Fikse wheels- never again

[NOPANTS68]

I looked into it earlier on in the waiting process. According to my bank Visa has a stipulation that only covers the credit back within the first 90 days. I blew past that long ago so I was stuck. I wasn't planning on going that route since during that period I was told they were going to be delivered every other day. By the time they came I was well outside that window.

Greg, it was a half up front "sale deal ". I paid the balance when Jon charged my card for the remaining half indicating that they were shipping. According to driverz, Fikse shipped someone else's wheels instead of mine. Still five weeks later, no wheels.

Update as of Friday- no replacement wheel yet. Called driverz but no response there so I called Fikse. Spoke with Allen and he explained that they were forced to make a new wheel since the anodizing wouldn't cooperate. FWIW, Allen was very apologetic and forthcoming. He explained where the failure was and I believe he was sincere when he said he would do what he could to get me my wheel. They will be sold upon its arrival.

[GregWeld]

Well -- sadly -- the way I see it -- neither seller nor manufacturer has done what's right for YOU. And I'd let what's been said - and the ACTIONS (or non-actions) speak for themselves. Buyer beware.

I've owned and operated large wholesale companies.... we ALWAYS interceded on the behalf of the customer. When you don't do that as a company - you loose customers. And you loose the honor of your word. I don't think either of these companies are that big that you should have fallen through the cracks...

I once had a 20' container of much needed goods actually fall off the ship... it was critical that our customers get the merchandise they ordered or loose the season... We air freighted replacements of those goods directly to the customer (from England!) at a HUGE expense... But the larger expense would have been to lose those customers, and suffer the secondary loses in the marketplace of being branded a company that couldn't deliver.

Once they had your money - they had you over a barrel...

I always made dang sure my salespeople understood that getting a customer was easy - and making a sale was easy... The reputation was made AFTER the sale and when things went to poo in a hand basket. How it gets handled is what really counts and what is remembered long after the sale.

[JustinB]

Nopant68, Friday was a bad day for us at the shop and I apologize for not getting back to you. Jon had to pick a car up in Simi Valley and I was stuck at a dentist getting some teeth pulled.

We are all over Fikse pushing and pushing to get all our outstanding orders out the door. We are in contact with Fikse every single day getting updates and pushing and pushing. I can yell tell I am blue in the face but unfortunately it is not going to fix the giant mess we are stuck in. If you have questions, please call, email, or pm me and we can discuss what we need to do.

[usa-69z]

Originally Posted by Justin@driverzinc

Nopant68, Friday was a bad day for us at the shop and I apologize for not getting back to you. Jon had to pick a car up in Simi Valley and I was stuck at a dentist getting some teeth pulled.

We are all over Fikse pushing and pushing to get all our outstanding orders out the door. We are in contact with Fikse every single day getting updates and pushing and pushing. I can yell tell I am blue in the face but unfortunately it is not going to fix the giant mess we are stuck in. If you have questions, please call, email, or pm me and we can discuss what we need to do.

no mention on a cancelation fee???

c'mon Justin whats the deal?

[JustinB]

I not sure what you are talking about in a cancellation fee. Give me a call on Monday and we can figure out a way to make you happy.

Originally Posted by usa-69z

no mention on a cancelation fee???

c'mon Justin whats the deal?

[DOOM]

Originally Posted by GregWeld

Well -- sadly -- the way I see it -- neither seller nor manufacturer has done what's right for YOU. And I'd let what's been said - and the ACTIONS (or non-actions) speak for themselves. Buyer beware.

I've owned and operated large wholesale companies.... we ALWAYS interceded on the behalf of the customer. When you don't do that as a company - you loose customers. And you loose the honor of your word. I don't think either of these companies are that big that you should have fallen through the cracks...

I once had a 20' container of much needed goods actually fall off the ship... it was critical that our customers get the merchandise they ordered or loose the season... We air freighted replacements of those goods directly to the customer (from England!) at a HUGE expense... But the larger expense would have been to lose those customers, and suffer the secondary loses in the marketplace of being branded a company that couldn't deliver.

Once they had your money - they had you over a barrel...

I always made dang sure my salespeople understood that getting a customer was easy - and making a sale was easy... The reputation was made AFTER the sale and when things went to poo in a hand basket. How it gets handled is what really counts and what is remembered long after the sale.

Greg well said!! I agree 100%

[DriverzInc]

Wait how did this turn into me not trying to help Greg? David had a problem with his wheel, so I sent it back to Fikse to be refinished. It's not my fault they took extra time to fix it is it? Friday was a horrible day to get a hold of me, while most of the country enjoyed a day off, I put in a 12 hour day picking up a car in Simi and working like a dog. I did call and email Alan Friday morning about Dave's replacement wheel and received an email later that evening in return. And if you read the entire thread, us as a seller have tried very hard to keep every Fikse customers of ours as much in the loop as possible. We've even switched a few of the pending orders to other wheels to help get them rolling in the next 4 weeks.

This Fikse thing is going to be the death of me.... Everyone's going to forget how hard we've worked for you all over the past 5 yrs, and remember us as the dealer who went out of business because they couldn't absorb all the chargebacks when A manufacturer they sold didn't deliver on time.

I quit. I just can't make everyone happy fast enough anymore.

[ccracin]

Jon,

I think it is clear you definitely ARE working very hard to keep your customers happy. I just think Fikse is working harder trying to disappoint your customers. If it were me I would not take one more order for a Fikse wheel. When you clear your books of this mess, I would be done with them. You work too hard to have them take you down! Hang in there!

[JMitch19]

I'm one of Jon's customers that jumped ship on Fikse and went with Forgelines. Driverz Inc. handled everything for me. The only hard time I had was picking another wheel has I liked as much as the one I cancelled my order on. I spend almost an entire day running around SEMA like a mad man looking at the wheel/tire combo on every first gen there. JCG's Project Blue Balls helped me close the deal on going Forgeline. Ended up ordering the new GZ3 which is similar to the ZX3 on Blue Balls but different enough I didn't feel like a copy cat.

[eddiep]

Originally Posted by Justin@driverzinc

I not sure what you are talking about in a cancellation fee. Give me a call on Monday and we can figure out a way to make you happy.

Really? I got a letter from you guys Friday saying you were hitting me with a $1k restocking/shipping fee, and sure enough, my credit card was ran for the amount in the letter on Nov. 8.

Yes, I'm one of the two people Jon mentioned earlier that canceled their order. Pretty sure I know who the other guy is, too (heh, we have a PM/email support group for all the people that got in on this deal); if it's the same guy I'm thinking of, he was fed up with the run around and put in a dispute via his CC, and they responded by trying to immediately send him 3 wheels ... the 4th I suppose was to be sent later on when it was finished. I'm assuming he wasn't ok with that.

I wish no ill-will on the DriverzInc/Fikse people. If Fikse wasn't running so far behind, I think my experience with DriverzInc would have been very positive. They seemed very knowledgeable and friendly, and were reasonably responsive when I would check it with my order (although I never got any information that was of any real value). Problem was I, along with everyone else, was told again and again 'any day now' or 'just 1 more week', when that was never the case. One of my first calls I talked to Justin and mentioned seeing that NoPants waited 16 weeks for his, and if I should expect the same on my wheels. He told me people will say all kinds of stuff on the internet. I guess we know now who was blowing smoke and who was telling it like it was. All I want was someone to be honest with me; I know the vendors are in a tough spot when stuff like this happens, but the answer is not to just tell people what they wanted to hear and hide behind 'but that's what the manf. is telling me' crap. When the early orders were taking 4 months, you guys should have been contacting folks and setting their expectations accordingly - at least telling them that was a possibility instead of 'just a few more days'.

Anyway, I ordered at the end of June. There is a limit on how long you have recourse on charges, and I didn't want to be on the hook for $3k+ if something crazy happens like Driverz or Fikse goes belly up before my order is fulfilled. Seen it happen plenty of times, and the latest update I had heard from Driverz was that Fikse suffered an equipment malfunction on the machine that makes the hoops (I'm seeing other excuses posted in the public forums for the delay, but I haven't seen this one?). Anyway, I told my bank I still wanted the wheels if Driverz will come through with their latest estimate for shipping them. Bank calls me back several days later we conferenced in Jon to see where we are at on things. He says no worries, the wheels are shipping today. I said great, just send me proof, and I told my bank rep that I would consider this matter resolved if they get me a tracking number. Jon forwards me an email from Fikse later that day where they say they are shipping my order, but there is no tracking number. I replied that I needed a tracking number. John says there is no tracking number, it shipped freight and it will be 5 days before it gets to us. He then said he will get a copy of the shipping documents. 5 days pass and I never heard anything back from him. I then told Jon I haven't heard a peep from you guys, forget the shipping docs because you already have my wheels, right? Nope! These are coming from Canada, and it could take several more days. I say send me a scan of the shipping documentation (you know, the one that was promised to me last week) today please. He gave me a sarcastic 'sure, I'll call up Canada! I just got back from driving all over So. Cal picking up wheels' ... WTF, you were supposed to be calling Fikse this whole time to check in on our orders, you even told me the week before that you'd get a scan of the waybill, but suddenly its some impossible task because you've had a busy morning driving around (keep in mind this is only like 2pm in the afternoon for him)? By this point I've reached my breaking point, called the bank and said I no longer want to deal with these jokers, please cancel the order.

And through all of this, somehow the customer is at fault and you need to slap them with a $1k restocking fee? This was already the worst buying experience I've ever had BEFORE the cancelation fee - way to raise the bar.