I ordered a new cam and valve springs from Poston last week. Tony the service Tech. advised me to also get some valve springs (PE 104) also being that they would work better with the cam (GS350-113) and told me that I would need valve springs that would take a 100 lbs pressure.Without a doubt in my mind I ordered them also. I got them in and took them to the machine shop to be installed. Later I got a call from the shop saying that they were junk springs and my old springs held my pressure. I was a little tick off at that moment and called Tony up and told him the problem. I asked him if he would call my guy at the shop and talk to them about the problem. I got a call later by the shop and they told me that Tony claimed that they just switch vendors making the springs and that they were gonna pull all they springs on the shelf. So I called Poston that day to find out what can they do for me and they said that I could return them and get a credit or I'd have to wait a week or two for new shippment. The women that answered the phone was rude to me and Tony didnt seem to want to talk to me. After all this I didnt even get an apoplgy or a sorry for the incovience Jim.
I ordered window felts for my 64 convertible I ordered window felts for my 64 convertible from them and they sent me the wrong ones when I explained the that I needed them for the car that had the chrome on the outside of the car. Not the chrome bead on the weather strip part but the door and quarter panel. He told me they were the right ones. I get them and they are wrong and he said he would take them back and they did not make them for that style. I called PUI and told the guy about the problem and he told me the correct number to order and to call Postons. I did and sent The incorrect ones back and should get the correct ones this week. I had to do the leg work but I they exchanged them for me and didnt have to pay any shipping.
Jim. While I haven't had a problem with postons, maybe because I don't use them much, I totally understand your frustrations. Apparently the "new" way to do business works like this... We do not keep anything in stock, and we don't know when we'll get it. If you pester us for a date or time frame we'll tell you something but never hold us to it. Infact, don't even call here asking when you'll get your stuff. We have your money now, in fact we charged your credit card .03 seconds after you ordered it. We DO NOT want to hear from you unless you want to spend more money right now. If you ever call here asking about your stuff, we'll put you on hold for hours. You don't know it but you are on mute speakerphone. We drink coffee and eat donuts and laugh at you while you curse us and or listen to our advertisement recordings over and over again. We make sure the advertisement mentions our superior customer service, knowledgeable staff, quality products and same day shipping just to piss you off even more. When we hear you getting really steamed or when we just get bored of you we hang up on you. If you are stupid enough to call back again after we just sent you a crystal clear message we will give you additude just so you will get it through your thick head that we don't want to hear from you. If we send it to you six months after we said we would you had better not complain. You are lucky we remembered to send you anything at all after this long. If you received it damaged you'll have to take that up with the shipper because we are not responsible nor do we have the time to deal with such things. When it left here it was perfect. We're not sure, you may have damaged it yourself and now expect us to pay for it. Don't ever tell us we sent you the wrong part, we sent you exactly what you ordered. You ordered the wrong part, it's your problem. Don't give us any grief or question us in any way. You are a lowlife "customer" and we are far superior to you in every conceivable way. We don't know you or care about you or your business. We'll do fine without you. Our "good" customers spend thousands upon thousands of dollars with us and never complain. We treat them like the slime that they are, send them cheap, misrepresented, incorrect and broken parts 16 months after we promised them and they never ask questions. They just call us, kiss our asses and order more. This is the way it is "a$$hole" and if you don't like it you can call someone else or do without!
The sad thing about the above post is that it is dead nuts accurate! Just another example of the sleaze bag after market industry...
Ok, so lets look at the glass my way now; half empty. :rant: At the very least, you had to do all the footwork after they insisted they were sending you the right part based on what you told them you needed. This is good customer service? Good customer service is an entire package, not just a single facet. If you're satified with mediocrity or less, in customer service, it will always remain that way. o No: JMHO
I have had both positive and negative experiences with Postons. The negative resulted in the destruction of a fresh motor. I had ordered a high volume pump from them for my 455 (along with about $1000 of other motor parts). The result was a cam driven into the block, completely ruining a fresh build (the gears were poorly machined)........... on the positive side, they did send me all replacement parts, minus the dead block........back to the negative, the parts they sent me looked as though they had been sitting around for years (the cam actually had rust on the lobes). The long and the short of it, I have never called them for anything since! Find yourself someone you connect with, and make sure you ask every possible question BEFORE purchase. I won't say who I dealt with, or the hoops I had to jump through, but I do agree --------- CUSTOMER SERVICE JUST AINT WHAT IT USED TO BE!!!!!!
Andy hit the nail on the head and countersunk it. That superious attitude some of these venders have is the reason I think about going Chevy or Mopar every other day. None of my Buddies have the problems I go through. What a joke. Obtaining correct parts shouldn't have to be a hit or miss contest. If these Buick venders are supplying the aftermarket with parts. They should know and back what they are selling. And learn how to package products properly so they don't get damaged during a shipment as well. Some venders are better than others. Have a great day.
I have had no bad experiences with Poston's. I purchased some VDO guages, mounting pods for them, and all of the Dove books. They messed up on the book order, as they were out of one of them. They accidently sent me two of one of the titles, and none of one that I did order. I called them, and they sent me the correct book, and told me to keep the extra, as the return freight was nearly as much as the book! They also gave me the straight scoop on the TCI THM200r-4 that they sell. The tech guy was honest and told me that it would not hold up to a hot TR motor, as the torque output of the GN was more than what it was intended to handle in its state of build. They were honest in my dealings with them, and I would have no problems purchasing from them again. Thanks, Rudy E
i had several problems with poston,took 3 tries to get correct pistons sent, they don't send a invoice so you can see what has been sent i won't order again until they get things better
Ames I tried to order some stuff from OPGI and it was back ordered and the items they had would take 4 days to get shipped. I canceled the back ordered items and got them through Ames since they are the same parts for the Pontiacs. They had them in stock. I ordered them at 1:30 there time and tried to add an item at 4:00. The guy put he on hold to see if the box had left yet and came back to let me know the box had shipped already. Great service and shipped fast!! I would use them again!!!!!!!!when I can.
I spent several thousand dollars a few years back. Some good experiances, and some bad. I ordered a set of their aluminum valve covers. One of the covers was machined wrong. I you sat it on a flat surface. it would rock all over the place. It looked "warped". They did send a replacement fairly quickly, and a UPS prepaid " Call tag" to send the other back. Later , I ordered a GS113A cam, and when it arrived, a tooth was broken off of the distributor gear. The box wasn't damaged, and I looked closely but did not find the piece. It nearly took an act of Congress to get them to replace it! They hemhawed around for weeks and finally sent a replacement.Of course for the second time, they forgot to send the cam lube. It ended coming by mail a few weeks later. I had spent quite a few bucks with them before that time, so they knew me, but they acted like I was trying to scam them! They never actually said it to me, but it was apparent. So, I quit doing business with them, and that was that. Brian
it's no wonder Buicks get no respect. The Chebby guys got it easy! We're lucky just to find the parts, they're lucky when they find the cheapest place. ou:
Postons has always been a turn off for me. Get out your old Kenne Bell catalog, read their cam descriptions. Poston couldn't come up with their own descriptions, just copy KB's word for word. I have always thought that to be hilarious! Tom
If any of the Poston people ever post here, I hope they see this thread. We all have told our sides about their service, and I would like to hear what their side is. It's only fair to hear what they have to say about these problems. Sometimes problems are fixed, but if we don't hear their reponse to issues like these, they won't have a chance on winning back customers. I always like to hear the other side and I may do business with them again if I like what I hear. Brian
Years ago I bought a 105A cam from them. When I tried to dial it in nothing would come out right compaired to what the cam card said so I called Postons and talked to Jim himself and he acted like I was a dope and didn't know what I was doing so to finally get rid of me he had me call Erson cams because they ground it. Anyway the guy at Erson was worse yet, saying I was doing it wrong so I asked the right way to dial a cam in his way, I got a little snippy right back and said I tried to dial it in his way also, still way off the card specs, so after some more of his crap about I didn't know what I was saying he finally asked what the cam card said, I read the numbers off it and he got real quiet and said real sheepish the card is wrong, he told me the right specs and it dialed in just fine. The punch line to all this he asked me where I got the cam from and I said Poston and they told me to call you and he says I have told Jim Poston that the cards were printed wrong. So I guess it was as much Ersons fault as Postons but according to Erson Jim Poston knew the card was probably wrong. So I guess it was a good thing I checked it. Also the deal with the keyways being off on the good roller timing set didn't help either, Good thing I had the Dove Buick book to read about the timing set also being off. If I would have assumed the cam was ground right and the timing set was right and stuck it together the cam would have been miles off. I understand Poston is run by someone else now and have not got anything from them in a long time. When I repainted my car and turned it into a weak clone of a GSX I got all the spoilers stage 2 scoop and the grille emblem and the rear quarter panel stickers from them and the stuff was OK stuff I thought, one of the mounting pins broke off of the grille emblem but rather than fight about it I just drilled and counter sunk it for a small screw to hold it on then just painted the head of the screw. I don't think I would have been so happy with some of the stuff if doing a high buck restoration of a real GSX but it was fine for what I wanted. My complaint was real bad or no directions on how to install some of the stuff. Sorry to get so long winded here. Tom
Several years ago I was told by one of the Poston people that all Mr Poston did, was show up to clean out the cash drawer. He would stuff the money in his pockets and was gone. The cash was from their over the counter sales. Brian
