Open Letter to iForged: Vince or Ryan

[ihooklow]

Mods / Admins: I would appreciate your leaving this in GD for a day or two. I am trying to make sure that Vince Wong or Ryan Castro sees this. I will delete the thread in a day or two. Thank you.

Vince Wong and Ryan Castro,

It has now been more than 13 weeks and I still have no wheels. I now cannot even seem to get you to return my emails / PMs / etc.

My order was placed with you around 03/07/03. At the time your official lead time was 4 - 6 weeks. I was, after getting the order in, told 3 - 4 weeks. Great I thought. I will get them in time for Bimmerfest. No such luck.

A few weeks later (~ end of April) I was told that my wheels were finally done, sitting in your shipping department waiting for me to pick them up. Due to security concerns (?) you preferred to ship them and I had no issue with that. I gave my shipping and address and waited. One week, then two went by and still no wheels.

After making several days worth of telephone calls and emails I was finally given information that my wheels had been found (I wasn't aware that they were lost), but that one (note: ONE) had a flaw in the powerdercoat and that you wanted to get it fixed. No problem - just a few more days to send it out and have it redone. At this point I should have known better.

Two weeks ago I was finally given the OK to come pick them up. They were in the hands of the welder and would be done by 1:00 pm. I was instructed to come after 2:00pm but before 4:00pm. Excited, I got off work early (hey, its ok to cash in favors with the boss to go pick up new wheels, right?!?) and spent almost an hour on the freeway.

Not only did they not know who I was when I got there, they had no idea of what I was picking up, what had been arranged, etc. Vince was nowhere to be found and telephone calls to every number that the people had there failed to turn him up. It wasn’t looking good.

Finally someone recognized the wheels I was describing and chimed in with "Oh, those are the ones we had problems welding this morning. The powdercoat blistered". They then proceeded to bring in the one wheel that had been done to show me the problem.

On the plus side, the wheel looked great - better than expected, actually. Except for that whole blistering around the edge thing. Unfortunately this is the only wheel that had been done. The other three were still in pieces (remember that they had said that only one was flawed and being sent out).

On top of that, the wheels had been drilled for false bolts to make them look like three-piece wheels. I had specifically ordered the two piece wheels WITHOUT bolts (just like the pictures I had seen) and even told that you weren't even going to be making the type with bolts anymore. My original inquiries were for your one-piece wheels because of the light weight and clean look.

I was disappointed, frustrated, and near the end of my rope. Not only had I been lied to several times at this point, but nobody had bothered to give me a call and let me know not to make the 90-minute round-trip for nothing.

Vince, you did eventually call later that night asking me what the problem was. I explained the situation (why did I need to be explaining this to you?) and you had no apologies, no interest in making things right. I tried to be understanding, I remained calm and open to suggestions - realizing that the powdercoat thing was not iForged or Intro's fault - but... If you remember, your last words to me were (and I am not paraphrasing, exagerating, etc.) "We have nothing for you. I will see that you get a refund". You then hung up.

At this point I was furious. I am pretty sure I had every right to be. My contact, however, after speaking with you, convinced me to give iForged two more weeks. Maybe even one, but two just to be safe. Apparently you had called to your CNC machinist that night about NOT drilling the holes and been given the thumbs-up. I felt that this showed quite a bit of promise. My contact also assured me that you were interested in making this deal right and you would be making sure that they would be done in two weeks.

Well, guess what. It has been two weeks and I cannot even get you to return my email. I have tried contacting Ryan - the one who is supposed to be bringing your customer service around - and have not heard back from him after four days and two emails.

More than anything right now I want my wheels. To refresh your memory, they are the 17x8, 2-piece, black-centered Aeros, without bolts, for an E36 application.

Please contact me, here or privately, to let me know what is up.

Thank you,

Michael Granville
(PM or email below will get me)

[Alex Mc]

damn...

[Suneal]

Wow man, hope this all works out for you...

[///M3Ryder NY]

what a joke. You should cancel your credit card payment and move on dude. That is such terrible business!

[Kyle M]

Way to handel the situation, I tired of hearing people getting ****ed and not doing anything about it.

[ted920]

I was recently thinking of getting 20" I-Forged Aeors (3-piece) but I am having MAJOR 2ND THOUGHTS".

They seem to have a lot of credibility and basic business practice issues.

Its unfortunate b/c they had the opportunity to secure some good business as a HRE type product at a lower cost.

Ted

[That Guy]

Sounds like business as usual for iForged.

[Dirty Sanchez]

That just ****ing ****ed up those ****s shuold go **** themselves they have ALWAYS been peices of shit.

ted r u crazee dun even think about iforgetaboutit!!!

[Moteursport]

A friend of mine who is on the boards recently had the same problem, but I will leave it up to him if he wishes to post his feelings about iForged.

[ted920]

I guess DTMers have some strong feelings on I-Forged.

Lucy, you got some 'splaining to do!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(get it?!)

Ted

[davan]

Wow. Sorry to hear about that, man. Hope everything works out for you. As for me, I'll spread the word around here to STAY CLEAR if iForged. I'd hate to see/hear it happen to anyone else.

[Want a M3]

This is what happens when you can't take care of your customers. Even Ryan's name is dragged through the mud in this thread and I thought he is a good guy.......

[clor0x]

I too had a similar situation with my set of iForged wheels. On February 26, 2003, I placed an order for a set of Fluxes. 18x9 rear, 18x8.5 front, 2.5" lip in rear and 2" lip front with gunmetal powder coat. 2 weeks after I placed the order I had it changed to 18x8.5 all around because of the tire sizing that had to be run on the staggered set. After waiting the 4 weeks I was originally told, I received many apologies and was told that production was running late. I was told 3 times that my wheels had shipped when they really had not. Finally, 12 weeks after I originally placed the order, my wheels arrived. The wheels were perfect-- except for the centercaps. The Introforged logos were smeared and printed incorrectly. I sent the centercaps back the same day for quick replacement and I am waiting on them as we speak. I would definitely not purchase another set of wheels from iForged. The wait time is ridiculous; you are told four weeks when it really takes three times as long. Finally, the customer service aspect of the company is nonexistent. If anyone has any questions, feel free to post here or PM me.

[ihooklow]

Thanks for all the support / commiseration guys (and ladies). Vince has contacted me privately and I am going to give iForged one more week.

I will keep you all informed as I feel it is important for these communities to relay (accurate) information.

Thanks again,

- Michael.

[tdc]

Over 3 months waiting for delivery of goods.

If this was any other business, they'd be out of business.

Imagine ordering something from Amazon and waiting 3 months to get it.

Or how about ordering something from J. Crew and it taking 3 months to get it?

I don't think anyone in their right mind wouldn't stand for it.

Now my question to all of you who have had to deal with this lack of customer service, WHY ARE YOU ALLOWING THEM TO DO THIS TO YOU?