I've never really posted on these boards, but I'm in a bit of a situation and was hoping for some insight from fellow members. Back in April 2009, I sent an email to Oakley Design inquiring about their carbon rollbar for my GT2. I received a quick response from Jon Oakley who answered my questions, provided pricing and eventually sent me instructions on wiring the funds. The product, I was told, would ship two weeks after the funds were wired. Before wiring the funds, I did some due diligence, a bit of research, etc. Oakley Design had a good reputation and is well known. Jon and I further exchanged a number of emails after that. After some traveling, I came back to town and proceeded to wire 100% funds to Oakley for the purchase.

Needless to say, without wasting more bandwidth, 2 weeks, became 3, then 4, then 2 months. The email responses grew fewer and fewer until Jon no longer responded. One of his salesman emailed me a couple times that they've been on holiday or they were sick, or they accidentally painted the rollbar white. It was obvious it was just excuse after excuse. Then ZERO response from anyone. It's now been almost 6 months later. Oakley Design has not responded to a single email or answered the phone for the past 2 months. I did manage to contact one of their investors who sounded a bit surprised of the situation, assured me he would call me back the next day...no phone call, no response (now he no longer answers his phone). Even Farnbacher Loles who was supposed to be their US distributor claimed they have had a difficult time getting product from Oakley and last I checked were even unloading their demo products. Unfortunately, all this came a bit late for me. And I'm still unclear as to the status of this company. I'm under the impression they are still racing in Porsche Super Car (I'm certain I funded a weekend's worth of slicks!), but apparently they have left their customer service to rot. This has been the most painful experience to deal with and I'm not entirely sure what to even do, short of jumping on the next plane to the UK and knocking on someone's door. Needless to say, I'm not letting this drop.

Does anyone have any recent experience or feedback with these guys? Anyone in the UK close to their location and know if they are still there? Any help would be appreciated before I take this to the next level. Thanks.

 

Eek. I'm sorry I have no insight into this, but good luck with a resolution. Not to rub salt in the wound, but was using a CC not an option for this purchase??

 

No worries, the wound is so large now that even salt has little effect
A CC was not an option. A bank wire was required.

 

Farnbacher-Loles deals with them alot, maybe they could intervene. PM me and I'll give you a contact person.
c

 

he can't pm you Chris...he needs 15 posts to do that...but you can pm him another way to contact you

 

Post this on Pistonheads -- in Porsche threads--I guarantee you will get replies and maybe some help.
I would not intially name the company--just describe their products--someone will lead you to where you need to be.
Use the search function over there-I will start it for you!

All done @ 7.55 thread time--post away.

Update-- 13 replies inside an hour-- not positive. Can someone post a link/

 

Thread on pistonheads is 1 hour old and the 6th post perhaps sums it up.
Thread may disappear due to the forums conflict of interest.

 

A few guys over on Rennteam have had even bigger nightmares with Oakley. Head there and do a search.

 

Take a look here:

http://www.rennteam.com/forum/thread...html#p20109042

I'd PM function_analysi and GT if I were you.

 

Rennteam, GearErotica, Teamspeed are good resources.

 

I have the feeling that your money may have been better off "invested" in some of those Nigerian opportunities they keep offering me!
How much was that cage btw?

 

I have started thread there and after 2 hours or so about 25 posts.There are some offers of help there-including getting some mobile numbers to follow up on.

 

If you mean Robin, I've already touched base. Sorry I can't PM you apparently given my post count, but you can PM me if you get a chance. Thanks.


Thanks Alex. It's apparent that the bulk of these issues have occurred around the same time this year (after I wired my funds) and it's all gone downhill. Talk about sh***y timing! My feeling is Jon Oakley never had any intention on sending me a rollbar and just needed to gather as much money as possible. As soon as my wire was sent, I never heard back from him.

Red, thanks for all your help. I received your PM, but I can't reply to you. I'm going to PM the person on pistonheads who has a mobile number contact.

Thank you again everyone for your help! If any of you are familiar with Family Guy, this whole situation keeps reminding me of this....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7gCd-C-Tys

 

Oakley Design is definitely still around. I know a fellow photoshoper who very recently did some work with him and went to an event with Jon Oakley himself. I can maybe ask him to talk to Jon for you...?

 

Post your whole story in the pistonheads thread. It will get the thread deleted at some stage but it should bring more help out of the woodwork.. You never know what could come out of it.
Publicity of this type tends to get action-if there is any hope of getting a good outcome.