I bought an electric fuel pump for my car eleven months ago. It was a nice Carter inline pump. I paid $49.95 for it. That didn't seem to expensive to me. Carter has been around forever, and it had a lifetime warranty! SOLD! Name brand and a LIFETIME WARRANTY. Saturday night 11:00, my $49.95 fuel pump dies. After towing the car home it is 1:00. Not that happy, neither was the wife, but she understood better than me. I wake Sunday morning to fix this problem still angry. I get to the "auto parts store" with the reciept which says LIFETIME WARRANTY. The guy behind the counter (who is more interested in the soccer game on T.V.) half heartedly is making an attempt to help me. I have the reciept, the box, and the pump. He looks on the computer, goes to the back, brings an AIRTEX box, opens it up and takes it out, looks at it and says " that isn't it". I looked him dead in the eye and said " NO **** SHIRLOCK! I COUND HAD TOLD YOU THAT FROM ACROSS THE STREET! MY FUEL PUMP IS A CARTER!" O.K. Now he proceeds to tell me they do not deal with CARTER any more. This is my replacement. This AIRTEX pump doesn't even look close to the CARTER. What can I do?, I take the new pump in trade for my old pump. While the reciept is printing for my new pump I am giving him an earfull about I paid 50 bucks for a CARTER pump, I wouldn't pay anymore than 20 bucks for this cheap looking thing of a... HE hands me the reciept and it is clearly printed*******1 YEAR WARRANTY** I GO THROUGH THE ROOF AGAIN! I explained to him I paid $50 for a good pump with a good warranty, not for some off-brand P.O.S. with a 1 yr. warranty. He lets me know that I can keep my old pump, with reciept, purchaase the new pump, come in tomorrow and SEE what the manager will do. I explained that I was $50 into this "MESS" and didnt want to have $100 invested in a $20 fuel pump! He saw my point. I would love to see QUALITY make a come back, but will it ever come back at a decent price? I thought it did buying a CARTER pump with a LIFETIME WARRANTY, what a joke!!!!!!!!!!!!
They should have at least refunded the difference between the two prices. I'm sure I would sound a lot like you and they would have hated to tell me the two pumps were the same price... I make it a point to spend my money on the best made products AND service, everytime. That is the best way for us to "vote out" the cheap stuff.
I would go right to the source, Call Carter... I think you could get the phone # from summitts website. Skibo
Federal-Mogul owns Carter.... here is the web site...... http://www.carterfueldelivery.com/fuelpumps/warranty.php Hope this helps, I had to go around and around with them a few years ago and I will never buy a Carter fuel pump again..... Mine was six months old and I sent them everything they asked for and after a few weeks of emails and phone calls they told me to go screw myself, basically... I hope you have better luck......
The following is right from our Carter Fuel Pump catalog: Warranty! Products sold are warranteed to be free from defects in workmanship or material for a period of one (1) year from the date of purchase. The remedy for breach of this warranty is limited to the free exchange of the product shown to our satisfaction to be defective. Liability for neglect, misuse, special, incidental, direct and consequential damage is specifically disclaimed. NO OTHER WARRANTY, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING AND WARRANTY OF MECHANTABILITY OR OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, IS MADE. The fact that the store you are dealing with made the decision NOT to handle Carter fuel pumps any longer is not the manufactures fault. We DO stand behind the products we manufacture, period. The number 1 reason that so many stores are jumping around on fuel pumps is due to warranty issues. They want to take the pump and stick it to the manufacture whether or not the pump is at fault. Over 99% of returned electric and mechanical Carter pumps are a direct result of foreign materials that are allowed to get into the pump. The clearances are so critical they get locked up and burn the motor. The fuel coming out of the pumps are full of trash and without a good, large filter before the pump, the chances are real good to fail the pump. Why don't you drop me an email: AHotRod@bellsouth.net Glenn
Glenn - Do you own Carter fuel pumps? It appears from your post that you do or are at least in upper management(?). I ***ume that one or the other is correct: Your email is a prime example of what has been lost in American customer care over the last few decades. Rather than listening to your customers concern and finding out if what he says is true i.e. - he was given proof of a lifetime warranty and his part failed not as a result of his use - you immediately jump to the defensive quoting your catalog warranty and placing the blame for his problems on a distributor you chose to sell your products thru. Then you go on describing how most of the time it's the customers fault - so that must be the fault here. How about listening to the customers concerns. Investigating his claim. Then jumping to conclusions? 1) The fact that your distributor chose not to carry your parts is NOT the customers problem - it's your problem. If your interested in selling your parts to repeat customers. You should be apologizing for the poor performance of someone YOU chose to represent your product. So that maybe the customer will stay your customer and continue to buy from another distributor in your area. 2) If your distributor is handing out or even telling customers that your part comes with a lifetime warranty this is NOT the customers problem. It is YOURS if you plan to sell parts to repeat customers. If I was you I would be very interested in seeing any copies of the warranties your customers are receiving from this distributor. 3) If your parts failure rate is your fault even 1% of the time you owe it to your customers - number one to give them the benefit of the doubt and investigate how each was installed. Number two you should better educate your customers about the requirements of using your product. Or more will continue to fail, not be replaced by your warranty, and leave customers with no other choice but to buy elsewhere. Based on your response. It appears that your company is doomed to fail - due to the lack of "simple" customer service. You state that your products are failing do to lack of buyer install knowledge. But you'd rather blame everyone else besides your company for that failure - rather than work on doing just that. Then once they do fail - your number one priority - in your first communication with the customer - is to blame them. What happened to "I'm sorry your having problems with your product Mr. Customer. Tell me what happened and let's see what we can do to fix it."?! Why would someone continue to buy a product - that when it failed - was met by the response "Well I haven't heard or seen anything about your situation. But I can tell you right from the start - it's your fault and not ours. And I'm 99% sure of that." "Either that or it's the fault of the shady distributor we chose. But that's your fault too - go deal with them." Do you even see how ridiculous your response was? How bad for your business this type of customer care is? Just curious. 49Lincoln
I own a CARQUEST Auto Parts store and this how I handle ALL my lifetime warranty issues. First, we carry Airtex electric fuel pumps. I have had very few warranty issues with them (less than 2% over 13 years). All of our electric pumps come with a coast to coast limited lifetime warranty. If a customer has the receipt and the part I give him/her another part no questions asked. I've warrantied parts that customers have purchased from other CARQUEST stores and never had a problem. When the we have a line change I still honor the warranty of the old line. If a customer had purchased a Carter pump and we changed to Airtex, the lifetime warranty would still be in affect. Granted the part may look different, but functionality would be the same. Now, if my customer had a problem with the the new line, I would try to find a supplier with which I do business that had Carter and get the Carter number. Here comes the problem. Manufacturers do not always have the same warranty as the distributor. CARQUEST may negotiate a lower price for the line and handle all warranties in house. Which means if Airtex only has a 1 year warranty and CARQUEST offers a lifetime warranty then CARQUEST would eat the warrantied part. But if CARQUEST gets an additional discount of 5% and warranties are only 2% of sales than CARQUEST comes out ahead 3%. Doesn't seem like alot but figure millions of dollars and the pictures looks different. Now back to the fuel pump. The lifetime warranty would apply to a CARQUEST part only. If the customer did not want the CARQUEST replacement part and was given a Carter pump as a replacement, the part would only have the warranty of the manufacturer not CARQUEST. I would inform my customer that the lifetime warranty was for the CARQUEST part (whomever the manufacture maybe is irrelevant) and since he/she did not want the CARQUEST part than another manufacture would only have a 1 year warranty. I would replace the original part at no charge and the new part would only have a 1 year warranty (this situation only applies to lines that have been changed after original purchase and the customers does not want the current stocked line but the original manufacturer). If you didn't care about the new manufacturer than the lifetime warranty would still be in affect. I know it is confusing, but that is how I would handle the problem.
I'm not here to debate with you on this, I simply stated facts and asked him to email me so I can help him. Thank You for reading into this.
I had a similar thing happen to me once. I demanded a refund, after an argument they gave it to me. I took my business to another store. You bought the fuel pump because of the brand and warranty. Now they want to change both of those and expect you to be happy? That stinks...
advance auto did the same thing to me sat, what you going to do if your car or truck is down.went from lifetime to 1 year warranty. then they didn,t want to give me a new one.all i know is the lost me as a customer.
Integrity should be removed from the dictionary. Current society ****s. Sorry to hear the grief man... if it's any consolation, the one on my car I think is an Airtex and has worked very good.
I understand your tack on this. And it's obvious you understand customer service. The guy brings back a lifetime warranty part, you don't carry a lifetime warranty part, so you refund his money and sell him a hopefully cheaper 1 year warranty part. Plus you went above and beyond trying to help the guy find the original if that is what he had to have. But the issue I pointed with Glenns response wasn't the part or the warranty or the distributor or the parts store. It was the "response" itself. Instead of trying to find out a) what happened b) how he could fix it c) explain and apologize to the customer for his inconvenience - he sited three reasons why it was most likely the customers fault. This is cl***ic. It happens all the time to all of us. It's this "us against them" at***ude that gets communicated to the customer. Rather than communicating "you spent your hard earned money on my product. what can I do to make sure you keep giving me your money". We suddenly become the companies adversary. What the customer hears is "We've got your money. Now prove it's not your fault. Because we ***ume your lieing." How do you keep customers like that? I certainly couldn't in my business. 49Lincoln
Glenn - I'm seriously not trying to bash you here. But do you see that the "facts" you mention stating - are all reasons for it being the customers fault? And how off putting that is to here right from the get go? Without even asking if perhaps that store did give him a lifetime warranty in writing? Of course you can't replace a part that has been misused or incorrectly installed. But you owe it to your company to at least not blame the customer until the facts are in and they've been dealt with fairly. When you blame the customer up front - whatever judgement you ultimately come to - will most likely not to be trusted by the customer. You haven't even given them a chance to respond favorably to you, your product or how you deal with a failed one. Just my 2 cents. Again, not an attack, Glenn. I'm sure your a great guy. 49Lincoln
Glen is not the bad guy here, he is only stating a do***ented position. In fact he is offering to help thorugh PM's. Stating the most common reason for failures is not attacking the customer. The Warranty issue is not with Carter, it is with the Store, Carter appears to clearly state their policy and warranty. ( Crash, was it the NAPA down the street or the O'Riley?) The issue is with the store that sold the pump to Crash, not the OEM. I also know the history of this fuel pump, I got soaking wet one day helping fix it in a parking lot. That's why I only use mechanical pumps on my stuff.
The issue here is definately about the store not honoring the lifetime warranty. That is flat out wrong! In my opinion it is no different then the old "bait and switch" marketing technique (place an item at a low price, when a customer comes in to purchase the "sell" item, the store says they are out but they have a better item instock at a higher price). If the store doesn't want to honor the lifetime warranty I would go to another store and buy the pump from them. I know you will be out the cost of another pump, but better that than give the crooks anymore of your hard earned cash. Once bitten twice shy! If the store is affliated with a buying group (CARQUEST, NAPA, Parts Plus, Pronto, etc.) I would contact their headquarters and file a complaint. If the store is a chain store, you would have to deal with the manager first then move up the chain of command.
Again, I'm sure Glenn is a very nice guy. And this is no way meant as a flame. Just an observation of his companies customer service. Simply my own opinion as a business owner and a customer. To clarify, once again, my issue was NOT with the warranty or anything else. It was the lack of taking ownership of the problem. If your customer has a problem - even with one of your vendors - it is "your" problem as the manufacturer. You chose the vendor. The vendor screwed your customer. You become the customers advocate. You should stand behind your choices. Whether you chose an employee to sell your product or a vendor. And I'm not even talking from a customers perspective - I'm speaking from a business owners perspective. It's the same as saying "I'm sorry my employee agreed to that - he was wrong so it's not my problem." It is your problem. You made a bad choice in someone or some organization to represent your product. Stand by your choice. Don't blame the customer. Or insinuate that it was the customers inability to install the part correctly for it's failure - when you haven't even inspected the problem. Maybe you've been screwed over twenty times by this vendor in the exact same way. That's your issue to straighten out with the vendor. It's what small claims court is for. It's not your customers responsibility to take on the issue you have with the bad choice you made. My 2 cents. All due respect to you, Glenn. 49Lincoln
I still feel bad about you getting soaked that day! (It was the Irish parts store whose knife is in my back.) Come on now. If you want to switch brands on me, that I can deal with/get over. But, if I drive past three of your compe***ors stores to get to yours, don't you want to at least TRY to keep me as a customer? All in all what PISSED me off the most was going from a LIFETIME WARRANTY to a 1 YEAR WARRANTY. When I bought the fuel pump it stated and was PRINTED ON THE RECIEPT plain as day, and in english ****************LIFETIME WARRANTY**************. It damed sure isn't my fault that the Irish sold me a LIFETIME WARRANTY and cant back it up! At least they could had done was to honor that. Did I not understand the deal was a POSSIBBLE LIFETIME WARRANTY AS LONG AS WE CARY THAT BRAND? That is no different than driving past SEARS to a SNAP-ON dealer because you feel they have a better line than CRAFTSMAN and buying a ratchet with a LIFETIME WARRANTY. Who is to say they change the line of product and tell you this is just as good, but only has a 1 YEAR WARRANTY. **********My point is if you sell a LIFETIME WARRANTY, honor it! Grandfather in the new product and EAT the loss. If you don't want to loose money, don't even offer a LIFETIME WARRANTY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
When it comes to me getting a new pump, Hell yeah he does! HE ASKED ME TO E-MAIL HIM SO HE COULD GET MY ADRESS. I AM GETTING A NEW PUMP SENT TO MY FRONT DOOR! My bad experience was with O'Riley, not Carter or Glenn. If Glenn can make this right, so could Oriley. I didn't want the manufacture to eat the pump, I wanted Oriley to eat it. WELL GLENN ATE IT SO I WOULDN'T HAVE TOO! If you people would just read what I wrote it states clearly that I went out of my way to buy a Carter pump! It doesn't say anywhere that I didn't want a Carter OR that I was angry with Carter. ***I AM ANGRY WITH ORILEY!!***. And I am angry with the ***es that attacked Glenn. You all know he could had read this post and moved on..... but he didn't. Glenn is a stand up guy and should you bash on him for that,,,,,,,I didn't think so!
If this is not an attack I don't know what you cosider an attack. Read what you just said about blame up front and give a chance, did you even give Glenn a chance before YOU started blaming him for poor customer service? Hell no you didn't! You blamed him upfront, you didn't give him a chance to make this situation right! My problem wasn't with Glenn but he got involved to make good on it! I am not so sure why you are so angry, you might need to see ole Doc about that. So, Glenn is sending me a new pump, what are you going to do for me, why dont you atleast send him a sincere apology!
Glad to know what chain of stores it was. I will never darken the door of that chain again! If even one of their stores treats a customer that way,that tells me that they fear no retribution from the home office! I will certainly spread the word.
I buy most of my stuff from O'Reilly, and will buy from them again. I am confident that my local store would have given me a refund if they could not provide an identical part. They are far from perfect, but they are MUCH better than the other stores as far as customer service goes. I recently went through this with a radiator replacement on my daily driver. I had bought a lifetime warranted radiator 4 years ago. All of the stores carried the same brand for the same price with the same warranty. A friend talked me into buying it from Auto Zone. His logic was sound. He said that, if all other factors are equal, buy it from Auto Zone. They have the most stores in this part of the country, and are most likely to have a store nearby if I have radiator problems out on the road. Fast forward four years... I take the radiator in to AZ to get it replaced under warranty. Surprisingly, there were no h***les. I was out the door in 5 minutes with a new one. Unfortunately, when I got home, I found they had given me a two row radiator to replace my 3 row. I double checked the numbers, and found out that I had the right one. The company they were buying their radiators from now was providing a 2 row for that part number even though the old one was a 3 row. Their book said it was a 3 row, as did their website, but a call to the manufacturer confirmed that they were now shipping a 2 row in its place. The losers at AZ (management, no less!) couldn't understand why I was unhappy about this. They also couldn't figure out how to give me a refund. Even though my purchase was in the computer under my telephone number, they coud not find a number they needed on my receipt, so they told me take it or leave it. I was furious! A call to their district manager had everyone in the store scrambling to try to help me out, but they still couldn't get it right. They couldn't come up with a 3 row replacement that would bolt in. I eventually fixed it myself by asking for their biggest store in town. I went there. They let me go through their radiators until I found a 3 row from the old manufacturer. I can't believe I had to fix the problem on my own. I get mad just thinking about it. I swore off AZ years ago, and this reminds why... Slonaker
Crash - I'm glad you got your part replaced. And I'm sorry you see my opinions as an attack. It's simply the difference between customer service philosophies. Some make the choice to place the blame on the customer. Some make the choice to take responsibility for making the situation right for the customer - right from the beginning - simply because they want the customer to come back. A discussion of those philosophies is not an attack. No matter how hard or legnthy they are debated. In the end it's simply a debate based on the merits. I didn't question Glenn's character or insult him - I stuck to the issues. And repeatedly wished him "all due respect" and repeated that I was not attacking him "personally". I was simply taking issue with his companies customer service policies. I also didn't question his mental sanity as you did mine. If I had I would admit to a mistake and aplogize to Glenn profusely. Let's let this go. Glenn's obviously heard my customer service opinions - adnauseum. And doesn't care to respond. That's his right. And I wouldn't have felt the need to repeat them if I hadn't felt that they were being misunderstood. But it wouldn't be my right to insult or degrade him. And I don't beleive that I have. If I did I would apologize to him in a heartbeat. I'm still sure he's a very nice guy and I've never even met him. If I did I'd feel perfectly comfortable stating the same opinions. Something I couldn't say if I felt I had insulted him in any way. Which is easy to do on the internet. Maybe he heard some of the opinions of his customers in the thread and will take something from them. Maybe he won't. Either way they're just opinions and experiences. No one attacked him. Not even the guy that cliamed he will never buy a Carter part again. That's his choice. And a car forum is the perfect place to voice those opinions. But let's get on to more car specific topics. This issue has been expressed - in my opinion to it's fullest. Good luck, Crash. I'm glad your rod is back on the street. And good luck to you, Glenn. And to your business. I sincerely hope that you've taken something from this thread other than me needing to "see the ole doc". And that you see the value in your customers opinions and experiences. I would have sincerely liked to hear your take on this. And perhaps your difficulties in backing up or disciplining your vendors. 49Lincoln
After reading what is being done to make Crash happy, I would suggest the customer is being taken care of. By the OEM, and not the local retailer. And all of this above and beyond their stated policy. Glen is speaking with his actions instead of debating on the internet. That goes far in my book.
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