From the outside looking in. I think the buyer is getting stiffed. Bottom line he paid you for 4 wheels and has 2. All the other smoke and mirrors means nothing. Legally he made a business transaction with you not work. He bought from you therefore its you who is responsible for making him happy and giving him what he paid for. I worked in retail for long enough to know. Also I had a situation IDENTICAL to this with the wheels that went on my Talon. 3 months and nothing. I sued.. judge 100% ruled in my favor. Told the retailed my binding agreement was with him not the manufacturer.

Not throwing stones as I have never delt with ASPEC , and they seem really cool. Just giving you a different perspective.

 

if the vendor is working with the manufacturer to get the wheel replaced how exactly is the customer getting stiffed? A Spec is not the manufacturer...they are a dealer. There is no warranty provided by A Spec..the warranty is provided through A Spec by Work. Sort of like if you bring your car into the dealer to get a warranty repair, very often, Mitsubishi corporate needs to sign off on it. While it sucks to wait, I am sure the vendor wants nothing more than to get reimbursed for the damaged wheel so that a new one can be sent out....but at this point, sounds like the ball is in Work's court

 

If I bought a pair of Nikes from Footlocker, and the Nikes were deformed. I would take them back to Footlocker and I'm pretty sure Footlocker would exchange them on the spot. Or would Footlocker ship the deformed Nikes back to Nike HQ, and wait for an ok before letting me have another pair? Is this a bad analogy? Just wondering.

 

Ok lemme show you a different perspective.

I loan you my evo to work on it. You get into a wreck with my car while test driving it. I ask you to fix it, you tell me Take it up with the insurance company of the guy that hit your car.

hmmmm..... see the similarities???

Even though it will fall back on his insurance company to fix would that be the right thing to do for a customer?

 

badbrain - without reaching into information I am not privy, to, if Footlockers policy stated that all products are sold with manufacturers warranty, and that all claims for replacement were at the discretion of the manufacturer, then yes, they absolutely could tell you to take it up with Nike directly, or, as seems to be the case here, follow up with Nike on your behalf towards a successful resolution. If this industry had vendors as large as Footlocker, then it would be a perfect analogy. But this industry tends to not have such major players...especially on such a niche market item like a Work wheel. Instead, it is mainly small to medium sized shops and distributors. While these situations do not happen, when it does happen, it stinks for all involved, and tends to take some time to get resolved.

It sounds to be like at least the vendor is taking this seriously and it seems to be important to them to get resolved for the customer. I know what it is like to be stuck a day before a track day, waiting for a part, and it arrives incomplete or not at all.....I've given HELL to more UPS/Fedex/DHL staff than I can even count! But, in the age of whored out prices, no brick/mortar prescence, etc., my prediction is that this will get successfully resolved


badevo - I am not following your example at all, sorry

In any event, if the customer is being kept in the loop as to the developments, and has been given options of how to solve it sooner, there really is not much that can be done. While I agree it stinks that those options involve additional outlay out $$, it all depends on how bad of a jam the customer is in. Unfortunately, Work's US "distributor" is not a wholly owned subsidiary of Work Japan...it is merely a 3rd party company that distributes the product. Unfortunately, with a niche item such as this, it is a risk involved. Same goes for Ralliart items, etc.

Now, if this were an HKS product being distributed by HKS USA and sold via an HKS dealer (or one of their agents), the replacement would be in the customers hands by now. But unfortunately, very few Japanese companies actually are the same company as the US "counterpart".

 

The example is this. If I pay you for something I expect YOU to fix things for me and not put me at the mercy of a 3rd party. Clear it up for you?

 

badevo - but the vendor is taking care of it from the looks of it, in accordance (I presume) with their company policies.

 

Question is was the customer made aware of that policy before he ordered.

 

now that is an excellent question..I don't want to go tit for tat on it, since, as I said, I don't know these guys from a hole in the wall, but I am with you..their policies should be clearly stated someplace on their site for all to access

 

i'm afraid i have to take luffy's side here. if i were in his situation also, i will react the same way.
and after a month of not having completely what i paid for, i will be pissed.
send your rims back and get a refund or will aspec allow you to do that?

Btw, thanks z1 for the fast shipment of the hotchkis springs

 

Agreed. If the customer was never explained this policy then the company should bend over backward and inside out to get him what he paid for.


I use this example

Customer paid for 4 wheels

Customer has 2 wheels

Whats wrong with that picture... LOL

Thanks Z1!

 

Hey, big thumbs up to Works and A-Spec for at least not incurring any shipping costs to the customer.

When my Chargespeed trunk didn't fit right, they had the nerve to ask me to foot the bill to ship the trunk back to them and then they would take a look at the trunk. If they found out it was a problem on their part, they would be glad to ship me out another trunk IF I PAID SHIPPING. And if they found out everything was within spec, the would ship the trunk back to me IF I PAID SHIPPING. See the dillema here?

I don't know Francis @ A Spec and I've never ordered anything from him, but he seems to be doing a very stand up job for the customer by dealing with the manufacturer in this manner.

 

Well, I finally emailed Francis today after not hearing from him, and he emailed me back and said that I will be dealing directly with Work from now on. So, I'm not quite sure what to think.

I'm trying to decide whether I just want to send the wheels back and be done with it or try to hang in there. On one hand, this would be over if I just sent them back (assuming Aspec would go for that). On the other hand, these are the wheels I wanted and that hasn't changed. So I'm torn.

I appreciate all of the feedback from everyone. I just want this to end. I'm sick of arguing, calling Aspec, calling Work, and writing on the forums.

I still can't get over the fact that Aspec maintains that they can't send me replacement wheels:

I have 2, I paid for 4. It's called math.

I would appreciate anyone's advice on what I should do next.

Luffy

 

What I don't understand is why some people give props to Work (not Works) and Aspec for crappy customer service. They have single-handedly created some very unhappy customers. Great job guys!

 

Well, I am happy to report that I finally have made some progress. Francis at Aspec turned me over to Jim **** at Work USA. So I called Jim yesterday evening to check on the status of my wheels. He said that Work Japan determined that the wheels were probably damaged during shipping by sea freight, and that they were NOT damaged due to a bad batch (very good news). So they decided to cover me under warranty and send me new wheels as soon as they get a new batch from Japan (because they are currently out of stock). So hopefully I should get them in 2-3 weeks.

Big thanks to Jim @ Work for taking care of this...it may have taken a freakin' long time, but at least it is being resolved the way it should be.

Luffy