SLR Budget Kit

[scarecrow505]

SLR never replies to EMAILS, almost dont even want to give them my business. How much is that kit and where do you order it??

[tptrsn]

561-542-2810 during business hours works pretty well from what I can tell. I know I'm old, but man, it's not that hard to just call someone and talk with them. Super good guys there.

[scarecrow505]

Thanks for the number Ill give that a try. I want this kit baddd. Are you gonna be installing this soon? Would love to see the extensions welded on and your thoughts on how the kit works

[tptrsn]

Are you gonna be installing this soon? Would love to see the extensions welded on and your thoughts on how the kit works

I'm currently struggling a little bit to get my turbo setup installed and shaken down a little bit before the 29th, so I am definitely not installing the suspension kit before then. Probably not for a little while after that either, since other stuff I really **should be doing** is piling up a little bit too while I focus more energy than I should on the LRS (little red sh!tbox). Hopefully I can get it installed in late spring after I knock out a few of those other things that are piling up.

It really doesn't look like it's going to be too bad to install. I'm thinking I might get a new pair of cheapass control arms off eBay to use for the angle kit so I will have a complete bolt-on/off kit.... Possibly.

Oh, and for anyone who is google-challenged, here's some more assistance:

https://slrspeed.myshopify.com/

[Novablue454]

You can order the kits from SLRspeed.com I know dealing with them via email can get frustrating (I thought they hired on another person for this reason), but it is well worth it. SLR is a part time deal for them and they have other jobs as well. Just give them a call, Sean is a super nice guy to chat with and will get you taken care of.

[jalopi]

According to Facebook, this guy has an average response time of 8 hours

https://www.facebook.com/dontspindontsuck/

(alternatively, you could just PM me and get a similar response time )

[Piner]

Just a little insider information the email volume that SLR gets on a daily basis is pretty unreal. Responding to all of them is pretty difficult for the two person operation SLR is. Sean and I are long time friends and if he sat and responded to all the email traffic he gets he'd never get any kits shipped

The number on his website though is his personal phone and if he isn't in the middle of something he nearly answers all the time. Even as his friend I have learned that is the best way to get in contact with him. Just be careful with the questions you ask because you'd better be ready for a full explanation that might take a while.

Sean, his Wife and Son all live in the pretty humble apartment and the profit margin on the kits really isn't that much. Everything is made here in USA, most right in Palm Beach County Florida. Supporting him keeps food on the table for his Wife and Child and thats the truth. So please don't be too hard on him. He really is trying to make the best product for the best price he can.

[protomor]

Just a little insider information the email volume that SLR gets on a daily basis is pretty unreal. Responding to all of them is pretty difficult for the two person operation SLR is. Sean and I are long time friends and if he sat and responded to all the email traffic he gets he'd never get any kits shipped

I've dealt with small and mid size shops and their problems. Blaming others is not how you run a business. Sean is losing business because of the lack of information and response. His website is out of date. I bet most of the emails he gets are about the same handful of questions that should be easily answered. FAQ pages, forums, FB posts, etc are all possible ways to lower the number of emails he gets. This is a bad excuse and bad business.

Online presence isn't that hard.

[RandomHero27]

No. Just no. I've dealt with small and mid size shops and their problems. Blaming everyone but yourself is not how you run a business. Sean is losing business because of the lack of information and response. His website is terrible. I bet most of the emails he gets are about the same handful of questions that should be easily answered. FAQ pages, forums, FB posts, etc are all possible ways to lower the number of emails he gets. This is a bad excuse and bad business.

Online presence isn't that hard. Why does everyone screw it up?

this.

do you see this budget kit on the website? nope. but apparently its for sale.

[tptrsn]

Online presence isn't that hard. Why does everyone screw it up?

I would state this a little differently. It's not that hard in concept, it can be VERY difficult in practice. When it gets hard is when you are a small business that is trying to keep your overhead low so you can have a reasonable profit margin while still keeping your prices down (especially if you're manufacturing parts locally in the USA). This means keeping your numbers of employees very low, and trying to do everything yourself as much as possible.

All of the sudden, the "easy" task of managing your online presence and crafting quality email responses becomes daunting. I've found YouTube videos that can be pasted into email replies to be helpful for providing detailed information about complex topics related to product choices. But making those videos eats up a lot of time that can be used for more pressing items like filling existing orders, etc.

I'm not trying to defend SLR, I'm just speaking from experience about the realities of the situation -- Being a small businessman is WAAAY more difficult than it appears from the outside. Having said that, if a guy can swing it, it has big advantages over being an employee (as long as you don't value sleep too highly haha).

[protomor]

It's not difficult. It might be time consuming. You put effort into your products so you need to put effort into marketing them. Most companies I help out/see HATE overhead and do anything to minimize it. That's the problem. Overhead is this nebulous ROI that you can't easily nail to a simple metric. As a result, people do the base minimum and move on. It screws them in the end.

[tptrsn]

Time consuming is what makes it difficult in my case, maybe also for SLR, or maybe not.

There are also other issues that can arise when demand rises too quickly and exceeds your ability to supply the goods too, which causes a lot of businesses to go belly up. That problem can be exacerbated by marketing "too well." I'm not saying SLR wants to not sell too much product, it's probably not the case for them like it is for me, but it's not always as simple of a situation as it seems..

I feel for the small business owner (obviously).

[protomor]

I understand and mostly agree. I love to support Sean. And I mostly do. He's making it harder.

[nikolov]

I had similar issues with SLR but barring Fedex doesnt ruin it for me ill have my kit tomorrow.
Overall the responsiveness could have been better, and it kinda worries me that IF something happened and i needed a replacement part from SLR i might be down for a while. Seems to me these kits are selling, and a flood of emails is a good sign of potential sales, so maybe they should find a shop that can produce these quicker and at a larger quantity (in turn, less expensive). more people get products and SLR guys make more money.

edit: i know its probably more involved but just an idea

[Novablue454]

But really, didn't they hire a 3rd person solely to respond to emails / have an internet presence a while back? They were on top of it last time I dealt with them (after I wrecked and needed some replacement parts). Had my email answered in 24 hours and parts in the mail within 48. Sucks to hear that they've gotten difficult to deal with again.

[protomor]

Maybe that person didn't pan out. I'd work for parts <_< Web stuff is my damn day job too.

[Piner]

what it all boils down to though is there is a very easy way to get in contact with him. Just call him. His online presence is not great and I agree believe me. Not everyone is good at it, I sure as hell am not great with it either. I am running a small fab business out of my garage and working a day job at the same time and I get bogged down pretty easy talking to people online about work and I do no where near the volume that Sean does.

TL;DR, if you need something call him.

[Gmfwd]

I have called sean a few times to order replacement parts. No issues on any occasion. Just told him what I needed and then I got emailed an invoice.

[s50b30]

I know a lot of other small companies that simply does not have time to answer a million questions from people. Where 15% actually buys something.

If he answers phonecalls, whats the big deal?

[tptrsn]

If he answers phonecalls, whats the big deal?

I feel the same way, but this discussion has been really interesting for me in that it illustrates the fact that different customers want to interact in different ways. If a vendor is only available in one way, he potentially cuts himself off from a certain number of sales from potential customers that want to interact via a different medium. As long as the vendor recognizes this fact, and decides that is the best option for him for whatever reason, then I guess it's fine.

Personally, experience has shown me that the potential customers who call me will almost always buy something. Of the ones who email me and cause me to spend a lot of time composing detailed emails back to them, your 15% conversion rate number is probably pretty close. It's kind of not worth the time for me either... Interesting stuff!

[Novablue454]

I can say that with having a 9-6 job and trying to launch my shop after hours it is extremely easy to get bogged down and fall in to bad habits. I also fall in the group of people that would do just about anything than talk on the phone. I'll answer texts instantly, emails and fb pretty quick, but I forget we even have a phone.

[protomor]

If he answers phonecalls, whats the big deal?

Because he advertises 8 other ways and only responds to 1. The budget kit in this thread isn't even on his website. I'm supposed to call and ask what's available?

[e46cruiser]

I think you guys are blowing things out of proportion here. I get that he sucks at emails but that's no reason to bash Sean. If you guys would just call you would know he picks up all the time unless he's busy. Even then if you leave a message he will call you back. I've called numerous times and he always picks up or calls back, and like mentioned above if you get him started on a topic he can just keep bombarding you with great information. He makes a great product, and if you're willing to lose out on that because he doesn't respond to emails that well then so be it.

[protomor]

It's not bashing. It's criticism.

[Mikestokman]

Call him and ask for a description of every product they make any time you're looking for something then is what you're suggesting? So I should call and be like "hi, do you make motor mounts? What about diff bushings? Offset rack spacers? What about..." because that's essentially what you'd have to do if they aren't going to advertise everything they sell on their website.. I went on there looking for install pics of this mini kit and it apparently does not exist.