sponsors.

I disagree with that.

Other than that though, I love this site, and you are doing a fanastic job!