Beware of Sudco customer service!

[Tim_in_WA]

A couple of days ago I ordered some jets from Sudco. I've ordered from them once before with no problem. This time I placed my order with "Paul" who I later discovered is the sales manager. When I got my order yesterday, I saw that my original $24 order was now $60! They mistakenly sent me 4 each of the same jets for 3 different kinds of jets I ordered.

Now, you say to yourself that this is no big deal because I can just return the extra jets for credit. Right? Right! Well, I called and tried to explain this to "Paul", but he immediately became very hostile with me. When I told him that he sent 4 each of 3 different types of jets, he got very defensive and told me that he specifically remembered that I had ordered 4 of each. I then tried to explain to him that I certainly had no use for (4) #60 pilot air jets, (4) #40 PJ's, and (4) 158 MJ's. He did not appear to see the logic in this, and continued to "accuse" me of placing the order improperly.

Paul become increasingly hostile, and then told me to "just send back the entire order". I tried to tell him that I still wanted (1) each of the different jets, but he kept insisting that I send back the entire order. I tried to keep my cool (although it was tough) and I kept trying to tell Paul that the solution to this whole thing was so simple. I just wanted to return the extra jets for credit. One of his points of hostility was because I was a "retail" (or individual) purchaser and not one of his distributors. He said that Sudco "prefers" to sell only to their distributors, and that they don't really like to sell to individual parties. Paul continued in his hostile and aggressive manner, and he was not very willing to help solve my problem, so I ended the call.

I called Sudco back and asked to speak to a manager or supervisor. I was told that Paul is the sales manager, and the only person above him was the president of the company. I asked to speak with the pres., but got his voice mail. The pres. called me back within 30 minutes, and asked me what the problem was. I explained everything. His response was not as encouraging as I would have liked to see. He did not appear to be overly concerned about his rude, hostile and obnoxious sales manager, however he did politely offer that I return the extra jets for credit, and keep only the ones I needed. I did mention to the pres. that I was a member of "the" premier website on 4-cycle dirtbikes (I didn't give out the name of TT, but said we were nearly 10,000 members strong), and that hundreds of our members place orders through Sudco for carb parts. This information did not appear to concern him in any way. And he never did make any attempt to apologize for the demeanor of his employee.

My original problem was now solved (getting credit for the extra jets), but I could not believe what I had to go through. I will personally never deal with Sudco again because all this, namely "Paul". I'm not one to slam a company publicly like this, but I reached my limit with this guy. I urge everyone to consider using another company/source for carb parts and jets. And if Sudco openly admits that they prefer not to sell to retail/individual customers, then perhaps we should give our business to a company that wants it!

[YAMAKAZE]

You are 100% correct to post your experience with a vendor who appearently has no concern or respect for thier customers. Yours is not an isolated incident with Sudco. Several others have has simular experiences with them.

Merchants with this attitude do not warrant or deserve our support. They have forgotton that we the motorcycling public are the ones that enable them to eat on a daily basis.

The most effective defense against this type of disrespect, is to respond with our feet and walk away from merchants who display this attitude.

I know I will. They will not see 0ne cent from me anytime in the future.

Bonzai ?

[z4me]

Me too and I have an order to place - at carbparts.

THANKS

[skthom2320]

I also recently had a poor experience with Sudco. I ordered about $25 worth of jets. When asked about shipping I told them to ship it the cheapest way since I was not in a hurry. Three weeks later, still no jets.

When I called and gave my reference number. The sales person on the phone said - "Yeah. They're right here." I asked if there had been some problem or hold up and she didn't know. I had to ASK her to please ship the parts or credit my card. She didn't sound apologetic at all - just bothered by the fact that I was asking about my order.

Anyway, another week later I finally got my jets and Sudco loses another customer.

[ May 18, 2002: Message edited by: skthom2320 ]

[TeamScream]

My experience with Sudco has been quite the opposite, in fact I know Paul personally, he previously worked at a small motorcycle shop in Santa Monica, CA and was the service manager there,he really is a nice guy and these actions by him befuddle me, I am not trying to discount your experience at all, just to say that I have had ZERO problems with them, I do however have the benefit of driving to Sudco to pick up my parts. on my 2 or 3 visits there I have been helped in a very courteous manner, and the staff have gone out of their way to help me locate parts in the Sudco catalog and give me advice on how the parts I am purchasing will affect my tuning...they are very keen....my 2 cents.

[Mark_Cantrell]

I ordered pilots for my 250F but got some for the older 400 carb. Called back and it was a small hassle. Just enough it wasn't worth returning them. No hard feelings, I'm just too lazy I guess.

They aren't a retail store. They will tell you this up front and direct you to CarbParts or another distributor. Fortunately, if you call the distributor and they don't have the part you need, Sudco will still take small orders. The only other choice I know of is to go through the dealers where the selection is vastly smaller, the parts more expensive ($30 instead of $8 for pilot screw), and the delivery is longer. Oh yeah, and the service people vary from dealer to dealer. I went to the best Yamaha service dept in this area, even though it's 50 miles away, and the service desk said "I've never heard of a leak jet, are you sure you have the right name".

I'm really sorry you had this problem, but even after that still glad Sudco is around.

Better luck,

mwc

[BrandonW]

Hey Tim,

Sorry to hear about this. I see the same type of service from my local Yamaha dealer, so I am already "beating feet" to find better service. I thought I found that in Sudco, but maybe not. When my carb slide plate broke, I ordered from the local Yamaha dealer. 2 weeks later, it still had not arrived. Not tolerating that, I got on the phone to Sudco at about 3:30 pm on a Friday to see if they had the part. They did, and the guy got it in a box, and I had it the next day.

I paid a little extra, but they enabled me to ride that weekend.

Sorry to hear it Tim.

I am ready to ride though. Al and I got a great spot to take you......

Brandon

[Tim_in_WA]

back to the top....Just for those who may have missed this.

[S_Phillips]

Well here's my .02 cents.

Last week I ordered a ton of jets and a needle.

Sudco had some and Carb Parts had the rest.

I had them overnited from both company's.

The next day/AM they were delivered.

Both Companies were very professional/helpful.

There was a min. order with Sudco I think it was $10.00.

When i order stuff I always have it overnited. For some reason I;ve found less troubles of not receiving things...........

[wrooster]

hey gang,

just another data point -- i recently had a very positive experience with ordering from sudco. click here for the details:

https://www.thumpertalk.com/bike/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic&f=10&t=005077

btw: a very nice lady took my order; after talking with her i was not really 100% sure that she fully understood what it was i was ordering (needles), indeed she must have and i got the right parts. so i went from thinking "hmmm, i wonder if she is going to ship me a 20" diameter drive cog for a diesel locomotive" to "hey this is just what i ordered".

jim aka the wrooster

[MichWR]

I ordered some jets from Sudco and I expect to get them in a couple of days. The guy that took my order didn't have much of a clue so I'll be surprised if I get what I wanted. My first warning sign should've been when he tried to spell my street name. I should've asked to speak to someone else but I didn't. I guess that you don't need any kind of a formal education or knowledge about carbs to work there. I won't order from them again.

[MichWR]

I ordered some jets from Sudco and I expect to get them in a couple of days. The guy that took my order didn't have much of a clue so I'll be surprised if I get what I wanted. My first warning sign should've been when he tried to spell my street name. I should've asked to speak to someone else but I didn't. I guess that you don't need any kind of a formal education or knowledge about carbs to work there. I won't order from them again.

[John_Lorenz]

Before I started ording parts from online outlets, I searched these threads.

I found and experianced that Chaparel sucks, Sudco Sucks, and pretty much all have horror stories but two. Rockymountainmc and mxsouth, if they dont have it I buy from one local dealer here in my area.

It would be cool if we could post a ratings page here. Like Riders Rate or something, as well as post there experiances. Its good to search but to have a page dedicated to riders experiance would be good too....

Thats my $4.26 worth

[S_Phillips]

It would be cool if we could post a ratings page here. Like Riders Rate or something, as well as post there experiances. Its good to search but to have a page dedicated to riders experiance would be good too....

MOST DEFINETLY!!!