When I started this post it was to gain information if I was the only person having search issues with WCCC’s site. I even sent a PM to Don with basically the same information as my first post. Giving WCCC’s the benefit of doubt they have not answered this thread or my PM more than likely because it’s a holiday weekend. Let’s see what they have to say in response to the search block on their site. Now as far as their pricing goes I’ve had no issues with that as some of you have posted. What I would ask is for us to keep in mind that they are a Cougar parts supplier and they fill our needs in this hobby. Yes there are other suppliers that you can shop at and buy your items, but are they Cougar faithful like WCCC’s. WCCC’s has helped probably more Cougar people with information than parts so for that I’m grateful. If the search engine on their site doesn’t work so be it, it’s not the end of the world at least for me.
Steven
The best work around I have found is to use Google like this: cougarpartscatalog:radio knobs This will only return itmes listed on the site and it will give a lot of returns to chose from.
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That was funny !
WCCC was closed today, what kind of nonsense is that, we need parts and Andrew needs to finish the 2016 open house video ! (that was sarcasm btw) 
Thank you for that Dan (and others who posted). As many of you know our IT guy who has been with us from the start was in a severe head on collision 2 years ago. He built our site from the ground up and helped us do things the multi-million dollar companies would not dare touch. Because our site is not just a plug and play out of the box system that Scott Drake offers to anyone who opens an account, it takes a lot of upkeep. Finding a full time replacement for Joshua has been very difficult. Joshua is currently working on upgrading the search field and making it more intuitive and as often happens when you make changes, hidden glitches with certain operating systems under certain circumstances will pop up. I REALLY appreciate the feedback here and Joshua will be reading every line of it to get clues as to when and why problems occur. Unfortunately because of the severeness of his head injuries, Joshua can only work 1 hr at a time, no more than 2 hours a day about 3 days a week from home. Despite the set backs our site continues to grow and 2016 is on track to be our best year yet. We get compliments and thank yous daily for the education and service we provide that cannot be found elsewhere at any price. What really encourages us is the amount of Mustang vendors and those in the service industry that use our site. Believe it or not we are not up tight when guys like Cougar Bill use our site for reference and buy elsewhere, its there for all to use and we figured out long ago it is a numbers game, throw out a lot of pictures, videos, free diagrams, reviews out there and a certain percentage will buy from WCCC even if we cannot match Rock-Autos price.
Since we made some changes a couple of weeks ago this very problem has been occurring often. We hope to have it ironed out in the next couple of days.
If you did not write down or take a screen shot of all the trim prices prior to our email announcement you probably would not know there was a price reduction. In most cases it was less than a 10% price reduction but considering most of our suppliers hit us with a 3-5% increase every year or so I considered it worth mentioning.
Believe it or not I too do this very thing… Once in a while I feel certain I have a part on the site (because I remember placing it there) and no matter how I tweak the search words I cannot find it. I then use Google and it leads me right to it (embarrassing…). The reason being, google has an infinite budget and personnel to keep their system humming, my annual budget to do such on the other hand would not pay for 1 days worth of coffee filters at googles South Africa office. When I do find the hidden item on our site, I go in and look at what search words might be missing and also put it in other categories so it can be found easier whether searching by categories or via key search words. I almost never use more than 2 words when searching, example: In stead of 1967 Big block high pressure power steering hose 1/4" I just put in “1967 power hose”. That way I get several selections and do not risk missing the item I need by placing one word in the search that the listing did not contain. Again, google is much more intuitive and knows much better how to point you to the right group of parts even if you do not know exactly what to call, it or how to spell it.
I haven’t needed to buy anything lately, so can’t comment on recent experience. The google thing tho… I’ve noticed a number of websites that use the google search engine, but results are limited to their own site. No idea if google gets paid for that, but it might be worth looking into instead of the time & expense of maintaining the home-brew search system.
And I join the others who compliment and thank WCCC for the awesome resource their catalog provides when researching. Countless hours of Don’s and WCCC employees’ time to give us this free tool.
Sorry to hear about Joshua’s injury.
Edit to add: Google Custom Search – found this link using, um, the goog: https://cse.google.com/cse/
YES! I too have been encountering sites that are doing this and it seems to work flawlessly! I am looking into that very idea, it would be so much easier…
Thanks for the responses Don.
I discovered that to use the search function on the WCCC site you need to type your search information then click the little magnifying glass icon to process the search.
Actually I did record the prices for these items since they were of particular interest to me. On May 13th, 2016 to be exact. The prices I recorded are identical to what are now listed on the website. That’s the only reason I bothered to mention it.
We lowered the prices in April on all sets (not individual pieces) and did not send the email out until all items were in stock. It really frustrates folks when you dangle a carrot and then say you cannot have it until later.
WOW!!! some of you guys need to step back and rethink your complaining!!! Even with some technical issues, West Coast Classic Cougars offers the cougar community more than ANY other cougar parts vendor!!! I have been building cougars since 1986 and I have learned a lot from their website!!! Keep up the good work Don!!!
Thanks for the response Don. I wasn’t sure if it was me or my computer that was causing the search issues. I’ll use the google method from now on.
Steven
Nobody is saying they don’t. But I’m sure Don would be the first one to agree that you always have to strive to get better. You get better by listening to what’s wrong. Nobody here is trashing them. They’re simply voicing problems/concerns.
The dilemma is that as WCCC adds more items to the web site, and Don has said that the goal is to get every single part on the site, it is going to be more difficult to get search to work. It takes a significant amount of computer processing cycles to work through the data base every time you do a search. This is even a n issue here and we probably have far less data, certainly less when you throw in the pictures on Don’s site. Google has billions of $$ to work with so that is probably going to be the best solution for finding things, but what you see in the Google return is not as helpful as the listings that Don’s site generates.
Don, and everyone else at WCCC - thank you for your hard work and support of the Cougar community as a whole!
I actually REALLY like the feedback and have thick enough skin to be OK with it coming in all forms. On the rare occasions they come laced with words in CAPS I just set that one aside and rethink my initial response for a day and it usually ends well. Companies pay big money for this type of feedback and I am not one to look a gift horse in the mouth. After investing close to 1 million dollars and uncountable hours, I feel our site is past the halfway mark (maybe just barely?) after all these years and am proud to hear the feedback from guys with multiple marques. From what I hear and see there are no equals for information, how to videos and general knowledge no matter what the brand.