Dirtworks / Fox Shox

[Frank]

Just wondering,

The Aussie teams who have in the past (or recently) ordered Fox shox from "Dirtworks"....

how long did it take to receive them (after a purchase order was provided)?

We've been waiting a month already for the record

Frank

[Frank]

Just wondering,

The Aussie teams who have in the past (or recently) ordered Fox shox from "Dirtworks"....

how long did it take to receive them (after a purchase order was provided)?

We've been waiting a month already for the record

Frank

[Disco]

Frank,
Apparently Dirtworks have had trouble in the past with FSAE teams and will not send out the shocks until they actually receive the money, regardless of whether you have sent them a P/O number or not.
We spoke to them about a month ago and they said they were out of stock and were going to get a new delivery from the US in about 6 weeks or so.
My suggestion would be to chase up the uni to see if they have sent the money off to Dirtworks.
Cheers
Steve

[Frank]

cheers steve,

my pessimism is growing

i rang him and said I'd like to cancel the order, he seemed unphased.... i assume he hasn't deducted the funds from the credit card number provided (we saw no evidence of this on the card statements)

personally i've had enough of his stories

and if possible we're going to Risse

They are cheaper, they quote 3 weeks lead time, ship to you, and the service is friendly, and they seem to actually understand what this FSAE thing is all about

[Dave Riley]

We got our order from Dirtworks about four weeks ago, only took a week (over here) between when we paid (faxed a C/C number & purchase order) and when it arrived.

Although we had spoken to the guy at length before we ordered and made every effort to make sure he sent them off.

He wouldn't just invoice us, we had to pay in advance. Not that unusual though!

Project Manager
UWA Motorsport 03

[Big Bird]

Following on from Steve's comments;

The guy from Dirtworks is a decent bloke, and has been really easy to deal with from our point of view. We made sure we got the money to him, we got the shocks the next day, along with setup advice. He's also keen to come along to the comp in Tailem Bend to have a look and give us a hand.

Unfortunately in FSAE we are inheriting a bit of ill will from previous year's teams who have not done the right thing by sponsors and suppliers. Distributors hate dealing with guys like us, firstly because of the universal uni bureacracy, but more so because we are generally so damn unreliable. We ask the poor guys four million questions about their stuff, take heaps of their time, umm and ahh about ordering things, and then when they do get something in for us we change our minds and buy something else because some bloke's auntie reckoned XYZ shocks were better.

The Fox deal for FSAE is a good one, and the shocks are plenty good for what we want. From my knowledge of retail margins Dirtworks won't be making a lot of money out of it, if any at all. So when they order in four/eight/twelve of Fox's most expensive shocks for uni specials and we then shaft him, he won't be happy, and his boss is going to clop him round the back of the head with a cricket bat.

I think this is one area where we need to pull together to present a unified, professional front. There are a lot of companies out there willing to support FSAE because they see it as a great cause. If they lose interest due to a few bad dealings we all lose out.

Here endeth the rant...

Cheers all,

Geoff Pearson
RMIT FSAE
Melbourne Australia

[Al]

Couldn't agree with you more Geoff.

When it comes down to it, we are getting this tremendous experience of building a race car using other peoples money (generally). In most instances companies are more than willing to help us in our quest, but as soon as we take them for granted everything is lost. All we can offer in return is to keep them updated on our progress and ensure that if we can help them in return we will do so.

Our 2001 team nearly put us to the wall because of their general disregard for anyone but themselves. As a result we spent most of 2002 fighting tooth and nail to save the project from being scrapped by the university.

As for dealing with suppliers it is always going to be difficult because in most instances we either get stuff free, discounted or at an order quantity that they normally would say to bugger off. This why we try wherever possible to pay cash ASAP. Immediately we become a reputable customer. The company therefore doesn't have to worry about whether the account gets paid and are happy to deal with us again.

Sure sometimes suppliers give you the shits, it regularly happens when dealing with non-racing organisations, but when you consider their side of the story you can often see why. We are not core business to them and they have to do what makes them money in priority to us.

Thats my somewhat rambling two cents, paid in cash of course http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

[Frank]

totally agreed with most of those sentiments except....

"universal uni bureacracy" ... the way i see it is that its the same payment situation with most large companies, and the only suppliers that seem to have great difficulties with it are those who never deal with large companies.
Really, is this our fault? NO it reflects on the supplier you are dealing with.

no shocks seem to want to materialise for our order and i really cant deal with people who say you'll get this (insert time frame), and at the end of this time frame, the response is

"dunno, you'll get them soon" repeat comment in another two weeks, and again later

[Big Bird]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Frank:
totally agreed with most of those sentiments except....

"universal uni bureacracy" ... the way i see it is that its the same payment situation with most large companies, and the only suppliers that seem to have great difficulties with it are those who never deal with large companies.
Really, is this our fault? NO it reflects on the supplier you are dealing with.

no shocks seem to want to materialise for our order and i really cant deal with people who say you'll get this (insert time frame), and at the end of this time frame, the response is

"dunno, you'll get them soon" repeat comment in another two weeks, and again later<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

As for the comment about reflecting on the supplier you are dealing with, why should a distributor change their processes and way of doing business to suit us? Guys like Dirtworks deal with small bike shops that they know, probably on an established account basis, with an account tracking system that suits their purposes. Staff levels are set to suit these needs, and as long as everyone respects each other a decent working relationship can be built.

Then guys like us come along, and everything just gets harder. They don't know us, there's no account or delivery arrangements set up, they have to order stuff in especially for us, and have to deal with the dual issues of a university process that may take weeks to decide whether the order is approved, and students who want everything now and who don't seem to understand or care about how business works. They are making stuff all money out of us for a lot of extra hassle, so its a bit ripe to expect them to mould around us.

Sorry Frank, I know you're probably a bit annoyed with this whole deal. But for all the annoyance that these guys are causing you with their changing stories, they are probably feeling the same way. Reading the above it seems you've ordered shocks, cancelled, and are now chasing them again. Remember, this might be your first FSAE, but it's the fourth time around for the crew at Dirtworks and I know for a fact they are pretty sick of the same old hassle this time every year.

Apologies, I don't mean to seem aggro, and I am by no means defending suppliers if they are not living up to their promises. But if we don't start being considerate of the people we are dealing with here then future FSAE crews will find all their potential suppliers just won't want to know them.

All the best,

Geoff Pearson
RMIT FSAE
Melbourne Australia

[Frank]

is my third FSAE

managed the first team

just looked on and did tech things last year and this year

hence i have a pretty low tolerance of suppliers that state they can do this buy then, and later say... "oh it'll come soon"

i don't think they should necc. change the way they do business, they should just realize that its uni students, learning how a big company works, and this is how big companies work

to be honest i think paying up front for a product you have to wait for is absurd, I've personally never done it buying something for myself.. would you? sure a deposit maybe...
get the rest COD which is what i asked from dirt works the first time, because i didn't trust them

i mean seriously though, would a uni NOT pay

unis are reliable, you can rely on 4 things

A they will ALWAYS pay

B they require fairly rigorous procedures, they best way is the traditional quote, purchase order, invoice, payment scheme

C the first time they pay will ALWAYS take longer, the unis have a circle of paperwork, that includes them setting up what they call a "vendor number" for the supplier

D after the first time round hassle, they will ALWAYS pay within 28 days of invoice issue, and usually do EFT as well

I assume this is how MOST larger businesses work?

and if dirtworks is making no money here, then why does Fox insist we order through dirtworks, when all the US unis can order through FOX

Regards to all who have contributed here

Frank

[This message was edited by Frank on June 28, 2003 at 08:34 AM.]

[This message was edited by Frank on June 28, 2003 at 08:37 AM.]

[Big Bird]

Anyone had any luck fitting spherical bearings to Fox Vanilla shocks? Most I've spoken to have said it can't be done.

Cheers,

Geoff Pearson
RMIT FSAE 2003

Design it. Build it. Break it.

[J. Cheng]

Yes, it can be done. Just did mine a few months back. Had to turn down the OD of the bearing a bit. Didn't want to bore out the shock ends since one end is really thin already. Had to build a small cylindrical clamp (centre pin to make sure bearing and clamp is concentric) to hold the outer race tight so that the whole thing can be turned on a lathe.

Saw UTA's 2002 car at SCCA's Solo 2 Nationals, they run spherical bearings on their Vanillas also.

Joe

[Big Bird]

Thanks for that Joe, most appreciated.

Cheers

Geoff

Geoff Pearson
RMIT FSAE 2003

Design it. Build it. Break it.

[Eric Wort]

We also used spherical bearings in Fox Vanilla RCs last year, that worked out pretty well. I believe we even found bearings in the correct size to just press in, but I don't remember the size or the company at the moment.

Eric Wort
UIUC Formula SAE (http://dilbert.cen.uiuc.edu/soc/sae/formula/)

[Dominic Venieri]

aurora makes spherical bearings to fit the Fox vanilla's perfectly. just press them in. you can call them up and ask them for the part numbers. make sure that you know the specs of the shock eyes before you call.

www.formularpi.com (http://www.formularpi.com)
2003 Formula Student Runner-Up