FCP Euro

Appreciate the kind words. As you can see, posting on a Saturday morning and all weekend long hopefully shows you all that this business to us is much more than a profit, its who we are. Its tough when you hear the negative, but the positive makes it all worthwhile.

Thank you for your input. I will address all of your matters in our next company meeting and form a plan of action towards a resolve.

Axles popping out while driving: This is not caused by a defective axle. An axle would break or snap, not come loose from the transmission. Volvo used about 25 different axles from 93-03 all depending on Vin #, chassis codes, AWD vs 2wd, production date etc etc. Fitment is a pain the rear with these things. We refuse to even sell a Volvo XC70 Axle from 98-00- because they are never right. Even our two dealers have trouble looking the axles up. We have had our defective axles, I can't lie. Its about 5 out of 1000. When we were in Groton, we sold rebuilt axles by Crown and various other re-builders and those failure rates were up to 20/ 1000 axles. For new axles, we have tried DSS, Wong, Dorset, EMPI, FEQ and have stuck to the manufacturers that have performed the best for us with lowest return rate. The genuine volvo axle lists for 429.54 and our cost from Volvo is 311.20 WITH an additional core charge (yes the Volvo axles are rebuilt). We attempted to sell Volvo axles but lost a tremendous amount of business because frankly no one would be willing to cough up 380 for a Volvo brand axle. Everyone complains that "FCP Prices keep creeping up." Everyone wants OEM products but aren't willing to pay the price. We don't choose to sell axles for $70, but that's what everyone wants, and what our competition is selling them for. Thermostats malfunctioning: Never heard of this before. Its a 9 dollar part. We would exchange it no questions asked. Their are post that have been questioning of late if you are really sending the oem part when a buyer opts for it. Never, ever ever. If it ever happened it was unintentional and we would provide a replacement that reflects the desired brand.

Again, thank you all for your wonderful welcome. As stated before, feel free to address any issues or concerns you may have- or ask any questions on particular items. We will be honest and open with respect to any of your questions. There is nothing you can't ask us.

Unfortunatley we are not done. When a problem like this arises we take it very seriously- besides I don't let things go. I do see that a majority of your previous posts are directed at our company- FCP sold themselves out to China, A strut from FCP went through the hood, a control arm from FCP came apart from the casting, FCP is substituting substandard parts, FCP is unethical etc etc. If you are going to make these claims, at least give us the courtesy of substantiating them for us. We entered this VS community knowing that not all would be praising us- which was expected. We are only human. Let this thread be your chance to express yourself. State your case and back them up with facts. Allow others to hear both sides and give us a reasonable action we can take to work towards a solution. We will not accept however outrageous claims towards a company that has only ever had its customers best interest in mind.

That is really up to VS- manufacturers they want tested and products they want tested We have close relationships with many vendors whom would not object to submitting samples for independent testing- This actually could be a lot of fun

1. We always give the option to go OEM, especially on control arms. 2. If this were really true, why not call Nick or myself to speak to us on this matter. Why not get the police involved? Lawyers? If that happened to me I sure as hell would have! 3. Do you know who the manufacturer was on the control arm you purchased from us at the time? 4. We have never had a control arm ball joint pop out of the casting. Never seen anything of the sorts before. 5. Who installed the products? You are making a lot of vague comments that are unsubstantiated. Please provide some solid proof so we can get to the bottom of these issues and correct them.

Speaking of that, just a heads up. When we do offer the discount, it will only be to supporting members of VS.

Thank you all for your warm welcome. We have wanted for many years to be more involved in the Volvo community. Feel free to to ask any questions, leave any comments, give any criticism. Hate it or love it, what you will get in return is honest answers from our company. My first response to you is that everything you are proposing we have thought, but its just not that easy. 1.) We deal with 6 major vendors that we fulfill stock orders to replenish inventory weekly/daily. If we label a part on the website "TRW Ball Joint" there is always the possibility that our vendor will be out the following day. We have over 4k unique skus we offer. If we were to label each sku a particular brand, it would be IMPOSSIBLE to guarantee what we list on the website is accurate and currently in stock. Then we have someone who thought they ordered a TRW Ball joint and received a Febi- demanding we pay shipping both ways because of false advertising and we end up loosing money on the transaction. We put aftermarket to save our ALL GLORY TO THE HYPNOTOAD. Its tough enough keeping parts in stock in general, regardless of the brand! 2.) We would love to but our Retail Management Software Platform (Coresense.com) does not have the capabilities. If we want to change something as basic as part of the text on the website we have to "open a ticket" which takes weeks if not months, costs hundreds if not thousands. I know what you will ask next,-why not change your retail management software? Nick and myself spent almost a full year analyzing and speaking with multiple supply chain management software (IBM Dynamics, Quickbooks Enterprise, Fishbowl, Netsuite, etc etc) You name it, we watched demos and asked every question imaginable. Coresesense was the only platform that could even come close to performing all of our daily functions and requirements. It was also the only available retail management software that could integrate properly with EBay, which is 46% of our revenue. 3.) The aftermarket Volvo parts industry would be lost without Scantech. They had some bad runs in production several years back. The quality of the products they are now producing today is superior to 95% of the pure crap out there. Scan-tech is HUGE in Europe. They are one of the gold standards for aftermarket Volvo and Saab products over there. Half of the products Scantech does not even produce, they are purchasing Sachs/Boge/INA/SKF and packaging under the Scantech brand. Funny story, the Scan Tech rep (actually I don't know if he was a rep, he was somebody way up the chain) was at our facility last week- so I got to tell them to their face, not over the phone. Fortunately for Scantech I don't give a "stuff" what people think I tell them how it is and how I feel. They thought everything was lovely until Nick and Myself explained that if they had to do one thing, and one thing only at Scantech was to go to google and type in "SCAMTECH" Volvo parts and address every single one of the concerns. We also expressed that they have to be very open if they did have some QC issues in the past, and tell the Volvo community what they have done to rectify these issues. Needless to say March 1 they have a dedicated individual to help re establish the tarnished Scantech name in the US, started a blog on the Scantech website to address all issues, and willing to provide any number of part samples for independent testing and comparison to the OE Volvo to be distributed throughout the community (such as VS). 4.) You cant resist- you know you want to: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/profile...amp;ref=profile Hey we may give a Facebook discount before VS Member discount LOL :o

Its actually Scott posting here- If Nick had the time to post of VS, I would be out of a job. It's my job to make sure that doesn't happen. I work alongside of Nick. I am sure all of you have spoken to me on several occasions. I sometimes insert foot in mouth so everyone thought I would fit well here. I like monkeys too.

Newbie here, Although we have only been a supporting vendor for 2 days now, collectively over the years FCP has read through the majority of threads and posts on this board. To many, VS is the primary source of car knowledge, entertainment, and general well being. Can someone explain to us why one of the most important threads has only received 32 replies? Maybe we are missing something here.

You need to make it down to Old Saybrook one day and check out the new 13k square foot facility!

are you planning on carrying performance parts and accessories?

scottd@fcpgroton.com

FYI, Our inventory is more comprehensive than many realize. We use 6 of the of largest European automotive parts vendors in the United States (Worldpac, SSF, Ramac, IMC, ESI, Northside), two Volvo Dealerships (Secor in New London, CT and Chase Parkway in Waterbury, CT), 30 smaller niche vendors in the USA, and about 10 vendors oversees that we directly import and export to. We will start a thread shortly on the difference between Genuine, OEM, OES, OEA, and Aftermarket- There is a difference which I have stated before and will state once again so it is not misused. Genuine Volvo = Genuine Volvo Blue Box OEM = Original Equipment Manufacturer (In the manufacturers packaging such as Sachs/Boge or INA)

9883 - Took it as a positive comment. Not to worry.

Great way to stay in business. Hope you at least told us about it.

FCP Groton Web 2.0 is being worked on as we speak. It is in the hands of our Graphic Designer. Here are some prototype mock-ups: http://www.fcpgroton.com/content/frontsample2.php http://www.fcpgroton.com/content/frontsample3.php

There were many demands placed on FCP from the Volvo Community when we were understaffed and simply did not have the resources or manpower to keep up. It was less than two years ago that it was just a two man show (Nick and Myself) and one shipper in an office the size of a shoebox. It was literally a 18 hour a day job, bending over backwards for people and that still wasn't good enough for most. Growing pains are tough. Now we have 20+ employees and a 13 thousand square foot facility. Bring it on.

To the Entire VS Community, Most of you already know us but In case you don't, we are FCP Groton and we would like to introduce ourselves to the rest of the Volvo community. We have worked day and night for the last 7 years simply for one reason, to gain the respect and admiration from all our customers. We started out as a small company in hopes to get the word out about the quality parts we sold. Along the way we learned that the relationships we created with you the customer was more valuable than any sales pitch or gimmick we could offer. We initially found success within the Volvo community for the mere fact that we listened to our customers and no matter how busy our days may have become, we never lost focus on your needs. We listened to your comments about things such as pricing, brands, shipping, warranties, returns and we realized most of what you were saying made sense. We initially took a lot of your advice and made necessary changes in hopes to make our customers even that more satisfied, and it worked. We started seeing a lot more of our Volvo customers coming back for more and more parts and spreading the word to other Volvo owners through message boards such as Volvo Speed and word of mouth. Now because of our dedicated loyal customers we are rapidly becoming the #1 supplier for Volvo parts. We realize that as you get bigger and bigger many companies forget about their initial promise of customer satisfaction and turn their back on the relationships they initially formed. We realize that all of our success comes from you the customer and instead of risking losing any of our already solid relationships, we are going to take an even more active role in keeping your trust and satisfaction at the highest level. We have just become a supporting vendor of Volvospeed and will have people dedicated to nothing but listening to your opinions and feedback. If we are doing something wrong or losing any customers, we want to do our best to let you know your voice matters and we value all your feedback. We have already sent a survey out to many of you and are already making changes where needed. You can view the results of the survey here For instance a large majority have told us we need to supply tools, and FCP is happy to announce we are in the process of adding an entire catalog of tools to our newly renovated 2.0 website coming soon. There is also a very high demand for OEM / Genuine Volvo Parts- which we already do supply and will be added to the website in the upcoming weeks/months. We are also proud to announce we have a certified technician on call all day long for any questions that need a little more technical attention. Besides our tech, we have also added a customer service team of trained phone reps to answer all or your sales, customer service, or return questions. We even have reps who speak Spanish if needed. We are also trying to take an active role in establishing our identity and creating more one on one relationships by letting you see some of the behind the scenes aspects of our company. Therefore we have created our very own blog at FCPGROTONONLINE and have become an active member on many social networks such as Myspace and Facebook. All of this is for you the customer, so at any time and in any way we can know if we are doing our very best to keep you safe on the road with quality affordable parts. As you can see we have come a long way since that small unknown company, and we attribute a large part of our success to the Volvo community who supported us from the beginning. As a thank you we will be working on a discount for all the Volvo Speed members in the next few weeks. We look forward to hearing from you and will do our best to live up to every quality you desire in a parts supplier. Sincerely The Entire FCP Groton Staff http://www.fcpgroton.com