>Subject:     Re: Parts Place
>Sent:        2/17/97 6:33 PM
>Received:    2/17/97 6:51 PM
>From:        vwbus@netbiz.net
>To:          Multiple recipients of list, vanagon@lenti.med.umn.edu
>
>> > 
>> > Hi again.  I'm still trying to put my '81 into factory condition.  I have
>> > some stuff coming from the Parts Place.  Are they usually reliable?
>> 
>
>Unlike some on this list I have always been perfectly happy with them 
>over 10 years of use.   Have saved me a lot of money over the years, 
>they are not always the best price (but always a good start, never 
>pay more than them) and I have had more than my share of returns to 
>them but like everything else mail order use a credit card, be very 
>plain but descriptive when ordering parts, and if forced to return 
>speak forcefully but peaceably and you will never have a problem from 
>them.  They do some neat tool rentals (FWD wheel bearing puller) that 
>no one else does.

     I'd have to chime in on the nay side for Parts Place.  They have 
shipped me the wrong parts nearly every single time I've ordered from 
them and given me an amazing ammount of hassle on the subsequent returns. 
 Their pricing is confusing and strangely fluid "And I'd like the $10 
discount that you advertise for the package on page 10"  "Well that 
inculdes the discouunt" "But that is the same price as buying the 
individual parts on page 11" "Yes it is"  "Well then it isn't a package 
discount is it?"  "Uh....."  They also have sent me various broken or 
useless "recycled" parts, like a radior expantion tank with a huge crack 
in it and a half-assed silicone repair job.
     Unfourtinately, since they send their catalog to every person who 
ever registered a VW in the Known Universe, many of the uninitiated think 
that they are the only VW parts dealer *in* the Known Universe.  Luckily 
for me, I have a very good local shop who has a strange sense of pitty 
for me ("You need the *whole* exhaust!? For a *Vanagon*?!?  Oh God....") 
and sells me parts at or below shop price.
     Most of their cool tools can be purchased direct from thier 
supplier, SP Tools of Anaheim Hills.  Their catalog is a must for any 
mechanical type who works on any type of car.  Their number is 
714-693-7666 fax 714-693-8558 (usual discalimers, I don't work for them)  
Of note to Vanagon types is the nice rear wheel bolt offset socket that 
lets you bang on the socket with a sledge to help the bolt off.

     Bob
     84GL and 85GL project

___________________________________________________________________________
_

     Bob O'Shaughnessy
     oshaug@infinet.com
     72632.432@compuserve.com