re: Blau

[DeWitt Harrison <de@aztek-eng.com>]

On Tue, 29 Sep 1998 10:20:23 EDT, Chris Miller wrote:

>My 2 cents:  I needed rear calipers for my 4000csq a couple years back;
>couldn't find reasonable priced new ones, and Blau came through with a good
>used set for a reasonable price, shipped overnight so my car could get
>inspected and road-legal.  Good meaning that the parking brake lever worked
>fine, and otherwise in very good working order.  I'd use Blau again based on
>that.  Check the archives; they've gone to extreme lengths before to help out
>listers.

Since we're takin' a survey, here, I will add that all Blau experiences have
been
positive to date. My history with them covers maybe 3 years, 8 transactions
and around $2K worth of parts. I agree you must be persistent to speak directly
to Jim these days and they probably need to improve in that area. I also agree
they have had a tendency toward sloppy packaging for shipping.  However,
they've never shipped a wrong part unless I provided inaccurate information,
they have accepted returns even when questionable - yes, Jim, I put it on the
car 3 months after I bought it before I found out it wouldn't work but I
was very careful not to leave tool marks all over it and am returning it in the
original packaging - and they have accepted returns on anything damaged in
shipping without quibble.

It is one of my theories that we have a surprising amount of control, although
not absolute by any means, over the quality of service we receive from any
supplier (except Shokan, of course). The more part number homework we do
beforehand, the more application details we provide, the more questions we ask
to verify our assumptions, the more patient we are with the sales
representative,
the more courteous we are when working through a problem with the order, etc.,
the better the actual service becomes.  Maybe Blau is not top drawer in every
service category but they continue to be a valuable resource in my book.

DeWitt Harrison
Boulder, CO
88 5kcstq