Parts places and Customer Service or lack of it.

yeah john blackwoods was slow but they had everything you could ever want or need, same with ibc at yeronga use to get out back there to show you what they had might do the job,and the little wagons be running round on their railway type tracks

Years ago, I went to the Repco store at Clayton, Melbourne. I stood around for ages waiting for somebody to come and serve me. After a while, I started wandering around and picked up a couple of things from one of their "specials" bins. Another customer came in to be served and eventually a salesman came out. The girl at the switchboard/cash register pointed me out and told him I had been waiting for ages. The saleman said "he is at the Trade counter" and went to serve the other man. This customer obviously did not have English as his first language as he asked for a "Soldiering" Iron of whatever wattage he wanted. The salesman pretended he did not know what the customer wanted. After some discussion, the customer pleaded "Please will you sell me a soldiering iron?" The salesman said he could not understand and walked away. I threw my items back in the specials box as I walked out to another parts place. I have always regretted not helping the other customer. Fifty odd years ago, Repco were the place to go to and staff were knowledgable and helpful. Now they are the last place you try if nowhere else and the internet can help.

Repco the initials for “Rip Every Poor C**t Off”.

Another thing we have to remember is back in the day they had relatively few parts to handle. Models lasted for many years and even decades with often little or only cosmetic changes. Platforms and base engines lasted forever with new body shapes put on top. Dealers had a very limited range - the Holden dealer quite often sold nothing but Holden and if a Falcon appeared in his workshop he would send the mechanic for parts across the road to the Ford dealer who sold nothing but Falcons.

The range of models (not just variations on a base model) now is mind-blowing. Dealers have completely unrelated vehicles, machinery or farm equipment made in 10 different countries. In 1960 a sun-visor was right up there as an extra on your choice of 4 colours FB Holden. Today every car has about 50 possible combinations of ewngines, transmissions, accessories, seats, wheels, trim and paint colours. Even simple earthmoving and farm machinery has huge option ranges.

A modern car has 60% more parts than a 1960 car. Just think of the electronic parts stocking nightmare for everything from a Honda stationary motor to a Ferrari. My wife's electric start self-propelled lawnmower has more operational electrics (not lights etc) than a FB Holden.

The only way they can operate is VIN and Computer.

Just think in 1960 "Sorry I just phoned and the factory does not have a rear door handle for your FB Holden. They say about 3 months wait. We will notify you when one comes in to stock"

2023 "We do not have a back door handle for your Corolla and the factory are nil-stock but I see the Toyota dealer in Alice Springs has two in stock. Should be here on Thursday"

I think time has passed the old blokes by and I defy any parts bloke today, no matter how good, to have 75% of the numbers for his area of responsibility stored in his brain as his father could do back in the day. The days of "We don't have a clutch plate for your Chev blitz but a Holden plate is identical" are dead and gone.

Blackwoods are still about & still are hard to deal with..!!
Which I don't understand, as they're Owned By Wesfarmers..! If they gave It the same attention they Give Bunnings & Officeworks they'd turn It into another juggernaut..

The sandblasters had a Blackwoods account ,and the B/woods place at Eagle Farm is OK ,more like Bunnings .....prices still out of this world ,but now you have plenty of alternatives .........I found some Kniplex wirecutters in the dirt at Willawong,checked the price online at B/Woods ,and they are $92 .........for a small pair of cutters.

Used to be a top place called IBC-ESCA in Brisy. From memory it was on the corner of Edward and Charlotte streets.
Massive timber counters with blokes behind in aprons.
No packets of bits, just items in cardboard boxes or timber drawers and they knew what was in every one.
Was another big place down the valley, good for bearings, seals, hardy spicer stuff etc.
Long gone.

JOHN.K. wrote:

The sandblasters had a Blackwoods account ,and the B/woods place at Eagle Farm is OK ,more like Bunnings .....prices still out of this world ,but now you have plenty of alternatives .........I found some Kniplex wirecutters in the dirt at Willawong,checked the price online at B/Woods ,and they are $92 .........for a small pair of cutters.

Still doing a bit of electrical contracting everything Nipex is around the $100 has been for a good while, two tricks up my sleeve Trucks and Electrical fuel and gear is dear in both games, glad Iam in the wind down phase.

Lang, very true and likely so in most industries.
When I started in lifts in 1989, Johns Perry only worked on Johns Perry and Johns & Waygood (predecessor) gear. There was still the odd pre-war lift going and you could fabricate parts for those. We also made all our own spare parts. Some of the technology was licensed from the US (Westinghouse motors, generators and gearboxes), but it was made here. All the circuits, switchgear and circuit boards were our own design and manufacture.
In the early 90's the industry was deregulated.
Now, instead of a hospital having 3 different lift companies servicing equipment they installed new, they want one service company and you have to know and have parts for everything and there are 10 different brands of lift there, some of which have no official presence in Australia and you have to get parts off Ali Express (literally). This is all done for a fraction of the price you would get 30 years prior, but they demand the same service.
It isn't possible and we struggle at times.

Jarrod.

No doubt all of the above is true but the tool kit of a model T Ford had a (brake band adjusting) spanner with the part number 1912 cast into it (I have had several Model T owners try to tell me that was the year their car was made) If you ask a Ford spare parts man for a 1912, he will know instantly that it is a spanner.