How the parts business works....

Sending automotive parts internationally requires additional effort to fill out additional forms that require tariff codes to identify items. Depending on the country you send it to, what the item is, where it came from, what it's made out of, what it's value is, not to forget whether it is legal or not, makes it hard and too much effort to ship internationally for some business's. That is why there are additional fees associated with such purchases. Time is money! Some sellers are set up for this business and do it very well. When you have a country (USA) of 250 odd million people, you have to think to yourself, is it worth my while spending all the time and effort to send items to an island (Aust) of just 22 million? So for all that effort I may only increase my sales by 10%. These are commercial operations that are profit based in order to remain open.
Therefore the Aussie retailers to be competitive they have to buy and ship in bulk. That generally means paying for a container load of items you think your customers are going to buy. You then pay for the freight, the customs and duty as well as the GST. Oh, and all the fees for port charges, storage and road transport. You have to pay for all of this upfront. You either need to have a lot of money in the bank, or a really good bank manager who will lend you the money, who of course wants your house as a guarantee that you know what your doing and will be able to sell all the items you have just purchased, to pay off your debt. In the meantime your paying interest on the money you just borrowed, rent to store the items, insurance in case someone wants it all without paying for it, or the whole lot goes up in smoke.
Now, if you know a lot about VW's and can select the right parts every time you get on an international site, shop around for the best deal, can get free shipping in the USA to a mate, who can then forward it to you really cheap through US postal, that will take you about 3-4 weeks for it to be delivered from the USA.
If you Don't know your way around your hobby, Don't want to buy the wrong parts, Don't have a trustworthy mate in the USA, Don't want to wait four weeks for delivery the options are:

1. Ask somebody on the forum who knows how it all works and ask them to organise it for you, but ask if he/she is going to charge you for their time
2. Spend the time to research all you can on the best way to ship the correct parts to your door.
3. Get in your car, go and see your local VW parts seller.
4. (there is always another way)

I guess you now know why there are less and less local VW part sellers that you can go to buy your parts from. Every time you go and pick the brains of these people and don't buy something from them, don't be surprised if they don't give you much of their time. They have bills to pay!

PS Share the love...

and your point is ??

Yes, this is true...

but the title of this Post was MISLEADING....
and I changed it.. Lee EDITED

-- Brand New nos parts for Free --

Many people already know all this info....
but many don't..

it does show how the system works and the great difficulty the local vw parts sellers have keeping their heads above water..
while doing Us all a favour by just being there..

LEE

Maybe if the Aussie retailers had decent mail order web sites, they may be competitive!

lets not start bashing the sponsor again. peoples. just remember without their time and money this forum and the australian veedub scene would be a lot worse.
apart from that, im with craig. whats your point?

pointless meh wtf n all that 😵‍💫

I guess we'll never ever never get that 3.14 minutes back again 🙅

Peace out and feel the love in the room 😘

I always try to buy my parts for my projects from local/australian suppliers if possible. But the circumstances you put forward are across the board for all small businesses. Customer service is the sole responsibility of the owner of the business. So don't go blaming the consumer if you brush someone who had $1000 in their pocket and YOU thought they were not worth YOUR precious time. Good luck picking your worthwhile customers. My2c

Crikey, ya can't complain about Just Kampers! I am happy getting bits from them but have to accept quality is never going to be as good as original, sometimes they need tweaking!
Quality of bits from the US are no better, when the dollar goes down the local suppliers will sell more.

I manufacture my products that ive sold for well over 15 years, people dont or wont pay premium, dont want assistance and certainly dont have the money they once had
IF you cant make ends meet in business,your time is too valuable to perhaps help that prospective customer and you cant be bothered to keep the place running, well youll be like all the other closing businesses
If i get a rude reception from a new businees or get treated like an idiot, well ill tell every person i can, dont deal with them
Takes years to get a good name,and seconds to get a bad one

We all have a choice in life, whether you run a vw import/reselling business, a corner store, brothel or choose to be a employee of another business, it will always come back to the bottom line for the customer, the cheapest possible price, if you know what you want you are ahead, if you need advice you will have to consault a specialist and pay the premium, unfortunatly the internet has put a totally different perspective on buying anything, one click away and people use it as a tool to check up on any reseller in australia, people are moving away from traditional shopping, if retailers in Australia are not competitive they will disapear from the market, i know it is difficut to run a small business and have owned two successfull ones over the years but would not concider it again, i work overseas as a industrial prostitute for a multi national oil company and make far money than i ever did in bussiness, all without the worry.

annosL wrote:Crikey, ya can't complain about Just Kampers!

That's right, they are the only decent internet VW parts business in Australia.

I haven't got time to go chasing around for bits.

JK sold a client of mine something different than what was pictured....all is not good with internet purchases....user beware.

nedsbug wrote:I manufacture my products that ive sold for well over 15 years, people dont or wont pay premium, dont want assistance and certainly dont have the money they once had
IF you cant make ends meet in business,your time is too valuable to perhaps help that prospective customer and you cant be bothered to keep the place running, well youll be like all the other closing businesses
If i get a rude reception from a new businees or get treated like an idiot, well ill tell every person i can, dont deal with them
Takes years to get a good name,and seconds to get a bad one

Well said, nedsbug.

I started manufacturing some 40 years ago, and although I am now [sort of🤪] retired, the two sons are now running things.
http://www.kirrapak.com/

Back then it was Japan & Taiwan, now it's China that has to be competed with, but it can be done. There are only three basic things to be concerned with:- QUALITY, SERVICE, & PRICE.

Mostly, you don't need all three to keep customers happy. If you get the first two right, and the price is a LITTLE higher, often that's fine.

Advice to ANYONE in business.......keep a good watch on the above three items, and DON"T blame your customers, or the Chinese for your problems!

Cheers,

Greg

HappyDaze wrote:

nedsbug wrote:I manufacture my products that ive sold for well over 15 years, people dont or wont pay premium, dont want assistance and certainly dont have the money they once had
IF you cant make ends meet in business,your time is too valuable to perhaps help that prospective customer and you cant be bothered to keep the place running, well youll be like all the other closing businesses
If i get a rude reception from a new businees or get treated like an idiot, well ill tell every person i can, dont deal with them
Takes years to get a good name,and seconds to get a bad one

Well said, nedsbug.

I started manufacturing some 40 years ago, and although I am now [sort of🤪] retired, the two sons are now running things.
http://www.kirrapak.com/

Back then it was Japan & Taiwan, now it's China that has to be competed with, but it can be done. There are only three basic things to be concerned with:- QUALITY, SERVICE, & PRICE.

Mostly, you don't need all three to keep customers happy. If you get the first two right, and the price is a LITTLE higher, often that's fine.

Advice to ANYONE in business.......keep a good watch on the above three items, and DON"T blame your customers, or the Chinese for your problems!

Cheers,

Greg

x2 on all accounts. 🙂

Non the less the original post goes a long way to explaining why the difference in price from the Ausie suppliers, though not always for all things, ie:- a battery for my camera from Ausie store front $75.00, on line 3 for under $20.00 delivered to my door, neither branded with the makers name, lets face it the store could have bought them on line and sold them at an excelent mark up. Still thats not motor vehicle parts so in case you don't understand why the price difference then the original post helps to make it a little more clear. Face to face advice (phone to phone 😁) ) and or being able to hold/touch the item has to be worth something.

matberry wrote:

HappyDaze wrote:

nedsbug wrote:I manufacture my products that ive sold for well over 15 years, people dont or wont pay premium, dont want assistance and certainly dont have the money they once had
IF you cant make ends meet in business,your time is too valuable to perhaps help that prospective customer and you cant be bothered to keep the place running, well youll be like all the other closing businesses
If i get a rude reception from a new businees or get treated like an idiot, well ill tell every person i can, dont deal with them
Takes years to get a good name,and seconds to get a bad one

Well said, nedsbug.

I started manufacturing some 40 years ago, and although I am now [sort of🤪] retired, the two sons are now running things.
http://www.kirrapak.com/

Back then it was Japan & Taiwan, now it's China that has to be competed with, but it can be done. There are only three basic things to be concerned with:- QUALITY, SERVICE, & PRICE.

Mostly, you don't need all three to keep customers happy. If you get the first two right, and the price is a LITTLE higher, often that's fine.

Advice to ANYONE in business.......keep a good watch on the above three items, and DON"T blame your customers, or the Chinese for your problems!

Cheers,

Greg

x2 on all accounts. 🙂

x3 on all accounts. 🙂

I don't mind paying extra to buy locally, I just wan't a good product and service.

matberry wrote:JK sold a client of mine something different than what was pictured....all is not good with internet purchases....user beware.

I had the same problem with Tooley's and they sent the wrong part after confirmation on the phone.

..........and it was $100 dearer than JK.

AA003 wrote:

matberry wrote:JK sold a client of mine something different than what was pictured....all is not good with internet purchases....user beware.

I had the same problem with Tooley's and they sent the wrong part after confirmation on the phone.

..........and it was $100 dearer than JK.

Now that's a surprise !! The dudes on the phone at Tooley's are certainly not as good as they used to be. It's a new bunch that need to be trained so-to-speak. That happens in a few businesses I know of, but when buying on the net, if the pic is not what your buying, IMO, that is fraud.

matberry wrote:Now that's a surprise !! The dudes on the phone at Tooley's are certainly not as good as they used to be. It's a new bunch that need to be trained so-to-speak. That happens in a few businesses I know of, but when buying on the net, if the pic is not what your buying, IMO, that is fraud.

What Tooley's described over the phone was not what they sold me. That is fraud! I asked for a description from the box and they told me the details from an out dated listing.

AA003 wrote:Maybe if the Aussie retailers had decent mail order web sites, they may be competitive!

+1

this is the reason I miss so many local places I could of bought from, because I either don't know of there existence due to not having a good site or one at all, or the site is so crap I don't even know what they sell.

I found most local places I buy from now by pure chance of driving past them or word of mouth or some stupid place on the net like google images.

I hate sites that all look nice and all but list no parts or prices at all, those make my angry and I just go look for another site.

well laid out clean sites, with lots of info on the part, high res pics and country of manufacture and no crazy cheap deals is what I generally good for.

oh and people that reply 😂

matberry wrote:

HappyDaze wrote:

nedsbug wrote:I manufacture my products that ive sold for well over 15 years, people dont or wont pay premium, dont want assistance and certainly dont have the money they once had
IF you cant make ends meet in business,your time is too valuable to perhaps help that prospective customer and you cant be bothered to keep the place running, well youll be like all the other closing businesses
If i get a rude reception from a new businees or get treated like an idiot, well ill tell every person i can, dont deal with them
Takes years to get a good name,and seconds to get a bad one

Well said, nedsbug.

I started manufacturing some 40 years ago, and although I am now [sort of🤪] retired, the two sons are now running things.
http://www.kirrapak.com/

Back then it was Japan & Taiwan, now it's China that has to be competed with, but it can be done. There are only three basic things to be concerned with:- QUALITY, SERVICE, & PRICE.

Mostly, you don't need all three to keep customers happy. If you get the first two right, and the price is a LITTLE higher, often that's fine.

Advice to ANYONE in business.......keep a good watch on the above three items, and DON"T blame your customers, or the Chinese for your problems!

Cheers,

Greg

x2 on all accounts. 🙂

make that 3

Sorry for the highjack
Hey happy days (Greg).
Just had a look at your website,looks like you have some good machinery there.
Up untill 12 months ago i was the production manager of a manufacturing plant in Melbourne that employed around 80 people.
We made office furniture,(Guess what Brand) we had all NC machinery (Salaghnini panel folders,Turrets,Promecams,huge powder coating facility and the list went on).
We were taken over and guess where it is all made now.80 people including myself gone.Ive seen where they are made now,and they should be ashamed.
Thats what can happen when a small place becomes corporate and the suites at the top don't understand manufacturing.
Well done on being an Australian manufacturer.
It is important that if we can we support the local scene we do.
But some people really need to get there act together...

donn wrote:Non the less the original post goes a long way to explaining why the difference in price from the Ausie suppliers, though not always for all things, ie:- a battery for my camera from Ausie store front $75.00, on line 3 for under $20.00 delivered to my door, neither branded with the makers name, lets face it the store could have bought them on line and sold them at an excelent mark up. Still thats not motor vehicle parts so in case you don't understand why the price difference then the original post helps to make it a little more clear. Face to face advice (phone to phone 😁) ) and or being able to hold/touch the item has to be worth something.

The main issue when comparing on line to store front is the absolutely massive rents some stores pay
Then add in wages,plus around 30% on that for extras like super,sickies,long service,compo that is suposed to cover injured workers for life,make a claim and premiums rise fast
The on line seller is perhaps renting maybe a big warehouse employing minimal if any, and then some flip gear from the back shed
Ill give a fairly simple example i know,
Blokes rents shed down the gold coast, sells bali flags, he sells them at $15 a pop,doesnt make alot once the overheads are done
Shuts shop,sells on line only, now sells for $5 a pop,out the back shed,makes more money per item, minimal overheads
There are more and more on line stores ,sellers making more money than ever, dont need the hassles of employers,save massive overheads,dont work as hard and do quite well
First port of call for many checking prices is egay, many have at least done the homework on prices on the laptop, dont hassle people who dont have time for prospective customers,and know who sells what, how much it costs,how long and dear is delivery way before they start hassling retail stores
I get 30 free listings a month on egay, basically have a 24/7 store,if you like,can retail at 30 % less than ever before and make more money
The best thing is all other items can be sourced quickly,even if i sell 1 item and pay a fee for that ive got that audience base,that many stores cant attain
90 % buy on price alone, many dont care for quality anymore, its price
Dont work harder ,work smarter

bugmaniaar wrote:Sorry for the highjack
Hey happy days (Greg).
Just had a look at your website,looks like you have some good machinery there.
Up untill 12 months ago i was the production manager of a manufacturing plant in Melbourne that employed around 80 people.
We made office furniture,(Guess what Brand) we had all NC machinery (Salaghnini panel folders,Turrets,Promecams,huge powder coating facility and the list went on).
We were taken over and guess where it is all made now.80 people including myself gone.Ive seen where they are made now,and they should be ashamed.
Thats what can happen when a small place becomes corporate and the suites at the top don't understand manufacturing.
Well done on being an Australian manufacturer.
It is important that if we can we support the local scene we do.
But some people really need to get there act together...

thats sad 😢


if fat cats didn't start moving manufacturing off shore in the first place back int he 90s or when ever it started then we would still be manufacturing today and remain competitive and good quality.

once the ball got rolling with moving off shore then we had the snow ball effect on every other company doing the same. And consumers wouldn't be buying over seas so much as we would still have good stuff thats inexpensive made here imho.

Not just car parts. It everything. In the building game we compete with dickheads that import substandard materials from over seas or alternatively tender projects based on substitutions of quality products for cheap shit.

As far as online sellers go, had great success with Just Kampers. Yeah, some of the stuff is cheap repo crap - but it is better than spending years searching for that elusive NOS part. There would be a lot less VW's on the road without repo crap available.

The busstop I find to be very good but I always callas the website is not always up to date.
I chose to use Roy for my safari's as a seller for Creative. When the disengager fell off he replaced it free of charge no questions asked.

Unfortunately I have to rely on online sellers. Roy is the closest on the Gold coast. Otherwise the only other option is Brisbane is Micks. So far I have been in a handful of times and the lady in there not only lies on the phone about having stock , but is then rude about it when I have gone in to collect and found out it was not there when she "looked" that morning.
They are not cheap but do not deserve to charge a premium.

I am still pissed off about my fuel cap that she told me was the cheapest around. The same one at Busstop was $50 less and I still have to modify it to fit properly so it was not leaking.

But very good post at the top. Good reasoning behind it.

vlad01 wrote:

bugmaniaar wrote:Sorry for the highjack
Hey happy days (Greg).
Just had a look at your website,looks like you have some good machinery there.
Up untill 12 months ago i was the production manager of a manufacturing plant in Melbourne that employed around 80 people.
We made office furniture,(Guess what Brand) we had all NC machinery (Salaghnini panel folders,Turrets,Promecams,huge powder coating facility and the list went on).
We were taken over and guess where it is all made now.80 people including myself gone.Ive seen where they are made now,and they should be ashamed.
Thats what can happen when a small place becomes corporate and the suites at the top don't understand manufacturing.
Well done on being an Australian manufacturer.
It is important that if we can we support the local scene we do.
But some people really need to get there act together...

thats sad 😢


If fat cats didn't start moving manufacturing off shore in the first place back int he 90s or when ever it started then we would still be manufacturing today and remain competitive and good quality.

once the ball got rolling with moving off shore then we had the snow ball effect on every other company doing the same. And consumers wouldn't be buying over seas so much as we would still have good stuff thats inexpensive made here imho.

The bottom line is making money
Most fat cats dont care for workers its making money
Whats the first thing a new boss or when a company take over happens
They trim off the fat,be that a non productive worker,vehicles that sit there chewing company funds, and basically down scale the overheads
Then after sacking many workers they parade that last year they made X millions more
The major banks are great at that sack workers,minimise the overheads , then slug stoopid charges then make millions more per year
It all boils down to the dollar
Have to trim a few here and there and find better ways to make it run,if that means buying cheaper core products , moving O/S , then thats what happens
Perfect example is purlin bolts for my shed
Brand name , nice fancy box,something like 80 a hundred
Plain plastic bag,no brand name , 30 a hundred
The other issue ,is once people get a taste of good money they dont go back to cheaper hourly rates
I know many boiler makers doin fly in fly out work,that earn well over 100 grand a year, what little shop can pay that
IF we all banded together and bought everything made in australia, there would be no home contents, no yard contents,we would be walking to work naked
95 % of every home has a large majority of O/S stuff
Once the counrties industry dies out,and china,japan has the power to charge what they want then
Theres already a whisper that cheaper workers O/S are already demanding higher pay rates

Hope your shed doesn't fall down......when those 'cheap' purlin bolts let go, nedsbug.😢

AA003 wrote:Maybe if the Aussie retailers had decent mail order web sites, they may be competitive!

Amen.... if you are selling parts, the internet is the most important tool in your box..
Most local sellers are stuck in the 90's
CIP, to your door from California in 48-72 hours.. thats just one example

HappyDaze wrote:Hope your shed doesn't fall down......when those 'cheap' purlin bolts let go, nedsbug.😢

Amen brother. No overseas no brand bolts to be used on our jobs.
Because I don;t want to end up in jail in 10 years when one fails due to hairline fractures not picked up during manufacture.

And we can't al brand together to buy australian. There are too many people who don;t give a shit about australia anymore.
(3rd generation aussies included - that was not a racist jaunt as there are a lot of imigrants who out work, and out buy white australians).

I agree on the last comment.

I know quite a few Asian and some Indian personally and they are bloody hard working people with good ethic and trying to make a difference.

I can't say the same about every white aussie i meet. There are some shockers out there dragging everyone else down around them 🤪 seems a common trend these days.

HappyDaze wrote:Hope your shed doesn't fall down......when those 'cheap' purlin bolts let go, nedsbug.😢

It wont fall down
Itll be here long after im dead
Its over engineered and over built,not like many brand name sheds that are on the thin line of structually safe and strong
You could sit a car on any part of the roof and it wont fall thru,unlike some shed places around,you cant walk on the roof

The bottom line is making money
Most fat cats dont care for workers its making money
Whats the first thing a new boss or when a company take over happens
They trim off the fat,be that a non productive worker,vehicles that sit there chewing company funds, and basically down scale the overheads

Well thats generally the idea of running a business....to make money!
If you owned your own business, why would you want "non productive workers" ?
Why would you want vehicles sitting around chewing company funds?

Sounds like the fat cat has it right 😎

Fat cats employ those who for whatever reason don't want to own / run their own business, and having been a business owner myself I can think of a few reasons why you wouldnt want to. I've never heard of anyone being employed by a poor man.

Craig Torrens wrote:

The bottom line is making money
Most fat cats dont care for workers its making money
Whats the first thing a new boss or when a company take over happens
They trim off the fat,be that a non productive worker,vehicles that sit there chewing company funds, and basically down scale the overheads

Well thats generally the idea of running a business....to make money!
If you owned your own business, why would you want "non productive workers" ?
Why would you want vehicles sitting around chewing company funds?

Sounds like the fat cat has it right 😎

There are many businesses that dont have 100 % productive workers,there are many businesses that have,lease more cars than they really need
My old place of employment had more office staff than workers on the floor, every salesperson had his own comppany car,and most of the sales team didnt venture beyong the car park
Theres two failry major examples of trimming the fat
When they got taken over, they sacked over 50 % of office staff (top heavy busineeses dont work) and got rid of all non on the road sales teams cars,and offered a car allownce instead

You could have 2 people who work like trojans,but 1 decides his 6 days a year sickies that dont roll over he uses every year,yet the other doesnt
The one who doesnt use up his entitled sickies could be seen as a more productive worker,his job could be seen as more secure

Any business, big or small, needs PROFIT to survive 👍. That is achieved by having more money coming in, than going out......it's that simple!

Nothing to do with the TURNOVER.........It's the LEFTOVER that is important.

Greg, spot on...😀

cb john wrote:Greg, spot on...😀

x2

And here is another angle on what is required to make sure there are some LEFTOVERS.

from Marty Staggs on FB

“A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so.”

matberry wrote:

cb john wrote:Greg, spot on...😀

x2

And here is another angle on what is required to make the LEFTOVERS a little larger.

from Marty Staggs on FB

“A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so.”

😂 X 2 😂

A lot of businesses in Australia have forgotten exactly that, the internet presents very good buying oportunities for a astute person looking to make there money go further, A lot of Australian business site are apalling, do not even list the goods they are trying to sell individually, only a over view, this is a waste of my time when i am trying to get what i need, check out the new CB performance web site to see how to sell parts on line.