Putting in a replacement L-28

[Joseph@TheZStore]

On 11/9/2021 at 1:49 PM, Av8ferg said:

BTW, I’m not happy with MSA right now. I called today to ask them where my heater and Rad hoses are. They haven’t mailed them because some little other item in my basket was back ordered so they decided to sit on all the other parts. It’s been 4 weeks since I made the order and they didn’t even email to tell me what was going on. That’s really all I’m waiting for. Apparently the hoses are being mailed tomorrow.

 

On 11/10/2021 at 4:55 AM, Av8ferg said:

So, I’ve mostly had a good experience with them.  The reality is I’ve has some issues with all the Z retailers.  Zcardepot sent my the wrong tie rod and it was a pain to get them to sent me a replacement.  They wanted pictures and multiple detailed explanations.  I finally sent them a video showing the treads were for the wrong side, the whole process took over 3 weeks.   Then they asked me to send it back on my dime.  I never did and won’t.  Anyone need a drivers side tie rod 😁.

I just want MSA to update their website to show things that back ordered or send you and email and ask how you want to proceed.  It’s simple, be now we are living in a world where the customer is no longer as valuable as the past.  You are almost a nuisance to some.  It’s hard to find quality people.   This is the new paradigm we have to live with.  I see it everywhere I go.  Prices are insane everywhere., workers are worse than ever…the sky is falling 🤣 

 

On 11/10/2021 at 4:36 PM, Av8ferg said:

In MSAs defense they are the best overall place to buy Z parts, in my opinion.  They actually answer the phone, are very friendly and willing to answer questions.  It’s hard to be good all they time,  I’m just frustrated because I was just left in the dark for about 26 days, waiting on a part to be coated.  A part I could do without but not the other stuff.  
Oh and try calling zcardepot….they never pick up, you get voicemail and it can take days for a email reply.   Both places have a good selection of parts and competitive prices.  I default to MSA because I can talk to a human if I have a question and they’ve all been super nice.  

 

Sorry to respond so late, and muddy the current thread discussion. Things have been quite overwhelming here, we're trying to dig out. First of all, nice job on the Z so far, and it sounds great!

Thank you for your patience with us. The email issues have affected many companies. Places like Yahoo flag a domain as spam, with no explanation, and no recourse. We did send you an email on October 13th (that obviously went to spam or disappeared into cyber-oblivion), that the intake and boot were delayed from the manufacturers, and that we would ship it all together when all items arrived.

So our apologies as we should have followed up with you when we didn't see an email reply. Sorry about that. It is definitely something Greg is working on as we get new sales team members up to speed, and hopefully (soon) find a few more, so they aren't overwhelmed all day long. We have also recently been trying to call, in addition to sending emails, which can be tricky as many don't want to be bothered with phone calls.

Unfortunately we're still waiting for the other items you ordered. Just call our sales team anytime for the latest we've heard from the manufacturers (side note: Your most recent order left yesterday, just in case you're not getting the tracking emails either. If you didn't, if you can help us out, please check your spam folder and let me know if our emails aren't in there).

As far as successfully getting out of our old systems and into new ones where inventory can be shown, that has been the most difficult of all, a long story, and that one is on me. I will say that we have what we hope is a great new company working on things now, and are very hopeful that they can get it all figured out relatively soon.

Thank you for all of your orders, kind words, and for having mercy on us.

[Joseph@TheZStore]

On 11/10/2021 at 4:16 AM, Racer X said:

I have a love/hate relationship with MSA.

Many years ago I ordered crankshaft and rod bearings. They were shipped loose in a box of packing peanuts. When they arrived every bearing shell had damage. I contacted them and they were incredulous, even told me it would be OK to install them and run them.

So I sent them back, paying shipping both ways.

 

Fast forward to early this year.

Started getting my 72 back into driving condition. Ordered a bunch of stuff, clutch, clutch cover, thermostat and housing, cam cover gaskets, head gaskets, and a dozen other items. 
 

Like you, the order was delayed, with no communications. I called them, they said they sent an email. Never got one. Turns out there is some problem with their email that they can’t work out, and other customers also have had that problem.

So they said there were some items on my order that were on back order. I asked that they send what they had and send the rest later. 
 

The head gaskets and cam cover gaskets showed up, packed loosely with the heavy clutch and pressure plate. The gaskets were destroyed from the clutch cover bouncing around in the box. They sent it FedEx Ground, an 800 mile trip, from LA to Seattle, that actually had the package go through Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, Boise, Portland then Seattle.

Took two weeks,

The gaskets were destroyed. The box had the beginning of a hole in it from the clutch cover, and was one toss away from being ripped open.

To their credit, they sent replacement gaskets, no charge.

A month or so later the pan gaskets and a harmonic balancer arrived. They had wrapped the pan gaskets around the box the balancer was in, rather than packing the gaskets in a flat package. Again, the gaskets are not in good shape.

I give up on them. Don’t care if they have all the Z stuff, and good prices.

They do have a guy who is a member here, maybe you can reach out to him.

Or not.

Sorry for taking so long to respond. There is no excuse for what you've reported, all we can offer is our apologies.

Getting quality shipping staff has been a struggle for many years. Unfortunately, the pandemic has only made it worse. We're training a new person now, and hope such packing errors are a thing of the past. With millions of possible combinations of parts, training is a long term effort. None of this helps or excuses what we did to you of course, and what you've described should be simple common sense, but it is something we continue to work on.

As far as the email contact, I can see the email that we did send on June 15th, in the (failed) attempt to let you know about the 2 items that we hadn't received. If you do ever choose to give us another chance in the future, when you don't see an order confirmation email in your inbox or spam folder, after you place your order, please let us know.

As far as the older order you mentioned, your account we have now only goes back to 2020, so we assume we had you at a different address before, and duped your account by accident. If you're willing to help me find that order, please pm me.

Sorry again for the inexcusable shipping problems, and thanks for all the orders you've made. Hopefully we'll get a shot to help you in the future.

[Joseph@TheZStore]

On 11/10/2021 at 7:57 AM, Zed Head said:

Hope you guys don't mind, I'm going to "at" the MSA guys and ZCD.  ZCD never responds but I think that he does read the posts.  The guys at MSA usually respond, and seem to address issues.  The penny-saving on shipping seems like a new one though.

 

On 11/10/2021 at 5:31 PM, Zed Head said:

The main reason I let them know is so that they don't have a problem that goes on for months or years, damaging their business, because they did not know about it.  They've been around since land lines but things are changing.  Trying to help them keep up.

 

 

Zed, as far as we're concerned, we always appreciate you looping us in. Thank you for doing so.

We'll always try to come up with the best option as far as shipping and delayed items are concerned. With all the supplier issues it has been much more prevalent and difficult than usual these past two years. On more orders than people might think, where we've screwed up and had to reship something, we often end up losing money on those orders. It is part of doing business, but Greg is working hard, every day, to get parts here from literally all over the world to ship out, and we're working on making certain everybody knows all of their shipping options.

Thanks again for alerting us. As a side note, James is unfortunately no longer with the company, I'll be asking Mike to remove that account to alleviate confusion.

[foosman]

On 11/10/2021 at 10:57 AM, Zed Head said:

Hope you guys don't mind, I'm going to "at" the MSA guys and ZCD.  ZCD never responds but I think that he does read the posts.  The guys at MSA usually respond, and seem to address issues.  The penny-saving on shipping seems like a new one though.

@Joseph@TheZStore @Greg@TheZStore @James@TheZStore

Not to derail the original thread, and assuming that ZCD = ZcarDepot, MSA is a whole lot better at addressing issues than ZCD.  Brought up defect issues on my first order with ZCD a year ago, and aside from an initial response, they went silent on the issue.  MSA has usually been very responsive, and as a result they get most of my specialty Z parts business.

[dutchzcarguy]

15 hours ago, Av8ferg said:

I thought about starting a new thread and call it my 280z build

Or you can simply re-name this thread..  I know it's possible!

[Av8ferg]

9 hours ago, Joseph@TheZStore said:

 

 

 

Sorry to respond so late, and muddy the current thread discussion. Things have been quite overwhelming here, we're trying to dig out. First of all, nice job on the Z so far, and it sounds great!

Thank you for your patience with us. The email issues have affected many companies. Places like Yahoo flag a domain as spam, with no explanation, and no recourse. We did send you an email on October 13th (that obviously went to spam or disappeared into cyber-oblivion), that the intake and boot were delayed from the manufacturers, and that we would ship it all together when all items arrived.

So our apologies as we should have followed up with you when we didn't see an email reply. Sorry about that. It is definitely something Greg is working on as we get new sales team members up to speed, and hopefully (soon) find a few more, so they aren't overwhelmed all day long. We have also recently been trying to call, in addition to sending emails, which can be tricky as many don't want to be bothered with phone calls.

Unfortunately we're still waiting for the other items you ordered. Just call our sales team anytime for the latest we've heard from the manufacturers (side note: Your most recent order left yesterday, just in case you're not getting the tracking emails either. If you didn't, if you can help us out, please check your spam folder and let me know if our emails aren't in there).

As far as successfully getting out of our old systems and into new ones where inventory can be shown, that has been the most difficult of all, a long story, and that one is on me. I will say that we have what we hope is a great new company working on things now, and are very hopeful that they can get it all figured out relatively soon.

Thank you for all of your orders, kind words, and for having mercy on us.

Joe, 

Thanks for the response and I appreciate what products you provide.     The company I work now for deals with the same issues.   Worker shortages, constant training, maintaining high standards and keeping workers happy, all this is a delicate balance.   I led a 350 man organization and everyday my battles were associated with manpower issues, training  people, supervising and maintaining standards and meeting production goals.   It’s not easy and the culture of your organization / business is set by the people on top.   People need to trust their supervisors and leaders, they need to be empowered and must feel part of the team.  Punish with caution. I never punished for mistakes, to me that was usually a function of poor training or supervision.  People who bent the rules were counseled with respect, people who blatantly broke rules or negligent were disciplined.  Good people are hard to find, when you find them it’s imperative they know they are appreciated and compensate them accordingly.  It’s not always pay more .  Sometimes it’s, take a 1/2 day or buying them lunch or just recognizing them to the rest of the team as going above and beyond. You will get more productivity out of them.  You want the people who work for you to be happy.  Happy workers are productive workers.   It’s the leaders job to set the right environment for this to happen. Counsel you people in private, praise them in public.    I beat all 4 other squadrons on my base  in aircraft availability, sortie production and personnel retention by using these concepts and others..  Tell your people exactly what you expect from them and when they meet that goal reward their effort.  It’s absolutely critical to the success of any organization.  It’s usually always easier to fix a poor performer than it is to find hire and train a new person.  You have to know your people to do this you need know what impacting those lives their family etc.. Leaders set the conditions for success and the employees make it happen.  It took me 24 years of leading people to figure out the science of managing and motivating people to a unified goal.  
Sorry to rant but I I wanted to share nuggets of wisdom that I’ve learned the hard way.  I’m passionate about leading people. 
The culture or an organization is what what makes the difference between winners and losers .  In the halls of business academia we call this “Just Culture”.  Just Culture  means we:

1. Counsel the Human Error

2. Coach the at-risk or poor performer

3’ Punish the reckless or negligent  

Independent of the outcomes! 

John

[Av8ferg]

Gents, 

My trans tunnel template is complete.  
check it out.  Going to transfer this the the diamond stitch.   
Anyone who wants this template let me know and I’ll ship it to you for free as long as you send it back or send it to another member and pay it forward! 
 

[Barefootdan]

That looks awesome! I'm way jealous of how well this is turning out 🙂 

I've seen alot of different methods for interiors on the Z's. Is vinyl (whether that be diamond stitch or just plain vinyl) the OEM method on the center console area and door sills? I need to order my carpet kit soon so just curious! I am loving the look of the diamond stitching so far and how affordable it is.

[Av8ferg]

Thanks, only the 240s had the vinyl on the transmission tunnel and rockers to my knowledge.
This vinyl I bought was only about $50 total. Spray glue is about $20 and I also bought some sound deadening material which was $60. That stuff is optional but didn’t want hear the tranny and extra noises.






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[Av8ferg]

Okay, I’m finished for the day.  Got other stuff a to do around the house (Christmas decorations to keep mama happy)  and go for a run.  Here’s the test fit.  Needs some minor tweaks.  It’s not sitting  perfectly flat because it’s not glued down but just resting there.  
 

 

[Av8ferg]

Today’s mission was to install the rear bumper. Had to drop the tank and got it all bolted up. Left the drip edge on for now. Took it for a spin, and it ran great. Here is a video so you can hear the ZStory Classic Muffler.

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[Patcon]

Check valve lash.  You sound like you have a noisy lifter or two. I don't think its an exhaust leak...

Edited December 3, 2021 by Patcon