Mini Spares Experience?

[MiniDave]

I bought most of the parts for Buzz from Mini Sport, Mike was a big help and their prices were equitable, but since then they have revamped their web site which had made it difficult to navigate and SLLLOOOOOWWWWW to load pages. On top of that their prices seem to have been "adjusted" for the pound's drop, only the wrong way!

So, I've been buying from MiniSpares, and between my car, my friends's cars, the cars I'm working on and Dan's stuff, thousands of dollars have run thru their business, especially the last few months.

One of the things I bought recently was a volt gauge (along with an oil pressure gauge) and the damn thing did not work right out of the box. I contacted Sales, and they said I had to talk to "TK" in warranties - so I sent a note off to TK......and got nothing. So I contacted sales again as I had a $500 order sitting in the basket and told them if this is the way they handle warranties I would take my business elsewhere.......I got a note from TK almost immediately saying he was sending another gauge and to go ahead with my order - that they would send it separately.

So I did.

I paid for it, it shipped, I received it and I've installed nearly all those parts and another week has gone by and I still don't have my damn volt gauge.

I've sent TK a fairly pointed email about they way they handle their business, we'll see if I get a response.

Sales wise I have no complaints, my orders get handled and shipped quickly and I've had no issues with missing parts or wrong parts or anything.....but this has really put me off. What if it was something important?

How has it been for you?

[94touring]

I had one issue like that regarding the "wrong" bearings.  I finally gave up.

[BruceK]

I've got plenty of experience buying from MiniSpares, but haven't had to use their customer service yet.   When I make a mistake on ordering, it's usually something small and I just eat my mistake (meaning I haven't tried to return anything). And I guess I've been lucky enough not to have any defective products.   

I do remember using their site to generate an email asking a question about something a year ago.  I'm still waiting for a reply from them. 

Dave, I hope they respond to you quickly and correctly.  They must realize news travels quickly around the Mini community. 

[tmsmini]

Talking to the right person can be critical i resolving overseas issues. I had good luck with Mini Spares in resolving an issue with a set a roller rockers. It took some time, but it was resolved. Unlike Specialist Components who won't bother with emails asking for prices.
If you buy enough stuff over a longer period of time, you will have issues.
Terry

[jeff10049]

Sorry to hear that Dave, I have had mostly good luck had a issue with incorrect trim and gave up after a few emails. Might have to chalk it up to the savings you normally get by buying direct. It would be good to be persistent over principle but that takes time to deal with, I guess you have to decide if it's worth it to you to be persistent and or continue doing business there.

I have spent thousands with seven enterprises and the only two issues I ever had were resolved instantly but you do pay more. Personally, I will pay more for customer service I don't have the time or energy to deal with BS. I still use mini spares depending on the product and like I said they are 90% good I just don't fully trust them if stuff goes wrong.

I hope they make it right for you. It will boost my opinion of them if they do.

Jeff

[MPlayle]

I've been getting a bunch of stuff through MiniSport lately.  To get the accurate pricing, you have to log in to the site for it to recognize your actual location per your account.  Otherwise, it tends to show some blend of prices and currency symbols.

Their pricing also tracks the exchange rate fairly closely when logged in and see the pricing totals.  My card has been billed within a few dollars of the invoice each time and the difference equates to the slight difference in the exchange rate between placing the order and the billing transaction against my card.

I have not noticed the MiniSport site to be any slower loading than other sites, but then I am used to being on a 7 year old MacBook.

[94touring]

Minisport tends to be very slow, but they do have some deals on certain items.  I buy from them maybe 5% of the time.  Everything else comes from spares.  I have bought thousands upon thousands of dollars worth of parts.  Once in a blue moon they send the wrong thing, but it's always been a small enough item I just toss it in the spare parts bin and order again. 

[MiniDave]

Well, my situation may have been resolved this am.

I posted very much this same thread on The Mini Forum (UK) and this am I found a message in my box there from Simon Jackson of Mini Spares asking for my email address and the part number of the gauge. I found another message from a few minutes later from him as follows....

Me again!
Ok, having done a bit more research it looks like we sent a replacement gauge to you from our York office on 7th November 2016. Royal Mail tracking number for this item is RN232868654GB. I have tracked it this morning and it states it has been passed to the US postal service. Please let me know if you haven't received it early next week? I am also looking into the situation as to why this hasn't been communicated to you already

Regards
Simon

So, hopefully that is that, but I still have not gotten an email reply from the warranty dept explain what they were going to do, had they done so none of this would have been necessary.

And I still don't have my part although the few times I've used the Royal Mail it does seem to take 2-3 weeks to get something delivered here.

More as it happens, but that does seem to prove the power of social media...... 8.gif

[tmsmini]

Simon is the one who resolved my issue and it did take some time as he was working with the manufacturer to get a replacement part.

[BruceK]

Simon is the one who resolved my issue and it did take some time as he was working with the manufacturer to get a replacement part.

Glad it was resolved.  But in my opinion, any issue MiniSpares (or any other retailer for that matter) has with a vendor/manufacturer should be completely transparent to the customer. 

They should simply and promptly replace with the defective item with a good one from inventory and sort out vendor supply issues behind the scenes.   The only exception would be if the items in inventory might have the same problem.

[MiniDave]

...or they were out of stock......

In my case, the only real issue is the lack of communication. I hope he resolves that.....

[John Gervais]

I use MiniSpares 99.62% of the time, and have for the past 18 years.  Rarely have any problems, but if I do, I don't E-mail; I use the telephone (which has too many calling options - push 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 etc.).  I normally ask for Simon.  My only gripe is that when you call them, the employee who answers the phone never introduces himself and their telephone manners do come off as 'standoff-ish'.  If you ask 'who am I speaking with', you'll usually get a response like 'who do you want' - not really cool, as I've had some great dialogues with Simon, TK, Ivan, Stevie (she calls KC 'Big Ted') and even Ryan over the years.

I normally buy parts that I don't need when they're on sale, just to have them in a box for 'someday', and received the backordered C-22A2204 clutch arm last week - sent without freight charges and at the on-sale price.

So, yeah, I'm a MiniSpares fan, and have their sticker on my wall cabinet door...

[Jims5543]

Another Minispares fan here. The prices are right the shipping is amazingly fast. I purchased parts from them and a shop in Miami at the same time, the UK parts arrived first.


I will never buy from Minisport again. If you have no read my pickup thread here is the short version.

Purchased rockers from them, their rockers are 50% cheaper than everyone else.

As I am installing one of the adjusting screws snaps in half while clearancing it.  I salvage a screw from my old rockers and move on.

100 miles later one of the damn rockers splits in half leaving me dead on the side of the road needing a tow.


Minisport tells me it is my fault right off he bat. I send the part out to a testing lab for analysis. Casting is substandard and too weak for task, Minisport say YES, we agree it was your fault.

I explain it was a material issue, they said YES, it was your fault. We do not do refunds.

I eat the cost of the rockers toss them on a shelf and buy rockers at 2X the price of them,  Thousands of miles no problem. Because it is my fault.

I will not spend another penny with them, I do not care how awesome Mike is. His company sucks monkey balls, smelly hairy ones with cheese on them.... and feces...


I am a Minispares guy from now on, and a  http://gbcarparts.com/  as well. Mostly because I met the owner, he is very nice and super honest.

[94touring]

Sent in a question to spares last week if they could get me a metal bonnet skin.  Never heard back.  Ordering from bullmotif instead.

[MiniDave]

I got the new gauge today - guess, what? This one doesn't work either..... 8.gif

I mean, this is not a complicated gauge - one lead to hot and one to ground, how hard can it be? The one in my engine stand (not a Smiths but a cheap Chinese one) works perfectly with the same battery and the same exact connections.

Edit: Oops, must not have had a good connection, this one does work after all...   4.gif

[94touring]

Lol I was about to say...probably user error at this point.

[MiniDave]

Well, the other one still doesn't work!   ;D

Unlike my Chinesium one, this one takes a few seconds to move, then it slowly creeps up to 12+ volts, the other one snaps to the right voltage instantly. I just didn't keep the power to it long enough the first try.

[stan360]

I also have sent 3 different email inquiries this month about items and orders and not one response. 

[94touring]

Apparently their email skills are lacking. 

I was finally able to process my order with http://bullmotifminispares.com.  They use sagepay to process orders.  For whatever reason sagepay doesn't work from my phone.  I had the same issue recently ordering a few things from Keith Calver, where my card would be denied via my cell phone trying to pay.  The kicker is it cancels out your order and then your bank will detect fraudulent charges and cancel your card, or at least try to until you say everything is fine.  If I use sagepay from my computer it works just fine.  One bonnet skin and one no lipped bonnet on the way.  Shipping on bonnets is so outrageous I end up buying 2 at a time because it's basically buy one get the 2nd one shipped free.  If I ever do a crate of panels again, it should just be bonnets!

[MPlayle]

I can't vouch for the issues of SagePay on smart phones, but the overall responsiveness of BullMotif has been great.  I just ordered a wiring harness for the eventual restoration of the Moke.  Sent an email to confirm in stock over the weekend, got a response Monday, placed the order Tuesday (quote request), got the quote with shipping this morning and processed payment right away.

We'll see what the rest of the turnaround time and transit time turn out to be.

[MiniDave]

Looks like shipping anything via Royal Mail/Us Postal Service is 2- 3 weeks door to door.

Priority Mail in the US is 2-3 days - I got parts from 7Ent in California in that time, usually it's 4 days or more via ground transportation.

Most things I buy from England come DHL, which is about 3 days door to door!

The first orders I did with Mini Sport they denied my credit card too, fortunately I have a backup BofA card that worked, but I hate using it. Mini Spares has been absolutely painless, every order has gone thru and shipped perfectly, my issue with this warranty situation has been the lack of communication. Seems like others have had similar problems, I wonder if you could use Skype to call them?

If you have issues with Mini Spares, contact Simon@Minispares.com directly, I don't know what his position is within the firm but he seems to be the go-to guy.

[stan360]

I actually have called Mini spares via Skype on a few occasions and that is the best solution, I think I have spent about 50 cents all total this year  calling them 8 or 9 different times. 

The north branch seems to be hit and miss on the tele as I have had a couple orders process through there, but the main potters bar location always answers, and I usually get email response  and fast,  just not this past couple weeks.     Maybe holiday season ordering rush ?!?

[BruceK]

I'm currently awaiting an order from MiniSpares, taking a bit longer than I expected.   Could be re-routing due to the DHL strike this week: 

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2016/11/22/pilot-strike-could-delay-amazon-dhl-shipping/94305076/

[MiniDave]

I'm glad I pretty much have all my stuff for the next two projects....

[stan360]

Dammit....that explains why my DHL package has been sitting in Cincinnati for 2 days on hold