Donald Frost

Review of Summit Racing Equipment

I visited the store on the afternoon of Saturday, ...

I visited the store on the afternoon of Saturday, December 30th - 5 stars for sales representative and 5 starts for customer service and selection - 0 stars for pick-up counter staff...
I just bought a new truck and went to Summit for running boards so my wife could get in and out of the truck more easily. The sales associate I dealt with was friendly, knowledgeable and patient helping me decide on a product (showed me options on the computer and the sales floor).
When I decided on a purchase he directed me 1st to customer service and then to the pick-up counter where "my name would be called when my order was ready".
Customer service was fast, friendly, courteous and helpful...and then the real adventure began at the pick-up counter.
My first impression of the pick-up counter staff is that there's a serial puppy-killer loose in the area because every single one of them looked like someone had just killed their puppy...for ease of reading henceforth I will simply refer to them as DPO's (dead puppy owners).
The first thing I noticed (after their dead puppies of course) was one DPO (shorter guy with short brown hair and a beard) was berating a co-worker (tall thin kid with a blond 70's surfer haircut). The other DPO's working the counter appeared as uncomfortable as I felt about the condescending exchange.
While waiting on my order, I was researching videos on YouTube on my phone to assist me with installing the running boards I had just purchased. Apparently, the DPO's working that day were all using their 'inside voices' when calling out names (you'd think that a more commanding voice would be used when calling out names in a large crowded store...you'd think...). Apparently I missed my name being called.
When I looked up and saw the green dot next to my name on the large monitor above the counter indicating my order was ready for pick-up, I put my phone away and waited patiently for my name to be called (per the instructions from the sales associate).
Several other customers came and went while I was waiting...I made firm eye contact with every DPO working the counter so that they knew I was ready and waiting...and waiting...(not many of them made eye contact back and appeared to actually avoid it). There were lulls in the counter activity during this time...lulls where they could have called my name a 2nd time (my parts were sitting on a cart right there).
In the 15 minutes or so that I was waiting patiently while they had me (unknown to me) in an apparent 'time-out' for not paying attention to their inside voices, I was reflecting on lessons I learned in kindergarten (good-citizen lessons such as waiting my turn and following directions).
After multiple fruitless 'eye-contacts' and after growing tired of waiting, I tossed my good citizen lessons to the wind and finally walked up to the counter to advocate for myself about my wait time, to which one DPO (slightly older gentleman with dark brown hair and glasses) replied in his best Ben Stein impersonation "Your order is ready now".
The 'separated-at-birth Ben Stein' impersonator then wheeled my order outside to my truck. On the way out, still a little perturbed at having been hazed by the pick-up counter DPO's, I asked him if maybe "I somehow fell through the cracks" in them not making a single 2nd attempt AT ALL to call my name, to which he mustered a Ben Stein-worthy "Sorry about that".
I sincerely hope that Summit Auto Racing chips in very soon to buy all the pick-up counter staff working that day new puppies - and I recommend to anyone buying merchandise at the store that as soon as you see the green dot next to your name on the monitor, you approach the counter and ask a DPO if your order is ready....cuz you never know when you might have been unknowingly put in a time-out by the pick-up counter staff. (Bringing a puppy might not hurt either...)