Well, I did it. I decided to ignore all of the bad I have read about these clowns and placed an order. Consider this a Public Service Bump, and don't do it. These people are seriously ridiculous- why they advertise early ford sheet metal for sale on the internet is beyond me, because they won't send it to you or talk to you ever again. Interesting business model Howell's Sheet Metal.
I feel like customer service went away about the same time service stations quit washing your windshield and checked the oil as a common courtesy .
Its your ownfault for not following the advice in this thread. You should order your parts from a business like Snyders. Howells is busy making hundreds of parts for Snyders and others and it ****s but they dont have time for your puny little order. Sorry to be blunt but those are the facts and yeah, the parts fit poorly just like all the other reproduction junk we have to buy. Make it yourself
My Steve’s stuff fits great, and I can make damn near anything myself, thanks for the solid advice though. If these guys are too busy for my puny little order, they need to stop advertising as a retail business. My f up was rolling the dice after reading all of the bad here. Just thought I would bump this thing up to prevent someone else from doing the same. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I discovered several years back, that when it comes to dealing with Howell's, the best method to get parts quicker was to deal thru one of their various agents around the country. In my case it was Bert's Model A Center in CO. An order from an agent seems to get a much better response/priority than one from an individual. I was also told that meeting Howell's at swap meets when they attend seems to be another possibility to get parts sooner. I do agree it should not be like that at all...
Dave Jones I agree with you. They should not take orders at Howells. They treated me as they did you until I learned. I'm sorry you were treated like that
Yep, pretty much looks like the turtle deck rear corners I ordered from them for the roadster! Not even close! But like 28aV8 said, I've done more with less. Not a lot of suppliers out there so we make do with whats available and modify the **** outta it! Old school!
I wasn’t even given the opportunity to ***ess poor product quality! I called, spoke to somebody that told me the part I wanted was in stock and would be shipped out same day (34 Coupe deck rain gutter). I am in Texas, UPS ground is generally 1 day in state. After 3 days, I politely called to follow up- guy said “let me check and I will call you back in 15 minutes.” No return call, and all subsequent calls went to voicemail. On a Friday afternoon, “Big Chris” said everyone is gone for the day, but I will personally check on Monday and get back to you. No return call, and they are not answering when they see my number come up. To the dude above that advised a single retail customer is “puny” and should know better than to have the stones to order directly from a company that advertises to the retail public, I say this: I am in the automotive repair business on a large scale- we touch 250 cars a week. We do a huge wholesale business, many of which are high end OEM dealerships. Your comments would be ****ogous to me contracting with a Jaguar owner to repair their lowly X Type, disappearing and then telling them “We do 30 Jags a week, we don’t have time to work your puny X Type into production with any priority at all. I may or may not call you back, fix it yourself.” Lol! Cl***ic Manyolcars. Yer a peach. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Not my business model, just stating a fact that I had picked up on during my time of running the gauntlet with Howells. I can post several bad experiences I have had with them but what is the point this discussion has been going on for years now and Howells don't seem to have taken it seriously at all.
I think the point is don’t do the same thing over and expect a difference result! Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I had ordered several of their patch panels in the past with no issues but, after the most recent encounter, I'll never do business with them again. I ordered a complete bed for a 41 Ford pickup from them and paid $2677. through PayPal. After 3 1/2 months of ******** trying to get answers from them over the phone, I put in a refund request with PayPal and was promptly refunded my money.
Howell’s have so far shafted me. I should’ve researched before placing an order. I’ve been searching for 42-47 ford pickup patch panels, such as cab corners and front mounts after northern cl***ics stopped making the parts. I seen Howell’s had the parts and placed a $1500 order. Several emails, phone calls and 3 months later I’ve got nothing. Makes life hard when your in the other side of the world. I even paid for the freight to New Zealand. UPDATE it did take almost 3 months for the parts to turn up but they did arrive, Parts look good, ****** slow freight. Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
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