partsguy99 wrote:reig34 wrote:If you're running a Billion Dollar Corporation, whose IT Group would you choose, General Motors' or Amazon?
My sentiments exactly. Here's what I sent my DMA...
As I’m sure you are aware, there were issues in the order transmission process yesterday afternoon/evening. As a consequence of this, we received NO CSOs on our order from Cincinnati today, despite the fact our order was transmitted well over one hour prior to our established cutoff time.
Included on the order we did not receive were several parts that were sure to help us achieve our sales goals in parts and service for the month of March. Honestly, the month has been a little more flat than we hoped for, but we’ve had several large jobs pull onto our drive in the last few business days. It was important the parts we ordered show up today in order to give our shop the time necessary to complete the repairs prior to month’s end. One of the jobs we ordered parts for was to fix a customer’s vehicle that arrived yesterday. This particular customer needed well over $1000 in repairs to his front and rear brake systems. The customer was pretty set on using aftermarket parts to keep his costs down, but we assured him the quality of the OE parts justified their higher prices and that he’d be happy with the decision he made. He needed his vehicle back tonight; this was his only stipulation as he agreed to the purchase of OE parts.
Now, if I’m to install the OE parts on this customer’s vehicle I’ll have to procure them locally at a higher cost that I won’t recoup due to the fact I must stick with the selling price I already quoted to the customer. Furthermore, there are some parts this vehicle needs that are not available locally—so, guess what? Now, we have to install aftermarket parts if the customer is still insistent on receiving his vehicle back today!
It is my opinion that General Motors is a world-class vehicle manufacturer with a B-team (at best) Global Connect website. I am not an IT expert by any means, and I know the scope of Global Connect, as a whole, is larger than I can probably imagine, but from a dealer perspective it is less than reliable. Whatever the reason for the site being down at time of order transmission yesterday, I don’t really care. Issues similar to this one seem to be more prevalent since the major recalls requiring high SPAC involvement came into the picture. Perhaps it’s time for General Motors to develop a more “offline” process for mass ordered part numbers on recalls? I just know there are customers who depend on us to fix their means of transportation and there are employees whose paychecks literally depend on the parts we order from General Motors arriving on time so we can do what we’re here to do—repair customer’s vehicles.
I considered posting this message on the DFOAB but decided instead to just share it with you. If you’d like to forward it on to your colleagues, please do. Understand, it is not my intention to ruffle feathers or be a complainer—we are all on the same team and I believe we all strive to achieve similar goals. Sometimes, however, it really feels that the dealer gets hung out to dry resolving issues and trying its hardest to satisfy its (and GM’s) valued customers in situations like this one.
Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2016 7:57 pm