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mr_vanagon Wed Oct 01, 2008 8:56 pm

Looks like the promised site redesign at vancafe has also brought a new url. Might want to update those bookmarks as the old volkscafe.com url goes to a blank page. Am I the only one who still calls it volkscafe (VW lawsuit be damned)?

http://www.van-cafe.com/

syncrodoka Wed Oct 01, 2008 9:05 pm

Thanks for the link update. I check the website often even though the shop is a few blocks away. VolksCafe is the name that I have always called it and the lawyers haven't caught up to me yet (shaking fist in standard "damn the man" fashion).

Perales Thu Oct 02, 2008 6:40 am

Looks pretty slick, but the old one had more of a grassroots (gonna fix my van and I need some parts) kinda feel to it. I may have to color coordinate my Westy's paper napkins now. Or at least tie my hair back before placing an order. Who do they think we are?

mightyart Thu Oct 02, 2008 6:49 am

I've never ordered from them, and I guess they still don't want my business.
They changed their website but they still list the vans they sell parts for are 84-91.
I have an 81 van.
I can get parts from Bus Depot and cookies from the store.

westyventures Thu Oct 02, 2008 7:23 am

Why on earth would anyone come down on a company as good as Van Cafe for improving their website? Maybe Bus Despot could take a cue here--theirs is really difficult to navigate and looks like crap. (IMO) Customer service accounts for a lot, and Van Cafe and GoWesty both have it all over The Despot at the moment. If a company wants to focus on a particular year range, then that's their option too. I've met the Van Cafe folks and deal all the time with them, great bunch of folks. Yeah, they don't carry a huge selection of 'everything', but sometimes that is good, to specialize. Just my opinion, and I have lots. :lol:

Perales Thu Oct 02, 2008 7:28 am

Change for the sake of change is not necessarily a good thing. (Politicians, are you listening?) I wouldn't consider this an "improvement" to their website. A facelift, perhaps, but we have all seen bad facelifts too.

EDIT:
tencentlife soon wrote: ... the reason for doing it wasn't for pretty pastel colors, it was to have a site built on code that allows them to add or remove items, update pricing, and manage the site right from the store, instead of having to get their webmaster to do it all the time.
OK This makes more sense to me.

mightyart Thu Oct 02, 2008 7:41 am

westyventures wrote: Why on earth would anyone come down on a company as good as Van Cafe for improving their website?

Why on earth?
I guess their not wanting to bother with my year of Vanagon wasn't good enough?

westyventures wrote: (IMO) Customer service accounts for a lot, and Van Cafe and GoWesty both have it all over The Despot at the moment. If a company wants to focus on a particular year range, then that's their option too. I've met the Van Cafe folks and deal all the time with them, great bunch of folks. Yeah, they don't carry a huge selection of 'everything', but sometimes that is good, to specialize. Just my opinion, and I have lots.

I'll agree with customer service, Nobody from Volks-cafe ever posts here, or seems to bother with TheSamba.
Ron the owner of Bus Depot will post if Someone has a problem with or a question about something he sells, I've delt with him before, he seems like a stand-up guy also.
He doesn't just post touting the things he sells like of a few of the other vendors do or try to do.

tencentlife Thu Oct 02, 2008 7:43 am

Yeah, Art, sour grapes, huh? There are so few other vendors that service the Type 4. So few, it's a desert out there. Never mind that the only real difference is the engine; most other parts for an 81 van are the same as an 84. So hard.

I was on the phone with Chris a month ago and he couldn't wait for the new site rollout. I do like the look, the little waitroid chicky is cute, but the reason for doing it wasn't for pretty pastel colors, it was to have a site built on code that allows them to add or remove items, update pricing, and manage the site right from the store, instead of having to get their webmaster to do it all the time. Considering how well they managed with the old system, once they get their legs under them with this new one I imagine they will have an exceptionally smooth running operation indeed. Good for them; they are the best in this business for service and pricing, and just being right-on nice people to deal with. So with the new look they move forward and leave BD even further back in the dust with a painfully antiquated web presence.

Oh, I also mentioned that they might pop in here sometimes and comment, that that kind of attention goes a long way, not that there's a shortage of goodwill toward them anyway. Chris and Peter have both told me that they would like to do that, would even find it enjoyable, but they're simply too busy to spend time trolling the web. They keep busy sending my parts orders out same day, and for my money I would rather their energy goes to keeping up that kind of customer service than coming here and rationalising to someone why they never get their parts on time. You can't have both, unless you hire more employees, and then you have to raise your prices. I order thousands in parts every month these days, from them and others. As far as VC goes, I want them to keep on doing it the way they're doing it, and we can miss them here.

hiram6 Thu Oct 02, 2008 7:45 am

Like all change, it has some bugs. I went in there this morning and looked around a little, and found many dead links, and a few references to things that were no longer there. Give them time, they'll debug the details. I like the look, but that's just aesthetics, not a deciding factor for me on whether I buy from them or not.

It seems they want to specailaize in only the waterboxer years, and not support the air-cooled early Vanagons. Certainly their prerogative, and I agree with above poster that specializing is not a bad thing.

On the bigger issue of Van-Cafe, they are my vendor of choice. If I need something I look to them first because of my past experiences with them, They have had by far the best customer service of any vendor I've worked with. Enough said, that's why I do business with them.

RCB Thu Oct 02, 2008 7:57 am

I have an air cooled Westy, the first thing outa the mouths of the folks at Van Cafe is " we dont carry any air cooled stuff ". As was pointed out in an earlier post, many parts for other years of Vanagons will fit my particular year Westy.
How hard is to navigate through Bus Depots site??
Well lets see......first you enter the year.....push a button......observe the parts available......call to make sure parts are available to ship......enter credit information......decide on shipping options......place order......
Gosh Darnit, now that was really hard, wasent it. :shock:

mightyart Thu Oct 02, 2008 7:59 am

tencentlife wrote: Yeah, Art, sour grapes, huh?
No not really just choosing where I spend my money.

tencentlife wrote: There are so few other vendors that service the Type 4. So few, it's a desert out there. Never mind that the only real difference is the engine; most other part, So hard.

That is my point, how hard would it be to cross referance all the alike parts and stick a 81-83 link up at the top, wouldn't cost them anymore and they would get more business, but since they redid the website and still don't seem to make referance to 81-83 models it seems they just don't want the bussiness.

And I stick with Bus Depot for the same reason I would use your sevices or recommend you for an engine.
Altough Bus Depot don't post as much, they post to help, not to sell.
I guess I'm just old fashioned, but I like to spend my money at the places that help the community out.

hiram6 Thu Oct 02, 2008 8:07 am

For me, the website design is secondary. I've just had better customer service interactions with VC than any other Vanagon-specific vendor. And I've ordered from them all. I'll order from BD when VC doesn't stock something I need (rare), I'm not anti-BD, i just have a preference to deal with VC.

In all honesty, my heiarchy goes Van-Cafe, then GoWesty, then VanAgain, then Bus Depot. Completely my preference based on past interactions.

Truly, this is a topic where there is no right answer. if you like BD. Great. Everyone has their preferences.

kayakwesty Thu Oct 02, 2008 8:12 am

I love the site, from a geeks standpoint, the old site code was old, and clunky, no CSS sheets, ordering should be quicker and more secure,finding parts is easier...and let's face it...on the wrenching end a novice will feel more at home on that site

Also it goes against GoWesty's site pretty hard...competition is good

Also I see all the hard work that went into that site...even with a few deadlinks, which is normal in the beginning the site is great and the graphics are outstanding

nice site and great customer service ...it's a one-two punch

madspaniard Thu Oct 02, 2008 8:12 am

I've tried Van Cafe, Go Westy and Bus Depot. In my honest opinion, based on my experience, Go Westy is more expensive but has great customer service and packaging, and fast shipping (within CA). Van Cafe has the same great customer service and fast shipping plus it has slightly lower prices than Go Westy, maybe less inventory. Bus Depot has the cheapest prices most of the time but they've taken too long to process and ship my orders and some stuff was backordered or had to be sent by the manufacturer. At the end of the day I choose where to buy stuff from based on all these factors, I want cheap and time is not an issue = Bus Depot, want it tomorrow and some cookies = Van Cafe or Go Westy. So Far I've used Van Cafe more than any other vendor. Love the guys.

tencentlife Thu Oct 02, 2008 8:39 am

mightyart wrote:
That is my point, how hard would it be to cross referance all the alike parts and stick a 81-83 link up at the top, wouldn't cost them anymore and they would get more business, but since they redid the website and still don't seem to make referance to 81-83 models it seems they just don't want the bussiness.

.....
I guess I'm just old fashioned, but I like to spend my money at the places that help the community out.

Your first point here is a very good one; they could have done some cross-referencing and picked up some business from the 81-83.5 owners. But I can see another angle to that that might have figured into their thinking, and if true then what it comes down to is they actually don't want that business: by indicating that those early years are part of their target market, they will just hear lots of questions and complaints from aircoolers about why there aren't any Type4 engine parts for sale there, and do they service the aircooled market or not?, and then you'd have bay bus owners asking the same questions, and on and on. So my guess is it's a conscious decision to let that part of the market go, it is very well served by many others already, and specialise in the watercooleds so they can do a better job for that part of the market.

I can identify, frankly; I would love to just build engines for '86 and later vans. For me, replacing 1.9's with 2.2's presents myriad headaches and the need to stock extra parts and tools and employ special procedures, plus having to redesign custom components [Rob, I am going to get you a 1.9 header system, just as soon as these engines are built!], just to offer service for that segment of the market. I make less on those rebuilds, but for me, I feel it's necessary as the 1.9 vans present too large a part of my potential market not to accomodate them. But I'm just in the specialised engine-building biz, so the market is already limited.

I don't get your second point, though. All the mentioned vendors help the community out, by helping keep these rigs on the road. I don't want to seem prejudiced, but there are a lot more watercooled Vanagons on North American roads than aircooled ones. It would be more accurate if you were to say you choose to spend your money at the vendors who help you out.

mysticalclimber Thu Oct 02, 2008 8:48 am

hiram6 wrote: In all honesty, my heiarchy goes Van-Cafe, then GoWesty, then VanAgain, then Bus Depot. Completely my preference based on past interactions.

I've been ordering a lot from Van-Cafe and GoWesty because they always ship the parts the day the order is placed (so I usually get them 2-3 days later). I've placed two orders with Bus Depot and one of them took so long to get to me I forgot about it, and the other one was shipped three days after the order was placed even though I was assured on the phone it would ship that day.

PDXWesty Thu Oct 02, 2008 9:07 am

I was in a big hurry once to get parts before a trip so I called Go Westy. They had the order practically shipped while I was on the phone! Very helpful and fast all the time. Same experience with Van Cafe. Bus Depot on the other hand usually takes a week and a half to get my orders in the mail. My experience with them is not as good.

mightyart Thu Oct 02, 2008 9:11 am

Quote: Your first point here is a very good one; they could have done some cross-referencing and picked up some business from the 81-83.5 owners. But I can see another angle to that that might have figured into their thinking, and if true then what it comes down to is they actually don't want that business: by indicating that those early years are part of their target market, they will just hear lots of questions and complaints from aircoolers about why there aren't any Type4 engine parts for sale there, and do they service the aircooled market or not?, and then you'd have bay bus owners asking the same questions, and on and on. So my guess is it's a conscious decision to let that part of the market go, it is very well served by many others already, and specialise in the watercooleds so they can do a better job for that part of the market.
They can conduct there business anyway they want, I was just reacting to the new website:
mightyart wrote: I've never ordered from them, and I guess they still don't want my business.
They changed their website but they still list the vans they sell parts for are 84-91.
I have an 81 van.
I can get parts from Bus Depot and cookies from the store.

For me a van owner their site is as useless as the old one.
just stating my opion and I was questioned about it.

as to my sencond point I was really relating to this statement:
Quote: So with the new look they move forward and leave BD even further back in the dust with a painfully antiquated web presence

The website isn't the reason I stick with bus depot.

Quote: I don't want to seem prejudiced, but there are a lot more watercooled Vanagons on North American roads than aircooled ones.
Sorry but your coming across that way, It sounds like the old aircooled Vanagons are kind of bastards anyway so why worry about them.
They made vanagons from 80 to 91 They are all Vanagons

Quote: It would be more accurate if you were to say you choose to spend your money at the vendors who help you out.
If I was the only one to own an aircooled Vanagon I might agree with you, But since I own a stock Vanagon, witch might be a minority is still a member of the Vanagon community I will stick with my original statement.
Unless of course only Vanagons made from 84-91 are the real Vanagon community.

madspaniard Thu Oct 02, 2008 9:31 am

hum

so, the vendors that only serve buses and aircooled parts don't help the community either? they all help keep these amazing vans on the road, some of them just choose to specialyze.

mightyart Thu Oct 02, 2008 9:41 am

madspaniard wrote: hum

so, the vendors that only serve buses and aircooled parts don't help the community either? they all help keep these amazing vans on the road, some of them just choose to specialyze.

Hum,
This is what I said:
Quote: I guess I'm just old fashioned, but I like to spend my money at the places that help the community out.

How are you infering that from that statement?
There are also no vendors that specialize in air cooled Vanagon parts.



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