A tale of woe....

[Upatdawn]

Classic car owners form club

they pay subs into a fund

fund gets loaned to a "heritage" type parts supplier who pay for tooling to produce certain vanishing parts

parts supplier gets sassy

parts supplier forms their own classic car group (same model)

car owners will get discount off parts only if they join new car owners group and pay subs

original clubs members get letters and emails from new group which do not exactly praise the original owner group

do these things always go bits up?

[hidetheelephants]

Upatdawn said:

do these things always go bits up?

They do if the original owners group don't retain ownership of the tooling; you're trusting a commercial enterprise to not do what commercial enterprises do instead of having a contract laying out what's what.

Edited by hidetheelephants on Saturday 17th August 16:32

[Upatdawn]

I think the parts company owner wants the slice of cake the original club was having on top of his income from parts sales

[nta16]

yeap there are some right sts in the commercial side of classic cars

and some of them even regularly get praised on places like this - it seems you certainly can fool most of the people most of the time

[droopsnoot]

You just have to remember that most people run businesses to make money, not just to make friends. Sounds harsh, and the OPs story sounds like the worst end of it, but it also sounds like the original owners group 'trusted' the commercial enterprise a little too much. Possibly no lawyers involved in drawing up the contracts, despite some peoples disapproval of lawyers this probably wouldn't have happened, or at least the lawyer would have warned that it might.

ETA: I know, it's easy to have 20/20 hindsight.

[nta16]

all true but making money in a good business doesn't mean you take advantage of people, staff or customers that kind of attitude is in a bad business or a badly run business or bad owners, directors, management or staff - the main word is bad rather than good

of course some customers are just as bad and have the same attitude

and of course in this thread we only have one side of the picture

only in dodgy dealings should you expect to get ripped off

[9mm]

nta16 said:

yeap there are some right sts in the commercial side of classic cars

and some of them even regularly get praised on places like this - it seems you certainly can fool most of the people most of the time

Too true and in a boom or bubble they are attracted like flies to ****. So many detestable individuals with no real interest in cars whatsoever. I agree with another poster. There's no reason why you have to be commercially minded and a ****.

[Upatdawn]

seems the original owners club GAVE 2 containers of parts years ago to kick start the parts business...

[Flatinfourth]

Have to say i'm pretty uneasy about the idea of a 'club' entering into a parts making process with any thought of making profit of any kind, it should simply be about joining ranks to make orders possible that would otherwise not be feasible.

[droopsnoot]

nta16 said:

all true but making money in a good business doesn't mean you take advantage of people, staff or customers that kind of attitude is in a bad business or a badly run business or bad owners, directors, management or staff - the main word is bad rather than good

Absolutely, it's a short-sighted attitude to put your customers over a barrel. Most tend to have a long memory.

[Upatdawn]

Flatinfourth said:

Have to say i'm pretty uneasy about the idea of a 'club' entering into a parts making process with any thought of making profit of any kind, it should simply be about joining ranks to make orders possible that would otherwise not be feasible.

the original club only donated money to the parts supplier to support tooling up for some parts, it was a considerable sum of money, they didnt want to be involved in manufacture or retailing

[hidetheelephants]

Upatdawn said:

the original club only donated money to the parts supplier to support tooling up for some parts, it was a considerable sum of money, they didnt want to be involved in manufacture or retailing

That's fine, but retaining ownership of tooling protects that investment and business arrangements that aren't on paper are a bad idea.

[Hooli]

Flatinfourth said:

Have to say i'm pretty uneasy about the idea of a 'club' entering into a parts making process with any thought of making profit of any kind, it should simply be about joining ranks to make orders possible that would otherwise not be feasible.

I dunno, I think the MGOC does pretty well at that sort of thing.

[hidetheelephants]

What sort of agreement was made with the manufacturer? If it was witnessed by several club members and the agreement was honoured by observation for some time(and you can back this up with receipts etc) then you might have a case, but bringing it to court would cost a lot of money.

[Flatinfourth]

Hooli said:

Flatinfourth said:

Have to say i'm pretty uneasy about the idea of a 'club' entering into a parts making process with any thought of making profit of any kind, it should simply be about joining ranks to make orders possible that would otherwise not be feasible.

I dunno, I think the MGOC does pretty well at that sort of thing.

If a club as big as the MGOC is profiting from parts sales on such a common car, then is that actually a club in any altruistic sense any more, or a disguised business? Playing devils advocate slightly I know, but it isn't making obscure widgets out of unobtanium for two dozen Facel Vega HK owners!