Heritage Parts Now Parts Town

[SandShark]

I don't know who you guys use for commercial kitchen parts, but I've been a Heritage fan for years. As you may know, Heritage and Parts Town have merged. I've never used Parts Town.

Supposedly, nothing is going to change but the name, but you know how that goes. They started doing things to get ready for the merger back in the latter part of last year. Of course, COVID-19 shut down our schools from March until August, so I wasn't ordering parts.

When we came back, I started having a few issues with Heritage. Specifically, they started charging us sales tax on the last few invoices. Our school district has a fit when they're charged sales tax, so I've been told not to make any further purchases until the sales tax issue gets resolved and they credit us for the taxes they've charged us. This has been iike pulling teeth. I haven't been able to order anything for about a three weeks. They keep giving us lip service every time we've called them about it.

Now, I don't know who I'm going to use for parts. Any suggestions?

[CFESAmasterEGSR]

All points...

Losing heritage sucked. My preference order has been all points, heritage, parts town... in that order.


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[SandShark]

All points...

Losing heritage sucked. My preference order has been all points, heritage, parts town... in that order.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Unforunately, AllPoints is not an option. I failed to mention that vendors we deal with have to be a member of Choice Partners purchasing cooperative because we're a school district. Thanks for the suggestion, though.

[CFESAmasterEGSR]

I’m not familiar with that. Sucks that they’re not an option... they’re an amazing resource in our industry.


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[bkwhat]

I work for a tribal casino resort, so we are also tax exempt. I also use Partstown almost exclusively for my kitchen equipment. I remember a while back talking to someone there and they said. The sales tax is removed once the order bills. Actually found the email:

Please be advised that any open orders with sales tax included, will have the sales tax removed once the order bills.
Also, take note that a sales tax estimate may be calculated on all web orders, but will be removed once the order bills. You will receive an invoice with the final charge via email.

Hope this helps.

[mcr]

I've used Heritage for years. Recently my normal contact there has " not been in the office. Every time I call I get a different person. I've been working on a very old convection oven. Parts are hard to identify and as I was on the phone with a young lady and you would have thought her office was on fire. She wouldn't let me explain what I wanted. I had to tell her twice to stop talking and listen. Sure enough she didn't listen and fortunately another staff member called back later for clarification on the order and we got it straight.

[targetman]

We use Parts town. No issues.

[davejohnsonnola]

Love Allpoints Not as user friendly website as either PartsTown or Heritage if you like to look up your own parts, but their support staff has been great with looking up parts and sourcing if they did not have in stock.

As to the sales tax issue I've had nightmares with almost all internet vendors. We have an exemption from local sales tax and are only supposed to be charged the state sales tax rate. After having issues in the past and having our account frozen at times due to haggling between our AP and vendors AR over in some cases literally pennies, I finally just started fudging my purchase order requests and include the full tax rate in my line item pricing. So long as the bottom line totals matched, invoices have been paid without a problem.

[SandShark]

I work for a tribal casino resort, so we are also tax exempt. I also use Partstown almost exclusively for my kitchen equipment. I remember a while back talking to someone there and they said. The sales tax is removed once the order bills. Actually found the email:

Please be advised that any open orders with sales tax included, will have the sales tax removed once the order bills.
Also, take note that a sales tax estimate may be calculated on all web orders, but will be removed once the order bills. You will receive an invoice with the final charge via email.

Hope this helps.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the case with the purchases we were charged tax. It's all been rectified, so I'm back to ordering parts from them.

I've used Heritage for years. Recently my normal contact there has " not been in the office. Every time I call I get a different person. I've been working on a very old convection oven. Parts are hard to identify and as I was on the phone with a young lady and you would have thought her office was on fire. She wouldn't let me explain what I wanted. I had to tell her twice to stop talking and listen. Sure enough she didn't listen and fortunately another staff member called back later for clarification on the order and we got it straight.

That's funny you should mention that because I was told that my normal contact was "out of the office until next week" and when I called back next week, I was told "she is in training." When I first called about the tax issue, some guy I spoke to kept going on and on about the problems they were having and how much work they were having to do to straighten out the sales tax issue. I tried interrupting, but he just wouldn't shut up. So, I set the phone down and let him keep jabbering.

Love Allpoints Not as user friendly website as either PartsTown or Heritage if you like to look up your own parts, but their support staff has been great with looking up parts and sourcing if they did not have in stock.

As to the sales tax issue I've had nightmares with almost all internet vendors. We have an exemption from local sales tax and are only supposed to be charged the state sales tax rate. After having issues in the past and having our account frozen at times due to haggling between our AP and vendors AR over in some cases literally pennies, I finally just started fudging my purchase order requests and include the full tax rate in my line item pricing. So long as the bottom line totals matched, invoices have been paid without a problem.

I hear you. I do like that I can look up parts rather than having to call the manufacturer to get a part number. Plus, most times, they have several photos of the part, which I think is useful. The thing I like about Heritage is if the part is in stock, which it usually is, they ship it the same day and it's in my hands in two days.

[SandShark]

Okay, just to put a bow on this, I wanted to give a status update on my parts purchasing dilemma. It's pretty long, so hang in there.

Today, Heritage Parts is history. Even if you try to go to their website or click on a part showing in a Google search, there you are - at Parts Town!

Since I had already set up our account and tax exempt status back in early October, and since I didn't want to start from scratch with another vendor, I thought I would give them a try. I needed to order a part for a combi-oven. Found the part and put it in my basket.

Start the checkout process and get to the final stage when I see sales tax has been added and shipping. I won't rehash the sales tax issue, but Heritage never charged us shipping and I got to choose either FedEx or UPS. I did a comparison and, on average, FedEx got me my parts a day sooner than UPS. I know, nothing is "free", but coupled with our pricing and "free" shipping, I was purchasing parts at a modestly significant discount over other vendors that I have compared pricing/shipping to in the past, just to keep Heritage honest on pricing.

I opened a chat window on their website inquiring about the tax and shipping charges. Well, apparently they don't offer "free" shipping, so that was disappointing. Shipping on an $84 part is going to be $13. I was told that the tax would not be charged to our credit card, but I'm still a little gun-shy about that since we're still trying to get credited from Heritage on sales tax being charged the last couple of times I ordered.

This is the point where things took a turn for the worse. I called the 1-800 number. Rather than the call being answered by an automated answering system like most businesses, to my surprise, a lady answered the phone. She said, "Hello." I asked if this was Parts Town. She said it was. I said, "Okay, will you be able to answer some questions I have about our account?" She replied in a rather arrogant tone, "You have questions about your account? What kind of questions?" Her response and the tone of her response caught me off guard and, more importantly, I wasn't getting a warm and fuzzy feeling. I could tell this wasn't going to end well for either one of us. So, I hung up.

Subsequently, I sent an email to my favorite sales rep with Heritage, hoping I could talk to someone who would be a little friendlier to a loyal customer. Several hours went by with no response. So, I tried calling her number and extension. I think it was the same lady that answered the last time I called. I asked to be transferred to my old sales rep's extension. She asked, "Are you trying to reach _______?" I said, "Yes." Next thing, I'm on hold. Then, a minute later, I hear the line click and I hear noises in the background. Before I know it, dial tone. Hmm, I'm thinking these people just do not want to deal with me!

So, I sent another email to my favorite sales rep, begging her to call me! Again, no response. As I'm finishing up ordering the part from another vendor not named Parts Town, my office phone rings. Not recognizing the number, I didn't answer. Voice mail. It was someone with Parts Town claiming she is a representative for the Business Development Team, she is calling because she learned that I was having some issues making a purchase, she is calling to help resolve those issues and she is calling because she wants me to have the same great customer service experience with Parts Town that I had come to expect with Heritage Parts.

Keep in mind, here it is at the end of my work day and I'm just now ordering a part I need. I paid more for the part than I would have with Parts Town and, at this point, I would rather have my fingernails ripped off than to buy anything from Parts Town. Furthermore, I said as much in Google and Trustpilot 1-star reviews. So, thanks to an earlier recommendation, I've contacted AllPoints to set up a new account, even though they aren't part of any co-ops. Hopefully, it all works out or I may be ordering used parts off of eBay before it's all said and done.

[VTP99]

I hate searching for hot side parts. Always a joke of a discount and absorbent pricing to boot.

[ECtofix]

I hate searching for hot side parts. Always a joke of a discount and exorbitant pricing to boot.

Fixed that for you. No charge.

[VTP99]

Haha thanks the only thing absorbent is the suction on ones cash flow.

[mcr]

Called Parts Town yesterday trying to find out status of a warranty claim. My rep was out again. Not really an issue because we have talked and she has some health issues going on. So I asked for my no. 2 contact who has been very helpful. Put on hold for 20 minutes! Another call came in so I hung up. Glad I'm retiring in 3 weeks!