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Short answer:
Due to the numerous complications that we’ve experienced over the years, we are no longer accepting customer supplied parts. As a business, we want to provide the best experience for everyone and if someone is bringing their own part, there is a greater potential for an issue to occur. (Even greater with aftermarket or “lifetime” parts!) We know there will likely be folks that don’t like this policy, however from a business perspective, this is the right decision for us and for the customer. The only exception to this policy is if there is an off-situation when we need to ask the customer to find their own part.
Long answer:
Let’s look at some customer supplied parts scenarios and remember there is no labor warranty on customer supplied parts.
Customer has a waiting appointment or has dropped off their vehicle. We notice that the part they provided is not correct. We now must tell the customer that we cannot complete the service. Of course, this is an inconvenience to the customer and has now also cost our business/technicians the time we reserved for this service. Boo!
Let’s say the repair takes several hours to remove the part. We install the customer supplied part, and it’s a bad part, just doesn’t work, what we call a “bad part, out of the box”. Or it’s the right box, but the wrong part, (insert maniacal laugh) BWAHAHAHA! There was no way for us to know this prior to installing the part. The customer needs to find a replacement part. Now we need to put the customer’s vehicle back together, so they can leave, and we can have our lift available to proceed with other work. The customer would then have to pay the labor to remove the part, put the old part back on, and then pay to do the job all over again. Sheesh!
Using that same situation, what if this part was necessary for your vehicle to operate. Now we have a car on our lift, a bad part that the customer needs to exchange, and their vehicle is holding up our lift until they can get us a new part. And what if, they find out that the part is not available locally or maybe on the infamous galactic backorder. OOPS! We could charge per hour the vehicle is on our lift, but we also know that the customer would be extremely upset. Lose-Lose again!
Let’s say, the part was fine, we installed, and everything seemed great. Yay! Few months later, the part fails. Maybe there is a warranty for the part (maybe not), but no warranty on labor, so you are paying to do the job again. How long will it last this time? No idea. What I do know is that they have now paid more for this repair than if we supplied the part for them in the first place. Well, that didn’t go as planned.
None of these situations are the shop’s fault, however the customer has now been inconvenienced, will end up having to pay more for labor and needs to reschedule service, which also costs them more time, money & hassle. They aren’t going to be happy, even if the shop informs the customer of the potential risk and charges. The customer might even complain about it on social media or post bad business review. Again, not the shop’s fault, but now the part fiasco reflects poorly on the business.
Now let’s just get down to the very bottom line. Businesses profit from product sales, which include a markup, that’s how it all works. We know that we have a fair markup, we aren’t trying to gouge anyone, we are just running a business. The markup also ensures that we are sourcing and providing a good quality product (sometimes it’s way harder than it should be!), we take on the responsibility of replacing the part if it is incorrect or fails, you have a 1-2 year warranty for the part and labor, and we’ll even offer accommodations should this cause an inconvenience. Win-Win! We’re both happy!
If you are having the vehicle towed to our shop, please call and leave a detailed message of the issue on our voicemail or send an email to info@stellarautoservice.com. If dropping off the vehicle, you can also use our provided key drop envelopes to provide information.
