Coastal Tech Charges You For What They Don't Have

2] Their e-mail support is nonexistent, however, calling the non free # has worked every time. I've even received 2 voice mails from CT answering my Q's.


You're lucky.. I've tried calling both toll and non toll numbers.. have left messages on both.. no return call ever.

 

Mods: Can I suggest something to save bandwidth? Every one of these Coastal or PriusChat Store threads devolves into the same thing....several pages of one camp posting their negative experiences and one camp posting their positives, with generally the same people involved. Why not open up a vendor feedback forum and requires these type of posts to be made there? That way "victims" whose credit cards were charged too soon, whose parts were back ordered, whose e-mails were ignored or who received the wrong color Sharkfin have a place to vent (read: whine and complain). You could dedicate one thread to each vendor or perhaps one positive and one negative thread to each major vendor.

 

Yep. What this place needs is another forum.

 

I had the same experience. no reply to the email... so I would think twice about giving them my money

 

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I agree, a vendor rating thread is a great idea.

I disagree CT consciously lied about inventory/billing - who are they anchoring you from going to instead?

I also did not receive an e-mail reply, so I persisted and called the listed number where I spoke with Kelly at CT. Now I'm the happy owner of several CT products!
Your principles keep you gadget free while you wait. My persistence and understanding the way they work keeps me gadget happy!

So they have bad customer service. Just get your gadgets and get over it, or be gadget lonely till a better Co. finally shows up, if they do. It's not a crisis, it's bad customer service and an inventory mix up. -kinda like that angry soup guy on Sienfeld

 

I really wanted to order some parts from this company but heard all the bad press. Funny thing is I don't have the car yet so I thought I'd order the parts and if it takes a few weeks to get fine I'm still waiting on the car.

I placed an order with them on Sunday and today Monday I got the shipping tracking number and should have it mid week. Better then I could of hoped for.

 

Only the bad CT experiences get their own threads. Like they say, dissatisfied customers tell more people than satisfied customers. Although it may seem like they get 'all the bad press', remember, there's hundreds or even thousands of perfectly satisfied CT customers for each bad review.
To NEVER do business with them because of no e-mail reply or an inventory mix up seems a bit over the top. It's not choosing the next mayor, it's buying some cool components from techies running their own business.

 

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Yes, prevent is a better term in that context than anchor.

CT sets up the tracking number first then a few days(or sooner short of the odd mix up) UPS scans your package.

Your not giving CT the benefit of the doubt. Why don't you think it was just a matter of CT's left hand not communicating with the right hand, and your CC charge w/out inventory was a mistake?

I had no idea of Factory Interactive!
Now these guys know how to do it:
"We love to help our customers. Have questions?
Email us at [email protected]"

Look out CT!!!!

 

Somethings coming.....

Package Progress

Location Date Local Time Description
JACKSONVILLE,FL, US 07/08/2008 3:53 A.M. DEPARTURE SCAN 07/08/2008 12:32 A.M. ARRIVAL SCAN MELBOURNE,
FL, US 07/07/2008 7:29 P.M. ORIGIN SCAN 07/07/2008 6:41 P.M. PICKUP SCAN
US 07/07/2008 9:15 A.M. BILLING INFORMATION RECEIVED

 

That practice is perhaps illegal, and without question unethical. I find it difficult to reward such behavior regardless of the product.

... Brad

 

That is awesome customer service! Love when I see that effort!

Very good point! Some other company could bump them out of the picture if only there was one with the service like Jon's Co.!
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This thread is kinda interesting.

I've ordered from them in the past and they never charged until they shipped. Now, I ordered the Auto-Lock and NAV override (early version of Lockpick) back in April '05. I didn't get the lock until September '05 and the override until January '06. I expected the override to take time, but the lock kit was another matter. I called them in July and they said they'd check, but I really didn't get results until I complained in a Yahoo group. Then they said they were trying to get through to me, but I had my spam filter too high.

On the other hand, I ordered the EV mod in February '06 and got it a little more than a week later.

Before I even had a Prius I was on a Yahoo list and someone announced that the Coastal site was gone (it was for 3 days). I said that I had dealt with a company that took orders (and your money) and didn't ship and I would be reluctant to order until they were shipping. Boy, I was blasted. I was blamed for trying to destroy a nice mom and pop business. Another said, that since I was a newbie, I didn't realize that if the Prius community was a real community, Coastal Dave would be mayor. I even got blasted by Coastal Dave himself.

 

OUCH. Careful, I've heard rumors they've banned people from ordering due to forums bashing.

 

I wanted to buy an EV mod from them. The order process lists a hundred countries, lets you input your credit card, then denies your order.
They sent me a reply to an email that they don't ship outside the US, don't take out of country orders or accept non-US credit cards.
This is a first for me.

 

I am sorry to hear about the bad experience. I ordered an EV switch, mud flaps and auto door switch and had a great experience with quick shipping. I got to them from a recomendation from a close personal friend who ordered for his prius and had a good experience. I also thought their documentation for install was very good.