Aircooled.net - [email protected]

[aircoolednetoffice]

I promise you all that we TRIED to make sure that our new webstore would have a "mobile friendly" interface -- the ecommerce vendor boasted about their "mobile version" and we even took it for a test spin. The mobile navigation of the catalog and product listings was great...but we didn't think to actually do a test order to see how the checkout worked. After spending 6 months converting our data and prepping to go live with our new webstore, we discovered that the CHECKOUT portion of the mobile view was inoperable, and it was too late to turn back at that point. So instead we "turned off" the mobile version feature, and have been waiting/begging the ecommerce provider ever since to please do the right thing and code an appropriately fully functional Mobile Checkout to go with their "almost there" mobile catalog interface.

In the meantime, all we can do is apologize that our site is best navigated and orders submitted on larger screen devices, and not as easily on smart phones or mini-tablets.

Sincerely
Stephanie
Aircooled.Net Customer Care

[saintmand]

I quoted the Johns whole sarcastic comeback from earlier up the page instead of editing it.

Changed it to read easier.

Mobile doesn't necessarily mean Phone.
I actually do 90% of my work from smart devices.. Pads, pods, tablets etc, and that includes email and e-commerce..

I'm not the only one.

[vdubyah73]

Some people are just looking for trouble, see it all the time in the hospitality business. They have a movie in their head on how things will go, as soon as their movie derails it's your fault. I generally disregard rants like the above if they're not supported by numerous complaints. Complainers make a lot more noise than satisfied customers, satisfied customers don't always post their satisfaction. Dis-satified customers almost always do. Aircooled.net is high on my list of vendors to do business with. Although they probably wouldn't notice if I boycotted them, I'm small potatoes in the scheme of things.

Oh yeah, I always order by phone, probably annoying to vendors. I don't want my cc #'s floating through the cloud on the way to a computer out west somewhere, and verbal communication is generally clearer.

Bill, a luddite?
_________________
burning down the house

73 bounty hunter, sold.
'77 transporter, junked had crotch rot.
Dubless, but have a CPR built stroker waiting for a new to me Beetle
'93 Fleetwood Bounder 34'

[bugnut68]

[risk]

I just got some parts from AC.NET and they arrived in two days! Not bad considering I'm halfway across the country. Thanks guys!

[2slow]

Are Aircooled.net always that slow when some parts are backordered?
Soon I have been waiting in 2 months!!
They said it would take 2-3 weeks before the backordered parts would arraive, but now 2 months later still nothing!
Been sending some emails, if I get any answer its always some days after i have send the mail!
Should have been ordering from Pierside Parts!

Geir..
_________________
-61 VW 1200 Beetle, -69 VW Squareback, -74 BMW 1602, -82 VW Polo G40,

[helowrench]

I have to start here with kudos for john's patience.
I asked him a bunch of questions via email over the last year, and even though my engine build got sidetracked and delayed due to unemployment, John never gave me the impression that I was wasting his time.

I placed an order with him at roughly 11AM CST, and was amazed when I got the notification for tracking information that same day.

Outstanding.... wait, the total showed differently....... back to the order, and saw that the "estimated shipping" had been revised to the "actual" amount, which was lower.

Cannot say enough about how I will be spending a few extra dollars on each order to get any item from him that I can, to support his level of support for us.

Rob
_________________
Current VWs:
70 bug vert for wifey
73Thing bucket o rust
73 914 1.7
12 Passat 2.5 Highway cruiser

[eashc]

I ordered from ACN. Arrived quickly and part works great. My biggest regret is that I should have ordered from them first. Then I wouldn't of had to buy a part then buy a second part to fix the part that came broken.

[fivelugshortaxle]

I've ordered a couple grand in parts from them in the last couple of months. Never any problems and always got what I ordered. Matter of fact, I've got a package from them that should be here on the 3rd.
Will continue to do business with them.
_________________
Good things come to those who wait.
2332 with lots of goodies....
Rotating assembly balanced by Brothers VW
4340 84mm crank
AA 94mm p&c' s
Total seal 2nd ring, rest are Grants
5.5 h beams
Magnum straight cuts
Steve Long XR310 on a 106
CB 1.4 rockers
CB Magnaspark 2 distributor
NGK D7ea plugs
A1 lowdown 1 3/4 with single muffler
Dellorto 48's with 40 venturies
Kennedy Stage 2 with Daiken disc

[vwsonmybrain]

Just received my first order from Aircooled.net. The shipping was super quick and rates were very reasonable and everything was packed really well. Will definitely order from them again in the future.

Thanks!

[airhead76]

What's going on with ACN? Really busy? I ordered almost $700 worth of parts and their was an issue with one of them now I am being ignored. I got one vague email response right away then nothing more out of the five I have sent.... This is not like you guys! Not happy my project is being delayed even longer and this isn't like you guys at all!!!

[Alte Blechdose]

Had a order with them a few weeks ago and wound up canceling it. Back order issues, lack of communication and confused my order with someone else as it turned out. I had to call them a few times to find out the latter. John has been a big help and I've done business with them a few times but the policy of internet only communication just plain stinks. Particularly when something goes foul on their side and your counting on the order in a timely fashion. I may do business with them again but it wont be for something that needs attention immediately.

Rick

[airhead76]

Their communication before you place your order is beyond awesome but after your order is placed your ignored. I sent an email describing my issue which makes my dual carb kit a paper weight. John responded within minutes with a very short email which wasn't about my issue. My other 4 emails and phone calls have been ignored....

[airhead76]

Finally got to talk to someone today. Turns out they are just super busy and an email to me saying they are working on finding out why a part is missing was missed. This is a happy guy right here ...... John you need to hire more help but make sure they know their way around a vw as well as you do

[[email protected]]

There are a lot of issues going on right now, maybe this will help you understand.

First, you are NOT going to get "customer service" in March-June the same as in Sept-Feb. Just not going to happen, and is a completely unrealistic expectation on your side, because you don't understand the seasonal nature of this hobby. Order volume in the heavy season is 4x what it is in the light season. This volume carries over to tech questions, order status, BOs, etc. Every VW business is struggling with heavy volume right now, if they are in any sort of demand. This is the case all the way up the supply chain.

Supply: parts get back ordered. We run out. Or we get a $20k order of cranks and engine parts, and on inspection find they are DEFECTIVE. Technically we ordered them on time, and we have them, but we can't sell them. These are the same cranks that the other stores bought and ARE selling you, but they didn't check and don't know (yet). Stuff happens. There are supply problems with Webers right now also. It's not because we are "sticking it to you because you have an engine you want to run", but IDFs are trickling in (not our fault).

In the slow season we can restock quickly. Now we try, and first off suppliers are out of product. Secondly, even if they have it, orders are shipped to us in 3 WEEKS instead of 3 days. We don't have a magic genie that solves this issue.

Inquiries: if you call your phone call WILL NOT BE ANSWERED (we don't answer phone calls directly). We find out the answer then call you back. If you are like most people you e-mail AND call, which puts us further behind. Do one or the other, doing both is not going to get you an answer faster. I know a lot of you guys like to talk to someone on the phone. It's a fact that I can answer 10 e-mail questions in the time it takes me to talk to one guy on the phone. If I did nothing but answer the phone questions I could handle 30 phone calls, and get nothing done in 12 hours because there is no time left. MOST phone inquiries are of a nature that an e-mail can quickly handle it. If you must use the phone, order from another vendor. This is just a reality of how our business has evolved. It's not personal, it's just efficiency.

If you ask 20 questions in one e-mail, that is a poor way of getting a reply. If you do this, anything technical in nature is replied to by me (usually quickly). The other questions are handled by the dept that handles those. I don't know anything about BOs, payment, I don't even know what's in stock or not. I handle technical stuff. So if you ask those 20 questions, and I answer 4 of them, your other 16 questions didn't "get ignored"; they just haven't been addressed yet, by the person best able to answer them.

If you send an e-mail with a bunch of questions, it's possible you'll get the answers in 4 different replies, by the 4 different departments you are asking about. And those answers may be days apart, depending on what the question is, and if that person is in or on vacation (sick, etc). It's impossible to know everything going on, so each dept has it's hands full just with it's stuff.

The reason it seems like questions are answered quickly pre-sale is because it's ME that answers them. But post sale things get very fuzzy. Some guy typo's his address, it holds up his whole order. We don't even ORDER custom stuff for this guy until the address is sorted out, and if he's not answering his phone, or his e-mail is putting our e-mails to him in a SPAM folder, he doesn't know. And 3 weeks later he calls to find out why his stuff hasn't showed up yet, he is livid that it hasn't even been started on yet. And of course that's "our fault" that he transposed 2 #s in his address or CC?

Or he moved 7 mos ago and didn't inform his CC company. One situation like this slows things down for EVERYONE ELSE that did everything fine. The only other thing we could do is tell him to pound sand, but we don't do that. We care about every single customer and order that comes in. And that caring slows things down a lot. We are trying to resolve his issue, and while we are doing that we are not handling something else RIGHT THEN.

So do the customers that ask our shipping guy to draw an octopus on the package. We do things like that because we are human, not robots, and if the job isn't fun it's time to quit and close shop.

The technical questions (my area) in itself IS a full time job. Unlike 10 years ago, it's not possible to have my hands in everything, and know the status of every aspect of the business at every moment in time. I trust the people hired to do their jobs.

Not your problem either, but Stephanie is incredibly sick right now (bordering on hospital), and doing the job of 3 people, while training 2 more.

People here have lives too, they get sick, their kids go to the hospital, relatives die, friends get married, they do have vacations, etc etc. So people are not always here at your disposal, on the schedule that you want them to be. I know that's not what you want to hear, but it's a reality. And we are not going to be complete slave drivers and make the workplace somewhere that these great employees dread going to, just to be 'on call"

We call this the "Amazon Syndrome". In the last 10 years people have gone from being reasonable, to being ridiculous, in their expectations on online ordering. We are NOT AMAZON. No VW parts store is. To do so would double prices, and you guys would not accept that. So the market is what it is. Amazon has it easy. They sell new stuff, supply chains are well filled, they have multiple vendors supplying parts for them (even the same items), etc. In the VW hobby we are dealing with vendors that use carbon paper, and half don't even use a FAX!!!! I swear it's like the 1970s with a lot of them. But you guys don't know that because you are on the retail side of things. But that is a reality of a hobby supporting a 40yo car.

OLD SCHOOL!

We are hiring people. Again that magic genie doesn't exist, and contrary to popular opinion you can't get some new employee trained in 3 days. It takes a good 6 MONTHS before they are somewhat capable (and not totally effing up customer orders, or telling you the wrong information). And while we are training these new folks, it pulls us away from actually doing the job ourselves (which would be far faster). So it's grin and bear it and know that things will be better when they are trained, but until then it really stinks. New people slows things down, like it or not. And FWIW, we hire and fire 3 people for every 1 we keep. The jobs here are incredibly demanding, because you guys demand it. We have a good reputation, but at times like this it bites us in the ass, because people expect it 24/7/365, regardless of order volume (time of year).

Right now our order volume is 2x higher than it's EVER been, and I promise you we are doing our best. We are not ignoring you or holding your order up for yucks. We are doing our best.

We cannot hire so many people to handle this volume, just to let them go in August when things slow down. Other companies may do that, we refuse to do that. It means we are understaffed during the busy times, so we aren't getting killed in the slow times. It's not as easy as it appears.

What I'm saying is that we ARE aware of the issues, and we DO care and ARE working on it as best we can. We are also sorry that it's like this. I just ask that you cut us some slack, and give us the benefit of the doubt at tough times like this.
_________________
It's just advice, do whatever you want with it!

Please do NOT send me Private Messages through the Samba PM System (I will not see them). Send me an e-mail to john at aircooled dot net

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[punkabillyvw]

aircooled is proof there is still honest people in the world i ordered parts from them and upon a part being on back order i found out i was not getting what was described when i ordered emailed about the issue and was emailed back then called to solve everything without any hassle i have ordered from 3 other parts stores not to be named that 1 i am still waiting on a part in backorder nearly six months now 2 horrible packaging received damaged parts and was told by service to take it up with ups not them 3 paid for 3 day shipping received parts three weeks later no refund for shipping cost needless to say will be dealing with john for all needs that can be found with them

[airhead76]

Well said John. Much respect for you guys. I don't think people really know or realize how crazy day to day business is at ACN including myself. Now that I know now.... keep up the good work and I hope Stephanie gets well soon!!!

[cseay1]

I have placed several orders with aircooled.net recently and have been pleased with the service. The only two concerns I have are:

1. It would be nice if the online catalog indicated whether a part was in stock or not. I realize a big company like Summit Racing can do this, a small outfit may not have the resources to maintain a "live" inventory.

2. My Hotmail email account keeps blocking the invoices sent from aircooled.net, even though I have added it to my contacts list. I keep getting the message "Be careful! This sender has failed our fraud detection checks!". Perhaps they need to get with Hotmail to find out what they need to do to meet Hotmail's security standards.

Other than that, very pleased with the service. And John's knowledge that he shares both on his site and here on the samba is an asset to the air cooled VW community.
_________________
Chris

1968 Karmann Ghia coupe - build log here: Chris' 68 Ghia Build Log - From the Woods back to the Street

Stop dead photo links! Post your photos to The Samba Gallery!

[cmb357]

First I will say this, John Connolly is a stand up guy. He knows aircooled vw's in my opinion better than most shops out there. I know because I worked for him a long time ago when he used to own a little shop called ACES in Virginia. He taught me a lot about aircooled vw's and helped me on several of my own projects. He was and in my opinion still a very good friend and I know he does what he can to please his customers. You cannot make everyone happy. I know this personally after running my car audio business in Germany for 15 years. I also know that he does not believe in rolling over when people bad mouth him and he will come back at you. So with all this being said, I would rather go to him then to any other shop or parts warehouse in the U.S.

[PetulantCobra]

I've always had good experiences with aircooled.net in the past. The help offered in getting you the right part is absolutely top-notch. Never had any problems getting my orders on time with the correct parts either.

However, recently I had to return some parts. It has been more than a month now and I have not been given any of my money back.

I do understand that there is a facility move going on right now but this is getting ridiculous.
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'71 adventurewagen