RE: THE ORIGINAL Specialty Automotive

["Darryl Tinnerstet" <darryl@xxxx>]

Marc asked: "what do you mean by "THE ORIGINAL"? is someone trying to steal your name?" I really don't want to start a thread here (or a rant), but I thought by now most of you had figured out what I meant by that. I'll try to explain it as tactfully as possible (for me that's a stretch). 

For nearly 17 years I have been selling new and used DeLorean parts under the name Specialty Automotive. I have gone to great lengths to give fast, reliable, personal service to my customers, and believe I have a fairly good reputation. I had hoped to operate a full scale DeLorean restoration shop in addition to my mail-order business, but my divorce a few years ago and subsequent move to a tiny community many miles from the next DeLorean made that difficult.

Then all of a sudden there was a new player in the small DeLorean vendor world. No problem, there is plenty of business for all. Except for one minor thing - out of the blue he decided to call his business "Special T Auto". I was curious why he picked that name, so I asked - the response was a curt "Its a free world" and a suggestion that I change my website address (which is not Specialty Automotive - never did quite figure that one out). Now it still wouldn't have mattered a whole lot except for one problem. I started getting customer complaints, something I really hadn't experienced before. It seems that with names so similar, folks who were having problems assumed that the two businesses were related, and I guess hoped that I would intercede. Others tried to return faulty parts that I had not sold them. It became a major irritant, which has seemed to lessen somewhat as he became more familiar with the car and improved his service.

Don't take this wrong, I wish John all the success he earns. His web page shows that he is putting a lot of effort into supplying more and more items. I just wish he had chosen a more unique name for his business so that the customers were not confusing us. My business is doing just fine, and I don't need his "help". 

But I do enjoy his frequent posts - they are usually good for a chuckle...except the fire extinguisher one, which was unbelieveably inappropriate.

Darryl Tinnerstet
Specialty Automotive
McCleary, WA
www.delorean-parts.com



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]