Prestige Mustangs - A Cautionary Tale
 

In my quest to find a suitable engine for my Miata, I discovered Prestige Mustangs out of Atlanta. They have an abundance of Mustangs and I was quoted a price for a complete running engine, harness, ECU out of a 1989-1993 Fox body Mustang. (Cost was approximately $1750.00)

However, I began noticing some complaints from various buyers on a couple of the Mustang forums with regard to Prestige, so I decided to check out the BBB on them and was surprised to find they had a D+ rating.

When the owner of Prestige called me I indicated that I was sorry, but I could not do any business with them because of the information I found on the internet. I never got to mention the BBB rating as he cut me off and proceeded to tell me that those internet postings were old and that to be a successful business, there will be some pissed off people - If I didn't understand that mindset, then they do not want to deal with me and he promptly ended the call. :vash:

From my perspective, in order to REMAIN successful, you don't piss off your customers!

There may be some of you that experienced successful business dealings with this company, and that is great, but I chose not to use them and am continuing to look elsewhere. Please do your homework when evaluating any potential supplier for used parts and you won't have any regrets.

I am not disparaging this company, only relating my one experience and what I have found on the internet. It is quite possible this is an isolated incident. I just wanted to remind those of you who are looking for hardware to be diligent about knowing your source.

thanks for the heads up. its a shame companies can't focus on customer service.

I had a production body shop for many years in the northeast, the first year it was tough, tried to keep everyone happy no matter the cost(s). I had a 68% CSI (customer satisfaction index). The next year I changed my ways just a bit, and my CSI rating climbed to 85%, when I retired from the business in late fall of 2012, my quarterly CSI rating for the last 4+ years was rock steady at 98.7%. In that time, I realized that I could kill myself trying to make everyone happy, instead I my team and my mindset in to putting out the best product I could, and let the naysayers be damned. 10,000+ vehicles through my paint booth in that time.......

Upon reviewing my feedback and the differences between my lower and higher CSI scores, I realized that the majority of the negative ones were from folks who expected more than they paid for. So my job from then on was to make sure I set the customers expectations before they ever dropped the car off for service. Sure I could not make everyone happy, but it was not for a lack of trying.



Just thought you would want to hear it from the other side of the equation.


Bill S.

I appreciate your perspective, Bill.

^what he said! Unfortunately, the customer is not always right. I have had customers turn into real idiots. I am a pool contractor. There was one instance where the customer leveled the house except for the pool shell. He became very difficult and it got to the point where I wrote him a check to refund 100% of the money he had given me and left all the work that we had done in place. After many years you can tell when a customer is going to be difficult and you price it accordingly or turn down the work completely.
This is also a topic that irritates me, specifically the websites like Yelp where people can gripe and the business owner has no clue that it happened or the ability to tell the other half of the story.
David

I work in live event production (sound, lighting, video etc) and after a while you do get to know when a job/client is not worth it, no matter the price.
Depending on the customer, we may add a PITA (pain in the ass) tax to the quote, or we may simply "already be booked" for that date.