JDavenport

iTrader: (33)

Earlier this year I decided it was time to get some propersuspension for my Evo, which is now a dedicated track car. I decided on ASTcoilovers because:

- They are known as a quality product and lots ofvery fast people run them.

- They have been a NASA contingency sponsor andbeing a NASA member I wanted to send them my $$ as a sign of support.

I originally wanted to work through a long time vendor onthe board, but they no longer carry the AST line. I’ll leave names out of it,but I was told AST’s delivery problems were the reason they no longer carrythem. I SHOULD have listened.

What follows is a very abbreviated timeline of thismisadventure. I have all the e-mails, correspondence, invoice, payment receipt andsuch.

5/7/13 AST 5100 Coilovers ordered from Vivid Racing, GTR(Racing) spring rates, Helper Springs and rear top hats. I didn’t order fronttop hats because I have a nearly new set of Cirodesign Caster Camber platesalready. A very nice fellow by the name of John Greene with Vivid helped me putmy order in, very good price. Both invoice and e-mails quoted a 4-6 weekdelivery. John asked if I was OK with that and I told him that was fine.

5/16/13 I e-mailed Brian Hanchley with AST to confirm theywould make the 4-6 week window as I was looking at scheduling an event close tothe end of the 6 weeks. Brian responded and said they should make the 4-6 weekwindow.

6/5/13 I e-mailed Brian again to check on the delivery date.They are targeting a ship date of 6/26, but possibly earlier according to hisresponse.

7/2/13 No coilovers. I e-mail AST.

7/10/13 AST responds, the shocks have still not shipped fromHolland.

7/22/13 I e-mail John at Vivid expressing some frustrationat this point. We are WELL past the 4-6 week mark.

7/23/13 John Responds, he has spoken with AST and they have receiveda shipment from Holland and my units are supposed to be in it.

8/10/13 – After being gone on a business trip I get home andI have two packages, one from AST, One from Vivid. The box from AST has theshock bodies, rear top hats, coilover tool kit, separators to go between themain springs and helper springs. Small box from Vivid has 4 helper springs. Themain springs are missing, I e-mail John at Vivid to let him know.

8/12/13 John at Vivid responds that AST will be shipping methe main springs ASAP. But it might take a week or two.

9/3/13 Still no main springs, I send an e-mail to John atVivid expressing my growing frustration.

9/4/13 I get a response from a James McKibben informing meJohn is no longer with Vivid, but he will look into it and get right back withme.

9/6/13 no response from Vivid, I fire another e-mail toJames, I’m getting Po’d at this point.

9/11/13 No response from Vivid or communications from AST.

9/25/13 E-Mail sent to Brian at AST asking how do I go aboutgetting my complete order.

9/27/13 Response from John Wagliardo at AST. It’s Vivid’sproblem, I need to contact them.

10/11/13 I call Vivid and ask to speak to a supervisor. Iend up speaking with Jack Holley, operations director. He pulls my file,promises to get this sorted out. Later that day I get an e-mail from Jack thathe has contacted AST and will let me know something ASAP.

10/17/13 No response from Vivid/Jack. I e-mail him askingfor an update.

Today (10/26/13) Still no word from Vivid.

I filed a paypal dispute in September, but it was past 90days, so they won’t honor it.

In case people wonder why I wasn’t e-mailing them every day,I am a 48 yo father of 2, and in the process of adopting a 3rd (wife’snephew) who needs a Mom and Dad. Between family and job I stay pretty busy. AndI haven’t had the $$ or time to hit the track much this fall anyway. But when Ido free up some recreational funds and decide to buy a much needed upgrade formy track toy, it burns me to get treated like this.

All I know is I have the original invoice stating what I wassupposed to get. And I haven’t gotten it. Now AST and Vivid a seem to bepointing fingers at each other, and I’m left holding the bag. This has put areal sour taste in my mouth for both of these companies at this point. If Icould get a refund on these units at this point, I would get KW Clubsports, JRZor any other quality coilovers.

ReaperX

iTrader: (5)

Sucks to hear about this Jim. It is frustrating that this seems to be the way of doing business these days in the automotive world. I have seen this all too much as of late. Customer orders from company A. Company A places the order with Vendor B. Something goes wrong and the customer doesn't get the product as specified. Comapany A and Vendor B point the finger at eachother, neither willing to man up to take care of the customer. Customer gets bent over without being taken out to dinner first.

This industry is frustrating.

kyoo

iTrader: (29)

Thanks for posting this - wasn't aware of ASTs delivery issues

1scEvoX

WOW!!,

Thanks for posting this. I'm new to the Evo scene and just started my research into parts and different companies (coming from the VIP scene). I'll take a solid note about vivid racing and the AST delivery issues when i consider my purchases in the future.

I know that Vivid can only request and push their vendor's but it sucks being the middle man sometimes, cause you are the ambassador for the customer and the vendor so you have a big responsibility to take care of the customer while still servicing a vendor.

But i guess that's that, i hope you, soon get some sort of part/ compensation for your purchases best of luck.

mrfred

iTrader: (50)

bummer. what i take away from this is either automatically kill any transaction like this before the 90 day mark (same timeframe for credit cards) and then repay it if sensible, or do not let a vendor charge up front for a order that could take more than a month to fill.

powerdriver

What's stupid is the springs (for them) are just a few dollars. I had a similar issue with HSD and they sent out a replacement set within a week, and that company is known to have a whole lot of logistical issues.

blackevolution8

iTrader: (54)

AST hasn't had much for product in the USA for a couple years now. Not sure why shops are even saying they can get them.

JDavenport

iTrader: (33)

At this point, I will simply end up buying springs so I can at least use these next season. I cannot get either of them to reply to anything or step up at this point.

One of the other reasons I went with AST 5100's was the modularity allowing them to be upgraded to 5200/5300's later. That will simply not be happening. Turns my stomach even revisiting this subject.

JDavenport

iTrader: (33)

Indeed. Let this thread serve as a warning to others. Please note I am not knocking the quality of the product (even though I haven't used them yet). Their product is well known as a high quality solution.

However, their logistical issues and "you'll take what you get and like it" mode of operation is simply not worth it.

mlouis

iTrader: (6)

Wow sounds like a painful transaction, seems like your getting dicked around here. Sounds like this is mainly vivids problem. They should have had AST send everything to them so they can actually send everything all together to you and make sure you have it. Vivid flat out lied to you about the delivery time. From what i know, these coils are made to order and take much longer than 4-6 weeks.

I wouldnt rule AST out guys, I had a great experience with my order from Kevin at evodynamics. I bought my set during the 4100 group buy and couldnt have been more satisfied. It did take 4 months but these a definitely worth the wait.

JDavenport

iTrader: (33)

While I agree that in the end, Vivid is the one that should fix this, your statement here shows you did not even bother to read my post. If you would have you would see on 5/16/13 I emailed Brian at AST to confirm the 4-6 week delivery time, which he said was a good time. Product was not shipped to me until the first week of August (13 weeks later).

mlouis

iTrader: (6)

i did in fact read your post, i guess i just over read that part. Its obvious that your frustrated here but there is no need to reply in such a condescending manner.

JDavenport

iTrader: (33)

Sorry, but I am a little punchy on this subject.

Jim3142

iTrader: (2)

I was told the same thing by a reputable vendor on this board about problems with the lead time on AST coilovers, so I decided to try something else. Sorry that it ended up like this

Iowa999

iTrader: (1)

Um, you can ask for a charge-back from your credit card long after 90 days. Non-delivery of the item(s) is one of the best reasons for a charge-back. Partial charge-backs are also possible, as long as you can document the cost of the parts that weren't delivered.