problems with AAOK

[bodnarjw]

Anyone else have problems with AAOK? I ordered a tank transfer decal for my 39 EL from them a couple months ago. After a few weeks I called them up and asked where they were. His response was that they were on his desk. I told him I was displeased they were on his desk and not in the mail. His response? "Would you like me to refund your money?" Of course the answer was no, just put them in the mail. I should have used that as an indication of future problems. I am making great progress on my 39 Knucklehead. At the beginning of April I placed an order through my local parts shop with V-Twin plus an online order through Flatland Motorcycle Company. Then, on April 6th, I placed an online order with AAOK. I got my V-twin parts in two days. I received word from FMC that one part was still in Oversees but on the next shipment. It showed up in a total of 12 days. Sure it took a while, but they kept me informed. I can live with that. AAOK however has done a terrible job of shipping parts or communicating with me. They have done neither. It has been 10 days since I placed my order. The only thing I have received from them is the original automated email receipt on April 6th. Here it is "Thank you! We are reviewing the details of your order. We will let
you know when your order has shipped or if there is any other
information we need from you.

Sincerely,
AAOK"

I have called them everyday for the past four days trying to get an update. Each day I talk with a receptionist or a sales order representative. Each time they take my information, tell me they need to email their shipping department and that shipping will call me. Each day passes and I don't receive a call from shipping. I asked the person on the phone for the direct number to their shipping department. Their response? They claim they don't have a number for their shipping department and can only correspond with them by email. The person I talk with is in Nevada. Their shipping department is in Idaho. My project is at a stand still until I get the parts from AAOK. I think I could deal with it better if someone would have told me they were on back order or there would be a delay or if I could just talk with an informed human being. What is happening to our hobby when businesses can ignore their customers like this? I will keep everyone updated day by day on how this turns out. If it turns out well I will let everyone know. If it gets uglier from here because of this post, I will definitely let you know.

[bodnarjw]

Update to my problems with AAOK. They sent me a response to my last email. They are moving and are experiencing delays. Attached is the message they sent:

"We are in the process of moving our warehouse. The only means of communication we currently have is a BlackBerry device. We should be up and running by Monday. We will ship everything soon after that. This is the best we can do at this time.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry"

[Robert Luland]

There was a guy a couple months ago on the Panhead site that had a total nightmare over some engine cases with AAOK and figured out that they work out of two states. Go over there and do a search. Bob

[bodnarjw]

No more problems with AAOK

Brad York of AAOK called me. They have been moving their warehouse. He apologized for the delay and told me that although they were still not back to 100% operating capability he would personally go out, track down my parts and get them out to me. After talking with him and the fact that he followed through and I got my parts quickly, I will probably do business with them again.

I'm going to close this thread

[exeric]

I'm glad to hear that AAOK is fixing their problems. I have done business with them in the past and I was very pleased with the quality of their stuff.

[Paps]

I have had good dealings with them. Paps

[Chris Haynes]

I remember Bill York (AAOK) when he was in Oxnard, CA. Nice guy who had a machine shop running full time making new parts for old Hogs.

[40 Nuck]

I have purchased quite a bit of stuff from them, and have been generally happy with them. They offer a few nice pieces that don't seem to be available elsewhere. I don't like that some of their stuff is shipped bundled together and not labeled (e.g., very small parts) when I recieve it, and I have to wade through and I.D. parts, and differentiate and match to my order. I think this is a common problem though. I also think their prices tend to be fair relative to other sources. Bill York was also my contact, and a very courteous and helpful guy.

My one "hmmm" about this story, though, is that I had trouble with receiving a part of my order a couple of years ago, and was not getting through to customer service, and the "moving warehouses" was later used as an "explanation" then also.

[len dowe]

AAOK

AAOK listed a oem dipstick and sent an obvious repop and i went thru hell trying to get my money back

[T. Cotten]

I have never done business with AAOK,
but I find it intriguing what AAOK offers with their reproduction motorcases:

"Also we can stamp your VIN of choice using factory style stamps at no charge."

http://www.aaok.com/categories/12-motor-knucklehead

Now we ALL can have 36EL1000!

....Cotten

[Paps]

They sure used a poor choice of words for stamping. Paps

[Ohio-Rider]

About two months back I did a “Buy Now” on e-bay with them for a set of handlebars. The ad stated they had 4 sets available. I received an e-mail from them saying they had received my order and had charged my pay pal account. In the same e-mail they tell me that they don’t have any in stock but will send them out as soon as they become available.

I mailed them back to see if they could give me any idea as to how long I would need to wait for the handlebars which I had just paid for and was informed that they couldn’t tell me how long it might take. I do have to give them credit for immediately canceling my order and refunding my money. Seemed like nice enough people to me.

[c.o.]

I have never done business with AAOK,
but I find it intriguing what AAOK offers with their reproduction motorcases:

"Also we can stamp your VIN of choice using factory style stamps at no charge."

http://www.aaok.com/categories/12-motor-knucklehead

Now we ALL can have 36EL1000!

....Cotten

No kidding.... that's really gonna cause some headscratching in the future.......

[markcoc]

I too am having a problem with AAOK parts and service. On April 12, 2012 I ordered (2) sets of ROWE BLACK NITRATED valves (8 valves total), for a UL sidevalve. I just received them may 18th! Guess what, they sent me 3 diferent brand of valves. The intakes look like reproduction hd valves with the hd part number and hd and INT, forged on face of valve with some coating on them. One exhaust valve is marked like the intakes yet bare surface. The other 3 exhaust valves have no markings.
I made up my mind to use ROWE nitrated valves and thought I found them at AAOK. they apparently did not have them either and tried to screw me on these reproduction ones. Why send these without contacting me, other than to screw me?
I will be on the phone first thing in the morning to talk to them . I'll let you know the results.
UPDATE: Today (MAY 21st) I called AAOK 12 times! would be put on hold for about 1 minute then it went to voicemail. I left a massage, no answer! Will try again tomorrow!!!!

[ricmoran]

I called them to see what it would cost to send lens shields for the dash on a 39.

They wanted 15 bucks to send these over, something that could be put into a first class envelope for less than a buck, but then when they started talking about handling charges and the price of 28 bucks too boot, I thought they can keep them if they would not deal a better price. The total would of been around 50 bucks to 2 small parts.

I did talk to the gal that answered about how small the part are and the cost of freight is 15.00 bucks?

She said hold on and talked with someone else there.

After a couple minutes she returned to the phone and said 8.00 bucks for shipping and handling.

So the total would have been 36.00 bucks.

I thought okay, but I am not spending that much for 2 small pieces of sheet metal I am going to do some shopping.

Kick Start sold the shields to me for 22 bucks and although I could have asked Chuck I think his name is, to send it first class letter envelope, he did send it priority at 5.25 with no handling charge and the total was 27.25.

I don't know how a company can sell the same thing for 22% more and then gouge on handling and freight and stay in business.

What is frustrating is that they sell the part for 5 bucks more than kickstart so they are healthy profit wise with an extra 21%.

I do understand making a profit for pulling the item and packing it, but making that extra profit and then adding a handling charge is foolish business because that gets published some where like here on this forum for people to see.

Buyers beware.