Be VERY careful who you buy parts from

[S18 RSG 429]

Hi all,

A few of you may already be up to speed with this story, if so, feel free to skim through.

For those who aren't aware, around 2 months ago I purchased a UEL manifold from 1320Performance in California. A company who, on the face of it, have a good reputation for quality and customer service, two things which I did not experience, as you'll learn.

Upon initial fitment of the manifold, I heard a high pitched whistle. Similar to a leak, or air rushing of some description, but not entirely clear. The manifold was leak tested thoroughly, but nothing was found. I therefore immediately sent an email off to Jeff @1320Performance who told me this sound was "normal" and is the sound of "air resonance within the pipes". A thoroughly plausible reason.

Since then, I've done a lot of research and got the opinions of various GT86 and echaust specialists, all of whom have had an opinion, but none of whom have called the sound "normal". My local exhaust specialist recalled a similar sound on a manifold he manufactured some years ago. It was due to a faulty flexi pipe. Couple this with the fact that in that time, I had also met up with two other 1320 manifold owners, and found that neither car had the same sound as me. I therefore sent another email off to Jeff a few days ago, armed with this new information.

To my surprise, all of a sudden the flexi pipe is a known issue to 1320, and they tell me that I should get them replaced at a local exhaust shop. Obviously not happening. They take a few days to respond to my email, so I open up a dispute on Paypal to try and force the point.

Well, today, after 4 or 5 days of negotiating, and being told one minute that it's a known issue, then the next minute it's a normal sound, we reached an agreement. One which I think you should all hear about, just in case you ever decide to buy something from this place.

The solutions are as follows:

• A $250 refund (total purchase price was $550 for reference) to pay for a local exhaust shop to replace the flexi pipes. Unfortnately, no local exhaust places wanted to inherit a manifold built by someone else, as they were worried that any future issues would just be palmed off to them by 1320, and they would end up doing warranty work on someone else's manifold (perfectly reasonable concern).
• A full refund, which will ONLY be received by me 48 hours after they receive the manifold back in the States (likely to be a 1-2 week delivery time already). The problem here is, I would have to pay to have the original manifold put back on, then pay for the new manifold (when bought) to be fitted again, so 2 garage visits. I have also told them that I no longer have an existing manifold, so I would therefore require a hire car until I receive the refund (not entirely true, but that's besides the point)
• They will swap my current manifold for a new item, but they are on a 6-8 week backlog, so I would have to wait. Already waited 8 weeks for them to admit to the fault, don't feel like waiting another 8 weeks for an item which may have the same fault.

The final nail in the coffin was something I was told today. I made the point that if I were to send the manifold back, I would have to pay £200 for garage fees and £200 for rental car. Given that the refund for the faulty item would be around £400, I'd be either losing money, or breaking even, and therefore probably wouldn't have the money to buy a replacement manifold. Their response? 

"In this case we would recommend that you seek family help for the money, which you can pay back when we send the refund. If this is not possible, you could look to take out a loan until the refund arrives".

So, in summary, if you buy a part from 1320Performance and have a problem, you may be recommended to take out a loan in order to fix it yourself

[KobayashiMaru 28]

Cowboys. One to avoid then. I'm always wary about buy abroad as there are very little come backs. The Toms lights and GReddy lifters I've just bought, by the time I paid postage, conversion fee and an extra £48 because they sent it faster than I asked and didn't mark it as a £25 gift I paid close to £600. 

[Kodename47 446]

24 minutes ago, KobayashiMaru said:

....by the time I paid postage, conversion fee and an extra £48 because they sent it faster than I asked and didn't mark it as a £25 gift I paid close to £600. 

Always factor in import costs when buying from abroad, then if you avoid them it's a bonus. Most don't mark as a gift as you usually lose any insurance/coverage.

Like you say, having to return an item abroad is usually going to be costly and a PITA. Would be reason enough to not buy anything electrical etc.

[Rich 378]

Welcome to America (and we're heading the same way). There's sadly little legal come back if they don't want to play ball, especially as you're abroad. Always a risk when buying from foreign companies.

I'd be inclined to take the $250 and write it off as a bad bet.

[Keethos 842]

Wow, sorry to hear this dude, keep us posted

[Paul 442]

I am currently waiting with baited breath as I also have a 1320 manifold but haven't had it fitted yet. I've asked Fensport if they're able to fit-test it before my appointment on 18th to have it fitted. Any issues with it and I'm stuck as I had it ceramic coated (on the basis that it was a quality piece of kit) so I doubt they'll let me send it back for a refund. Part of me is considering just blind-selling it as "never used" on eBay and cutting my losses....

[rob275 1817]

Well i'm glad you've posted this, it's always good to name and shame bad companies! They tend to listen to you then. 

Perhaps @CGR Automotive may be able to help you out with the flexi-pipe issue? Admittedly they aren't close to you, but shipment to them to get it looked at would be a lot cheaper than the states!

[S18 RSG 429]

Further to the above, they have now asked me to return the manifold to them, AND ARRANGE THE COURIER.

I am fuming. As if already being hundreds of pounds out of pocket, they now expect me to pay for international, signed for, tracked delivery. 

[Keethos 842]

If they arranged the courier.....do they pay for that?

[S18 RSG 429]

3 minutes ago, Keethos said:

If they arranged the courier.....do they pay for that?

Yes. That's the LEAST I expected. But no. They told me to pay for delivery and provide them with tracking details as soon as possible.

[Kodename47 446]

Seeing as you're having these issues, are you really bothered about having a warranty with them going forward? Take their money and fix it locally. At least then you'll have somewhere local you trust to fix any potential weld issues going forward.

[Nicebiscuit 655]

I'd concur with knightryder. Cut your losses.

And probably a lesson for the rest of us that realistically customer service is rarely going to be as good for somebody half way around the world.

In my experience (not car related) often expectations in US are different - in particular with regard to who pays carriage. They don't have the consumer laws we do (at the moment) in UK. So possibly your expectations were unrealistic (if not unreasonable)

They're unlikely to get any more custom from Uk readers of this forum, but perhaps that's no great loss to them either given the potential hassle vs selling to the local market where this issue would have been much easier to sort.

Presumably you sourced from the US based on price. Maybe there's a reason that UK suppliers are more expensive. If you're sailing very close to the wire as a business you don't have the flexibility to put things right.

The $250 offer should cover a repair though surely. I'd take it and chalk it to experience. Agree that it sucks though.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[S18 RSG 429]

1 hour ago, knightryder said:

Seeing as you're having these issues, are you really bothered about having a warranty with them going forward? Take their money and fix it locally. At least then you'll have somewhere local you trust to fix any potential weld issues going forward.

I agree with you, however I'm not at all interested in their warranty. I want the send the manifold back to get a full refund and therefore do what I should have done in the first place, and buy a manifold from one of our trusted vendors in the UK.

As the manifold was fairly cheap (less than £400 before courier charges), every little bit I have to pay for eats into the refund. I just want to minimise losses as much as possible, and honestly think a business should accept that they have to pay for returns of faulty items.

[rob275 1817]

My experience with customer service with Five-Axis (Based in California) regarding my kit fitment was the complete opposite to what has been experienced here. I contacted Troy directly and he was nothing but helpful after the kit wouldn't sit right he sent me a whole new fitment kit including screws & clips, a special tool for removing the leftover polyurethane sealant which was stuck to my kit and even threw in a couple of stress cubes to keep me calm  

Didn't charge me a penny for any of it and always responded to my questions with a thorough answer. He just really wanted to make sure that the kit fitted properly regardless of how much of his time I took up. As it happens I ended up not using the fitment kit as I went to a different bodyshop in the end and had it smoothed in. But he was still pleased with the results when I showed him!

[S18 RSG 429]

My experiences of buying abroad mirror yours up until this point Rob. Americans tend to be known for their customer service, but I get a feeling the guys at 1320 aren't American. The replies to emails come back in broekn English with very poorly structured sentences for one. I accept that some people are just a little poorly educated, but it sounds like English is a second language.

Either way, my main hope is just that nobody from here buys from them again. I know their products have been ok for other people, so they've not had to deal with aftersales, but it's really not worth the risk.

[Steeps 294]

The good news is the $250 refund is worth £20 more than when you bought the manifold, or £40 more if going for the full refund thanks to the £ crashing. I don't know how difficult it would be but I'd be tempted to take the $250 refund and try to sell on the manifold as spares/repairs for someone to have a go at fixing themselves, or if they're happy to live with a whistle on a manifold.

[S18 RSG 429]

4 minutes ago, Steeps said:

The good news is the $250 refund is worth £20 more than when you bought the manifold, or £40 more if going for the full refund thanks to the £ crashing. I don't know how difficult it would be but I'd be tempted to take the $250 refund and try to sell on the manifold as spares/repairs for someone to have a go at fixing themselves, or if they're happy to live with a whistle on a manifold.

Yeah, I originally paid £388, now I'd be getting £425, so that'a bonus.

I have mentioned that option to them via email. I said they can either arrange courier for me to send it back, or if they refuse to do that, just give me the $250 refund and I'll try and sell it on.

[Willtl 54]

I think the lesson learned here is not so much to be careful of who you buy parts from, but where they are based and the value of the parts. I don't want to appear to come down on the side of the seller, but most sellers will only return your money once they have received their items. I've returned £100+ items to Amazon and they aren't going to give you your money back until they've received the items and checked them over - it is to be expected and a disadvantage of buying something on-line rather than walking into a shop.

I know it is a massive inconvenience, but with what I've said in mind I can't see how they can be expected to handle this any differently. If they are cash rich and want to go the extra mile they could send out a replacement/refund in advance of you returning your part but honestly, how many companies can afford to do that?

 

[S18 RSG 429]

I get what you're saying in a general sense Will, but this was more to do with the circumstances.

The fact is, in order for me to send the manifold off before receiving a refund, i would have to pay for 2 sessions at a garage (one to remove the 1320 manifold and one to fit the new one), and even when I told them I didn't have another manifold to use, so would have no use of my car and therefore would require a hire car for a week, their response was "borrow money from a family member, or take out a loan". That's appauling customer service regardless of the situation.

No vendor should be happy with putting their customers in a difficult situation whereby they need to borrow money to send back a faulty item.

Ok, in this case, that story was slightly exagerrated, and thanks to a very kind vendor on this website (which I will explain further when it's gone through), it looks like I'm gonna have a manifold to put on the car anyway, and an offer which puts me in no worse of a position than I'm currently in.

[CGR Automotive 28]

On 06/07/2016 at 5:45 PM, rob275 said:

Well i'm glad you've posted this, it's always good to name and shame bad companies! They tend to listen to you then. 

Perhaps @CGR Automotive may be able to help you out with the flexi-pipe issue? Admittedly they aren't close to you, but shipment to them to get it looked at would be a lot cheaper than the states!

Thanks Rob but unfortunately we're in the same boat where we wouldn't modify anybody elses stuff that's fauly, we could build you a fresh manifold though if you're interested

[S18 RSG 429]

52 minutes ago, CGR Automotive said:

Thanks Rob but unfortunately we're in the same boat where we wouldn't modify anybody elses stuff that's fauly, we could build you a fresh manifold though if you're interested

Feel free to send me over a quote via PM As you can probably tell from what I've said here, they haven't exactly left me in an easy position money wise, so price is a big factor.

[Paul 442]

Just a really quick update, at Fensport today, mine's got the same issue. They obviously haven't tested one of these because the noise is as obvious as being slapped in the face. Already sent them a contact form. 

[Rich 378]

Apparently mine is quite whistley from outside the car, not too bad inside. Don't think it's anything like as bad as yours.

[S18 RSG 429]

30 minutes ago, CanaryWundaboy said:

Just a really quick update, at Fensport today, mine's got the same issue. They obviously haven't tested one of these because the noise is as obvious as being slapped in the face. Already sent them a contact form. 

I would doubt you'll get a reply. When I raised the Paypal claim, they said they had a virus on their email system, and weren't able to access email for the past 9 days. I've emailed them 2 or 3 times since, and they've never once replied.

I hope you have a better experience than I did. On that note, if you do get a response, please let me know so I can be sure their email system is working. That way I know they're getting my emails.

[Rich 378]

Think I'm going to just put up with mine until I can afford to replace it.

I assume finding someone to replace the flex joints is a non-starter?

Also, anyone tried or heard anything about these? http://rogerclarkmotorsport.co.uk/store/product/171-rcm-brz-gt86-stainless-steel-tubular-exhaust-manifold Seems very well priced, £600 for a manifold and overpipe!