#1 - I think they could have been a lot more helpful.
#2 - The Vehicle Make and Model was for the car the parts were going to be ordered. If ordering for buddy, put his car down.
#3 - I'm just chalking this one up as a loss, a learning experience, a word for the wise - CHECK YOUR ORDERS
#4 - I'm not trying to put Thunder out of business.

 

well, dont u have the conformation email?

check on that, that'll tell u what u exactly ordered with the part number

 

There's always two sides of a story, and the truth lies somewhere in between. We've heard yours, and if I may speak for Thunder, I can tell you those guys are first class. Sure, nobody in this competitive business, is going to bat 1000 everytime.
Your problem with Thunder, is probably one of the very few I've ever heard of. Not to say they haven't had any unhappy customers, I'm saying the reputation they have, has been built upon good customer service.
I can tell you, I have orders returned for any reason before, and Paul has always come forward, and helped me in a professional way.

Although you're expressing your frustration about how your dealings with Thunder went, rest assured, those guys are it. They know as much about Camaros, or F-Bodies for that matter, as anyone here on this board. So, it's not like they don't know what the differences in a 93 LT1 and a 96 LT1 are.
-Goose

 

I agree that Thunder is a good vender to buy from and I would buy from them again over the phone as I have in the past and while they have every right to refuse to eat the shippn in this case I belive it is a mistake not to . Case in point.....

Ive bought thousands of dollars in parts from them without a hitch.....but if my my first order(which happend to be a hooker catback) had went this way they would have lost me as a customer forever and I would have told others not to buy from them. .....$40 in shippn would have cost them thousands of dollars in sales in the long run.

I really just dont get it I guess.

 

Thanks for that info on Thunder...Ive never used em. I stick to Summit.. they call me here and verify shipping orders everytime... Once I thought I ordered the wrong pulley kit from March thru Summit and called them to see what I needed to do. Cust Assist was awesome and they contacted March immediately. Found out they shipped the correct part from looking at my form... Good stuff

 

i ordered some motor mounts from them and got them in 2days no problems...

 

I have NEVER had an issue with thunder racing, and they've cut me shipping deals a couple of times when I need something in a pinch. They are an upstanding class act business. However, nobody is perfect, and mistakes/misunderstandings can/do/and will happen.

 

gb95zconv - I think you said it best. With my experience, I'll never order through Thunder again.

I'm glad to see others have had success, but eating $40 for shipping is too much to risk.

As another poster has said, summit verifies orders. At Thunder, when I told them I have the confirmation that shows that I filled out the right vehicle make and etc, he said sometimes that just slips through. So in essence, I'll take their word that I chose the '95 catback, but I KNOW I filled out the correct info for my car on the order.

So what have we learned today?

Pay attention to what you order, and double check

Thunder will sometimes verify orders and some will just "slip through"

Take it for what it's worth, I just thought I'd share my experience. I'm not perfect either, but I AT LEAST felt they could have met me halfway on the shipping. Paul is one of the good guys at Thunder, order from him if you must buy there. I won't order there again.

 

The same thing could happen with a lot of vendors we deal with. Buy from whom you feel comfortable doing business.

I have to tell you though, if I had put the wrong part number in an online order, I would not blame anyone but myself.

 

The only experience I've had (indirectly) with thunderracing.com was a good one. My girlfriend bought me a pro 5.0 shifter and a MBA Z28 shiftknob for X-mas, but on the website she had no idea what the hell she was doing and ended up ordering a mustang shifter. She did however fill out the vehicle information page as best she could. The following day she received an email and a phone call from one of their vendors to clear things up to make sure the right parts would be shipped and also to inform her that "LT1" is not the transmission type, but rather the engine code
So in the end the right parts were shipped and they made it up here for X-mas. I will have no problem buying from them in the future.

 

Well its your fault then, why should they pay for your mistake? Even if you did put in a different year, you ordered a 95 catback and got it. You got exactly what you ordered. Just because you filled out the correct vehicle info doesn't mean they should pay for the shipping, you got exactly what you ordered.

 

I've ordered a lot from Thunder Racing and have always been very pleased with their customer service.

While it sucks that what has happened has happened, IMO, you are putting too much weight on the customer info you put in about your car. I say this because I own a number of 4th Gen F-Bodies and everyone that asks for car info only provides me enough room to put in ONE car. So, I usually put in my 94Z. However, I order stuff all the time for the 96SS as well (also had a 95 TA I would order stuff for too). Never once was I asked or a follow-up was done because I ordered, for example, an OBDII specific part when I listed an OBDI car. The only time a vendor has ever called me back due to a discrepancy was Tire Rack. I ordered a pair of 315/35/17 tires and they called to tell me that wasn't the proper size for my car... I told them to send them anyway

I believe in most cases the good vendors (Thunder Racing included) go out of their way to fix mistakes... even if the mistake was made by the customer which in this case it seems like it was. However, are they obligated... nope. Will they usually, yep. You mentioned that it sounded like the guy was already having a bad day... it could be that he made a spur of the moment decision (with some emotion built in) to not cost Thunder Racing additional money when it wasn't the fault of Thunder Racing. This is a really hard call and I feel for Thunder Racing because if they were to eat the costs of TWO extra shipping charges then out goes the profit of that sale and it might even COST them money... for a mistake they didn't make. I would have thought Tunder Racing would have been more understanding of the mistake BUT, I don't know the entire story soooooo??? It's possible that as soon as he mentioned that you ordered those that you got immediately defensive? Maybe he was like "screw this guy" if you were nasty to him or he perceived you as being nasty? Just some ideas as to what could have happened. I make vinyl decals and on a few instances, the people have emailed me saying they screwed up their decal install. If it is a cheaper type decal, I'll typically send them out a replacement for free and eat the cost of the stamp... it's cheap and they typically will remember that I'm a cool dude for doing so If it is an expensive decal that takes me a long time to make, well, I'm not always so quick to just give it away for free at my expense when it wasn't my fault... know what I mean? So, maybe this was a similar case with the headers... it was just too expensive for them to eat the cost of double shipping.

As a disclaimer, I have no idea what happened but only trying to provide so examples as to why it may have happened. No matter what though, it is a bad situation for both the customer and vendor

 

The guy had a bad day already, and he didn't care what I had to say. Whether I was wrong or not, he should have listened. I was a first time buyer, I only have 1 Z28, and when you order a part, it would not make sense to me to put another car on the order form. It's not the same situation you guys have with multiple cars. At Thunder each time you order, you fill out what make, model and etc on each order. If that DOES NOT matter, then don't waste my time by putting it there in the first place. Besides, the salesman told me it was put in place to check, but sometimes they just slip through.

I just thought I would share with you all my experience on my return. How many of you got the wrong part before and had to return it? Did they have good service then? I'm curious.

 

You can have them fax you a copy of the order couldn't you?

I have delt with them & no problems here. However even if I orderd a part for the wrong year f-body by mistake, I would hope that a reputable & successful parts company like Thunder would work with you on the problem to continue to show their loyalty towards the paying consumers that made them what they are. But hey, this is America right? Screw your fellow neighboor instead of coming up with a helpful resolve that everyone can be satisfied with. Seems to be the way things are nowadays...

All this is said by me on the honor of your word that you were very curtious when discussing the issues, right?

 

I have ordered from them a few times and never had a problem. My last order I ordered a cam for a differant project than the car I had listed with them, and they called my house to make sure I ordered the right the right part.