Toyota of Cool Springs is shutting down their online parts store....again

Toyota of Cool Springs is owned by Automotive Management Services Inc. (AMSI), along with dozens of other dealerships throughout the country. The head honcho at AMSI has elected to discontinue all business with Revolution Parts, who is our online webstore provider, which means the store that I've created and sold parts through is now closing. All current orders are still going to be completed once the parts arrive.

As a lowly parts guy, I have zero say-so with these types of things. I will continue to help out where I can here, though admittedly not as much as if I was online throughout the day, and I will try and find other ways to get around the restriction and be able to supply parts to people outside of our general area. I apologize to everyone that has depended on using our store, and I know it was only a few months into having the store back up from a long hiatus, but believe me, this was not my decision and I don't agree with it. They are allowed to run their business how they see fit, and it is what it is.

I'll leave the part numbers up in the threads I created so you guys can use those and order from whatever dealership you choose. Any links to our store will no longer work.

 

That is just total BS and craziness. So many of us here in the forum are so used to using "@Roman is our parts guy".

 

Sorry to hear that Roman.
You've been a great help to me and MANY others over the years..

We all thank you for that..

Corporate BS screws up everything that is good...

 

I'm guessing they determined the juice wasn't worth the squeeze from a profitability standpoint, they got in trouble with Toyota for some weird reason, or they may be planning to switch to a different web store provider? I doubt they're doing it just for the hell of it or to alienate customers. It would be interesting to know what brought about the decision.

Regardless, best of luck. I know you've been a great help to many here and in the process generated a positive image for TOCS. Good marketing from the parts guy!

 

That ! They should promote you VP of sales/customer relationships

 

So sorry to hear OP

 

Sounds like a VP schmuck at Revolution Parts pissed off the VP schmuck at AMSI.

This is sad and I refuse to "like" your post

​

Thank you for everything you've done for us, Roman. I have a feeling this won't be the last we see of ya.

 

Pure speculation, as I do not know the reasons behind the decision, but if I had to guess it is this right here.

A little back story, I was brought on at this dealership because they were growing and needed another hand, but they also were dipping their toes into selling parts online, and I told them I could take care of that. I got in touch with Revolution back when they were fairly new, moved everything over to those guys because they have an awesome platform, got involved with forums online, and really started to push. Not to get into any specifics, but I grew the business to over 150x the amount of sales that they were doing before I came here. I started getting noticed by Toyota corporate and AMSI. They were wondering what the hell I was doing to sell so much, lol. If you notice, a lot of dealerships' online store URLs are parts.dealershipname.com, that was because I had our website named that and Toyota didn't want any generic names like buytoyotapartshere.com to give any dealership a leg up on selling parts online. AMSI wanted to know what I was doing so they could get all of their dealerships on board. If I'm selling this much, then the rest of the dealerships can too. They got together with Revolution and set up this huge deal that would involve all AMSI dealers to have a webstore through Revolution. Well, a lot of dealerships couldn't get anything going. They weren't seeing the returns that I was, probably because they didn't have a "me" there actually trying to sell, get involved with online communities, and get their name out there. Then, the Wayfair Act happened, and once it was actually being enforced neither Revolution nor AMSI wanted to take any tax liability. So, the store shut down the first time. Earlier this year, Revolution finally said, "Ok, we'll take the liability" through collecting taxes through their platform. Boom, all of a sudden we're back on. A few months later, and I heard talks about them wanting to shut down again. I thought maybe they would let my dealership continue because of past performance, but that wasn't the case. Again, I don't know for sure that profitability was the deciding factor, or the only one, but I'm betting it had a lot to do with it. Online parts sales is a volume game. You can't sell parts for what the Toyota suggested retail is, because no one does. You have to be competitive with the rest of dealerships online. You have to sell enough to negotiate back and forth with FedEx and UPS to get lower shipping rates, and to cover the rest of your expenses (marketing, packaging materials, boxes, shipping staff, damages, subsciptions, etc). Until the volume is there, you're barely breaking even, and none of the other AMSI stores were anywhere near what we were doing here (at least, I don't think they were).

 

That's a real shame. Will miss you @Roman!

 

Post the managers phone number. Let’s all call and get this guy a raise

 

WOW!!!! What a crock of BS!!! You were/are the best because you have the knowledge of what fors and wheres and this goes theres!! I have learned a lot and when I answer questions even at dealers it amazes me they do not know their own products!!! No one wants to work that hard and put for the effort anymore!!! Thanks for what you have done and the wealth of knowledge that you have shared with thousands of Toyo Nuts out there!! Strange times we are living in and to you sir I SAY! Thank You!!!!!!! and all the best to you in the future!!!! Ken

 

That sucks! Just the way big corporations go unfortunately. Everyone sees your success as a positive and it garners attention, then they use your case to get greedy across the board without implementing properly, doesn't work, backfires and now your success gets squandered through no fault of your own.

 

Sorry @Roman. You did a lot of good on the forum even when you weren’t making the sale. Weird times when people don’t see value in things that clearly have it…

Sparks is like

 

Thanks @Roman for all you have done for the Toyota community.
I have bought a bunch of stuff because of your OEM parts thread through Cool Springs.
We all appreciate all your assistance on part numbers.

 

Sounds to me like Toyota Corporate should take you on board and let you develop a singular one stop shop for online geniune Toyota parts. You could fulfill orders from DC's OR individual dealerships (assuming shared inventory levels from dealers to Toyota) to reduce shipping cost and time - both of which make for a happy customer. Dealerships would no longer have to deal with setting up and maintaining their own online parts website, they'd just have to look for orders and ship them out (or flag as out of stock to redirect the order if they don't actually have the item). Buy Online and Pick Up In Store is a big business and can drive traffic - and add-on sales - as well.

Basically, take what big box retailers are already doing and apply it to their dealership network. It would create a much more consistent and streamlined experience for Toyota customers with the added peace of mind knowing they will get genuine Toyota parts (no risk of knock-off parts like there is buying from Amazon - which happens when you get frustrated looking for parts on dealer websites that haven't prioritized online sales).

Thanks for the back story, that does explain a lot.

 

Sorry to hear this!
I certainly hope it does not effect your employment status or compensation.

One of my local dealerships tries to sell above MSRP.

Last June had to make an emergency trip to Florida of course my rear brake pads started grinding the day before.
Ran to get pads MSRP $67.50 they wanted $89.99.
I had them check and check again, even showed them online.
I said I would pay MSRP because I needed them they said no.
I was at the other dealership the following morning the second they opened and bought the pads for $49.99.
Installed the pads and hit the road.

 

Damn Roman. That sucks. I trust you folks. I don't trust any of the local dealers. thanks for everything that you have done. You still rock.

 

This is a real shame. Thanks @Roman for all your great service and posts that have helped a ton of folks on this forum. I hope the future holds great things for you.

 

lots of dealer sell on Ebay and use Ebay platform. Could you setup something there for the most requested parts for Tundra/Tacoma ?

 

This is fine in theory. However, "centralizing" the acquisition of OE Toyota parts for the consumer through mass distribution, marketing and fulfillment will not benefit consumers in the end. That type of business strategy eliminates competition; and without competition... pricing, order fulfillment, and customer service always ends up in the toilet.

 

To the idiots that made this decision




Gonna miss having access to your level of service, @Roman . More importantly I hope this doesn't negatively impact YOU. We'll all be fine and get our parts, but is this going hurt you or your livelihood, or cause you stress/turmoil?

 

Fair points. But if Roman is in charge I trust he wouldn't screw us over!

 

"In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity."

 

Sorry to hear this @Roman ,you were definitely a asset here. Thanks for everything. Hopefully this will change for the better down the road.

 

Who's selling the "Free Roman" t shirts?

We need to get this man a promotion to a pay grade where he can correct this mistake.

 

Tried that. eBay is terrible, as well as Amazon.

 

Appreciate the kind words, fellas.

 

...so now that the whole parts thing is going downhill, can we call as a first resort?