I am kind of surprised that the people that have bitched about cheap aftermarket parts that don't fit are complaining when the Genuine VW parts are all of a sudden available again.
Yes, I have my issues with VW too, but I think this is a good thing.
Richard, I worked for VW/Audi in Parts from 1976 to 1990 and sold as much in the way of Genuine parts as I possibly could.
I worked very hard and was in competition even back then with the like of G&S.
I could sell genuine parts on quality with no problems back then as aftermarket suppliers didn't have the depth of stock to compete with much apart from the basics.
However later on along came a supplier (in England) that could supply genuine VW Parts at prices far below what I could?
How could this be??? Who can get the stuff at such prices??? How could anyone get all the genuine parts that I as a main dealer could, and sell them at below cost.. and in such volume??
Very often my customers would be buying these items cheaper than I (a vw main dealer) could!!! I couldn't argue with customers, when they told me that they couldn't buy from me because I was too expensive..
I tried (in Vain) to find out where this company was getting it's genuine parts, but simply couldn't get any answers from anyone.
I argued with VW that I (and every other dealer) was being undermined by this sudden influx of parts, but to no avail..
My business went down by over 30%..
Then, quite by chance I happened to be passing one of my Friend's vw workshop on a Saturday morning and dropped in for a chat and a cup of tea, I knew he had been finishing up a cool '59 Cabrio.
Whilst I was there a courier called with a parcel of parts, from the Supplier in question.
I can remember the conversation so clearly, even all these years later...
I joked with my friend about why he hadn't bought the part from me and obviously it had been down to price (as always..)
I opened the parcel and too my amazement, I found that I was looking at not only a Genuine Parts Sticker, but also a VW Stock Location Picking Slip?
This is the Label given to all Genuine Parts when they are put into Warehouse locations, before distribution to Dealers.
This Location Slip, gives the Part Number, Parts Description, Bin Location and ISSUING DEALER??
The issuing Dealer was DEALER 990.
Having worked for VW or many years by then, I knew that there were not 990 Dealers in the UK so had no idea where this Dealer might be located.
I took the slip and when I got into work on Monday I began investigating Dealer 990?
At first when I spoke to VAG UK Headquarters at Milton Keynes, I got very little help whatever??
Nobody seemed to want to answer questions about 990??
By about lunchtime I got a call from my boss asking me to come directly to his office?
I can still see his face as he opened the door. He looked REALLY WORRIED?
Basically my probing about Dealer 990 had promted a phone call to him from VAG Milton Keynes.
He told me that in 20 years of working as a Main VW Agent, he'd never been treated like that before.
A similar thing had happened several years earlier regarding some nos vw parts that I was selling at a vw show?
I got a call from VAG Milton Keynes asking how/why i was selling the parts??
He told me to drop it PERIOD??
I had a think about he situation and decided it would be best to let the dust settle a bit on Dealer 990, but it was interesting to note that all the calls we made to VAG Milton Keynes from then on, went through the main switchboard and not directly to the requested departments???
A few weeks later I was due to attend a meeting at VAG Milton Keynes, but was told at the last minute that the meeting was cancelled?
My friend (from another dealership) called me the next day and asked me why I hadn't turned up for the meeting?.........
I decided that I had to get to the bottom of all this and got in touch with an old pal at Milton Keynes that I knew I could trust.
He didn't want to talk about it at all and told me to let it go... leave it alone he told me, you don't need to know?
Eventually he gave in and told me that my enquiry about Dealer 990 had caused the biggest 'flap' ever at VAG Milton Keynes...
He said people were running around having whispered meetings and doors that were always open..were firmly closed??
He told me the reason for this is that Dealer 990 was an INTERNAL DEALERSHIP AT VAG MILTON KEYNES!!!!
Nobody was ever supposed to find out about it and the Picking Slip was the mistake that somebody had made, that let out the secret...
Once I knew this I went straight to my Boss and told him the full story. He wasn't to happy about it??
What happened next was that whilst walking around at VW Action a few weeks later I was approached by this chap who started having a go at me for trying 'Fuck up his Business'... and 'What the Fuck' did I think I was doing.......
I explained (very politely for me..) that what I was actually doing was trying to protect my own and the business of every VW Dealership in the UK and that in my opinion the prices that he was receiving from VAG Milton Keynes should be available to everyone..
I said to him that as he was not even a VW Agent, he had NO right to being giving me any kind of shit about this ..
So what this guy wanted was to be able to undermine every franchised VW Dealer in the UK and have all the Air'Cooled parts business to himself??
So instead of VW enthusiast being able to walk into his local vw dealership and get parts over the counter, he wanted a monopoly of the market and couldn't see anything wrong with that idea..
What I was arguing or is that i think that you should have 'choice' about where you buy your parts and that monopolies are never a good thing for the customer..
So when I hear that VW is deciding to start selling 'Classic Parts' again and that one particular supplier has been chosen for this task, you'll understand why perhaps I'm not too happy about it.......
Why VW have decided that dealers cannot sell parts any longer is a mystery to me...
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