Just wanted to add my recent experience with The Parts Place.

I ordered the kickdown bracket and switch for the 68 Firebird.

I will say that the bracket fit like a glove. Though I do not think that they actually produce it as I have seen the bracket sold at other places. I went with The Parts Place because they sold it with a switch that while not correct, was advertised to work.

I installed the switch and took the car for a test drive. Turns out that the switch they sell you is a normally closed switch, so just idling or driving normal the trans was getting notification to downshift and change the shift points. I hooked a volt meter up and viola, sure enough, unless you pushed the plunger current was going through. (BTW - Thanks agin to those of you who responded to my other post assuring me I was not crazy)

I called The parts Place to ask about what I was experiencing. They are about one hour north of where I am, so I figured if I had a defective switch I could just run up and exchange it. My experience on the phone with them was terrible.

First they accused me of having it connected backwards. When I described to them how the switch should work I assured him that I tried swapping the connections and was able to verify the same behavior.

I was told I could bring it in and that they would look at it. He told me he has a box of these switches and he thinks htey should work fine. I asked if he would mind connecting one to a power source and testing it with a volt meter before I drove one hour there only to find out that all the switches act the same. I was told that he was busy. He had customers that he had to help. Well wait, just because I already paid, does that mean I am NOT a customer? He was quite rude on the phone and told me to just come in and they will take a look at it.

I did some research on the switch itself. While I do not know for sure who manufactures the switch that they gave me, I did find two duplicate switches out there. I called each manufacturer and they verified that the switch is normally closed and that I needed a normally open switch. One place which had great customer service on the phone was Painless Wiring. He spent quite some time looking at the other switches that they have and recommended a different switch that they sell. Both the switch I called on and the one that he recommended sold for around $10.

I sat down adn did some math. Just in pure gas alone, driving to The Parts Place and back would cost me around 2 hours of my time and around $9.00 in gas. Add to that the furstration of dealing with them, I decided to just buy the switch that was recommended to me.

Long story short, as mentioned in this chain all The parts Place cares about is getting your money. There is NO concept of customer service what so ever. I will never deal with them again.