GreatBrakes.com and EBC at Las Vegas

[Wing King]

First, thanks to all our dealers and customers who have made this such a fantastic business year so far. It's given us a great deal of satisfaction to be able to bring the British EBC products to the Viper nation and provide such good solutions to the normal brake issues.

Second, we need to make all of you aware of the SEMA convention schedule for next week. In Dallas, we are leaving Toni home to man (or "woman" as it is) our toll free order desk at 1-866-GR8-PADS. However, we are taking the entire rest of our company to the SEMA, Automotive Aftermarket Industry Week convention in Las Vegas. Toni can take your orders, but the warehouse and shipping will be closed for the entire week of October 29 through November 2nd. The California warehouse is also going to be doing inventory and very limited in what they can do. If you think you may need product during next week, or early the week after, PLEASE try to order by mid-day tomorrow (Friday) so we can get you taken care of before leaving.

Third, be advised that we now have plenty of Prowler and Neon pads in stock...... and about one-half of the entire fitments for all Dodge, Ford and Chevrolet trucks and SUV's. These are "killer" new pads for this "big vehicle" line, that have the same low dust, no squeal, and high friction characteristics of your Viper pads. Even better, they also now carry the tough "7 of 10" wear index and will give you longgggggggg reliable performance in these heavy-duty applications. In most cases they are about the same price as a Viper pad. You have a 50-50 chance we can fit you right now, and we should complete the full line soon. Please stick with us as we eventually get everything covered.

Fourth...... have to remind you about the EBC "Yellow" and "Blue" racing pads. When we first brought EBC to market here, we didn't have these racing pads yet. Many people went to serious track events and gave the Green and Reds some very tough use. Not all were completely satisfied, and some "hearsay" got started that "EBC is great for only the street or autocross". Well, our congratulations go out to Tom Glenn, who is at the top of the Western Viper Days standings, competing this season on the EBC racing pads. Tom will be at the Tulsa Finals, trying to add the final exclamation point to a fine season. Since our GreatBrakes schedule does not get us home from Las Vegas in time to make that last race, Tom will have some EBC supplies with him, and you can hear about EBC racing pad performance (and the low competitive prices) from a smiling user who can give you good advice.

Finally, a last word about EBC prices and our dealers. By the time you read this post, there may still be, or there was, another Viper tuner posting here about the availability of EBC pads.... at retail and discounted prices different from the enforced price structure of the EBC factory. If not already corrected, it will be soon. Your EBC network of dealers is coordinated to work as a team, designed to make our products available to you as locally as possible, or through your favorite tuner, always focusing on CUSTOMER SERVICE. The enforced pricing structure makes this work very fairly. EBC has worked hard to keep the selling prices EXTREMELY low already, and those prices represent a tremendous "bang for the buck" versus other manufacturers. If you don't believe us, ask ANY other EBC user. Track guys...... your turn is coming!

Don't forget..... better order tomorrow!!!! We'll see you again after the convention...... and with some exciting NEW announcements to make. Thanks again,

Wing King
GreatBrakes.com
(proud EBC Brakes Distributor.... with a fine dealer network)

 

[JonB]

Thanks, King for the informative post.

PartsRack has a couple of customers on Yellows, and lately Blues.

But the street-performance crowd has GOTTA HAVE GREENS!

Now that endurance of Greens has been quietly IMPROVED they are even a better bargain.....less than half the price of OEM, and excellent street performance with NO SQUEEK and 90% less DUST...100% of our pads are the NEW FORMULA Greens....

 

[Ernie J]

In other words you cried until EBC forced Roe Racing to
raise prices. As usual Sean wanted to charge us a fair price.
It makes more sense if all the Viper owners put pressure on
EBC to drop you. Then Sean can charge us fair prices.

 

[Wing King]

Gee, Ernie....... are you having a bad day, or what?

Maybe you should go over to the recent, long EBC thread on the main forum, and read our post about prices..... in answer to a comment from Sean. However, I'll respond again here, just for you. I certainly would like to know where you are getting your "extreme" mis-information, but it is NOT Greatbrakes.com, OR ANY OTHER distributor or dealer, who establishes prices for EBC brake pads for the Viper or any vehicle in their catalog. It is the EBC factory and management who have established a firm price structure, with fairly low markups, that all their distributors (like us, for one), and dealers everywhere are REQUIRED to follow. Rather than having fat retail prices with artificially inflated markups (making room for big discounts), EBC decided to come to the USA market with extremely LOW prices in competition with other brand pads, and offer the customer a VERY good "bang for the buck". Compare their set prices against factory pads or replacements from other manufacturers, and it's quickly obvious what a tremendous value they represent. At the same time, EBC is also wise enough that they don't believe it's in their company's obvious best interests to have all their distributors or dealers trying to cut each other's throats. Since it's THEIR company....... they get to make the rules.

GreatBrakes.com has worked very hard and spent a great deal of it's own advertising money to help EBC develop its brand name and reputation in the Viper community. We got on board very early with them, when no one wanted to give the new guys from England even the time of day over here. That's why they grant us the exclusive status to distribute their Viper products in the USA. We earned it. We love them, and they love us. But, when it comes to the price for Viper, or any other vehicle pads, we and all of the other distributors and dealers still have to do what they tell us. Sorry, but even if you want pads for a C5 Corvette, they are going to cost you the fixed EBC price of $168 for the set from us, Tire Rack, your local Chevy dealer, or wherever else you want to purchase them. And YES, that price is correct........ the $148 pads for the 1992-2000 Viper ARE $20 LESS than for a Corvette, and $30 less for the 2001 Viper ($138). Hmmm, gee, well, if we HAVE been able to exert any influence with EBC, then maybe we are not QUITE the evil profit mongers Ernie thinks we are!

Just for fun, can ANYONE give me an example of any other important, legitimate, aftermarket powertrain or chassis product, that someone ELSE produces for both the Viper and Corvette....... where the Viper version is MORE than 10% cheaper than for the Corvette????? I would love to hear about it! In fact, I have a $45 value Viper logo watch that goes as a gift to the FIRST person to document something to me. Any questions or dispute to be resolved at the discretion of the moderators. Go for it guys! Hope this response FINALLY corrects the mis-information.

Ernie, I'm very surprised to see something like your post, particularly since I'm not aware that our company or any of our selling dealers HAVE any disgruntled customers. We try VERY hard to make sure that doesn't happen. Feel free to send me a private message explaining our terrible misdeeds in detail, and I'll be happy to respond either privately or publicly, as you wish.

Wing King
GreatBrakes.com

 

[Sean Roe]

Hi Everyone,

Here's the scoop:

We here at Roe Racing were contacted by a representative from EBC/PP/EFI in late May, early June. They called on us weekly and were very aggressive at trying to get our business. We asked if anyone had exclusive US distributorship of the Viper line and our rep said "No". Finally, the offer became good enough that we took them up on it. Because of our lower negotiated purchase price and our low overhead, we were able to offer a lower price to the consumers. This upset others, who actually did have a lock on these pads (so our rep was wrong) and our rep asked us to raise our prices, even though there was no set price requirement in writing anywhere.
At the SEMA show, they informed us that we would no longer be able to buy EBC/PP/EFI green stuff pads directly for the Viper. While at the show, another company at the distributor level petitioned EBC/PP/EFI to not allow us to buy or sell any of their pads (I have the e-mail). At this point, they're supposed to be buying back our inventory.
This whole thing has left a bad taste in my mouth about the company. Sorry, but I don't believe in price fixing. Maybe it's okay in England, but in America, we have competition and it works to everyone's benefit. If there was an agreement in place that EBC/PP/EFI asked us to sign before we became a distributor that said we had to sell at their fixed prices, I would have said "no thanks" and have done that with one other British company before. No US companies ask us to fix prices.