Brothers?

[BLAZIN'72]

I ordered a tilt column for my 72 blazer from Brothers in May of 2001, I was informed that it was on back order and would be 6-8weeks, since my truck is a project and i didn't need it right away i agreed to wait (they said they would call me when it came in). I waited about 6mo no call so i called them, they said it was still on back order and would call. Well about 3mo after that (no call from them) i called again, it was in! I was just happy that it came in so i never asked them why they didn't call me. Anyway thier showroom is about 10mi. from me so i went to pick it up. The worker came out with it and informed me that the shift lever and accsessories were still on back order. Again i was told that they would call me ( i explained what had happened before and was assured that i would get a call). Fastforward another 6mo (still no call) i called them again. the worker told me that they received some and would check, he came back and told me that they must have sold out!! WHAT THE!! Well lets just say i wasn't to happy. I guess he didn't like what i had to say so he put me on with someone else and this guy told me the other worker was mistaken they had never got any. So i sucked it up and told him i had better get a phone call SOON. May-2003 2 years later no phone call no shift lever and my blazer is almost done. Now i know that i let this go to long, but i can't take any more. I have easily spent over $3000 with this company and for them to treat me like this just isn't right. What do you guys think i should do? Sorry this is sooo long but i just wanted to tell you guys about my experience with BROTHERS!!

[71-longbed]

that sucks man ...now i know never to buy anything from them

I agree with you on Brothers. I think they are pretty low when it comes to a Co. I dont care if it was the last place to find the item, I'd find a way to make it myself or pay 1000 times what they want. Stay away from Brothers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Low68]

I have had some bad business with them. I eventually just decided to stay away from them altogether. I had the same situation with back orders, but mine wasn't nearly as bad. At one point, they told my dad that they had problems with guys showing up to work. Instead, they were surfing? Oh!, I am sorry. Does that mean I should wait 3 months for a part because you guys are inept? Sorry, I don't like brothers. My advise would be to stay away from them all together.
Low68

[casey]

blazen72 if your only 10 miles from them, go givem what for, I'd take back that steering colume and get your money back, after telling them your story, how can they refuse, don't let them talk you into waiting for parts anymore, the colume you can swap out later if you have to get one from another source, and remind them that there name will be all over this site, good luck

[bpmcgee]

Well I've been hesitant to say anything, but I've been having a hard time indirectly with Brothers.

Some of the vendors that we know and love use Brothers as a supplier. If they don't have it in stock, they'll order a drop-ship from Brothers.

I won't go into the details, but I've been plagued with problems of SLOW shipping, incorrect shipping, and not doing anything in the way of customer service to rectify the problem.

I hate to push the problem onto the good guys, but I'm tempted to start saying "If you have to order it from Brothers, give me a call when it's in and I'll pay you THEN."

Good luck,

Brian

[Warbones]

Good thing I know now before I ordered anything from them. Who can I order from???

Have you noticed that the service you get from them is nooooooooooooooooooo way near the prices they charge, which is way toooooooooooooooooooooo much?

[XXL]

This is a "me too" post. Me too.

[Class of 69]

I have always had excellent responce, and service from GMCPaul's. He also lists a tilt column on his site, and if I may say so, Paul is ALWAY"S lower on price than Brother's. LMC, etc., etc. Don't get me wrong!! There may be others out there with the same, or lower prices than Paul. I'm just relating MY experience. By the way, I bought some sheet metal from Brothers before I discovered Paul. I got what I ordered in a timely manner. Maybe I got lucky, for once in my life.

[krue]

Thanks for the warning!

[Dropt72Shortbed]

someone should email this thread to brothers, Id like to see the response.

ive also noticed their prices are higher than everyone else, ive order from gmcpauls and a couple other vendors who were cheaper and the parts i received were great quality.

the only company ive had trouble with is the truck shop in orange CA, their quality SUCKS, cheap stuff but its all crap quality.

[cheyenneman]

I had the same trouble with them over a console. Not as long as you though. I got my money back and since then have got all my thing from ECE.

[Riveted1]

As per Dropt's suggestion, I forwarded this thread to Brother's. I'll let you guys know if I get any sort of reply from them. Or, who knows, maybe they'll post here!

[jay-dawg]

I'm glad I saw this post. I was gonna order their under bed tank that they had on sale this month.

thanks for the info,
jay

[sakohntr]

After being burned, I only use sources from this board for new or reproduction parts.

[69 Short Fleet]

Thats a very SLOPPY way to do business in my opinion. You might want to contact the owner of this company and tell him whats going on (if possible) Later Doug

[Mike Culpepper]

That is ridiculous!
I would ask(demand), to talk to the manager or owner and explain your situation. If they have ANY scrouples, they should bend over backwards to make you happy. Also I would expect them to offer you something in the way of a comp for your trouble. If not, I would repeat this post on EVERY truck board google could find.
My dos centavos!!!
Mike

[Blue Beard]

All of you guys that have had trouble with them should all do some complaining the the BBB in their area, and anywhere else you can.

[69sixpackbee]

I live in Ontario and the LAST place I would go to get parts from is the Bro's!!
Look up the work "jerkoff" in Webster's and they will give you a link to their website!!

[Pardue'sCustoms]

Hear is the best place to buy from

Christians Classic Truck Parts
Rogersville, Tennessee
423.272.5809 or 423.327.4098
E-Mail stchristian@chartertn.net
WWW.CHRISTIANSCLASSICS.COM

[gman]

Everyone appreciates this info. Thank you.

[COBALT]

Again, this is one of those vendors that are good for basic crap that's easy to find. Whenever you have a large assembly, or large pieces and you need to do some examination, or you're spending a lot of money don't go to these people. It's better to deal with someone face-to-face.

Sorry about your experience. I've found the best way to deal with these people is keep asking for a manager (and his manager, and his manager...) until you get to someone with some decision-making power, remind them how much money you spent or were ready to spend with them, and that you're planning on going to a competitor. That usually wakes them up.

[Steve @ BROTHERS]

To the members of this board,

I want to start by thanking you guys for bringing this thread to our attention so we can respond and try to resolve these issues with everyone. I will try to address each post or concern here individually, starting from the top.

BLAZIN'72 - This will be difficult to explain in detail for everyone, but I will try to be a clear as possible. I will not deny that we have had troubles getting "complete" tilt columns from our supplier during the last 2 years. Reason is that the shift lever was discontinued by GM 2 years ago and has yet to be reproduced. However, we have regularly received "incomplete" columns (no levers) during the same time frame. We don't normally ship incomplete tilts because they are useless without the shift lever. In our inventory system, they aren't even supposed to appear "in-stock" until they are complete. So we may have actually had incomplete columns in our warehouse when BLAZIN'72 placed the order in the first place in May of '01, but chose to backorder you while we waited to get the status of the reproducton shift lever. At the point when you called and we told you they were in but didn't have the accessories (I'm going to specualate here because I really don't know for sure what took place), maybe whoever helped you sensed that you needed the column installed to "move-on" with you project and thought it would be helpfull to have the column even if it was incomplete? Of course, the additional parts (levers) could be installed last if they had to, but at least you could install the column and mount a steering wheel etc... if you needed to move the truck around or something. Ok now, about the call when you were told that we "received some and would check, he came back and told me that they must have sold out", this was BS and I hate to even hear that one of our guys would say something like this. Bottom line is that we never have had the shift lever in-stock for that column during the last 2 years. The fact that our guys told you we did and they sold out is pure BS and makes us look bad. The way our backorder system works, we couldn't have possibly gotten them in and sold out without filling the oldest backorders FIRST! I'm sorry this happened, this is just bad communication and it's something none of us need. Move to the present time, after numerous promises from our suppliers of a reproduction shift lever, we still have nothing. We don't sell re-chromed stuff so that has never been an option for us but maybe it would be a good option in this case to get you taken care of. I want you to call me directly and I'll make sure I make this right for you plus some!!!

Low68 - I can't imagine why we would have told your dad that we had any problems with people showing up for work, that has never been a problem here. Most of our employees are truck guys and actually enjoy coming to work. Even if it was a problem, it wouldn't affect whether or not you got your parts in a timely manner. Our guys stay every day until all the orders are done, period. So even if we are short handed one day, the other guys pick up the slack. I would like to talk directly with you about the things you and your dad experienced too. Call me and I'll do my best to make it worth your while. Besides, surfing? Nobody here surfs! We're 50 miles from the beach.(lol)

bpmcgee - I'm not going to say that we never make mistakes, but I will say that when the vendor you choose to do business with uses BROTHERS to drop-ship your merchandise to you, the problems you mentioned are easily be compounded by them too.
Slow shipping, how can you be sure that when you place your order with "Company X" on Monday, that they actually call us before Wednesday or Thursday? And what if they do call Monday, but they wait until 4:30pm and our UPS shippment has already gone out? Some of those vendors you are talking about hold off until they have a "bunch" of orders to place with us all at once. This doesn't even take into account that we are on the West Coast and it takes UPS about 7 days to deliver to East Coast addresses.
Incorrect merchandise, you know the old "phone game". Stand five peolple in a circle and tell a short story to one and he passes it on to the next, and so on... by the time it gets back to the person who originally told it, it's completely different. Same thing takes place when info gets transferred back and forth from you to your vendor and then to us. Mistakes get made, but it's not always on BROTHERS, cut is a bit of slack here. There have been times when "Vendor X" has actually ordered the wrong part(s) for you and we've done our job correctly. Of course when you call him, we're the fall guys, but they make as many mistakes as we do. Everyone just does what they can afterwards to get it straightened out. As far as rectifying the problems, we do what we can in these situations, but you really should deal with the vendor you bought the item from. He's going to have the most invested in making sure you get it straightened out.

Class of 69 - Thanks for saying something positive about BROTHERS in this thread.

"By the way, I bought some sheet metal from Brothers before I discovered Paul. I got what I ordered in a timely manner. Maybe I got lucky"

cheyenneman - BROTHERS doesn't even carry consoles, you couldn't have possibly had this problem with us. You have us confused with somebody else.

jay-dawg - Order the tank kit, you won't be sorry.

Blue Beard - Great suggestion! We do have our own BB that most of us are in daily. Post there if you have a problem or concern, or, call us. We are here from 7am to 5pm M-F and 8am to Noon on Saturday. We can and will do whatever we can to fix any issues that come up. Normally, myself and other members of our customer service dept frequent this forum, but we resist getting involved in the regular conversations unless we can directly help with tech or information regarding one of our products. Most of you are already very helpfull in sorting out each others more general problems, so we tend to stay clear. We want to leave this forum to the enthusiasts, and only interject when necessary. However, this isn't the case on our BB, we are there every day answering questions and getting in on the topics.

69 1/2 Six Pack Bee - I looked up the word Jerkoff in Websters' and found only a picture of a guy in a Mopar? Just kidding, had to get in the Mopar slam since this is basically a GM forum. No hard feelings I hope, just trying to lighten things up a bit. We can't Bee too serious all the time.

Everyone else who posted or is reading this thread - We really do appreciate your comments, good or bad. We also want your business and your trust and we're willing to earn it. When you're ready to buy something, call us and mention you saw this thread. We'll give you some sort of discount, free shipping or something else, plus, we'll bend over backwards to give you better service than you even expect. We're guys just like you who like trucks and classic cars, we don't come to work everyday to screw things up, but when we do, we fix it just like we would want it fixed if the shoe was on the other foot, all you have to do is let us know there's a problem.

BTW, Since I started writing this response early this morning, we have already talked to BLAZIN'72 and have taken care of our problem with the Tilt Column lever. I encourage anyone else with issues to contact us so we can work them out.

Thank you again for your time and patronage,

Steve Flanders / A Motorhead Too!
BROTHERS
Toll Free# 800-977-2767
Direct phone# 909-256-3028
email steve@brotherstrucks.com

60 Impala Conv
66 Chevy II SS
70 Camaro Z/28 RS
51 Pro Street Panel Truck
57 Chevy SB/SS Pickup
86 Dodge Omni - GLHS #424
Plus a garage full of old Honda motorcyles nobody wants to hear about.

[1971Stepside]

Excellent response Steve. That is the way customer service should be...not a department but a philosophy.....