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Though fairly new here this thread reminded me to ask if there is an ignore function?
Yep. Tap on the user's icon, then the three-dot menu icon to the right and select Ignore.
 
I just drove over a hundred miles one way to pick up a washing machine that was in stock, a no frills, no computer, top-loader made in the USA by Whirlpool because all of the computerized and front loading washing machines on the market are absolute junk and I wanted something made in America, and they are in such high demand right now that all of the stores in my region will be out of them for weeks while more are made.
U. S. A. !!!

I have said it before, and I'll say it again, I prefer to use original pieces, restored nice used pieces and NOS when available to keep my Mustang as original and as American as possible. If it's not available, I'll wait or use what I have to until the best becomes available. Virginia Classic Mustang, Mustangs Unlimited (for a time) and certainly NPD have helped me do that. And I am grateful. If I call NPD and get put on hold, that's a sign business is good, participation is healthy, and I can look forward to more cars passing by, roaring around the track, lining the show fields, and appearing on VMF with new and existing members. I can wait my turn for the next guy to find out if he needs phosphate and oil or zinc plating for build date such and such... without calling anybody names. I'll save those words for the PoS home appliance I'm mad at.
Although I applaud your wanting MADE IN USA...... I can't help but postulate that we (on the VMF) are but a small market in the
aftermarket parts business. We don't figure into most manufacturers plans when they decide how/when/where they're going to
do things to make a buck. Most of the automotive aftermarket is seriously in the hurt locker right now. Many of the people I've
worked with in outside sales are unemployed right now. I'm also not working now. The company I worked for made much of the product
line I sold in the USA. Even with my 30+ years of experience, it never got the traction in the market it needed..... warehouse distributors I've
known for years are now extremely cautious of making product line changes and taking on anything unless what they currently have flat out
isn't selling/working. Without that and perfect pricing, Made in USA doesn't hold much value in today's automotive parts business model.
That's the reality now.
 
@GT289 I hear ya. I was really just talking about vintage Mustang parts more than auto parts in general. For my wife's and other family vehicles I maintain, I am almost always at the mercy of whatever part is available because the dealership prices are astronomical and I can rarely find genuine Ford, Chevy, Honda, etc for an affordable price online and get the part quickly enough to get the vehicle back in service. I worked for Autozone selling all that stuff before law enforcement, and before that I worked for Sears. I saw more labels for auto parts, and just about every other kind of parts than most anyone and I could see what was coming. I followed my father's advice and chose a career that felt like what the Good Lord would want me to do, and it has been stable while providing some decent benefits....as long as I don't need any foreign parts to put ME back together.
 
Discussion starter · #69 ·
Well this post I started took two very different paths! One down the intended path of finding if anyone knew who in the USA makes parts for the hobby car industry and the other down the path of customer service of a respected forum member who owns a hobby car parts supply company. The first is the only thing that I really intended to delve into. In this day and time of china trying to ruin the whole world I for one will do what I can to support only American made products. I suspected it wouldn't be as easy as just finding a list of USA manufacturers for aftermarket parts for old mustangs or chevys or so forth. Please don't think that I don't realize that buying American is sometimes just about impossible.
 
Just in case you don’t know, click on your initial ‘J’ in the upper right hand corner which will expand to other options. Specifically, Conversations. Select that and you will see at least one conversation that I have started with you. In your case, you will also see a Report against you where I have posted useful information.
 
Well this post I started took two very different paths! One down the intended path of finding if anyone knew who in the USA makes parts for the hobby car industry and the other down the path of customer service of a respected forum member who owns a hobby car parts supply company. The first is the only thing that I really intended to delve into. In this day and time of china trying to ruin the whole world I for one will do what I can to support only American made products. I suspected it wouldn't be as easy as just finding a list of USA manufacturers for aftermarket parts for old mustangs or chevys or so forth. Please don't think that I don't realize that buying American is sometimes just about impossible.
You may want to try and reach out to the owner of NPD (Rick) who's screen name here is 69bossnine. He has been very open and forward in describing parts, where they come from, and which ones are of a better quality.

Allen
 
Discussion starter · #72 ·
Just in case you don’t know, click on your initial ‘J’ in the upper right hand corner which will expand to other options. Specifically, Conversations. Select that and you will see at least one conversation that I have started with you. In your case, you will also see a Report against you where I have posted useful information.
Ok yes I just saw that. I did not know the steps you pointed out. I did ask to be removed from the site because it seemed that I had rattled so many cages by pointing out my opinion of the service I received from NPD. The remarks from some members were pushing for response from me to use abbreviated obscenities just as they were. I've moved past it.
 
Well I called NPD and was ask can you please hold and before I got a word out of my mouth the jackass put me on hold,.....
I’m still Amazed at how you’re in anyway upset that you were “Asked” to be put on hold when you called a customer service line.
 
My wife and I are really loving our new washer and dryer ! I'm glad I don't spend enough time fooling with appliances to wish there was a forum like VMF for washing machines...and I'm glad I'm not calling Samsung...
 
Yikes, that was a helluva read!! I apologize for taking so long to get to this, but Mondays are "ugly", it takes me awhile before I can come up for air..

First off, yes, our sales people are instructed to ask customers if they can be put on hold, wait for a reply, and respond with a "thank you" before pressing the hold button.. And once I saw this thread, I did a friendly reminder email to all four Depots' managers to reiterate it.

And yes, sometimes you'll have the occasional customer who doesn't want to be put on hold, and wants to start engaging in some sort of sparring contest over being put on hold, and that can raise the blood pressure. But professionalism is what you should expect regardless.

That said, yes, it has been intense in sales over the past 5 months, to say the least. We have been blessed to maintain full staffs. But the volume of business has been off the charts. A country full of gear heads, stuck at home for any number of various COVID-related reasons, turns their collective attention towards that project sitting in the garage, and says "you know, if I don't get going on this now, when I've got ample time, there's just no excuse...". ;) And the phones and internet have been rocking ever since.

So we appreciate your patience. Especially in Michigan where the counter-traffic has been non-stop and huge, combined with a phone system that likes to sporadically hang up on customers. That system is being replaced as fast as we can vet the new one.

Now, the topic of parts made in the USA... To the OP.. I do not believe that you are realizing or anticipating the size/scope/magnitude of that topic. There are no "blanket" answers.. I have a feeling that even if you had not been put on hold, that you would have come away feeling dissatisfied, because where do we even begin? For classic 65-73 Mustang, we're sitting on somewhere around 23,000 active sku's, sourced to a vendor/supplier/manufacturer file in excess of 1,100 different places, both domestic and worldwide. Is a tie-rod available US-made? That depends.. What's the year, the model, the engine, power steering or manual? Then maybe I can answer that question, but the answer might be different for the next part. All of the brake and chassis/steering manufacturers seems to be groaning towards offshore, even Moog. Our primary go-to supplier for steering is McQuay-Norris, which is mostly US-made with a smattering of outliers. Then we fill in the gaps with Moog, and any other gaps are filled-in with Elgin Pro-Stock. It all depends on what you're driving as to what the availability/sourcing will be.

Our "service" grade steering I keep a secret, because the parts are so damn good!! LOL.. I don't feel like tipping off the competition! There's no name on the packaging, but it's made in Taiwan, and it's super nice stuff. I can say that with confidence now, because we've been carrying it for over 8 years with nothing but success. And I'll take this opportunity to make a very necessary point...

Taiwan is not friggin' China.. The two countries, and the quality that comes out of them, and the ethics/principles that are followed, could not be more polar-opposite. Taiwan is far more similar to the U.S., in being a capitalist democratic free society. And the quality differences that I see between reproductions made in Taiwan compared to reproductions made in China are substantial.

And in certain cases, reproductions made in Taiwan are far superior to anything Ford ever bolted to a Mustang! LOL. And in some cases, we are carrying both a US-made and an imported reproduction of a specific part, and the import is the superior piece. Floor pans are a good example. Another humorous example, a Taiwan factory we buy from recently developed a new-tooling thicker-steel 67-68 front stone guard. It's beautiful, absolutely beautiful. $25 bucks retail. Meanwhile, we're still selling through our remaining inventories of Ford Tooling 67-68 stone guards, stamped in Ohio, that are rough in comparison (due to aged tooling). $127 bucks retail.

It's all over the place, and it's pretty much impossible to "generalize" on the subject of reproduction parts, where they're made, and how that relates to the intrinsic quality of that specific piece.

At NPD, we strive to source US-made whenever/wherever we can. And where there is an imported example of that same part, at a lower price, we'll carry that as well, and allow you to make the choice based upon your priorities and budget. Everything that we source, we strive to find/source the best quality that exists, in that specific price-range. When there are numerous choices at varying price ranges, we'll go the "good/better/best" route and offer them all.

It is what it is. There is no honey hole, no pot of gold at the end of a rainbow where you can get all-US-made resto parts for your Mustang. Most US manufacturers have turned away from "low-volume" production, which is what Taiwan excels at and eagerly goes after. Most US manufacturers will look at a 200 or 500 pcs production run, and say "add two more zeros to that and we'll consider it". So moving so much to Taiwan really hasn't been so much of a choice as it's been a necessity. And while it's a slow-moving dynamic, the quality really has continued to creep up and improve.

Do we carry a ton of parts made in the USA? Yes. Do we carry a ton of imported? Yes. But the quality of a given part is not something that can be generalized about, by category or type. You have to see the part. This is why we try to be reasonable and flexible with returns.

Hope this helps..?? :)

Rick
NPD
 
Now how’s that for an answer?

He pretty much covered it all.
 
There are 480 minutes in an 8 hour business day.

On another thread it was mentioned that CJPP is getting 3000 calls a day. Thats 6.25 calls a minute. I doubt that any vendor has 6 employees dedicated to answer phones.

Thats why I want accurate online catalogs and an easy to use online ordering system.

Making a phone call is a hit or miss, mostly miss proposition in todays business world.

I called Chocko this morning. The phone was answered on the 3rd ring, I was transferred to Dan, he determined what I needed, I ordered and paid, total time on the phone was about 3 minutes. That kind of service is almost non-existent anymore.

Another issue is that no Mustang vendor can have an all-knowing expert on the phone. Tens of thousands of parts over multiple years. Its tough to get a specific question answered unless it is pretty generic.
 
I too recently called Chocko, phone answered by his wife... i asked a question.. she passed me to Dan... example question...🙂" what time is it?" He told me and then how to build the clock... that is Customer Service. My parts arrived 2 days later as well
I have talked to Rick @ NPD , Zray, Shaun and wife @ Open Tracker(who called and told me about a mistake that was made about my part) and fixed it at their expense. Also saved me time and money on my order. This is a GOOD forum with good members. SORRY to OP for rocky start...it's only mistake if you fail to fix it🙂. I believe it was fixed
😊IF.... it was ever broke🙃
 
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