Peter May Engineering, UK

[MiniDave]

Occasionally I build Sprite transmissions for the guys, last year I did two with straight cut gears that we bought from this company and it took for freaking ever to get them - around 3-4 months. I secretly thought it was the gearbox owner's fault as he's a little less than organized and I let him handle the order so I wouldn't have to front the money for the gears and such.

This time I decided to do it differently, where I would order the parts and just get a good enough deposit to cover them up front. I sent them an email with a list of parts I wanted and asked for a quote to include shipping and no VAT - which is they way they work their site. I got nothing......

I sent another email a week or so later, also nothing......

I have an ace in the hole in that my brother lives in England, actually only about 30 minutes from this guy's shop, so I asked Chris to call him. He reported that my email was found in his spam folder - mind you I used the email form on the website! He sent me the quote a few days later but in the meantime I'd been given another gearbox to build, so I needed to double up on most of the parts, I replied to his quote and........nothing.

So my brother called again and he asked that I resend the email (OK, now I'm beginning to realize it wasn't my disorganized buddy's fault at all that it took so long to get these parts.)

This time I sent a copy to my brother as well, by the next day I got the revised quote so I replied to it stating that I accept the price and asking how to pay with my credit card and requesting DHL shipment (which I had also asked for in each of my emails)

That was last Wed......

So tomorrow I'll message my brother again and ask him to intercede one more time. I also asked my brother to ask them if they had all the parts in stock - didn't get an answer to that or the DHL question.

I mean, how does any legit business expect to work in the modern world with this level of inability to work off the web? They have a really nice website, but I'm damned if I can find a way to accept the quote and make payment on it. Maybe I missed something?

https://www.petermayengineering.com/

[94touring]

Reminds me of dealing with Aldon.

[MiniDave]

I looked them up on Google maps and they are out in the middle of farm fields - nothing around them for miles!

It's not that I need the parts immediately but it seems part of the holdup last time was that they were short one bearing (which I could have gotten from Victoria British) that came in from India or someplace, so if that's going to happen again (and why I keep asking my brother if they have everything on hand) I'd like to try and get ahead of the curve. Racing season will be up and running by March and these guys will need these transmissions.

Plus too and also, this could turn into a fairly regular thing as I'm cheaper than anyone else when it comes to a straight cut gearbox rebuild so I would like to be able to get a regular source of parts set up.

I may be building some dog boxes this summer too, I have yet to find a reasonably priced set of those gears.....

[cstudep]

Seems a lot of the old school, been around forever type gear head places just aren't up to snuff on modern ordering methods, nor do they seem to care. It's an odd phenomenon to be sure. You would think they would welcome the potential uptick in business, but many just seem aggravated by the nuicense.

[MiniDave]

Chris (my brother) says the guy is nice as can be and seems eager to help and get things sorted, but my experience doesn't seem to equal that image......

[cstudep]

For sure many are, if you can get them on the phone. The whole email/internet thing though just doesn't seem to work well for them.

I think a lot of it just has to do with the kind of people they are, they would rather be out in the shop working not answering emails. Which I can totally relate to.

Unfortunately calling up a place overseas isn't all that convenient.

[MiniDave]

So, I finally got this order sorted today......

He sent me yet another invoice, this one with a payment link attached, which worked fine except my bank declined the charge!

So I spent 20 min on the phone with my bank getting the fraud protections removed long enough for me to make this one charge, and another 20 min later it went thru! Yay!

Shortly after that Peter May called me! Man, if only he'd done this before.....he said it was all in stock and would ship out DHL on Monday and he'd have tracking info for me then. Not that I needed the parts 3 weeks ago any more than I need them on Monday, but at least they're on the way now.

One small wrinkle that I'm still waiting on info for - MiniSpares carries the straight cut gearset for a Sprite gearbox! Not only that, but their price is almost £100 cheaper! What I don't know is whether they have the gasket sets, bearings synchros seals and other parts I need. I sent them an email to find out but nothing back from them yet so I went ahead and pulled the trigger on this order.

It would be fantastic if I could get my Sprite gearbox parts from them too..... 77.gif

[MiniDave]

Did some noodling around and found the oem part numbers for the bearings synchros etc that I need, turns out virtually none of them cross over to Mini part numbers so while I can buy the straight cut gearsets, synchros and a few misc bushings, everything else will have to come from an MG/Sprite parts supplier.

However, guess where Peter May buys his straight cut gearsets? yep - MiniSpares! At least my contact at Spares says he sells PM a bunch of them every month...... ;D

[MiniDave]

Well, it's up and it's down with this guy.....after getting the order sorted and paid for he swore they would go out Monday via DHL and as soon as he had tracking info he'd send it along. Here it is Thursday and *crickets*......