Let me start by saying that I purchased my suspension and a couple other misc parts (around $1k in parts) about 2 years ago when Southwest had just launched, dealt with Max8MyCash (Alex I believe) and had a wonderful buying experience. I have recommended them to numerous other maxima and Altima owners as well.

I recently had an experience with them that will forever make me stay far away from this company. Steve was extremely rude to both myself and my dad on the phone, as well as actually stating that he didn't want our business and HUNG UP ON US!!! Neither I nor my dad raised our voices or were belligerent in any way.
Very very unprofessional. I'll post the entire story in my next post (a very long read).

Over the last 6 months my dad and I have spent over $3k in parts on another car getting it ready for the upcoming Solo II racing season, about 95% of all those purchases and shipping were done with companies in the EXACT way that southwest refuses to do it, even though you can if you purchase off their site and not over the phone. The only reason we didn’t do it on the site was due to a product not being listed on the site even though they can get it.

SouthWest YOU have lost my support

So in the end, I will not be purchasing nor recommending SOUTHWEST AUTO to anyone (and I do know alot of nissan owners). I am sorry to say that the lack of creative thinking on Steve’s part along with his rude attitude and his apparent lack of motivation to help out a long time supporter, has lost the company a lot of future income.

 

My dad and mother both recently got a 2k2 and a 2k3 maximas, So, I recommended Southwest for some parts they both wanted. Both wanted sway bars and my dad also wanted a CAI and FSTB. So we called them up and talked to the Manager Steve (y2ksesteve) and when I told him that the billing address would be different than the Shipping addy. Steve responded "Well we can't do that with such a big order, that is our policy" I went on to explain that my dad commutes about 100 miles to work on most days and his company does not allow personal shipments to be sent to the work address, it would just be easier to ship it to my house. Steve still wouldn't budge on his "policy" which I do understand, even though if you purchase online you can do exactly what they say you can’t do if you call them.
Later on my dad called back to get all the facts straight and asked Steve what the policy was exactly, Steve again stated that the order was too large to ship to anywhere but the billing Address or a business. My dad then asked “how much is too big?” to which steve replied after a bit of thinking “around $200”. To which my father said “great, then ship one sway bar and The FSTB this month, and next month I’ll another item and continue this for the next couple months until I have all the parts I want”
Now the Steve just starts pulling things out of the air, he says no we can’t do that, the orders are going to be too close together. So my dad asks “ok how much time do you need in-between? One month? Two months?” Steve didn’t have an answer to that. But continued that he couldn’t even do the FSTB and the sway bar even though that met the criteria that he had laid out previously. And other thing is that the “Policy” as stated by Steve allows shipments to businesses, which the address that we wanted everything to go to is, infact, a registered location on my business license, therefore making it a Business. Which again my dad reiterated to Steve. And after another few minutes of this back and forth Steve just HUNG UP…A call back ended with a lackey there asking “are you the person that just talked with steve?”…. “umm yes”….”We don’t want your business”…*click*

Now I understand “Protecting your customer” and all, but this was obviously not an attempt to scam. They have me and my address in their records from previous purchases. We were willing to breakup the shipments into smaller orders and spread them out over a few months. Which if this was a scam, then it most likely would have been found out in the first month, so why would be do that?
Then Steve’s “Policy” kept changing, it seemed as if he was just pulling it out of the air when ever we asked for clarification on any part of the “policy”. We still would have probably purchased from them and just dealt with the hassle of the shipping part some other way…but again Steve was beyond unprofessional in dealing with us.

SO LONG SOUTHWEST!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I have to tell you something. In five years of doing business, I have never encountered anyone not understanding a company policy. If you think that protecting credit card owners and our interests is a bad thing, then you must re-think again. All you had to do is agree to us shipping the items to THE

MATCHING BILLING AND SHIPPING ADDRESS.

That's it. Simple. But, you AND your father had to call, and ultimately, Steve told you as I always instruct my employees. If you as a consumer don't understand what we're trying to protect (you), and how we're doing it, then we really don't need your business. Besides, if anything was to happen (fraud of any kind), we would be **** out of luck. If we don't ship to the same address, we aren't covered by our credit card processing company.

Sorry and good luck with your vehicle/vehicles in the future. I sincerely hope you one day understand our point of view, and give us another chance.

Alex

 

Oh, and Steve hung up after he told your father numerous times that we wouldn't ship it to a different address (after fifteen minutes). Your father offered various excuses and options for us, but, there is only one option, regardless of the amount. We will ONLY ship to a verified bill/ship to address.

Alex

 

Ask anyone on this board, or any other board, and they will tell you that Steve is hands down the most helpful and most wonderful individual when it comes to dealing with customers. We get nothing but praises for employing Steve...just look at our flawless feedback on the .org, Altimas.net, B15sentra.net and many others. I am sorry that you didn't agree with our policies and that your father attempted to push Steve in every direction to persuade him to change his mind. In my eyes, Steve did all he could to help you understand that we wouldn't do what your father requested. I am sorry that you don't see that.

 

I think you are entirely missing the point of the whole thing,

First off, Steve could not tell EXACTLY what the policy was. And he kept changing his mind on the rules in this "policy"

Second He was extremely rude to both of us.

Third we tried to work with the ever changing "policy" that Steve was telling us. but everytime we came up with a solution he would change his mind on what he had stated previously. IE shipping to a BUSINESS, ORDERS "ABOUT $200" etc...

Fourth we still probably would have bought all the Items and just dealt with the shipping problem some other way, IE me driving 100 miles to his place on the day of delivery, just so we could order from you guys...Only because of my previous great experiances with SWA....But again both Steve and the other worker that talked to us on the phone were EXTREMELY rude.

Fifth I do very well understand that you are just protecting yourself and your customers...but in some cases generic rules can't apply to everyone...It is very clear that there WAS no fraud going on..in which case you would be fine. And if you can't see that then I really don't know what to say...

Sixth EVERY other place that we have purchased in the EXACT same way as we tried with you, has had the same type of policy. And after calling and explaining to them the circumstances NONE of them gave us and hassle or attitude like Steve did.

Seventh I went online and put everything except the PR CAI in there and went through the checkout and it gave me the option to do exactly what I wanted to do. The only reason I called was to get the PR CAI and try to get combined shipping costs.

 

Listen, you are missing my point. Was Steve rude to you when you talked to him at first? No. After fifteen minutes of being badgered by a customer, I would expect anyone to become irate, especially after being continuosly pushed around on the phone. Steve has the right to change the policy any which way he likes, and thanks to you and your father, we have established an even more strict policy of dealing with these issues. Steve has never, in the entire time he's worked here ever been rude. Like I said, ask anyone on this board about him and my company. But, had you called me on this situation, and did the same to me (since I wasn't here), I would have done the same exact. If you think that's rude, I can't help change your mind.

 

Oh, and since fraud runs rampant in this world, there are no "exceptions".

 

When I was first taking your order you gave me different billing and shipping addresses. This immediately raises a red flag and becomes questionable. We just cannot take the risk of sending out products to an address that is different than the billing address, which 99% of our customers understand. When Alex is gone and I'm here I do make the decisions and I also have the right to change the way we do business.

I spoke with your father for a while, and explained the same thing to him. We spoke for about 20 minutes and he came up with every idea imaginable to get us to ship it. Again, this is something we do not do. I apologize if I was rude or unreasonable, at any time, but in all honesty your father was not being reasonable nor could I get my point across. I decided to end our conversation so I could assist other waiting customers. I can only discuss the same point for so long, before it becomes pointless and repetitive.

Numerous times during our conversation I stated to your father that we do in fact want your business, but we do have to follow our policies set forth by Alex, the owner. Your father did and would not agree with these policies so I was unable to accept your business. Ask just about any vendor in the aftermarket car parts industry to do the same and see what they say.

Also, you can place your order online with different billing and shipping addresses, but even when that does happen we call the customer and let them know we will not ship it unless it goes to the billing address.

 

I know SWA's reputation well, I helped in some way to make it, by recommending SWA to everyone, and well frankly, now someone has given you something other than praises about Steve...there is no excuse for him being rude or hanging up on ANYONE that was just trying to get answers to very simple questions. And in no way raised his voice to Steve. I was standing there listening to the whole thing.

There was absolutly no pushing around of steve, he simply would say one thing...then when asked if something else would work...he would change his previous statment

Also Steve STATED that you COULD Ship to a different address than the billing address, just not on an order as large as ours was around $700 and when asked what the limit was Steve STATED "AROUND $200" ...then Steve REFUSED to ship a $200 order of the Sway bar and FSTB right after HE stated that he COULD do it for orders "AROUND $200"

 

Again, if it smells like fraud, it may be, and we don't take risks. I never said you raised your voice. I know that. However, after fifteen minutes of someone telling you that they won't do it, why continue to push the issue. Steve told you he cannot help you and cannot do business the way YOU wanted. Your father and you did not accept, and continuing to push the issue, Steve was forced to move on to the next call.

 

As always, we do RESERVE THE RIGHT TO REFUSE SERVICE AND BUSINESS TO ANYONE AT OUR DISCRETION.

 

And again I say, HE SAID THAT HE COULD ON SMALLER ORDERS OF "AROUND $200" THEN PROCEEDED TO CHANGE HIS MIND.

and 15 mins of talking for a $700 order is not much...Hell I wish I could get all my orders for my company with such little work...Plus I would never dream of hanging up on someone for asking questions like that.

 

He has the RIGHT to change his mind however he wants. I have given him the RIGHT to do so. And again, I say, you and your father pushed the issue, and Steve's last words were: "I am sorry we cannot accept your business, have a nice day". So that's rude? I think not.

 

I also have the RIGHT to let everyone on the org that you are not without fault...Which is what this forum is for. and that is all I am trying to do
problems and issues do occur and it is how you deal with them that makes good or poor buying experiances...this time Steve did not deal with this in a good way and therefore I am letting everyone know that ..I will not be recommending SWA to anyone. It is fine that you have "Refused to do business with me" Steve knows that the way he was talking to either of us was not and is not the right way to talk to or deal with a customer..

 

We are NOT without fault. We try our hardest to please everyone. It doesn't always work. You and your father are one of those who could not be pleased. I really don't know what else to tell you. I asked every single one of my employees who were present to tell me what happenned, and everyone's story matches. I will have to consider that if nobody else in my business thought Steve was rude, I would have to side with him.

 

so put the charge on your credit card and send it to your house. end of story and have your Daddy pay you back. ill still be purchasing my products from SWA as im sure 99.9999% of the org will be doing as well!

 

It seems extremely suspicious that your father was pushing the issue so hard. If I were Steve and I were on the phone with you, I would have done the EXACT same thing. Internet fraud is a piece of cake with an unverified address. Sorry, but welcome to 2004.

A policy is a policy and if you don't like it, don't buy from them. Think about what you are complaining about here, for chrissake...... You are leaving them negative feedback on a transaction that never happened because YOU can't play by the rules.

Alex/Steve- I appreciate the fact that you didn't take this guy's business because cutting down on fraud keeps your prices low to customers like me (who haven't been to your store in an eon, but that's another story...).

My judgement here is for the defendant..........

 

PS- If any of you have ever met Steve, you would realize just how far-fetched this thread is about him being "rude". Good God......

Also, how many .org vendors do you see reply to threads like this REGULARLY???? Not many..... It shows that SWA actually does strive to be there 100% for customers.

Man, threads like this p!ss me off....

 

I have been down to SWA and hung out with steve and alex a few times and they are always helping people in anyway possible. They know there stuff. I don't blame them for not sending to a different addy. and you can tell like asu174 said that they care or else they wouldn't be clearing everything up.

 

I am not only complaining about the POLICY I am talking about, it is the WAY they handlied the entire thing. and a Policy is a Policy but changing the "POLICY" in the middle of a conversation is another thing completely. Saying that you can do something under a "policy" then saying nevermind what I said before...you can't say THAT is following a policy. That is making up excuses.
There are a ton of ways he could have verified the order...one would be doing a reverse lookup on the phone number I was calling from. just for starters.
First they said orders "Around $200" would be fine to ship. Then they said that shipping to a Business would be fine...Again I gave them a business Address to send to and they again changed their "policy".
And if this is so suspicious why have at least 5 different very well established aftermarket online part stores done EXACTLY the thing that SWA won't? There is a very good reason why My dad doesn't want the shipments to his house which we told Steve right from the beginning.

 

ok here's a new insite for you.

call your credit card company...let them know that you want an alternate shipping address and you want an order to be shipped there. when you order give them your shipping address and now the CC company will reconize that the shipping address is not your billing but it's a valid address for the vendor. vendor gets a green light and it's all good from there. problem solved!

SWA is covering their rear.
call up tire rack...same thing...they will not send to a 3rd party address...are u going to sit there and argue and try and find a loophole in their company policy?

on the rude part...there's 2 sides to every story..you're giving your side and trying to get us to feel bad for you...but you know what? the members stands by our good vendors....and also will complain about the bad ones. it'll be quite difficult to get someone to side with you here.

on a personal note...i've had nothing but EXCELLENT SERVICE from these guys.
Dan

 

So, you are angry that they deal with potential internet fraud on a case by case basis? So their "policy" isn't concrete.......big deal. Based on how pushy your dad sounds, I am guessing that Steve got a bad vibe from him mid-conversation and decided to back out of the deal altogether.

The thing that drives me nuts is that Alex and Steve bend over backwards for people- almost to the point where they are being taken advantage of on a regular basis. Then guys like you come along and try to give them a bad name for something as ridiculous as this.

.......and on the flip side, as Danny said, there are a ton of ways you could have had your merchandise shipped to a verified address. Add your dad's work address to your CC company, pay via money order, etc, etc.

That's not Southwest Autoworks' problem- that's yours.

 

I am in no way trying to get anyone to feel bad for me or to side with me on anything... the last time i checked a Vendor Experiances Forum was for telling people about your experiance with particular vendor whether it is good or bad..
I acknowledged that I have had very good experiances with Alex at SWA in the past. But that does not excuse the fact that Steve at SWA was rude and kept going back and forth ond what he would or would not do, to both myself and and my dad. I'd advise everyone to READ the entire post before you make comments about the situation.

Notice that niether Alex nor Steve are denying that steve DID change what the 'Policy" actually was during the phone conversations. If your policy is going to be we won't ship an order to a non-billing address if it is over "about $200" and that is what you tell customers then that is what the policy should be...but don't tell customers what the "policy" is and then 30 seconds later say that you can't ship a $200 order to a non-billing address.
Then also state that the same "policy" allows shipping to a business address and then later on say you can't ship to a business address. THAT IS THE ISSUE

 

Yes, Steve changed the policy. That is 100% true. But the fact of the matter is that we are not talking about WalMart that has strict, corporate policies regarding EVERYTHING. We are talking about a three-man operation that deals with things on a case-by-case basis.

I'd also be willing to be that they don't face requests like this very often. Why? Because most people know how to set up their credit card to have their shipping address also be their billing address. You can have two or three different addresses attached to credit cards these days, if I am not mistaken.

Anyhow, your feedback is appreciated, but I don' think many people are going to see eye to eye with you on this. Steve was just trying to make sure that their company does not lose money to fraud.

 

"Steve was just trying to make sure that their company does not lose money to fraud"----final words....

 

This can drag on for hours on end. If everyone else thought I/we were wrong for handling the situation this way, they wouldn't be agreeing with us. I hope some day you'll see where I'm coming from.

 

Why would someone call to find out if they could combine shipping to save money if they were using a stolen card? That just doesn't make sense. You have my address on file with some damn big purchases, that you had no problem with. With a little bit of work Steve could have checked that, but he didn't and wouldn't. So no more support from me for SWA it is that simple.

 

I urge everyone and anyone to read all 7 pages of vendor feedback, and you will see that Regime is the only complaint that we've had on this board. If that's a bad way to do business, then I guess we run a bad business....

 

Excellent. Thank you for pointing that out. All I'm saying is that as much excellent service we do give out, there will always be someone we can't please. That someone is you. And I'm sorry we can't. Good night.

Alex

 

David and Daniel, thank you for business. I am glad you chose to give us a call, and gave us your business again!

The crew and I are here, so if there is anything else we can do for you, feel free to give us a call!

Alex

 

In my experiences, the people at Southwest Auto Works have been nothing but patient, kind, helpful and totally cool !

In my dealings with Southwest, we have had stuff shipped to our business address because we live out in the sticks and are often not home during the day.... however, I would rather do business with Southwest Auto, and get my shipments delivered to my house, than go with another company and get the run around, and crappy products.

Ceasar and I have spent nearly 10K on parts last year, and Southwest Auto Works has been hands down one of the best companies to work with, as well as Cattman Performance.

Every Maxima enthusiast we talk to about aftermarket mods, at the track, on the street, or some guy coming up to us at Picadilly's, we always highly recommend Southwest and Cattman.

You gotta recognize, that credit card fraud happens all the time and business's have to protect themselves... if that means shipping to a registered address then so be it, if it means loosing your order, so be it. For a company, it's better than loosing hundreds, if not thousands of dollars worth of parts because of someone else's dishonesty.

 

This is my first order with Southwest Auto Works. My order does include a billing shipping discrepency. I explained what I wanted and why at the outset and it was done. Period. No Problem.

Thats my experience, no hassle, no problem.

 

Let me just say once again that the fact that they have a policy to protect them from fraud WAS NOT THE ISSUE!!!! Again, PLEASE READ THE ENTIRE THREAD BEFORE POSTING YOUR COMMENTS ON THIS MATTER!!!
The issue was that Steve kept changing the policy, and was rude about it, hung up on us, then another employee did the same when we called back.
Like I said before I have had excellent service from SWA in the past and was expecting to have more of the same when my dad and I called this time...

Now just to set the record straight, after much talking back and forth with Alex at SWA we eventually resolved most of this issue. Steve and Alex apologized to myself and my dad for Steve not handling this in an appropriate way. I give props to Alex for caring enough to actually dig enough to find out what actually happened. Now whether or not he would have done so if I hadn't started this thread I am not certain, but he did make a very big effort to get to the bottom of this and I thank him for that.
And just so everyone knows we DID end up putting our order through SWA after all this, and Alex even gave us a discount, as an apology, even though we told him that wasn't necessary, and that the pricing was never an issue with us.
And for the record not everyone knows that you can have multiple billing addresses attached to a credit card, I used to work at a bank and issued CC’s all the time and never knew that you could do that.

Jime- I am glad that you had no problems doing what we tried to do at SWA, and your comment just furthers my original point. That is exactly what we were trying to do and we were hassled about it, in your case apparently you were not, I am very glad for you.

 

Regime, as a result of many years of fighting fraud, as well as your situation and others like it, we have implemented some internal (not open to customer knowledge) policies and regulations, as well as initiated further research availabilities thru our cc processor. This allows us to have various degrees of protection on our end. Most people don't know this, but I don't mind telling everyone. Back in August of 2003, I (my company) was scammed for $100,000 +, and I was ready to shut SWA down as a result of this very professionally executed scam. Thanks to many of my family members, as well as all the manufacturers who fought for me in this situation, we are still here. This is the reason why I am such an ******* when it comes to fraud. Because it damn near ruined my life, and it definetely emptied out my account, nearly destroying something I've worked for for over 5 years.

Alex

 

Regime, you're killing what was otherwise useable server space. Would you please stop whining and move on!

 

I am not whining at all, I was simply telling my experiance. I also had moved on (this thread was on page 3 till people started posting more stuff without reading the thread.) Besides most of my last post if you read it was explaining that Alex and I worked through this problem.

Alex- I am very sorry to hear that happened to you, We have already come to an agreement offline, I was not trying to dig all this up again, just responding to the guys that revived the thread without reading it again. And updating everyone on the situtation as it stands now. BTW when will the OTTO FSTB's be in?

 

come on swa, yall got to be the bigger man and not respond to negative criticism in a negative way. dude and his father probly were wrong for sweating yall so badly for parts that they could have gotten somewhere else anyway, but don't let this situation make the way you respond back unprofessional and disrespectful. your name and business is really strong and it will stay that way, but a little negative criticism is good sometimes, only keeps you on your toes thats all. in every business there are customers who you just can't satisfy and hate your guts, but also there's thousands more who really appreciates your service. so before you respond to some b.s. think about that.

 

+1 Ive never met or talked to Regime or his father but I can already tell the jist of his convo with Steve just by his argument on here and the fact that he wont let anything go. Arguing with him seems like a lost cause to you SWA guys, so why bother. Trust me, you have PLENTY of other customers who appreciate your customer support and running a good business.

Example 1) I saw on the org a little while back a guy who bought springs a week before a SWA GD on them. Due to his circumstances, Steve told the guy to call for a refund of the difference. I ask you, what other company would do that?

2) I ordered springs from this GD. SWA had 50 sets of springs in stock. I was customer #51. Steve told me they were out but he pulled strings and got me a set at GD price and they were at my door within that week.

There are countless stories like this, so to SWA, youve made a good argument and if anyone knows anything about maximas, threads like this wont change your business.

-Kevin

 

Wow sounds like a cool mom non the less wanting a sway bar....lol..