Did Turner buy ECS Tuning?

[roguetoaster]

I'm fairly proactive about getting parts made by quality brands. I've seen those "assembled by ECS" packages before, and as you found out, usually the parts in there are from lesser brands, and they make it quite difficult to find out what the brand is. I never bother with them.

They usually list what is in the kit oh, so you should know if you're getting good or bad stuff.

[ForcedFirebird]

What irks me is their wholesale deletion of information.

Initially when the Pelican purchase was made known, it was covered with a couple threads on Rennlist, on bimmerforums, and a couple threads on Pelican's own forums (including a reasoned response by the then-owner of Pelican). Those threads were ALL deleted (seriously, go try to find ANY news covering the acquisition during that time).

Thankfully bastions of free information like r3v remain largely independent of such tactics. Add revenue is the lifeblood of larger forums who have sold out.

Posted on Pelican's forum:

Hi all,

Some of you may know me already from e-mails, Coffee & Cars or just when you visited Pelican Parts. I thought this would be good time to introduce myself to the entire community. I have been with Pelican for almost 5 years where Wayne and I put together a team to carry on Pelican with the same spirit and enthusiasm Wayne and Tom brought to the business when they founded it over 20 years ago. That same team is here today, along with all the employees of Pelican Parts that have made us who we are over the past 20 years. We have been and continue to be a passionate group of automotive enthusiasts. We are committed to providing content, community and parts for the do-it-yourselfer.

Some years ago, Wayne decided he wanted to spend more time with his family and side projects (books, cars, doing what he loves...) and started working towards a day when Pelican could manage without him. That day came in September, 2017 when Pelican Parts was added to Bertram’s portfolio alongside ECS Tuning and Turner Motorsports. Shortly after the sale I think Wayne said it well, “The reality is that after 20+ years of sweat, writing five books, and numerous skinned knuckles, I have been transitioning my roles in order to spend more time with my family. This is a process that has been going on over the past five years, and I don't expect any significant changes to Pelican or the great community that we have all built here.”

Since the purchase of the company we have maintained who we are and have always been at Pelican Parts with support from ECS’s new CEO Imran Jooma who joined them late last year. Pelican has an excellent group of employees who care deeply about the company and our customer. The sale of the company has not created any change of employment for any of the Pelican employees. Wayne continues to support the business with his attendance at Coffee and Cars events and most recently represented Pelican in an episode of Wheeler Dealers on the Velocity channel. All of the team members at Pelican are dedicated to serving our customers and continue to strive to meet the needs of the auto enthusiast and that will never change. We appreciate your ongoing support of our community.


Bryan Handlen
CEO of Pelican Parts

[rturbo 930]

https://www.twice.com/retailing/top-sears-exec-resigns-55402

This guy is the new CEO at ECS? I don't know the details of Sears' downfall, but I'd be highly suspect of that guy.

[nando]

What do you mean? Sears is doing really well. Their management obviously knew what they were doing..

[rturbo 930]

Well I don't know if he's the one responsible, although I'd bet he is lol.

[freeride53]

My first few experiences with ECS Tuning (back in the day) were OK, and I appreciated their generally low prices.

In late 2016, I picked up my second E30 and started ordering a lot of parts to refresh, and upgrade the car overall. I spent probably ~$1K at ECS and after several orders, they sent me some incorrect parts. These parts were simply incorrectly tagged, so I instead of some hoses for my E30's M42, I wound up with some rando E46 M3 chassis parts. Here's when things got really annoying.

I contacted customer services several times, and spoke to some really rude chaps on the line. It took me several escalations and complaints until they partially reimbursed me the return shipping costs. It really left a sour taste, and led me to researching & figuring out what's been documented in this thread. Awful.

I still have a bunch of parts left to order ahead of body & paint for my E30, and I plan on using Blunt. No doubt about it.

[muppetman342]

I've never bought anything from blunt, been in the Volvo game longer than the BMW game, so I was steered towards FCP. Gosh is their customer service incredible...I bought a diff bushing from them that was too big and broke my diff cover (Corteco, watch out); I called them up and they reimbursed me for the cost of a used diff cover off of eBay, no fuss! And their lifetime guarantee, how do you beat that?

[DealinDave@Blunttech.com]

I can say that we won't be bought out by ECS lol. We have a great customer base of like minded enthusiasts that keep us around and motivated. It's a great time to be a buyer as there are a lot of awesome part suppliers out there. We try to keep our pricing as competitive as we can, but we have always tried to separate ourselves by having the best customer service possible.

It's true our current site sucks. If you've visited it before and just turned around, we get that. We were given the run around for about 2 years from a development firm that left us with a barely functional, non-user friendly site. We tried to integrate some very large systems into our site that ended up becoming exceedingly over complicated by our previous developer. Our new web developer is nearly finished with an all new site and it should be up by early Spring, streamlining the online ordering process. As always, we'll just be an email/call away. We answer emails whenever possible, whether that is after business hours at night or on weekends.

As to artwork, please make sure you submit all requests with your order. Due to some concerned feedback by an individual that didn't appreciate fine art, we no longer include visual masterpieces along with every order.

[agent]

As to artwork, please make sure you submit all requests with your order. Due to some concerned feedback by an individual that didn't appreciate fine art, we no longer include visual masterpieces along with every order.

This, sadly, is the world we live in now. Thankfully several of us will always be able to look back fondly on the days when artwork was included with your order, whether you wanted it or not...

[cory58]

I've bought a few times from ECS with no problems. Maybe I'm just lucky.

I did buy for the first time from Turner last month. Customer service was excellent. Communication was proactive and very responsive.

Cory

[nando]

I've bought a few times from ECS with no problems. Maybe I'm just lucky.

I did buy for the first time from Turner last month. Customer service was excellent. Communication was proactive and very responsive.

Cory

you're missing the point.

the E30 BMW community is small, and it's important to support vendors that are based in this community.. ECS is basically owned by giant hedge funds and private equity vampire squid corporations. They don't GAF about our community and old cars. If you want the very cheapest Chinese knock off parts and to support the further hollowing out of available aftermarket and OE parts for E30s, keep shopping at places like ECS.

[UNHCLL]

you're missing the point.

the E30 BMW community is small, and it's important to support vendors that are based in this community.. ECS is basically owned by giant hedge funds and private equity vampire squid corporations. They don't GAF about our community and old cars. If you want the very cheapest Chinese knock off parts and to support the further hollowing out of available aftermarket and OE parts for E30s, keep shopping at places like ECS.

I think this is unreasonable to put that blame on ECS or any vendor of parts for that matter.

Cheap parts, are a product of owners shopping price vs. quality.
The corporation is simply offering what the market has asked for...

By and large, the E30 market (Both M3 and Non-M) has taken a turn for a while towards "low cost" pathways.

If the corporation sells the cheap parts, that's not their fault. That's the buyers fault for opting for it. Either for lack of due diligence, budgetary concerns, or just simply being cheap. The corporation isn't forcing the consumer to buy the cheap parts, they simply offer them. So why is it "ECS' Fault"???

All things fair and equal, TMS is less than 20 miles from my house in NH, and I've known TMS/Will since the early days where it was on a corner in Amesbury with a plate glass window and 2 desks in the front. I didn't/don't like the ECS acquisition, from the simple perspective of what it did to the working staff of the company here in MA.

ECS still offers every part TMS did prior, at various price points. Consumer onus and responsibility is still the driving factor when we speak of parts choices.


Customer service, yes, that is unquestionably an ECS issue.

[cory58]

you're missing the point.

the E30 BMW community is small, and it's important to support vendors that are based in this community.. ECS is basically owned by giant hedge funds and private equity vampire squid corporations. They don't GAF about our community and old cars. If you want the very cheapest Chinese knock off parts and to support the further hollowing out of available aftermarket and OE parts for E30s, keep shopping at places like ECS.

Uh, you don't even know me. I see the black helicopters as much as anyone else, so I appreciate your rant but you have no idea why I've bought from ECS or Turner, or the fact that I only buy OE or OEM equivalent parts.


As far as ECS not being "part of the community" because they're owned by a large company, I disagree. When they sell me OEM parts at great prices with free shipping, they are "part of the community" helping to keep my old BMWs on the road.


I also buy from Blunt mainly because they support the community and r3v. Dave is great, but sometimes I just want to pull up a website and order instead of asking for a quote. I've had problems with orders from Blunt but they've taken care of me, so I will definitely keep doing business with them.


So, I'm not missing the point. I am a firm believer in people voting with their wallets. If you don't like ECS because of their ownership or the fact that they consolidated Turner, don't buy from them. If they give me bad service I will stop buying from them, but I'm also going to keep posting honest reviews of my experiences. I count on r3v for honest feedback (and a few black helicopters here and there).


Cory

[nando]

I think this is unreasonable to put that blame on ECS or any vendor of parts for that matter.

Cheap parts, are a product of owners shopping price vs. quality.
The corporation is simply offering what the market has asked for...

By and large, the E30 market (Both M3 and Non-M) has taken a turn for a while towards "low cost" pathways.

If the corporation sells the cheap parts, that's not their fault. That's the buyers fault for opting for it. Either for lack of due diligence, budgetary concerns, or just simply being cheap. The corporation isn't forcing the consumer to buy the cheap parts, they simply offer them. So why is it "ECS' Fault"???

All things fair and equal, TMS is less than 20 miles from my house in NH, and I've known TMS/Will since the early days where it was on a corner in Amesbury with a plate glass window and 2 desks in the front. I didn't/don't like the ECS acquisition, from the simple perspective of what it did to the working staff of the company here in MA.

ECS still offers every part TMS did prior, at various price points. Consumer onus and responsibility is still the driving factor when we speak of parts choices.

Customer service, yes, that is unquestionably an ECS issue.

It's not their fault that people want cheap crap, but if you order one of their 'kits' - they're going to package it with the cheapest Chinese parts they can find, and pocket the difference.

[jhaurimn]

i buy from blunttech just so i have an excuse to go see steves hair