Geno's - Doesn't deliver, doesn't respond

[Turbo Horseman]

So I go to order up a couple of things from Geno's. Done it before and had no problem and been pleased with the service. Not this time.



I get the confirmation that my order has been accepted. Next thing I know, I get a message from Wendy saying they don't deliver to Canadians anymore unless they have a US address. That's why they call us Canadians - we don't have a US address.



Apparently they have trouble getting stuff to Canada on time or even at all.



So I email back. I'm not surprised as they probably use a courier service and experience tells me courier services talk the talk, but don't do the walk. Had nothing but completely poor and unnecessarily expensive service from courier services when stuff is coming out of the US.



In my email, I suggest using the US postal service and Canada Post. They are both underrated and deliver for less and usually more quickly than a contracted courier. Tell Geno's I'll pay for the insurance (that's usually less than $5) and they can send it to me that way and it'll get here in 7 - 10 days. That takes care of their concerns.



Well, it's more than a week since I emailed. No response, nada, not a whisper.



This is the lamest reason a lot of US companies use. It is in my estimation for one of two reasons. Either the courier service has them contracted into a furball and won't provide the service or Geno's only sees obstacles where there are opportunities. In any case, they won't provide a service to me because I live in Canada.



As a Canadian, I find this insulting, extremely frustrating and provincial. North of the 49th, we live our lives in two currencies, three cultures (English and French Canadian and American) and know that getting stuff across the border is not difficult; unless you use a courier service that charges high rates for what the postal services will do for free: i. e. bring it across the border.



So, if any one from Geno's happens to read this, you've really let us down in Canada.



Just my $0. 12836 of input.

 

[LoneRam]

Okay, I'll go first

First off let me say that I live in Hawaii and can sypathize with you to a certain extent. I pay $350 for a part and $150 in shipping. That stinks Also, living in Hawaii, I have no connection to Geno's other than I am a satisfied customer time and again. I have ordered severaly times and ALWAYS been taken care of. With no hassel. There have been cases where I thought orders were lost and they offered to ship a complete new order for me at no additional cost only to find out things take an extra day or two to arrive. I don't want to ramble, but I have always been well cared for and would have to say something must have gotten very fubard for them to overlook you. They gone out of there way to take care of me when they didn't need to. I hope they take care of you. I would call Robin and ask what went wrong. All good people. Just my . 02 coconuts.



LoneRam

 

[Turbo Horseman]

Appreciate your input Lone Ram... and the challenges of getting stuff out there. In the Territories, we have an all weather highway from Edmonton up to here in Hay River. Course that doesn't mean that we get competitive rates.



I'll try making that call. I'm severely choked about this. We both suffer due to "distances". Wonder if Hawaii and Alaska are next on the list of places not delivered to?

 

[Whitmore]

Turbo, it must be some kind of a de-boccle, Genos is a top quality place that does business by large volumns, Give em a call I think something fell thru a crack

 

[Gary - K7GLD]

"Give em a call I think something fell thru a crack"



Yeah - and THAT'S sort of a joke as well!



I just bought the new truck, and had picked out a couple of hundred bucks wort of add-ons I wanted to order from them via theit 800 number - only to find the outfit answering the phone doesn't TAKE their orders anymore!



That leaves me with either ordering via Internet, which I don't like to do cuz of credit card #'s and security issues - or else calling them long distance... SOOooo, I decided to simply sit on the order and see what I might find locally to d the job - and I have about half the stuff so far from local sources...





AND, last I checked, they STILL are listing the bogus 800 phone # on their web page - WAKE UP GUYS, yer losing business!

 

[Shovelhead]

You "above the border" guys might try contacting www.wildcatdiesel.com

Talk to Rod, he's an "above the border" guy too and can get most anything you're lookin' for.



I think the issue with trans border shipments is they keep dissappearing in transit. (maybe one of the Border Customs agents is accessorizing HIS Ram ).

Rod says he has had several shipments to the US end up MIA.

But that doesn't stop HIM from sending stuff "south".

 

[JHansen]

I ordered once from Geno's-did it over the 'Net-got what I wanted in a reasonable period of time. I do have some more stuff I want that I haven't been able to find anywhere else-I never bothered though when I heard they were not shipping to Canada anymore. Can't force anyone to sell to you-and I'm not gonna tell them how to run their business.....



Ed-you're right about Rod. Piers is another good one-spent a little time on the phone there yesterday talking to Al about this and that. I've never done business with Bill Kondolay-but I'd have absolutely no qualms about him either. 3 good guys on the north side of the 49th... ... . now if one of them would start handling Cup Smoothies I'd be in business!



Jason

 

[DennyDay]

Canadian Customs

Geno's has never let me down. Suspect the problem is with Canadian Customs trying to get across the border. You have a vote up there - fix the problem - don't rag on those who can't deal with your goverment.



Denny

 

[Geno's Garage]

Apology and Information

Well, it looks like we've got some explaining to do.



First, for the record, I just PM'd a sincere letter of apology to Turbo Horseman regarding this unfortunate situation. It was clearly our error.



Second, we do have to limit our shipments outside of the United States, but it doesn't have anything to do with resentment or arrogance or anything like that. Rather: loss and frustration.



Into Canada, we have historicaly shipped via US Postal Service, Air Mail. The cost is high, but not unacceptable. But, greater than 40% of all shipments into Canada never reach the customer. And we warranty every shipment.



For the 60% of the shipments that do arrive, approximately 1 in 10 were "refused" because of the "high duties" that the customers think Geno's Garage imposes on their shipment. We have nothing to do with those duties, but not everyone understands that. And pretty much none of those "refused" shiments ever make it back to us. We feel compelled to credit the customer on their word that they "refused" the shipment knowing the product was lost in the "system" somewhere, and we'd never see it again.



When you take the cost of the product, add on the cost of shipping and the duties imposed by Canada, many of our buyers just didn't want to shoulder the cost. And to be honest, we almost always lost money on every order we shipped internationally.



Now, with all of that said, for those individuals who we have done business with us in the past, we need to be more flexible in our position. If you were willing to assist in sharing the additional cost (i. e. shipment via UPS) and understand the duties are imposted by the government - not us, we will be happy to work with you. Just give us a call to discuss. Phone: 770-886-2500 or 800-755-1715.



Regarding Gary - KJ6Q's post about our "bogus" telephone number, it is not "bogus. " It is a good number: 1-800-755-1715. We employ about six individuals total, and we cannot man the telephones 24/7. So we hired another company to handle our phones on weekends, holidays and nights. So many of you complained about their lack of technical knowledge that we decided to have them only "take messages" at nights. If you dial 1-800-755-1715 on any Monday - Friday (non holiday) between the hours of 8:00 a. m. and 7:00 p. m. EST, you will get one of us on the telephone. We are currently working to have our phone coverage extended until approximately 10:00 p. m. EST, and this should be available in late-July. Hope this clears up any telephone confusion.



Again, to any international customer that we may have inadvertantly offended, we sincerely apologize.



Robin

Geno's Garage

800-755-1715

770-886-2500

 

[Whitmore]

Robin, Is there enough business or potential business in Canada to warrent a branch office/warehouse ? eh

 

[fj40charles]

Robin,



Thanks for the update. Doesn't make good business sense to. I guess we (the customer base) has to "shoulder" the cost of shipments that are lost and/or refused to Canadian location.



For the record, I've never had any issue with Genos. Robin has been very helpful and has helped me out in situations by asking the vendor to drop ship a product when it was out of stock.

I'm very happy with the level of service and continue to recommend Genos to my friends.



Also, I've had better luck talking to Robin during their normal work hours and ordering from her.



Disclaimer: not affliated with Genos.



Charles

 

[WDaniels]

Turbo Horseman,

I feel for you but the situation goes both ways. There have been things made in Canada I have wanted to buy and not only will they not ship it to me but they won't even take my phone calls. I had to get a hold of them over the net. It's frustrating when you only live just over the border and it's like you live on the moon. I wish that the two countries would get their act togeather so we could ship both ways. Looks like NAFTA loses again.

WD

 

[Gary - K7GLD]

Robin - I appreciate your reply to my 800 number complaint and will offer what would SEEM to be a rather OBVIOUS solution to head off irritated phone customers (like ME!):



Why not attach the simple notice as the the HOURS the 800 number will actually GET a customer to a Geno's operator - instead of leaving them to find out the HARD way...



(see how EASY that was?)

 

[BFC]

I used to import sport equipement from the US to Canada and believe me it can be frustrating. It's not complicated but I can see Geno's point, rewards aren't woth the assle.



The problem with the private carrier (UPS/FedEx) is they make you use a customs broker, and those have minimum fees, and on small orders those can see and are substantial.



As for my fellow Canadians, wake up guys (those that have refused boxes du to high dues) NAFTA does work and the due are actually minimal, you are getting screwded by the Canadian sales tax!



Example you order 100$ USD from Geno's How much to your door you ask? Well let's see Exchange rate 50%(ball park) Taxable Value CD 150$ X GST (9% = 13. 50) $169. 50 CD Now ad import duties (on 99% of imports are less than 5%, most of them 3%) 169. 50 X 5% (yes they TAX a TAX!) 8. 48$ = 177. 98 Now if your lucky enough you live in a province that doesn't tax imports to individual if not add Provincial sales tax to that total 8% (or so)



177. 98 X 8% = 14. 24 + 177. 98 = 192. 22$ CD. Now if you used a private courrier add the custom brokers fee to that total, usually around 20$ So you 100$ from Geno's just cost you 212. 22$.



$112. 22 of it is exchange rates and taxes and duties. Import duties are less that 8$, free trade does work, socialism doesn't! And people ask me why I moved to TX, aside from the weather.



Sorry for the long post, just tought I'd share my experience with Canada/US import/exports.



Glenn

 

[Geno's Garage]

Good Idea

Gary - KJ6Q, good suggestion. We had removed the reference to the ability of callers to place orders 24 hours a day, 7 days a week a couple of catalogs ago (when we changed our process).



If it is clearer if we specify our hours, we'll do so in the next catalog. No problem. Thanks for the suggestion.



Robin

Geno's Garage Staff

 

['956Wheel]

Rockin' Robin!

I have dealt with Geno's and can't say enough good about them! I had a oil filter that just would not screw on... called Geno's and Robin had it in my mailbox in just a couple days!



Also Robin knows about our trucks and had the patience to deal with many issues... . remember the "last name" thing?



Now I'm thinking about that molding for my 3500..... just a few bills away! Anyone put these on a 3500?



Mike

 

[BK]

I'm sorry to hear our friends to the north are getting the royal shaft from the system.



I live in the US and have had nothing but great service from Genos.

 

[Gary - K7GLD]

Well, Robin, it sure would have made a difference in MY situation - can't speak for others - and when the sweet lady told me they no longer took orders for your company, she didn't bother to indicate I *could* reach you thru that same 800 number during normal business hours, so I naturally assumed the 800 number was no longer good. THEN, I did the next best thing, and went to your website to find the RIGHT 800 number, and saw it was the SAME one I had already struck out on...



And yeah, *I* am as cheap as the next guy, and when doing business at a distance, particularly when a credit card is involved, I prefer the 800 number, since I've been left on hold FAR too many times to add that expense to my order!



If I had only known that the 800 number WAS good during business hours, I'd have the nice gray carpet dash cover and chrome wheel well trim on in time for our RV trip a week from today...



Not to mention the side window gadgets that allow the window to be rolled down slightly without excessive wind blast and rain intrusion - and then there's that nifty bug/fender guard/shield - and... .

 

[JHansen]

I understand where you are coming from Robin now that you put it in hard and fast #'s. I will be honest-when I first heard you weren't shipping north of the border anymore it got my back up..... but as I said before I won't tell anybody how to run their business-God knows I don't take very much advice about my own!



UPS is kinda a pain in the butt out here in the sticks as they end up interlining with a local trucking company for final delivery and it can end up anywhere in 3 separate towns depending on the driver's mood that day. The customs broker fee is a bummer too. However, if you guys are willing to ship to us northern folk that way I will deal with the problems they present me... . hey-it won't be the first time and probably won't be the last time!



I'll give you guys a call next week sometime with my want list and we'll see what we can work up!



Jason



PS Denny-if you think that we can influence what Canada Customs (or now more accurately Canadian Customs and Revenue Association) does by changing the government-things must be a way different down there than they are here. Bureaucrats aren't elected-and very very hard to remove from their ivory towers..... Cool truck in the TDR mag-picked up a few tips to use for my own work truck.

 

[LBTRS]

My first order with Geno's was delayed by UPS for some reason and when I called Geno's to inquire it's whereabouts they looked it up and seen it had shipped and were suprised I'd not recieved it yet. She (don't remember which one it was) offered to ship the order again to make sure I got it soon. I told her thanks but I'd wait a couple more days to see if it showed up. Sure enough, the next day it arrived. I can't say enough about the dealings I've had with the staff at Geno's.



Keep up the great job.