After reading several posts in different threads about delayed or no responses from different vendors, if there was a contest for the longest response time, I think I would have a winner. Bear in mind that I have great admiration for Honest Charley's Speed Shop, but since I moved to the Chattanooga area in 2007, my days off and the days and times that the museum are open have never coincided. Four years ago, the planets all aligned, and I was able to make the 40-mile trip to finally see the inside of the museum. I checked the website for times and dates, and everything was good. We arrived at the museum at the time they said they were open, the sign on the door said they were open but only for deliveries, and the doors were locked. We waited around for a while, but no one showed up. When I got back home, I left a polite review on Google asking why, if they had changed their hours, they wouldn't change the listing on their website. I didn't really expect a response, but last Friday, four years later, I got a nicely worded reply stating that they understood my frustration and that they would update their phone message promptly. I'm sure that AT&T is responsible for the lapse. PS: My daughter had the day off today and we try to do something interesting when that happens, so I suggested that we go to Honest Charley's, only to find out that they were closed. I may never get there.
Along a similar vein, a place that I worked at received a package of parts that was a complete mystery. Come to find out they had been ordered eight years prior by someone who no longer worked there for a product line that we no longer manufactured.
interesting you should bring this up.... the Unsers were an Albuquerque racing family and Al Sr. opened a wonderful museum quite a few years ago...I used to try to promote it and visited it often....after Al p***ed, the museum faltered and the collection was absorbed into Speedy Bills Museum of American Speed...roughly 2 years ago...late yesterday, 1/4/26...I got a heart and a notification of such, on a 7 year old review, on Google Maps....and the museum isn't even there now...the collection is displayed in Lincoln, Nebraska good luck with figuring out when to show up to look at what you want to see....hopefully you enjoyed the time with your daughter
Is honest Charlie even still in business? Actually be cool if they were. I was under impression they went under
The speed shop is still there, along with the museum. They still build engines and cars, but the tire business belongs to someone else now.
Better late than never I guess. I've noticed that it seems a lot of businesses don't monitor their websites very well if at all. It's a shame because they probably lose a lot of potential customers that way. I recently posted on the site of a local tree service for a quote. They are less than two miles from me, but it just seemed easier to post the request instead of going to their office. After hearing nothing for over two weeks, I went with another outfit.
I like doing things the old fashioned way. Call on the telephone and talk to a person.... Seems though that these days people try to conduct their business with very little or no human contact. I don't quite understand that
This could be merged with the threads about dealing with employees who are new ( and get to be on the phone or counter )but who have no idea about what they have,what you need, what it coats and how long it will take. But i don't disagree with you.
I also would rather call. I was bummed a few months ago to call and make an order for work and find the normal room full of people I’d been calling for years was replaced with someone sitting at home with the stores normal website pulled up front of them basically just making the order online for me. After years of good info and even figuring out when not to call because they were at lunch I just order it online now.
90% of contacts are initiated by text or message from folks I communicate with, the majority of those are not even a complete sentence. We live in a time where it has become acceptable for most folks to not even initiate communication by phone. Jim
My business has a website with an e-mail address. Last time I cleared out thousands of scam e-mails from all over the world, with maybe 5 real e-mails from maybe customers, within a week, I had 4000 new e-mails. Almost all ********. Begged my website host to fix it, they said they couldn't. To hell with it, if you need me, use the damn phone. BTW, the rare "legit" e-mail is often " Are you open?" Like I'm sitting there waiting for an e-mail to come in. Geeez. I've put pics of the old shop phone on the shop's FB page.and shown the phone number in a really big font. I'm with Mark on this one. EDIT. I've probably got 50,000 or more e-mails on there now, maybe 100,000. I'm too busy to deal with that ****. Keep that in mind when you don't get a reply.
This is a little OT, but I ordered a set of hubcaps from Wheel Vintiques over 2 years ago. Still waiting……sonI have been driving around without 2 caps on the Produce truck. Everyone is kind enough to point it out every time I drive it. I would order them from someone else, except I found out too late that they are specific to their wheels. Ugh.
Pretty sure speedway carry’s those caps, of course there’s no catalog for you randomly notice that now lmao
I'm unaware of a lot in regard to different specialty vendors for the things that are used in this hobby, most of whom I would probably never need. Until you mentioned them and I looked them up on Google Maps, I was unaware that Wheel Vintiques was part of Coker Tire. When I entered their address into Google Maps, it took me right to Coker's address. Since I live in the area, and if the stars align and I can get there when they are actually open, I can make the trip into Chattanooga and ask them directly about your problem. A picture of your car with the missing hubcaps might help. Of course, they might just blow it off since they must deal in such volume that your (in their opinion) little order probably doesn't affect their bottom line all that much. I remember when I was a kid reading the little car magazines, I would look at the Honest Charley's ads and think how cool it would be to order something from their catalog that would turn my ragged *** '50 Ford into a fire breathing monster that would do better than a 4-minute mile from a dead start. Even though I couldn't afford their prices in the early '60s, I could look at those catalogs and dream.
...........Living in East Tennessee as a youngster, I loved reading the "Honest Charley" ads and catalogs. "Hissself" always had such cool stuff. I loved looking at the various "club" plaques that he sold. Between him and "Speedy Bill", they were about the only mail order outfits around ( late '50's-early '60's). There was J.C. Whitney in Chicago but, you never knew what you would get when you ordered something.
When I was kid working in parts stores, this was the way we looked up parts, this was long before there was computers. I miss those days when this system was in every parts store, and it worked when the power went out as well. These days, I feel sorry for the younger kids that are working in parts stores, totally dependent on the computer database which often isn't kept up to date!
I'm thinking that a lot of those people who took care of the email or online orders just a few years ago got laid off when the higher minimum wage thing took effect. Maybe a lot of students who were good on the computer and could knock out a day's orders in a couple of hours while a few more part time workers pulled and packed them.
I think that's economic gobuldeguck. Paying what, fifty cents an hour, a dollar, more is not going to affect much. you don't have to pay part-timers benefits. Minimum wage in PA will be $9 this year! Can you believe it? Why that's $18000 a year full time. Before taxes. Who wouldn't come to work for that? More likely, companies looked at automation and online ordering and didn't replace leaving workers. You'll disagree but find one reliable report supporting minimum wage increases causing workforce downsizing. I've had good people leave because we couldn't pay enough. And I know several people who had good jobs but left because childcare and commuting costs outweighed what they made. This is a multifactored problem but minimum wage isn't part of it. https://www.epi.org/blog/most-minimum-wage-studies-have-found-little-or-no-job-loss/
FWIW, the $1.99 an hour I made as a high school kid working for the county is $19.40 today. Take that, Pennsylvania.
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