nick mercedes
MB Enthusiast
Euro Car Parts acquires rival Andrew Page
Gobbled up by ECP, will prices rise by 30% to cover the "discounts"?
Gobbled up by ECP, will prices rise by 30% to cover the "discounts"?
bye bye andrew page
- Thread starter nick mercedes
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Simon_M
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No competition to you my chap - they deliver their goods to customers.
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Andrew Page bought up my freinds company called Camberley Auto Factors. However, he kept the freehold on the buildings
It is alleged that shortly after selling ECP, after his no compete clause expired, Sukpal Singh (Founder of ECP) started up a rival to ECP and took a few key staff. New owners were so mortified they offered a financial settlement and took the key staff back and retained Sukpal as a consultant. Talk about getting two bites at the cherry!
Have to admire Sukpals business acumen. Personally wouldnt use them ever as the quality of parts is in my opion rubbish compared to genuine parts.
It wouldnt surprise me to see ECP now target GSF and others.
OP
OP
nick mercedes
MB Enthusiast
I would have thought any town with a branch of ECP or AP will see one close, is there another national factor?
Surely just ECP and GSF left now?
Its all price driven now, nobody cares if its genuine or not, just needs to be cheap or appear to be cheap.
The _Don
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nick mercedes said:
They should follow your lead, take payment and retain the goods ;0))
No competition to you my chap - they deliver their goods to customers.
:bannana::bannana:
Yugguy
MB Enthusiast
Interestingly, ECP have been doing their 30% off thing recently.
Well if you go on ebay and buy from carpartsbargains, they are actually ECP and the price from carpartsbargains is the same as the discounted ECP price.
Well if you go on ebay and buy from carpartsbargains, they are actually ECP and the price from carpartsbargains is the same as the discounted ECP price.
Motorparts Direct, Jayar Components, Exhaust Unlimited and more absolutely loads of them.
Mrhanky
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Agree lots of well known local smaller companies. It's well known around my area that Bromsgrove motors will match ECP prices and often get the obscure stuff ECP don't list.
brucemillar
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I have to say that my local Jayar are really very good. This is in no small part down to their long serving, helpful and friendly staff (I am not shareholder or employee).
They will always offer a range of alternatives on most parts along with a range of prices. They will have a deal if you are prepared to haggle with facts. i.e. When you call up have the website detail in front of you. So if you tell them "ECP have it at this price" they will at least match or even better, go slightly lower.
I had just bought a whole load of parts for Mrs M's C240 including a full set of pads, discs and wear sensors. The car was written off before I could fit them (not with brake failure ;ˆ)) Jayar, without haggle simply bought the parts back offering me a credit note or a refund.
I am now loyal to them, simply as they they are nice to me and don't fleece on prices or sell me "dodgy parts"
A word to the wise here: I have noticed that more Indie's (including my trusted chap) are not happy to fit ECP, customer purchased parts?
Why?
There is an increase in parts fitted then being found to be faulty or defective. The customer then wants the Indie to replace with customer replacement parts at the Indie's expense for labour!
I had a full set of ECP - Pagid discs fitted to my C55. Result = hellish front braking vibration. My Indie told me that this was becoming a staple. He pulled the discs off while I was with him and showed me the freshly cleaned hub faces, that he had cleaned himself that morning. Fitted a set of his sourced Pagid Discs onto the same hubs = No vibration.
Now in fairness. ECP offered to take the discs back, have them inspected and replaced or refunded (if found to be faulty). The issue I have is that I cannot expect the Indie to tie up his ramp awaiting this process. It needs to be a "no quibble"replacement program.
Why two sets of PAGID discs were different? I have no idea. Had I had the time I would have sent them direct to PAGID for inspection.
They will always offer a range of alternatives on most parts along with a range of prices. They will have a deal if you are prepared to haggle with facts. i.e. When you call up have the website detail in front of you. So if you tell them "ECP have it at this price" they will at least match or even better, go slightly lower.
I had just bought a whole load of parts for Mrs M's C240 including a full set of pads, discs and wear sensors. The car was written off before I could fit them (not with brake failure ;ˆ)) Jayar, without haggle simply bought the parts back offering me a credit note or a refund.
I am now loyal to them, simply as they they are nice to me and don't fleece on prices or sell me "dodgy parts"
A word to the wise here: I have noticed that more Indie's (including my trusted chap) are not happy to fit ECP, customer purchased parts?
Why?
There is an increase in parts fitted then being found to be faulty or defective. The customer then wants the Indie to replace with customer replacement parts at the Indie's expense for labour!
I had a full set of ECP - Pagid discs fitted to my C55. Result = hellish front braking vibration. My Indie told me that this was becoming a staple. He pulled the discs off while I was with him and showed me the freshly cleaned hub faces, that he had cleaned himself that morning. Fitted a set of his sourced Pagid Discs onto the same hubs = No vibration.
Now in fairness. ECP offered to take the discs back, have them inspected and replaced or refunded (if found to be faulty). The issue I have is that I cannot expect the Indie to tie up his ramp awaiting this process. It needs to be a "no quibble"replacement program.
Why two sets of PAGID discs were different? I have no idea. Had I had the time I would have sent them direct to PAGID for inspection.
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Hi,
It's a shame you never sent the faulty parts to Pagid for inspection and confirmation that they were genuine.
I worked for a tier 1 automotive supplier and was part of their anti-counterfeit team. You would be amazed at the amount of counterfeit parts that are in the market and it is increasingly difficult to tell them from the originals from the packaging.
Functionally the counterfeit parts often fall very short of the real thing.
OK for ladies handbags - not so good for brake pads!!
Cheers
Steve
If ECP or another larger company approaches you/Euromerc with a large pay cheque, you would turn them away?
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Partco
Dingbro
Brown Bros
Pistons & Components
Bosch
Incidentally , I'd never heard of AP , perhaps they were just down South ?
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That's interesting as I too had a set of Pagid discs , bought from ECP as they had no stock of my preferred ATE at the time - the Pagid discs were fine for a few weeks then appeared to have warped as there was a cyclic unevenness in the braking . In fairness , ECP did offer to inspect when I mentioned it on here , but I never got round to returning them and the ATE discs I ordered in to replace them were fine as long as I kept the car ( C270 ) .
With my 190E , I couldn't source ATE , so have just fitted Brembo discs all round and will see how they go .
Partco went pop last year ,Andrew Page took over some of their branches. Numerous motor factors have gone bust over the past few years , and those that remain are under increasing pressure to reduce prices.
I work for a company that supplies bearings and other components to the factors . We supply OEM brands to the factors and are frequently asked to match prices of low quality "budget" imports.
As mentioned in other posts , bearings are one of the products which are counterfeited in China , India , etc , and are finding their way into the marketplace.
As with many other businesses , the internet has had a dramatic effect on Motor Factor sales, particularly with cheap delivery from the likes of Hermes ,etc.
I work for a company that supplies bearings and other components to the factors . We supply OEM brands to the factors and are frequently asked to match prices of low quality "budget" imports.
As mentioned in other posts , bearings are one of the products which are counterfeited in China , India , etc , and are finding their way into the marketplace.
As with many other businesses , the internet has had a dramatic effect on Motor Factor sales, particularly with cheap delivery from the likes of Hermes ,etc.
John Jones Jr
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Also too, some factors offer limited choice. Used an indi factors recently in West London. No NGK plugs stocked, only Japarts oil filters offered and only two brands of engine oil. Hadn't got the correct diff oil in stock and were out of a leading brand engine coolant. Ten minutes on the net and bingo.
I do feel for motor factors that aim to please and assist their customers but I also find that customer service is poor to average and I'm certainly glad I don't need to rely on staff for technical assistance or advice - almost happier if I make my own cockups rather than look or hope for earnest advice or guidance.
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