Clair Parts

[Brett Dikeman]

At 5:41 PM -0400 10/25/01, Christopher Ritchie wrote:

>I live near Clair, and buy parts there frequently.  If you go to the 
>Clair Audi (and Porsche and Honda) Parts Dept., you will pay 
>whatever Audi list is.  They used to sometimes give you an "Internet 
>discount" there if you asked, but they never really liked to.

If you talk to Mac, he gives you the discount.  I always say, "Hi 
Mac, it's Brett Dikeman from the audifans list" etc.  When I get the 
invoice, there's a note in one of the columns that says "internet 
discount", I believe.  I'd have to check.

>That part of Clair is called Clair Parts Express.  It is separate 
>from the retail-over-the-counter selling of parts.  This is where 
>your mechanic goes to get his parts.  I'm not sure if they would 
>give you much help in looking through catalogs for part numbers.
>   But I have ordered common stuff there by description without part 
>numbers.  This is where Mac is.

Yup, and he really goes the mile.  He always calls me back, always is 
happy to look up stuff, etc.  I once faxed him a list of parts about 
12 items long, for various trim pieces and stuff.  I stressed "no 
rush, this is just to sort of fix up things that have broken or don't 
look pretty anymore."

Next morning(I sent him the fax around 4pm) I had a voicemail from 
him and a fax of a complete quote waiting for me complete with a few 
scribbled little notes next to some of the PN's.    He also once went 
on a mission to find a part number for the Porsche bypass valve 
that's supposedly a good replacement for the 20vt one.  Called me 
back, said he wandered around the Porsche service area, found a tech, 
talked to him etc.

The one goof up was when I ordered a replacement crankcase breather 
hose, and picked it up the next morning.  The guy(not Mac) handed it 
to me, and it was some sort of valve.  "Nope, this isn't it."  "You 
sure?"  "Umm...yeah.  Crankcase breather hose. This is a valve"  Guy 
laughed.."yeah, that's certainly not a hose.  One sec."  He tracked 
down the right part number within a few minutes, and explained that 
someone had slapped the wrong label on the plastic bag so when 
someone pulled the part for mac, I got the wrong one.  Whoops!


>   If you email them, they will respond very quickly-within hours.
>
>I'm sure there are certain places on certain days selling certain 
>things that beat Clair on price.  But if they do, it's not by much. 
>The discount you will get at Clair Parts Express is about the best 
>you will ever get.

Agreed, I've always been happy with Clair pricing.


>  I doubt they are open nights, but I think they have some Saturday hours.

Yup, they do.  They will also leave items with the front desk 
attendant if the dealership is open and you're in a bind; try to pay 
in advance, don't use it all the time, etc(be nice.)

Now that Linda's gone, should we make Mac our new list bud?  Of 
course, we probably had a hand in driving Linda into retirement, 
mentally :-)  If they were on commission(I wouldn't think so), we 
probably drove her to retirement financially rather quickly :-)

B
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