Rant....

[wilyunu]

I am just posting this to rant a little bit, and to advise people in the Eastern NC area about the lack of quality customer service at my local U-pull-it. Yesterday, I call my local salvage yard Foss Recycling which has several locations. I usually go to the local one, but I was informed by a receptionist that th LaGrange location had 3 trucks I might be interested in. A 1967, 1969, and a 1972 C10.
I was kinda surprised, and a little excited as they don't show up in the salvage yards here very often. I live about 65 miles away, so I made sure of the time they closed (5PM) , and was able to leave work early ( no small feat, as I am military and we are short handed in my division right now ). I leave the house at 3:20 and get to the yard at 4:35. I am told that they close the gate at 4:30 and am not allowed to go look at the vehicles. (I tried to explain that I was not going to be pulling parts, that I wanted to see if they had any viable parts, however they did not budge). I was irate to say the least.
This morning, I check their website; the time for the LaGrange yard says 9-5 I call the yard and speak to a manager(?), his response? They are a cheaply run operation, and that he is sorry about my wasted trip, but there is nothing he can do. ( Obviously I am not asking for free parts here....) However when I ask if one of his employee can take five minutes to go look at the trucks and see if there are any decent parts on them, to save me another trip, he basically tells me to go kick rocks..... As for the website saying what time they are open, he tells me sorry, and that will be corrected today... To recap, this place has NO idea about quality customer service, and no concern for getting repeat customers. The local yard (Havelock) has generally been a pretty good place, however LaGrange has ruined the reputation for the whole company in my mind. I would have submitted a complaint with BBB, but alas they are not accredited.
sorry for the wall of text.... I just had to vent, end rant.

[tony58]

It's a junk yard, not Maceys

[wilyunu]

I concur, however being that they are in business to sell parts, they may want to allow a customer the opportunity to shop... Otherwise no parts get sold. Also, when a business has business hours posted, I would expect them to honor them, especially as an employee confirmed the time prior to me wasting my time and gas just to go look. Also customer service should be one of the foremost concerns of any operating business with face to face interaction in the normal scope of daily operations.

[alsriv2]

I understand your frustration, particularly being prior military myself. But from a business side perspective, if they do not limit entry times and be firm on their hours open, they end up facing mandatory overtime laws and other customers who end up taking longer than expected to pull parts and forcing them to stay open to accommodate those customers.
I agree that their website needs to be detailed on the rules and such to prevent bad customer service.
Hopefully you will be able to take some other time in the very near future to examine those trucks before they get stripped and crushed.

Good luck!

[imjeff]

From a "business perspective" they could advertise "gate closes at 4:30, business closes at 5". Wasting people's time is poor business practice. Good customer service sells, period. Every business has people come in near closing and take longer than projected. A wrecking yard isn't the exception.

[Ronnie the Wrench]

My local LKQ posted a 63 chevy C10 on their web site one time and I just about jumped out of my chair. Left work early, drove out there and walked around for an hour looking for it. Well I found a 63 chevy alright. A 63 4 door nova. My arms grew about 3 inches from lugging my tool box around with me. Went up to the window to ask about the truck and the manager just laughed and said the girls in back dont know the difference from one chevy to the next. Oh well at least I got some exercise.

[tony58]

You're lucky you spoke with a manager, around here none of the junk yard employees would be able to speak English. I understand your frustrations, I would have been pissed also, however you are not going to change the culture of a junk yard. They couldn't care less if you ever come back. They make so much money customer service is of no concern, walk in customers are more of a pain then anything else for them. A good friend owned a large yard, their BIG money is in crushing cars daily for scrap. The pick a part is just pocket change for them. In 5-6 hours they could crush about $40K in scrap, and they did that almost daily. It's amazing that hundreds of new cars come in weekly and it doesn't slow down all year.

[kcsa75]

Originally Posted by wilyunu

I concur, however being that they are in business to sell parts, they may want to allow a customer the opportunity to shop... Otherwise no parts get sold. Also, when a business has business hours posted, I would expect them to honor them, especially as an employee confirmed the time prior to me wasting my time and gas just to go look. Also customer service should be one of the foremost concerns of any operating business with face to face interaction in the normal scope of daily operations.

Originally Posted by imjeff

From a "business perspective" they could advertise "gate closes at 4:30, business closes at 5". Wasting people's time is poor business practice. Good customer service sells, period. Every business has people come in near closing and take longer than projected. A wrecking yard isn't the exception.

[Clyde65]

If the local is owned by the same folks, go speak to them and tell them how that experience has turned your business to the competition even if it costs more.

They probably won't care, but you will get it off your chest!