i believe that's u cleared the idea and ur point for most of the members thats the most important part

 

Two words: drop links.

 

Don't you really mean "SharkLinks"

 

Exactly. It really pays when your tuner has your back even if Bilstein does not.

 

Sound like a “good commercial quote” –not
Buy Bilstein, because your tuner always has your back.
Seriously the gt2 suspension it’s very low in compeer to the turbo, yet front links work fine. There is definitely a design problem in damptronic system
<O</O

 

Larry is one of the more logical members of this group and I agree 100% here...the vendor is INCREDIBLY important in the customer service experience! For what it's worth to you guys, here are the facts concerning my situation as of today:
1. AWE has been outstanding with their customer service (not perfect, mind you, but outstanding)...they were not the cheapest, but they have stood by me 100%...

2. Phone vs. email...in my opinion, communication with your vendor should take place via email...that way, you can always document when you first sent an email and can prove that your vendor isn't responding in a timely fashion...phone calls/voice mail simply take too long to get routed to the appropriate person these days...most people have their emails forwarded directly to their cell phones and can respond immediately to you...

3. A couple of points with my situation...I am supposed to mail back my old Bilsteins directly to Bilstein when they send me a UPS shipping thingy...I have been emailing them since this past Wed. and have not heard anything from them yet...probably has something to do with Easter holiday. They are then going to send them to a metallurgist for evaluation (they have NOT determined that the failures were do to 100% installation error at this point...even though, I'm sure, in most folks minds, the failures WERE due to installer error). Once they have their report back from the metallurgist, they are sending me 4 new units that I will have installed. They are also paying for the new install (they volunteered to refund me 100% of my purchase price in ADDITION to the 4 new units). Obviously, their metallurgist is exactly that..THEIR metallurgist of choice...I was EXTREMELY tempted to use my own guy, but after speaking with Bilstein, I TRULY believe they want to know for absolute certain that there were no hickups with their steel rods that are used in these units...

4. My car just came back to me this past week...I haven't had it since mid December! So, some of you guys that haven't had your cars for 1 or 2 weeks??? Put yourselves in my shoes! Ha!

5. I TRULY believe Bilstein is taking care of me for the following reasons: a.) the power of 6speedonline, b.) AWE and their excellent customer service, c.) Bilstein will have many positive comments (aka "advertising") for taking care of me...it was simply a good business move on their part.

6. My only complaint in this whole thing is the time frame...mid-December is an EXTREMELY long time and my guess is that I will NOT have my new units by May 1st. I'm betting it will be June before they arrive...

7. The 911 ride with the stock suspension vs. the PSS10's was like night and day to me (I have always believed that "modding" a car really didn't yield bang-for-the-buck...I was wrong with this mod)! The PSS10's absolutely transform the feel of the car...the "happy ***" stock ride is now completely gone! I can't wait to get that feeling back with my car!

 

Derek,

Im going to have to disagree(respectfully) with several things you are saying. By your own admission, Bilstein is taking care of because of the power of the internet(ie-6speed)...you know as well as I do if it wasnt for 6 speed you would be SOL...as far as advertisement for good customer service I dont believe that to be true either...your car went down 4 months ago...you still dont have verification of when you will get your replacement dampers...by your own admission it prob wont get installed til June(6 months after the initial incident)...this is good customer service and good marketing/advertising??...come on!......most of us remember your thread very well, Bilstein blamed install error when they diagnosed the cone washer was missing...well we know they were wrong since your last snappage of your drivers side damper HAD the cone washer present...so now it might be the metal itself?...you even said you didnt think the pic they used as evidence in your initial "report" from Bilstein prob wasnt even your damper.

Now lets get back to my situation...Bilstein and SSF did NOT come through for the customer/me...my vendor had to eat the cost himself!...it amazes me that more people are not outraged at this situation...would anyone stand for this with any other product they have ever bought...my PASM wire was cut right of the box and then some people and vendors come on this thread using legal jargon and red tape measures to place doubt and to deflect away from the real point...this is what crafty lawyers do....well most of us are abit too smart for that BS...bottom line, SFF is a authorized dealer and they were dealing directly with Bilstein and Bilstein went back on their word and said they wouldnt cover my damper....this means unless YOUR vendor has a exceptional relationship with Bilstein there is a decent chance you WILL NOT be covered if you buy a damper that is damaged.

Its ludicrous for me to think unless you buy from AWE, there could very well be warranty issues...to me it doesnt matter to me if you buy from authorized seller or not, if its a new unopened box and there is damage the company Bilstein SHOULD stand behind their product...if reselling isnt covered under warranty, then it needs to be clearly stated as many of us bought from re-sellers whether we knew it or not...I can guarantee you my box was unopened when I received it...the box was pristine.

The people that can afford a Porsche and Bilstein products are customers who should be catered to not isolated and taken advantage of imho...we tend to be repeat customers...this is bad business!.

Another weird thing, in my 1.5 wks of dealing with my vendor, SFF and Bilstein(indirectly), not one single person asked for the damaged damper back...anyone find this abit odd??...sound familiar Derek???...if they actually cared, wouldnt they ask for the damaged damper back?..I had to take my own action and take pics and send back the damper to my vendor on my own and say its his damper to deal with.

As of right now I still dont have a credit back on my CC only a electronic receipt saying it will be done...but I know one thing, I trust my vendor alot more than I do Bilstein and SFF...SFF is a absolute joke!...my contact at SSF had the nerve to deny(several days ago) he ever said Bilstein was going to cover the damper under warranty...when he said this I said you are a liar and I wont ever talk to you again(and I havent)...despite how lame SSF has been, I still think SFF was truthful when they told me Bilstein initially told him the damper was covered...now if this guy made the whole story up and he never talked to Bilstein which I think is highly unlikely, then this guy is an absolute psychiatric nutcase.

In the end, Bilstein either stands by their product or they dont, simple as that...this cuts through to the essence of good customer care...anyone that trys to cloud the situation with clandestine BS and legal jargon is trying to confuse and cloud...but most of us are abit too sharp to fall for this.

Here is some irony for ya...my vendor who is a struggling small business owner will eat more than 600.00 on his own because SSF and Bilstein failed their customers...if I didnt get my money back, I would prove this to be the case in a legal fashion...I felt bad for my vendor and even offered to eat 350.00 of the cost myself because I felt bad for him and I knew it wasnt his fault...so I the customer was willing to eat some cost and so was my vendor, but where was SSF and Bilstein, Ill tell you where-no where! In my line of business its all about character and honesty...nothing else matters.

I have had PSS 9's on an M3 and now on my 997 but without doubt, Bilstein has lost me forever as a customer...actually they have lost several previous customers forever as some of the PM's sent to me would imply...wya to go Bilstein, you have lost a fair number of customers for a single damper that prob cost you 50.00 to manufactor...not real smart .

To me the most sickening thing about this whole thread is this...people saying "well you better pick the right vendor or installer"..."make sure they are an auth dealer"..."how do you know Bilstein even talked to your dealer/vendor as might be pathologic liars"...but what about the white elephant in the room??..."WTF is the prob with Bilstein or SFF where they wont cover a damaged damper brand new out of the box"????? ...sounds sooo novel.

 

Didn't your vendor tell you that they were an authorized dealer, only to disclose that they were dealing with a 3rd party later?

The person who is ultimately responsible for a defective product is the one who sold it to you. While I would also be upset with SFF and Bilstein - the person who sold the item to you should be responsible for the condition of a "new" product. I'm still confused as to why they told you they were an authorized dealer when they were not.

 

yes!...but i still dont blame him, because as I stated above, I still believe Bilstein should stand behind their product whether a reseller sold it or not...if I had to guess I would bet most people did not buy their Bilstein dampers from an actual auth dealer, they just didnt know it.

 

I have to agree that it was the power of the internet and the 6speed community that made the difference with drkbrent. While AWE is a great company and stood 100% behind Derek, there was only so much they can do on their own as a distributor. There is always more power in numbers and that's what you got from this forum. Your case was dragging out so long that Bilstein had to do something to safe face, imo.

 

There are a lot of unscrupulous people out there and any company has to draw a line someplace so as not to be taken advantage of. That line is usually in having an authorized dealer network.

I think you dealt with one of those unscrupulous people and that you are making an emotional mistake here if you don't blame the person that lied to you about be authorized!

I'm truly sorry for your problem but it is hard to justify your reasoning here.

BTW, I see people warning about dealing with Bilstein: did you even mention who it was that lied to you? How about warning us about this person?

 

No Bilstein going on my TT. after reading this no way I would go near there products. Funny how everyone points the finger at everyone else for a failure.

 

mact3333, you raise some valid points...I feel your pain! I spent some time in Seattle last year...amazing town! I'm betting Portland is similar?