11-15-2011, 10:15 AM
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#1 (permalink)
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Premium Member
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: North GA
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Chris was going to post up his response... His account is having issues and he has asked me to quote his response:
Quote:
To address some of the questions and issues that have been brought up lately, we figured one response of the story and who we are. I will start with myself, Christopher. I have in no way tried to lie to anyone about who I am. It is true I own/manage Wheels Direct with a silent partner, and I have a very good record of taking care of my customers. We have been open for over 6 years, so please do not begin to make up things about Wheels Direct, many people on the370z can attest to my service. I also do own 1% of Forged Specialties with a silent partner, and an investor. I was hired and offered part of the company by contract to help them bring the product line to the market. I never lied to anyone, just was offered 1%, plus commission for my sales. Blaine has dealt with Clyde, so he does know who he is, so I will not go further on discussing that. The truth of the matter is many company executives, keep their name to themselves, we just did not want to be like everyone else. We were never the big guy, and I saw the process of how they do the wheels, and it was actually very good.(which again is not fully in china like we have said)
We admit their have been issues, but very rarely. We are a new company, and their is no doubt we will hit bumpy roads, but we never sought to lie or cheat anyone. We have put our pricing at the same as 2 piece wheels, to be competitive. Regarding the quality of our wheels, we do cut our own centers in Germany, but I will not release any info as this is obviously not knowledge for the public to know. We have a very good relationship with our aluminum factory, and as such has helped us bring pricing to where it is largely. They are then assembled with the Lip and Barrel from China made of 6061 aluminum, so frankly its not if they were using lesser material. I am pretty sure it is why so many people use them in the U.S. yet you would never know.
As to Blaine's situation. It started a while ago when he approached Wheels Direct looking for a good set of wheels. He said he had come from Volks and wanted a change. I mentioned to him a new 3 piece brand I was selling, that was offering cost sponsorships to introduce themselves. He liked the idea, asked me info about them, about the aluminum and we put in the order. I think his took about 2 1/2 months, give or take, and we get the wheels. We opened them up, and did product shots on them shipped them out.(So everyone knows, the wheel in this shot FS-14 | Forged Specialties Wheels | 3-Piece Custom Wheels is Blaine's wheels before they shipped to him) Blaine received the wheels with a small nick right by the center cap the size of an ant, and a blemish, but in the rear of the spokes of 2 wheels I think it was. I believe their was a nick on 2 other wheels also right by the centercap. He sent us pictures, and we offered him a discount so he could enjoy the wheels.
Blaine told me he would prefer to have them fixed completely to avoid future issues with the finish. I then decided to pick them up myself since I somehow did not see the nicks, and take them to our local finisher in Miami, fl. We have used him in the past for local work and it always came out great so I figured I could not go wrong. The wheels were dropped off and about a week and 1/2 later they were done. I drove over to look at them, and when I arrived the wheels were outside sitting in the sun. I am no professional on finishes, but apparently it was to make sure they dried correctly. I looked at every wheel and they looked perfect at the time, and the finisher said he would package them up and ship them out for us. At this time, their was no issues with the lips at all for the record. The entire problem was the centers to be repaired.
As everyone knows Blaine received the wheels and the lips were now scratched, and over spray on them. I can only assume that I did not see the finish well enough, b/c my main focus was the little nicks. Needless to say, Blaine was of course un happy, so I contact Clyde and tell him the situation. He then says he will deal with it directly in C.A. and take it to the right people to refinish them. At this point I will let Clyde finish with his end.
After I had received the wheels from Blaine, I kept him up to date with pictures of the process from when they were received, disassembled, refinished, re-chromed, and assembled, then shipped back. I chose to use local companies, instead of bringing in replacement lips, for time reasons. Blaine had already gone through quite a bit, and we did not want him to be without his wheels any longer. If we ordered in replacement lips it would have taken about a month alone to get them. We thought at the time that we did not want to have Blaine wait this long, so we shelled out the money companies that were recommended to us.
Once I received the wheels, I had them disassembled, then took them to our local powdercoater that is also very popular with the local wheel companies so I knew that they did good quality work. I then had them outsource the re-chroming to Hi-Tech Chroming for the stripping of the chrome and re-chroming. Hi-tech, also being a very reputable shop as they are a staple in the forged wheel industry here in California. Once I received all the parts back I sent pictures to Blaine for an update to show him that the quality of the work was great. I then had them assembled, sealed with industry standard sealant by Dow Corning and re-boxed in new boxes then shipped back to him.
I confirmed that he received them and asked him for his review. He agreed that they looked brand new as promised. Sometime later, Blaine contacted me about some thinly painted area on the inside of the spokes. He claimed that there were hard to see yellow areas in between the spokes. I contacted my powdercoater and he confirmed that there was no yellow primer used and that they use black primer every time they paint matte black wheels. In an attempt to make Blaine happy we refunded him an additional $300 as this was his idea that he had brought up to Forged Specialties. He stated that If he got refunded $300, he would just let it go since it wasn't that noticeable. We made the exception and agreed to his offering.
After more time has elapsed, he contacted Chris of wheels direct and notified him of a leaky wheel. Chris passed on the message to me while I was at the SEMA show. I then contacted Blaine to see how I could be of assistance and help him out. The seals in 3pc wheels are often broken due to installer error. This is very common, it doesn't matter what company you buy wheels from. Their frankly is no way to really know if they did dig under the sealant. I must say that you will rarely see this with JDM wheels as they are usually welded multi-piece wheels with no seals involved. We then offered to pay to have his guy reseal them, but that was all we approved from an outside company to get Blaine back on the road.
As a side note: Forged Specialties uses industry standard parts. The lips come from a very common supplier that supply lips to at least 75-80% of the forged wheel companies out here. The centers are cut out of 6061 forged aluminum, just like everyone else's wheels.
FS will never leave a customer hanging. We offered another solution. Since the chroming has been a problem, we offered to change his lips out for polished lips and reassemble the wheels as our policy states. This solution will solve his issues and give us the chance to make it right. Blaine, himself, has chosen to pursue the same solution but by taking them to his own polisher and wheel assembly firm. We informed him that if he were to do that, then he would void his warranty from FS. FS will not take the risk in paying another firm for work that is unknown to FS. Blaine then threatened to bash FS on the boards and sent harassing emails taunting FS, in which FS as declined to reply to. Once he has posted up those threads, FS will no longer communicate with Blaine as he has taken the situation into his own hands instead of working with us.
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Regards,
The Forged Specialties Team
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