I ordered some shocks/springs for my car 2 weeks ago (Monday, Sept. 13) because one of my rear shocks was gone. When I ordered from their website everything was listed as being in stock. After not hearing anything from them, I called them later that week on Thursday. I was informed that they had all my parts except for the the rear shocks. I told them that I couldnt wait as my car could no longer be driven and just send me the parts that they have and I will buy the rears from someone else. They told me that they would try to get the rear shocks and overnight me my order.

I waited until the next week (Monday, Sept. 20) to contact them again. I was told that the rear shocks would come in on Wednesday and they would be overnighted to me so I would have them by Thursday. Well, they didnt come on Thursday or Friday and now no one is answering the phone at their shop. I sent Dan an email a few days ago and still have not gotten a response back.

My RX-8 is my primary form of transportation and I have not been able to use it for the past two weeks because of the delays to my order. Thankfully I also have a bike to take me around but it has not been fun riding in leathers in the 100 degree weather we have been having.

Im thinking of canceling my credit card transaction this coming week if I do not hear from them. Anyone have any experience with them? I see that someone else has posted a "Awful Customer Service" thread (saw this after I ordered) but that seemed to have a good resolution. Im just tired of waiting for something I should have had weeks ago.

What shop do you guys order your parts from? As a fellow small business owner customer service is something that is very important to me and I doubt I will ever order from them again if this is how they treat their customers.

 

I ordered an exhaust from them about 2 months ago that took a while to come in. I was still about to drive unlike you. They didnt have it in stock and said that neither did HKS or anyone in the country apparently. Took me a little over a month to get it. It just sucked because I was told a couple times that it would be in sooner than it was.

 

This happens in the auto parts industry. Ive had great transactions, and shitty ones too. Im currently on month 3 of waiting for a back ordered steering wheel wrap from Auto Exec that I ordered from a vendor not on this site.

 

Yes, and you probably knew it was backordered when you ordered. If not, you were told when you ordered, or shortly thereafter. Not strung along and bs'd like this guy.

 

No, it wasnt listed as backordered. I was given a shipping date originally which was about 10 days from the date I purchased the item. Three months later still waiting. Not the first time its happened, wont be the last im sure, sadly...

 

yes this kinda stuff is quite common. A retail customer orders something. Vendor checks with distributor to see if its in stock. They dont have it so they call manufacturer. Manufacturer says they have it in stock when they didnt actually physically check or are hoping it comes in on next order. Then they dont get it and it becomes a chain of updated ETA's from everyone.

The only thing I would say is there could be poor customer service if there is a lack of communication. But sometimes it doesnt help when you want an update everyday or every couple hours. They are not there to be your bitch every second you want things done. Sometimes they know just as much as you do about the ETA.

 

^they become bitches when **** like this goes wrong like Rotary Ressurection mentioned. The Vendor needs to assure the customer that whichever distributor & manufacturer they are getting it from has it physically in stock instead of ******* up business because of a Computer Error in the inventory. Another annoying thing is Vendors need to update their websites!!!!!!! What sup with the stupid bullshit of you trying to order something and they email or tell you over the phone "oh, that -exhaust or etc.- has been discountinued" TAKE THAT **** OFF YOUR WEBSITE!!! Yeah it looks good to look like you carry many products (when in fact you dont) but UPDATE THAT ****! Not only that but another thing is when they have a product on their website and it says "in stock"..and they dont physically have it in their warehouse or w/e, they really dont have it "in-stock". The way I see the OP being happy in the end is by the Vendor providing some kind of discount towards their purchase. Even if the vendor makes half the profit off whatever they sold at least they will make the customer happy and possibly not lose him as a customer. Forget the OVERNIGHT shipping being a perk of the vendor messing up, that should be a given after all this + the discount. That would be a happy ending.


/rant

 

Over the years numerous people ask me why I dont sell new/aftermarket pars such as suspension, exhaust, body kits, turbo kits, pullies, and so forth. Well, this **** is why. I refuse to be a part of an industry that operates this way. The import aftermarket parts industry is screwed up with no focus on actual service. Honestly as a small business unless you have 100G to put into ordering and storing inventory there is no way around this problem, so I choose not to participate at all.

That, and the fact that the quality of many of the japanese aftermarket parts is pretty low. Everybody bitches about "chinese knockoffs" of japanese aftermarket parts and body kits, and says that we should "support innovation and quality". But the fact is, the japanese parts are only marginally better (if at all) than the chinese knockoff kits. They rarely come with instructions or pictures and often have incorrect or missing hardware and small parts required for the install. Basically you just get what they choose to throw in the box, and you're only guaranteed to get the main part, not necessarily every inclusive part of a kit needed for install.

Fit and finish usually requires hours of adjustment or doctoring to be acceptable in the case of something like a body kit, intercooler kit, and so forth. Turbo kits usually come with some shitty graphite gaskets (which will NOT hold up on a rotary application) and regular rubber hose for an oil line that sits right beside a 1200* exhaust manifold for instance. In many cases the part was designed for an RHD rx7/rx8 and they never even bothered to make adjustments to the part/kit before selling it to the north american market.

Then you have situations where the japanese suppliers have no desire to talk to or deal with Americans or foreigners in general. Even if you speak japanese you can't get them on the phone or get a written response from them. You have to have a native japanese go-between before you can obtain responses to your communication in many cases.

 

Hey Rohan,

Just wanted to give you some resolution on here as well as the email I am about to send. First off, very sorry it has taken so long. We have gotten yanked around and told false dates on the arrival of the Koni shocks (not unusual for Koni items at all sadly). I will go ahead and send you the rears and the springs and refund you the fronts.

As far as not getting back to you, I take 100% blame for that. The last 3-4 weeks have been very tough for me/Assaultech. I had family issues about 3 weeks ago and had to make an emergency trip to VA. Shortly after returning back home I had many medical issues of my own, winding up in the hospital twice (asthma related) Because of this we have fallen greatly behind and this has obviously hurt us and our customers pretty bad. Like I said, I am very sorry and I wish there was more I could do but unfortunately we are a small business and when I am not here business suffers a bit.

EDIT: Also, you emailed me Saturday after I had already left for the day ... that would mean today is the day I would get back to you.

 

Better news rohan! Looks like the fronts finally came in! Its all on its way. Koni will be there tomorrow, springs will ship from cali today as well

 

Update: Shocks came in a few days ago, springs came the day after. Installed everything yesterday but finished late so I could only go on a short drive. I've really missed driving this car and it feels way better than before.

 

Glad you got everything on and installed, should ride like a dream compared to stock .... especially a broken stock.

Sorry for the extra stress/headache Rohan.