Sorry for digging up this post, but I've been checking around since I had my own "experience" with AMP recently. I'll post the chain of events and the e-mails exchanged between myself and Tom Thompson, which I forwarded to Fluidyne High Performance today. I still can't believe a retailer would act like this.
My letter to Fluidyne:
Good afternoon,
I'm not having the best of luck in obtaining a Fluidyne radiator for my '96 Cobra. I attempted to purchase one used from a person online, only to find out the hard way that he has a history of negative dealings and outright scams with Internet buyers. I'm currently struggling to retrieve my $200 from that person. That persuaded me to buy new.
So, I shopped around in my spare time, and settled on AMP Performance because I had spoken to one of their representatives during the Fun Ford Weekend race at Orlando Speed World. Their associate, Richie, was very helpful and a pleasure to deal with. He offered the radiator for my car, which was model FHP20-96MU, to me at $349.00. He didn't have one with him, but offered to ship one to me free of charge because he didn't have it when I wanted one at the race. Based on that, I contacted AMP Performance on 4/18 and inquired about the price. I spoke with Tom Thompson and was told that they would honor it since I was quoted that at the FFW race. I ordered a radiator for my car during that phone call.
The following day, 4/19, I called AMP to receive a tracking number. I was told that they did not have one, and that the radiator was being drop-shipped from Chicago. I was told to call back the following day,and they would call and get a tracking number from the shipper and forward that to me. I thought it was a bit odd that I would have to call and basically remind them to get me a tracking number after having called for it already, but I decided to do so since I was getting a good deal.
I didn't have time to call on 4/20 before close of business, so I e-mailed Tom Thompson Thursday night to ask him to send the tracking number to my home e-mail, as I would be out of work for three days. I waited until 1:45pm their time to call and ask if they had obtained a number for me. I was put on hold more than three times, and finally given attitude by someone who seemed like I was bothering him by asking for a tracking number. I got Tom back on the phone, and told him that I had e-mailed him to have this done. He replied that he hadn't checked his e-mail yet. This e-mail was sent Thursday night.I was also told that my radiator should arrive to me within a couple of days, which was then cleared up to "Monday or Tuesday" by Tom T. After being spoken to by yet another associate at AMP with a sarcastic reply, I'd had enough and thanked them before ending the call.
I decided to call Fluidyne in North Carolina myself on Monday instead of going through another hassle with AMP on the phone. I was todl that my radiator was on backorder, there had been a rush on radiators lately, and that it would be at least two weeks before they would have a rediator to ship to me. I finally received a reply on Monday NIGHT, with Tom saying that he'd check on it for me in the morning, which would be Tuesday. I e-mailed him back, and the following exchange took place. I will invert the e-mails to read from top to bottom. Any bold print and/or highlighting was done by me.
-----Original Message-----
From: Curtis Vickers
Sent: Thursday, April 20, 2006 11:02 PM
To:
tom@ampperformance.com
Subject: Tracking number for Curtis V
Tom,
Good morning. I believe I spoke with you two days ago about obtaining a tracking number for the Fluidyne radiator I purchased from AMPP for my '96 Cobra. My address is in Orlando, FL. I was told to call back on Thursday around noon, so someone could call Fluidyne and see about getting a tracking number form them to forward to me. Unfortunately, yesterday was a busy day for me and I was unable to call.
Would it be possible for someone to call today when you open, and send the tracking number to my home e-mail? That address is
droptopsnake@aol.com. Please reply to that address as well, as I will not be back at work until Monday morning.
Thank you in advance.
Curtis
__________________________________________________ __________
The reply I received on Monday, af5ter close of business in Arizona:
From: Tom [mailto:tom@ampperformance.com]
Sent: Monday, April 24, 2006 11:13 PM
To: Curtis V
Subject: RE: Tracking number for Curtis V
Curtis, hi, I’ll check in the morning for you. Thanks, Tom T.
__________________________________________________ ____________________________________
-----Original Message-----
From: Curtis V
Sent: Monday, April 24, 2006 8:54 PM
To: Tom
Subject: RE: Tracking number for Curtis V
Tom,
I got in contact with Fluidyne this morning, since the last person I spoke with on the phone at AMP on Friday gave me the impression that I was annoying him. "I can't give you a tracking number today because they're already closed. So, they're not OPen." I think his name was John but I'm not sure; regardless, I didn't appreciate being addressed like I was a child.
Fluidyne told that they are on backorder status on radiators, had none in stock and wouldn't be able to ship my order for at least two weeks. Why didn't someone tell me about this when I placed the order?
Curtis
__________________________________________________ ____________________________________
From: Tom [mailto:tom@ampperformance.com]
Sent: Tuesday, April 25, 2006 12:09 AM
To: Curtis V
Subject: RE: Tracking number for Curtis V
Curtis, hi, I think you’ve got it a little wrong. John is my Dad and he spoke to you in a very professional manner because I sitting her in a meeting with all 17 employees we have and we all heard exactly what was said.
So don’t even give me that grade school BS.
I tried helping you with this by drop shipping this radiator to you so you wouldn’t have to wait so long.
I was never informed from FHP that this was on back order. Please don’t blame the messenger, but blame the people that are a ($)100 million company that can’t keep there shit straight. Would you like for me to ship a radiator from here if we do have one? I hope this makes things a little clearer for you. Thanks, Tom Thompson/VP
__________________________________________________ ____________________________________
-----Original Message-----
From: Curtis V
Sent: Monday, April 24, 2006 9:22 PM
To: Tom
Subject: RE: Tracking number for Curtis V
Tom,
You've cleared up a great deal. Please cancel my order immediately and issue a full refund to my credit card. I'll take my "grade school BS" and my business elsewhere. Thank you.
__________________________________________________ ____________________________________
From: Tom [mailto:tom@ampperformance.com]
Sent: Tuesday, April 25, 2006 1:24 AM
To: Curtis V
Subject: RE: Tracking number for Curtis V
Curtis, hi, you’ve got it.
I’m a man not a boy and no one talks about my father like that. Maybe next year you can come by for a visit at our booth and say hello. Maybe we can clear things up even more. I’ll be there next March again. Have a great night. Tom T.
__________________________________________________ ____________________________________
Now, to myself as well as to others that I have shown this e-mail, that appears to be more of a veiled threat than an offer at reconciliation. I ended the exchange with the following e-mail:
Tom, I never said nor implied that you were a boy, nor was I talking about your father. I won't be stopping by your booth in the future due to the nature of this interaction, although Richie was very friendly, helpful, and quick to answer my questions during Fun Ford Weekend. Perhaps if he were the one replying to my e-mails, this might have turned out differently.
I'll clear up one final thing for you. The reason I said I was not sure if it was John or not is because it sounded like two or three different people took me off hold, a different one every time, and I think John picked up twice and was the only one to identify himself by name. I don't know who was the last person with whom I spoke. What I do know is that by their tone, I was given the impression that that person had better things to do than answer my questions. That's not the impression your sales staff should want to impart.
If you want to stand up for your father, I can respect that. In this case, however, you needlessly tossed away business because you flew off the handle after misunderstanding a customer.
Good night.
__________________________________________________ _________________________
I have never been treated this way by a retailer in my life. To be honest, I sat here stunned for about two minutes at the first hostile response to me, and at his depiction of Fluidyne to a paying customer. After reading about the customer that was practically tossed off his lot and his car shuttled off property, I called my credit card company and told them about this. They told me not to worry about it, and disputed the charge to head off any further crap from dealing with this "company."
No way will I ever do business with them.