Back order Bob Drake strikes again!

same with me on his sale priced closeout choke and throttle cables.He did later offer to give me the sale price(after the closeout,and no more available ?),some apparently became available,but after that experience,I wasn't sending him money for ANY reason.
 
I ordered an item from Drake from a 10%, free shipping flyer on Dec. 2nd. The catch was, that the price & free shipping was only if the item was in stock. I received an order confirmation, so I assumed they actually had the part, but after 2-1/2 weeks and no parts, I called today and they told me the parts were on back order. Not only that, but the phone Rep told me there were 80 back orders for the part !
 
JM 35 Sedan said:
Have never had a problem with any of my Drake orders. Am I his only happy customer? What am I doing wrong to have never had a problem while I see some repeat FB members who continually have problems on seemingly every order they place.
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John, You're not the only one. I have never had a problem with a Drake order. On my last order, The 20% off and free shipping 1 day sale I couldn't finish my order due to a website error. I Emailed them and was told to call my order in and they would honor the sale price and shipping. The sales person was Peter Mostowa, Very polite and helpful.
Some of these guys can't wait for a chance to complain.
Bill
 
I guess I am the "other" lucky Bob Drake customer. I have ordered from him several times and never had a problem. The last order was for a set of running boards for my 36 sedan. They were discounted $100 and were shipped free. It took 6 days from order to delivery and they are excellent.
Sorry to not have had any problems.
 
I have bought quite a few items from Drake over the years and had them shipped down to New Zealand.
Mostly dealt with a customer service rep named Heather Travis.
Never a problem.
If it isn't in stock she tells me.
 
I'm a Bob Drake fan. Have not had any problems with him. If it is on back-order, along with a great price, I can patiently wait.
 
Back orders have been a problem for me from time to time too. The gas tanks last year took 6 months for to get. I have learned to plan ahead and ask what is back ordered and not. My last order was filled which I has not in a huge hurry for. As I look at his catalog and parts offering it amazes me with the number of cars he offer parts for that are rare. The potential to recover the investment on those parts has to be really low. Banks require a business to turn their inventory so many times a year so my bet is Bob Drake has a lot of money ******* in reproductions parts that are for Woodies, Cabriolets, etc. thus limiting his borrowing ability and inventory investment into the parts that turn fast. Also, my guess is certain parts that are outsourced would require minimum number of parts to be ordered, so Bob needs to get enough orders to justify the run. I'm betting a number of the reproduction parts he makes is for the love of the hobby not a good business decision. Without his business where would our hobby be? A large number of our cars would not be done and more cars parted out to finish cars. For that alone I support him. Enough of my rant if I offended anyone sorry.......
 
JM 35 Sedan said:
Have never had a problem with any of my Drake orders. Am I his only happy customer? What am I doing wrong to have never had a problem while I see some repeat FB members who continually have problems on seemingly every order they place.
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You are not the only one. I have not had a problem before and not this time either. I ordered over a dozen items on the 20% off-free shipping date and got them all within the week.

Looking at his business growth, he must be doing something right.
 
As I look at the four cars I have restored using parts from Bob Drake, I would never have been able to finish any of them with out those parts. Are there back orders sometimes--sure--I just plan around that and move on. Is Bob Drake Inc. perfect--nope--but I value the ability to get these parts when they are available.
 
38 Ford Guy said:
Back orders have been a problem for me from time to time too. The gas tanks last year took 6 months for to get. I have learned to plan ahead and ask what is back ordered and not. My last order was filled which I has not in a huge hurry for. As I look at his catalog and parts offering it amazes me with the number of cars he offer parts for that are rare. The potential to recover the investment on those parts has to be really low. Banks require a business to turn their inventory so many times a year so my bet is Bob Drake has a lot of money ******* in reproductions parts that are for Woodies, Cabriolets, etc. thus limiting his borrowing ability and inventory investment into the parts that turn fast. Also, my guess is certain parts that are outsourced would require minimum number of parts to be ordered, so Bob needs to get enough orders to justify the run. I'm betting a number of the reproduction parts he makes is for the love of the hobby not a good business decision. Without his business where would our hobby be? A large number of our cars would not be done and more cars parted out to finish cars. For that alone I support him. Enough of my rant if I offended anyone sorry.......
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I believe you are right on the money with your opinion and I agree 100%. Working for a large manufacturing company myself for many years, I know we did not want to keep huge quantities of inventory in stock, especially when it came to the large and expensive product. I believe Bob Drake establishes his production run numbers on some items based on known ordered quantities, hoping that he can fill the pipe line as quick as possible.
 
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Again, My complaint is not about quality of his parts. It's the constant back order on so many parts. If you take orders, then have the part made, that is not a good business model. It only gets people mad! If that's the way you want to operate, that is your decision. He should list the item as back ordered on his web site and instruct customer service people to say it's on back ordered. It's called being honest with your customer.
I tried to order the knobs from C&G and they emailed me back within a 1/2 hour and stated that they were back ordered and cancelled my order as I instructed. That is a better way to do business and keeps customers in the loop. No one can keep everything on the shelf, but Drake's back order list must be very long. I appreciate what he's done for the hobby as much as the next guy.......
 
I ordered about $1800 worth of parts during December to take advantage of the 20% and free shipping.
The on-line item description showed either "in or out of stock", so there was no guess work, and only ONE item out about 100 showed up back ordered.
No disappointments, except for a few out of stock pieces that I could have used, but can wait for another sale.
Received order confirmation, shipping notices, FedEx tracking numbers, and delivery within a week!
I was VERY pleasantly surprised at the professional process, very un-Drake like.
 
I truly appreciate the quality the Drake and Carpenter offer, I did try to take advantage of a few items during the cyber Monday sale and received a call 1½ weeks later stating some parts were not in stock and my floors could not be shipped free. This was not the end of my shopping days with him as I value his quality far more than his pricing.
 
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You're lucky, my item showed in stock, that's why I ordered them. I did get a order confirmation, but nothing after that. If I didn't make inquiries, they'd would still be on order. I talked to Cole on the three occasions and he was very professional, but he never told me of the back order until I asked.
 
Cyber Monday with Bob

Took a shot at Bob's Cyber Monday. A bit of a wrestling match with the online which kept deleting my promo code. Time ran short and was not able to check availability on the scores of items desired. Out of over $2500 wishful total, only $800+ was in stock. I already knew that a few hundred bucks worth was already gone and never to return such as the frame braces for the '40. Had it all been available, my total could have been over $3000. Luckily Macs had a free shipping day also where I hope to have picked up a few more items, and finally finished off my long suffering gift certificate ballance with Macs. Never again on the gift certificates! Never certain until the parts reach my shop. I have done so much business with these guys that there are few surprises left. Luckily the '40s that are my current projects are well served by reproduction parts. That keeps the swapmeet prices down for original parts too. Count on me to keep doing business with all of them as it serves my needs. Good Luck: Fred A
 
I have bought lots of stuff from Bob Drake over the last three or four decades. Never once had a problem. I have met Bob more than a few times at various shows and swap meets. He is real car guy and also a serious collector of all things Ford. I think if he were to bleed, Ford Blue would come running out of his veins! What would we do if we didn't have vendors like Drake supplying us with parts?
 
I remember the days when the order desk person would physically check that the item was on the shelf. Yes they had computers then and they knew what the parts were, not just a number. The best service was our Cat, and Napa dealers.
Bruce
 
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