A very busy week with work resumed on lots of projects and a little something that we don’t normally do. We have some very important news regarding our WebShop, lots more new stock with bling for an EcoBoost Mustang requested by popular demand. But we start with the Park & Pic of our first Non Mustang!

Park & Pic

This is particular car is owned by a very good customer of ours who also owns a Mustang fastback that we look after for him on a regular basis. As a favour we will service other American Classics cars on the condition that there is no rush for us to complete the work, and you are a good customer. It probably doesn’t need to be said that we have to order the parts in for that particular car. This is a great looking 1963 Corvette Sting Ray sitting outside our offices in a sunset.

The car a had a blowing exhaust manifold, and the brakes were pulling noticeably to one side. We had her in up on the ramps to see what was going on, we replaced the manifold gaskets and replaced the front wheel cylinders as one was leaking. The brakes were adjusted all round and the mandatory brake bleed.

Then it was time for a road test, this is a sweet car and sounds as good as she looks. A real pleasure to have her in for some work.

Competition Prize Winner. 

A few weeks ago we had a colouring in competition and we announced the winner as Aaron Botevyle, aged 10. Well we sent the prize to him and here is the young gentleman himself with the “Game” vouchers and some goodies for Easter too. Again well done Aaron.

Ecoboost Bling Parts:

We have had a few requests to get some “bling” parts for the 2015 on Ecoboost Mustangs. We have listened to you and we can announce we have some nice under hood bling for you. We have taken a few before and after shots along with the part number for ordering online from our WebShop.

Coolant Cap:

Washer Cap

Master Brake Fluid Cap:

Oil Filler Cap

Oil Dipstick Cover and Fuel Filler Cap:

Fuse Box Cover:

The finished blinged up result:

An Important WebShop Announcement:

We are pleased to say that we are now at the point where the Mustang Maniac WebShop is now a self-supporting 24/7, 365 days a year service. This is the intention of Mustang Maniac retail strategy going forward to be a predominately online retail supplier. Adam and his team just don’t have the time to take orders over the phone anymore as they work in yard on the cars – their first passions. There has been a minority of customers who have been complaining about the price of our postage. We have mentioned before that we courier our products out to you and the minimum our couriers charge us is £8 + vat at 20%, that’s the £9.60 amount we pass on to you. So if you order a single cigarette lighter, or order more items that can fit in that particular parcel then it will be £9.60 regardless of the number of items in it. We of course still offer a collection service if the cost of postage is too much and we will be pleased to see you, or you can arrange your own collection service as long as you email us first on adam@mustangmaniac.co.uk to let us know when this will be so it can be prepared ready. In the past we have had to make trips to the post office two or three times as day, we get charged for the recorded delivery, it uses our fuel and our time to get there and back which worked out more expensive to us as business. The couriers we use will give you next day delivery (were possible), if ordered with us before 11.30 am, we think that is good service. Unfortunately the “Enos Post” option has been discontinued due to the occasional lost items and inconsistent delivery times which was unacceptable to our high levels of customer service satisfaction.

As we are now moving to the online trading now we have produced a “user guide” for the WebShop which will be soon uploaded to the WebShop site as follows:

“Here at Mustang maniac we are committed to the right parts for the right cars/people. To ensure our high level of service continues we need your help.

Our telephone lines have been ringing of the hook with questions, which at times, has prevented us from shipping orders and stocking the shelves with exciting new lines. Most of these could arguably have be solved online, so, how can you help us, or, more importantly, help us to help you?

Our most common questions are around stock levels, part fitment (if this is the correct part for the car) and overseas shipping costs.

The first is easy to solve:

If a part is stated as ‘Currently in stock’ in green, rest assured that part is on our shelves and ready to ship.

When looking online, if a part is marked as ‘Currently out of stock’ this means it’s either on it’s way from the states to be replenished, or, your order will prompt us ordering more from our suppliers and we will give you an arrival estimate once the order is placed.

The third stock level you may see is ‘Special Order Item’. This is reserved for more specialist items and as a result, we order these in only when requested, so, your online order will kick-start this process, and we will again give you an estimated time of arrival once your order is placed.

Overseas orders are equally as simple, in that we ask you to go through the standard ordering process, if needs be using our address/postcode to complete the order, then, once we have picked, packed and most importantly weighed your complete order, we will contact you with a balance price for the shipping. Don’t panic, until your order has left our building, you can always cancel it with no charge, so don’t fret over not knowing the postage price first.

You are also welcome to arrange your own courier, though we ask you send an email requesting this as soon as your order is placed: adam@mustangmaniac.co.uk with the subject: Request to Collect.

Lastly, part fitment. This is always a tricky one, as over the phone technical support can be challenging at the best of times. As a result, we ask you to trust our model year/descriptions online, but, that if you do still have questions, that they be emailed to: adam@mustangmaniac.co.uk containing as much information as you can, and where possible photos (a picture does tell a 1000 words) so we can best advice the part you need. This communication will be in the form of part numbers, which you can use to search our online store, and complete your order online.

Having a web shop means we are ‘open’ 24hours a day, 7days a week, 365days a year, saying this, our shipping is Mon-Fri, with orders completed before 11:30am being sent out ‘Same Day’, not bad for a ‘small parts distributor’ from the UK.

Using email is the best method for general contact too, allowing us to give you a thorough answer to your question and even provide links for what you’re looking for online. This also includes the progress of your order, online order returns and service/restoration requests.

Mustang Maniac isn’t some huge corporation interested in only taking your money, we are a family run business who care about you and your Mustang. We hope our reputation of stocking only the finest Mustang parts and Accessories precedes us, so, your feedback is always gratefully received. Find us on FaceBook and keep up to date with our weekly Blog.”

On the WebShop we define our “Terms & Conditions” for returns as the following;

RETURNS

Returns to Mustang Maniac must be made within 30 days of receiving it. Therefore, always inspect your order immediately upon receipt to make sure it is correct and undamaged. After 30 days we cannot accept returns for any reason including errors and defects. To return anything within the 30-day limit, the following procedure must be followed:

1. Contact our Customer Service department by Phone or Email and obtain a Return Authorisation (RA) Number. This number must appear on the front of the package you are returning.
2. Include the following with your return: (a) a copy of your original invoice and (b) a note stating why you are returning the item and whether you want a refund, replacement part or credit on account.
3. Insure the return package and pay the shipping charges. We are NOT responsible for any lost or damaged merchandise returned to us. All returns are accepted subject to inspection by Mustang Maniac. WE DO NOT ACCEPT RETURNED PARTS WHICH HAVE BEEN USED, MODIFIED, DAMAGED, OR PAINTED.
4. Mustang Maniac is not responsible for any installation charges. If Mustang Maniac is at fault, we will promptly refund your return delivery charges. Mustang Maniac is NOT responsible for air-freight charges or boxing/packing services.

We mention this now because recently we have had some returned orders from a few random customers who have returned their items just under a year ago, with no packaging and the odd damaged item. It doesn’t take much to work out that we can’t resell those items again. Adam still refunded these items as a good will gesture, but in the future there will be a discretionary decision by Adam if we will refund these items in the future which could also be subject to a 20% restocking fee if he agrees to it.. This does not affect your statuary rights, this is for such items that were purchased, but just no longer wanted. If you are outside the returns policy guidelines please drop Adam an email and he will respond to your on individual basis. A recent example of this was that a full exhaust system was purchased and later given to a third party garage for them to fit the full exhaust system. They told our customer that it didn’t fit and he should return it for that reason. The exhaust was returned and in no fit state to resell again. So we decided to wait until one of our own cars needed an exhaust and fit it. Needless to say, for us the exhaust was a straight forward fit with no problems, apart from undoing the damage that the third party garage had caused to the exhaust mounts trying to fit it. Any company can’t sustain hundreds of pounds worth of refunds to be returned damaged and have to potentially scrap those parts. We were in fortunate situation to be able to repair and re-use those parts.

For the full “Terms and Conditions” click here.

For the User Guide click here, or see the menu above “WebShop Online Ordering” for all the links.

Customers Cars:

Next week we will have some pictures for you of the “Onion” Mustang! No we haven’t forgotten about her at all, but here is a sneak peek, shh don’t tell Yogi we snapped a picture of his work in progress!

Have a great Easter from all of us at Mustang Maniac.