Is the software that runs this site capable of supporting a categorized rating system? Wouldn't it be nice to have a rating of the sponsors in a category apart from how much they paid S2Ki to be a sponsor? It would be very useful if every time somebody on this site bought from a sponsor, they could rate the sponsor.

For example:

Customer Service - did the sponsor answer e-mails, phone calls, PMs?
Shipping - was the product shipped when promised and did it arrive in good condition?
Quality - was the product a quality item? Was the fit and finish meticulous?
Overall Experience - would you deal with this sponsor again?

I am totally sick of lack-luster customer service in this country and I don't expect it from a specialized segment of the market like this. We have some sponsors on here that deliver some of the best customer service and highest quality products in any market, and some that frankly amaze me that they are surviving. There is no excuse for a business taking 10 days to get back to you via e-mail (or not responding at all).

We should truly recognize those that are doing an excellent job and those that are not. And to the one and only sponsor out of three that responded to my requests for Spoon pricing, thank you. To the rest of you (some 10 days later), I wouldn't buy a Spoon product from you if it meant I had to go to Japan myself to buy the parts.

And finally, if you are a sponsor and have a website, how about updating it? Decide if this is a business or a hobby to you. If am shopping at 1:00 in the morning for parts, I don't want to have to "call you for pricing and availability". For God's sake, put your stock and pricing on the site and call it done.

-YS

 

While I agree with you that the general quality of service these days is crap, that's a function of a long-standing good economy and is probably about to change. As to the service provided by sponsors, most are part-timers and it is your choice whether to put up with part-time business people and their inevitable warts.

The board has done a great job of policing vendors without a slam system. Our dialogue is a powerful incentive to run clean and several vendors have found out the hard way already. The feedback loop is working as it is, I think.

 

Jim-

I guess my point is that there is no way for anybody to know if a sponsor is part-time. There is no way to know if the order you placed is going to take a month to show up because the guy doesn't have the parts or is on vacation. There is no way to know when you send an e-mail asking for pricing and availabilty that it will take weeks to get a reply (if you get one at all). Wouldn't it be nice to not waste your time sending out requests for information that never get answered? I would bet that if I listed the 3 sponsors that I asked for pricing and availability on Spoon parts and asked which sponsors folks though answered/didn't answer, the results would be all over the board. With some type of tracking system for sponsors, patterns would start to develop and it would be obvious which sponsors to deal with and which ones to avoid.

Take this thread for example:

https://www.s2ki.com/forums/showthread.php?...&threadid=74654

This guy posted twice today explaining that he can't get any help getting parts from IPTmotorsports. Yet, here is the owner of IPTmotorsports posting a thread today about selling his car https://www.s2ki.com/forums/showthread.php?...&threadid=74695. Why is that acceptable? Wouldn't a rating system with this chronology help folks or least forewarn them? Would you want to know that this could happen? How many times have you fully researched a sponsor before buying from them? I, for one, figured that if they sponsored the site, they were verified, legitimate businesses. There are some folks that can run a part-time business, but clearly, a lot cannot.

-YS

 

I should point out that IPTmotorsports in this case is not a sponsor of S2KI nor have they ever been. My suggestion is to:

1) Buy from S2KI sponsors. While there is no guarantee that something bad won't happy the sponsors are known here and accountable to the community.

2) Make sure you get specific information from whomever you are buying from. Is it in stock? Where? How many? If it's not in stock then you can be pretty sure it's on a slow boat from China. A vendor with inventory is unlikely to be a part-time operation and have invested considerable funds. Most distributor require a "buy-in" which means they will probably have inventory if they are authorized.

If you do buy something overseas, don't pay in advance. Use a credit card, not PayPal, so that if it falls through you can recoup the money.

3) Ask other owners here what their experience with a vendor is. It's a shame that these questions don't get asked BEFORE money changes hand (as was the case in the thread you cited).

My $0.02

 

IPTmotorsports is not a sponsor but IPTdashkits are. Unfortunately in this instance they are owned and operated by the same person. Parker

http://www.iptmotorsports.com/info.html