Providing Part Numbers

[Zep33]

It was here

[RLWOLF]

That story about the fan blade came from me and is 100% true.
There is a liability for giving out a part#.

That story usually ends their complaining.

Good Luck

RLWOLF

[JJS]

Lately we have had a rash of Insurance companies and salvage yards calling and requesting option codes as well as part numbers (we are a multi-franchise high-line dealership) so they can look for the parts in their scrap yards or recycling centers. At first it was relatively minor and then it started escalating; same as with the do-it-yourself people. We tell them we would be more than happy to supply them with a quote, which gives them availability, pricing and any other pertinent information the manufacturer may supply and usually they'll argue and get defensive and demand to talk to someone higher up.

Depending on the tone of the person and my own patience level that day I either tell them it's our policy and leave it at that or I inform them that we are under no obligation to supply part numbers and that there are parts catalogs on-line they can use, we even offer to give them the links. Although the catalogs are not the same as the factory lines in our case, their unwillingness to use them demonstrates they have this perception that is why were here. I also looked for a polite word-track to do this and after we realised it was a small percentage of whiners doing most of the complaining we decided to just be up-front and honest about our approach.

I ask them if they would be willing to pay for our time, refundable if they purchase the part and almost always, no way. Service doesn't diagnose a vehicle for free so how is this any different? When it gets explained to them that essentially they are my competition and from a business point of view why would we do the homework for them for free so they can acquire the parts somewhere else. Were not a charity, were in business like they are to make money. They never have a good argument, usually they just insult us and hang up or leave.

For now we are sticking with our policy of not supplying part numbers, especially not for our competition. We've been doing this for probably 10 years and overall it works. We had people threaten to buy the part just so they can return it and get the part number and when we tell them there would be a restock fee to do that they get ugly as well. It’s always a small percentage of people that complain and take it above our heads but my GM is on-board with it after reviewing the liability aspect of it brought up earlier.

The majority generally understand once it’s explained rationally to them. Just for the record our policy is not set in stone, if there is a good reason to give out a part number we do. If a part is discontinued and we can’t get it anyways, we’ll give it out. They may find one on eBay or where ever. Or if someone is traveling and would stop at another dealer and on and on. It's the few that always makes it bad for everyone else...

[Denise Trimble]

I just tell them we don't give them out. If they persist, I tell them we pay a subscription to use the catalog as well as train our staff to use them properly. Even if I give them the correct part number, who knows what they will end up with in the package they receive. I am not taking responsibility for any of it! Who cares if they don't like it, get mad or hang up? They are not looking to purchase a part from me anyway.