How to do it right, customer service edition:

So about 12+ years ago I purchased a GPI fuel transfer pump. I have several diesel vehicles and I needed a pump to transfer stored diesel to the appropriate vehicles. I generally buy diesel from the stations when the price is down (I might buy 150 gallons at a time if the price drops far enough) and store it for when the price jumps or when I just need to fuel the tractor or generator or whatever.

Now, this fuel pump has worked well for me for several years. It replaced a hand powered pump because I just got too lazy to pump 20 gallons or so of diesel by hand (do you know how many strokes of a hand pump that is?) I'd bet that this pump has moved in excess of 5 thousand gallons, both into and out of the fuel tanks.

Sadly, earlier this year, the pump no longer moved fuel. The electric motor would run but no movement of fuel. For a while,I was using a different pump I had because I was too busy to take the broken pump down and open it up to see what was wrong.

I got an exploded parts breakdown off the website and took the time to observe the pump and determine what parts I needed. When I called GPI to see where I could buy the parts, the conversation went like this:

"Hi, I need to order a gear and key set for a 150S pump. "

"Ok".

"and a gasket kit for the gear plate."

"Ok"

"And any other parts you think I need"

"Does the pump prime?"

"No"

"then I'll send you a poppet valve kit too....I need your address"

"123 XXXYYY City state"

"Cool, I'll get those out today"

"How much will that be?"

"I'll send them to you"

"Yes, I got that, how much and do you take Visa?"

"I'll send them to you"

"yes, and what are the charges?"

'I am sending them to you at no charge. "

"Oh, Thank you"

Didn't expect that, and the pump is 12+ years old. I doubt that the parts cost them that much to make, but still, this is well beyond what I expected as customer service. Hell, I'd have at least expected to have to pay for postage.

Oh, and BTW... these fuel pumps are MADE IN AMERICA.