Free JD parts - what's up with that?

Never placed any order... but received a needle seat and valve for a JD carburetor in the mail. Balance due was $0 - it was paid for by someone's credit card. (Thankfully they only show the last 4 digits of card numbers these days! Otherwise I'd worry whose hands OUR card number could end up in!)

Anyway, I called the carburetor busisness and told them this package had incorrectly been shipped to us. I said if you would kindly mail us a shipping label, I will sent the parts back to you in a couple days when I am in town.

Customer service person called me back about an hour later and said the boss said that we could just keep the stuff. Nice of them (I believe it will work on our JD B carburetor- if ever needed). But I thought it was odd that they opted to let us keep a part that was priced at nearly $28.00, rather than mail me a shipping label so I could return it to their company.

So that got me wondering... how much are those parts "marked-up"? Seems like it would be worth the cost of a mailing label to them - unless it is actually like a $3 part that retails for nearly $30. Hmmmmmm.

I just went through a similar situation where an air compressor parts vendor double shipped an order to me. The initial order was $78 parts and shipping. They sent one package and two days later sent the same parts AGAIN. I wasn't sure if they would try to double bill me or not, so I contacted them by phone. At first they wanted ME to pay return shipping, and even suggested I PAY for a 20% re-stocking fee on the second set of parts that I never even bought. Ridiculous. When I refused to pay for THEIR MISTAKE, the woman on the other end said they would just charge the second set to my credit card. That's when I informed her such action would result in my reaction of filing fraud charges against them. OK. That ended that problem. SO. Finally, at my suggestion, they mailed me a return shipping label for UPS.

So. In the end, there was $24+ spent (by vendor) to ship less than $70 (retail) worth of parts. I have a rough idea what a pressure switch and unloader valve will cost wholesale, so they didn't make much over their cost, if anything at all. Not my problem. This helps to explain why things cost so much these days. You're paying for the ineptitude of employees and business'.

No, there is not that much markup on a $30 part. I'd have probably told you to keep it too. It would be worth the good will it would bring. About once a year I mess up a shipment somewhere. You'd be surprised how many times I will have shipments with the same last name, or the same name of towns in two different states. of course they have to come on the same day. I try to always double check myself but mistakes happen.

Cowman,

Thanks for the clarification on mark-up margin and the good will aspect of it.

It just seemed funny to me, since I was very cheerful about it and totally willing to send it back to them if they provided a label for me. Funnier still, because for all they know the parts were useless to us.

MFPoor,

Now your situation would get me steamin' mad. It would be likely that we would never again do busines with the company you dealt with (unless it was the last place on earth for needed tractor parts). Good you stood your ground.

As things unfolded, and once I was sure they were NOT going to double bill me, I lost any thoughts of being mad at them. I knew I held the high ground and was more or less in control. That said, what DID make me mad later is knowing this is common place and how too many business' operate these days. Ineptitude, lack of common sense in dealing with problems, and total disregard for the PAYING CUSTOMER from someone who's paycheck those customers are responsible for creating, and you have yet more proof that the majority of people in this country are just not interested in doing a good job anymore. And it's always someone elses fault and someone elses responsibility to deal with their mistake.

And those in power in this country set an example which tells 'em it's OK to do business that way.

I had a similar thing happen to me about 10 yrs ago. I ordered about 10 1/64th toy tractors from a online store, one toy being a 1/64th IH 2+2 tractor.
Week or so later, UPS brings a huge box to my door. Open it up and not only did I have all the smaller toys, but also a 1/16th 2+2 toy. I checked the shipping order and wasn't charged for it so I called them back and told them about the error.
The woman asked for my phone# and e-maill address and said she would get back to me. Several hours later I get a e-mail from the store saying they apologized for the inconvenience and hoped it wouldn't influence my opinion of the store toward future orders and to keep the 1/16th 2+2 as a gift from them.
I'm not into toys as much as I used to be, but I still order from that store because of that friendly attitude they had.

When I owned my distribution business, one manufacturer that I bought from was always shipping additional things with my order. Once it was a 2 and a half gal. sprayer, and once it was a big carton of something like plastic mop heads. I would call and ask if they wanted them shipped back but they never did, I assume because they weren't worth the cost of shipping.

I am working for a new company, in my research I found out some companies would rather simply write off the amount and let the customer keep the item - which is what happened here.

On the other side, I had my work truck blow a spark plug out of the head. (I could not get it back in) There is no overnight parking there unless you had a sticker. The tow company REFUSED to tow my truck to the local repair shop. Said I would have to pay an additional $100 because it broke down there - instead of on the street.
Called another tow company and they moved it for me to the repair shop.

Taco John's in town must be a family run business, it's kinda entertaining to eat there and listen to the bickering in the kitchen.....

One time they misunderstood my order, and the new kid didn't know what buttons to push... So with that all, my 'order' made no sense to the folks in back, came up to see what I really wanted. Got it straightened out, and the gal - manager I believe, re-rung the order and charged me the extra 23 cents I owed. That was certainly correct and was right for me to owe the 23 cents. But it took a long time for her to re-ring that, and people were waiting behind, it seemed smart business would have been to see I was not overbilled, and forget the extra 23 cents on their part. The people waiting behind me were gtting quite a show as this was not an easy process, as it could have been.... It was done right, but it was very messy.

A couple weeks later I went in, and the kid said they were out of small cups, ok to give me a medium cup? Well - yea???? (I can't carry my pop in a cupped hand????)

While eating I looked at my bill, and they charged me an up-fee to get the bigger cup.

I haven't eaten at that Taco John's. That's just not customer service.

--->Paul

I had a friend that owned 2 Taco John's. If any kind of error was made by any employees, the order was free - no matter how large the order was. He had a very loyal following, especially among the college students from the near-by campus.

He ran discount coupons in the college paper and had a very good coupon return. If it was a large order, he'd throw in some extra taco's.

Kelly and I ate there before going to your house! They were interviewing a prospective employee in a back booth and it was very entertaining. Hope they didn't hear us giggling.

I'm not a huge fan of Home Depot - but have to point out a good deed.

I went into the store to buy an air chisel and a few other things. It was only about 30/40 dollars. Got to the register - the girl was having trouble ringing the air chisel up. It was close to closing time.

The manager came over and threw it in the bag and said "on the house".

I wasn't upset for the delay or anything like that, I was perfectly willing to go grab another one that would scan but he said not to worry about it.

Not the first time they've done something nice like that.

So - good will does go a long way. I have a choice of two home depots - that one will always be my first choice.

Maybe if they give me more free stuff I'll even stop saying I'm not a big fan of home depot...

Business costs vary widely and are not apparent to most (all?) outsiders.

The cost accountants at the entity where I work value the cost of preparing and mailing a first class letter at approximately $50.00.

An appreciation of the costs associated with running a business, especially a business of size, gives one an understanding of why service parts, especially those sold in low volume are priced as they are.

I rarely am surprised when the parts guy at my CNH dealer looks up the price of a part for any of my Ford or CNH tractors.

Dean

came home one day to find a LARGE box from bass pro on the front porch,I knew i had ordered nothing ,so i called them up.lady on the phone said she was sorry and all,so i told her if she would tell me where to send it i would return it,so it could get to the right person.it had the same address as mine but in a total different town. she told me the packing slip was in the box,so to open it and she would contact the buyer to let him know what happened. so i did .then i asked for a rma number,so i could send it back,and she said since i had opened it,i would have to pay return shipping!!! i let her know in no uncertain terms that there was no way in hades that was ever going to happen, then i dropped it off at the ups place.whatever happened to it i do not know or care,but ive never bought another thing from bass pro. at the time i was running a bait shop and whatever i couldnt buy that someone asked for from my local dist i would buy there and have on hand as a courtesy to them,so they lost about 3-400 a month in buisness.dont expect it hurt them much,,,

have a local orchard that we visit a couple times a month. they have always rounded off the total, always to my favor.guess they don't like counting pennies.

Completely agree with Dean.

Most people seem to think that a part should cost no more than its value in raw materials. They have no idea how complicated it is to get something as simple as an O-ring from concept to dealer's parts bin.

Glad it was a pleasant experience for you. Some mis-shipments are entertaining. I came home from work one day and went out to check on my hogs. We had a feed storage room about 12' square on one end of the hog floor. I rolled the sliding door open and was staring at a wall of Mormon pig pellets - that I did not order. The feed room was stacked floor to ceiling with sacks of pellets. My neighbor about a mile east of me raised feeder pigs. I called him and sure enough, he was expecting a load of pig pellets. A couple hours later a Mormon truck backed in and I helped the driver re-load the pellets.

Several months ago, I had to take my mom to the doctor early in the morning for blood work. After that was over, she said she would buy me breakfast at McDonalds for my trouble. (She's a proud woman and if I declined, her feelings would be hurt) Anyway, after breakfast was ordered, she plopped down a $100 bill to pay for it. Oh my Gawd, you would have thought the world was going to end. First, they thought the bill was counterfeit and had several of them holding it up to the light. Then they had to mark it with their pen. Then they said they would have to open their safe to get change. We were given our food and the manager said he would bring us our change. I had to remind him twice while we were eating that we needed our change and we still didn't have our money after we had eaten our breakfast. I had to stand there at the counter AFTER we had eaten and again remind the manager. He asked us how he could make it right with everybody. I simply told him that if we would ever get our change, it would turn out right. I know businesses like that really no longer can handle large currency and had I know she was going to lay down a $100 bill, I would not have let her do it, but it was too late by then.
Too bad I didn't charge them interest on the money.

Return freight is not the only cost associated with a parts return. You must receive it back in, sent it to inspection for damage or completeness, place it back into inventory, reverse any billing, and re-issue the purchase documents. Easier and cheaper to write off the parts and resend from your stock.

There would probably be close to 15 bucks freight on a couriour pickup... That would probably be more than their margin by a fair amount. I'd say this one goes more or less to good will than anything else...
You'll probably go see them next time you need something.

Rod

Very true - I agree with your overall point...

but you do have to be careful with such detail numbers.

Many cost accountants come out with figures like that, then everybody assumes that each letter sent must be carefully considered because they each cost $50, which is a huge mistake.

It doesn't include the spare time factor - it assumes that the workers are working at perfect peak efficiency at that one task.

In fact, if it's costing a company that much to send a letter - it almost proves they're not working at peak efficiency.

If the people who send the letters are ALREADY a cost - the cost of sending an ADDITIONAL letter is the cost of sending an additional letter.

In simple terms:

Say you have a letter sending department that costs $100,000 per year to operate.

They send out 2000 letters per year. Dividing $100,000 by 2000 letters means each letter cost $50 per year.

Say that department came upon a decision point to resolve a $35 mistake that would require sending a letter.

Armed with the knowledge that letters cost $50 each, it wouldn't be worth sending it.

However - in reality the department will not be operating at peak performance levels. There's room for them to send an extra letter without hiring new employees or paying overtime.

So that letter would most likely cost only the additional postage, paper, and ink.

In fact, sending the extra letter could LOWER the annual per letter costs.

You're now dividing that $100,000 (plus a stamp and peice of paper) by 2001 instead of 2000.

And somewhere a manager will be proudly presenting his per letter cost savings to his superiors - and they'd be right - but in a very misleading way.

(quoted from post at 04:06:00 11/27/12) Never placed any order... but received a needle seat and valve for a JD carburetor in the mail. Balance due was $0 - it was paid for by someone's credit card. (Thankfully they only show the last 4 digits of card numbers these days! Otherwise I'd worry whose hands OUR card number could end up in!)

Anyway, I called the carburetor busisness and told them this package had incorrectly been shipped to us. I said if you would kindly mail us a shipping label, I will sent the parts back to you in a couple days when I am in town.

Customer service person called me back about an hour later and said the boss said that we could just keep the stuff. Nice of them (I believe it will work on our JD B carburetor- if ever needed). But I thought it was odd that they opted to let us keep a part that was priced at nearly $28.00, rather than mail me a shipping label so I could return it to their company.

So that got me wondering... how much are those parts "marked-up"? Seems like it would be worth the cost of a mailing label to them - unless it is actually like a $3 part that retails for nearly $30. Hmmmmmm.

Click to expand...

$28.00 for a needle valve and seat?? REALLY??

Had quite a few over the years- Was ordering tools from Sears I ordered several sale hand tool sets for one of my technicians, total order was about $500. One of the items was a $29.00 sale kit that was screwdrivers and water pump pliers. The tools come and the screwdriver box seemed kinda big, open it and there is 3 of the kits I ordered in one box, seems there is 3 kits in a case and they sent me a case. We hadn't been invoiced for 3, the shipping ticket only showed one. Trying to be honest I called Sears, seems I can't return two of those kits because I only bought one so the computer errors out if they try to issue a RGA for two. After about 10 minutes of the run around I hung up, never heard anymore. But the important thing is they saved money on order picker wages.

Funniest one was an order from Grainger, we had to install some signs in the Library. I ordered some small parts like spacers, anchors and some torx head stainless steel bolts. For those of you that know Grainger 95% of their orders are shipped so you get them the next day at no additional charge. Next day comes no hardware, we need to get the signs up for the grand opening. Call Grainger, they don't know why but my order was shipped to Iowa instead of Wisconsin, they apologize and re-ship it UPS RED, next day no hardware, call them again- for some reason it was shipped to Missouri. In 20 years of dealing with Grainger this is the only problem I had, they admitted a problem and apologized but could never figure out what was going wrong.

At the rendering plant we always had scammers calling and trying to sell us $12.00 fluorescent light bulbs, $1200/gallon degreaser and $50.00 a case garbage bags. We never ordered from them, one day a box shows up no-one looked at the label and opened it, it was garbage bags and there was an invoice in the box $50.00 for the bags and $18.00 shipping and handling. I called them and of course they were real jerks about it insisted they would sue us if we didn't pay the bill or ship the bags back to them. I went out in the plant and grabbed a shovel full of pork offal (guts & such) dropped it into one of their garbage bags, put the offal and bag in the box, taped it up and sent it back to them. It cost us $10.02 ($10 to ship and $.02 for the offal) but it was worth it after about a week the calls stopped coming .

I worked at the local JD dealership as a parts man back in 1979-82. Some of our parts were marked up 400%.

Parts can be kinda funny on markup. The parts they sell a lot of generally have a low markup because they make money on the volume of sales while slower moving parts have a larger nargin. They do have to pay to store those slow moving parts just because space equals money.

As far as the parts received without being ordered, check state laws. Years ago, late 50's early 60's companies would ship something then bill. Most people didn't know they could return it and paid for it. For a time a great sales gimmick. If you did not return it right away you had to pay for it. Many states changed the laws making it so if you received something you did not order you could keep it without paying for it. Again most people don't know that so they jump though hoops trying to return the unsolicited items or just pay for them. Most companies drop blind shipping thengs as a sales gimmick years ago.

And yes on a 28 buck order it can exceed the cost of the item if they want you to return it. They sent it in error so they are responsible for return shipping, plus the cost of inspecting it and returning it to inventory could very well exceed 28 dollars.

RIck

Glad to hear it's not just me, sometimes I fear I'm just a grumpy old man that isn't keeping up.

--->Paul

oldtanker,

The oddest part is that we ordered nothing, yet a package arrives... fully paid for by someone else and we get to keep it. Nice of them though.

The business has done fine by us on past orders. So we hold nothing against them at all. Mistakes sure do happen. I'm a secretary... a typo will jump off the page at you - right AFTER you print it (or click submit on YT).

mb58,

Unrelated-but had a cousin who worked at a retail jeweler. She said the typical mark-up was at least 300%.

PJH,

Our most entertaining shipments...we drove into our farmyard one day to find a portable outhouse standing beside our garage. Husband said, "Wow, looks like someone is planning to have a party... at OUR place."

We called the number on the door of the biffy and they apologized and came to pick it up first thing the next morning. Husband thought he should utilize it while here...I said no way!

wisbaker,

Gee, you have had quite a few experiences. We do not order stuff that frequently or I'm sure we would have had a few more too.

rustyfarmall,
Really! Might have been a needle valve AND seat. I was surprised when I saw what was in the box after looking at the packing slip.

Coworker showed to me that a unit of ours sells for about $1500. Our customer then resells it for $2300. I doubt the unit sits on his shelf that long, that he needs to jack the price up that much.
SDE

jackinok,

Wow! That one would have me contacting corporate headquarters since she told you to open it.