SEIBON's poor quality and worse service
 

Hi all,
The purpose of this thread is to warn those of us who may assume that certain popular companies have the best interests of customers in mind...

I bought my Raven FR-S on Labor Day and after a few months was looking at the options for lip spoilers available at the time. With SEMA pics everywhere, I decided to go with Seibon's SN lip to set off the metallic black car, similar to the carbon lips on M3 comp. package cars.

With some excellent Black Friday pricing I bought the SN lip from FT86Speedfactory. It was drop shipped from seibon and I got it maybe 2.5 weeks later. One of the first things that made me very suspicious of Seibons practices came in an email from Jeremy @ FT86Speedfactory. In This Video if you listen to the phrasing, they are laying the groundwork to refuse any and all returns. I had already ordered at that point and just hoped for the best. Mistake.

When the lip came it was shipped and packaged perfectly, no damage. I was glad about this because my wife signed for it. The Clearcoat was also very nice and I quickly wiped down the car and tried a dry fitment. Sadly no mounting information, warranty info or mounting supplies were included in the box or on the website.

This is where the problems began. With the ends of the wing aligned, as seen in the pics, it didn't touch nearly any of the posterior edge of the trunk. I was concerned and notified Jeremy from FT86 but told him I would follow up after mounting it with the correct tape.

After another week of work I had the time to formally mount the SN Lip and got the correct super strong 3M mounting tape. The same problems have continued. With the tape even doubled up in the middle, there is still daylight across the back in the middle-left portion of the truck. The material the wing is made from is so stiff that there is no manipulation to do to gently get it into place.

I took some pics and posted them here and here then I took a few more and felt that this is unacceptable for a $450 part allegedly precisely made...here is a pic of the daylight under the wing, with 2 layers of tape.http://www.ft86club.com/forums/pictu...pictureid=3153

This is clearly more that the 3/8" limit that their own website hints at as a tolerance.

Jeremy from FT86 was in touch throughout this process and has been very professional. After 2 weeks of emails and multiple pics sent to seibon, this was their last reply.

"We cannot swap this out or give any credit since it was not professionally installed by a shop. Please let the customer know that these are aftermarket products and will not fit 100% like factory parts."

TOTAL Bull$hit!

Acknowledging this poor customer service from the manufacturer, Jeremy offered to swap me his own incoming SN lip, assuming that it actually fits. This is where the process stands today. I am lucky I chose to order from FT86 Speedfactory.

Knowing this, all of you guys ordering these parts need to make sure you are at least getting them from a vendor that will stand up for you, even while Seibon continues to crank out poorly fitting products. Updates to follow....

reserved

Sorry for the hassle you are dealing with. A huge hand to Jeremy and the @FT-86 SpeedFactory team for stepping up and handling this situation.

This was addressed earlier when before they released priducts at sema. They have gaps and products arnt fllush.. This isnt from personally dealing with them.. It was on another thread

Sorry to hear about your issues with Seibon. Everything I have read about FT-86 SpeedFactory is nothing but good things - very glad and fortunate to have such an upstanding vendor such as them.

Sorry to hear you're having these issues...I have the SN spoiler and it fit flawlessly. There was someone else with a similar issue on this forum as well when it came to the SN spoiler, there must have been a bad batch or something. I have the roof spoiler and TS style hood and all of the parts are flawless. Since I haven't had issues I have no experience with their customer service so I certainly hope I don't ever have an issue if they are as bad as you say.

Just realized you were the guy that I was thinking about that posted about the SN spoiler...have you called Seibon personally? They are a US company and by your pics the spoiler is no where near correctly molded for the car.

Seibon not living up to expectations?

You don't say. :lol:

@FT-86 SpeedFactory . shows how he will go above and beyond, awesome job jeremy.

shity deal tho :(

This is one of the few issues we have had with Seibon. 98% of the time everything works out as intended.

@Supermassive. Seibon got the pics, they still didn't feel obligated to cover this. :cry:

I want our clients to be happy, and will do what it takes if it is with in my reach. I know first hand how disappointing it is to get something and not have it be as expected.

We'll have this sorted out ASAP and get Jason952 on his way to carbon fiber bliss. :)

-Jeremy

I've learned to not purchase anything from Seibon from people around me... Hope things get sorted out. Seibon CF stuffs usually, in my experience, offers no real weight savings... I'd get something more legit and authentic if available although it maybe a lot more pricey.

I had an issue with a purchase from FT and Jeremy went above and beyond to clarify my order went through properly. Props to his Customer service.

I ordered a Seibon CF hood for a spec V i had a few yrs back. It arrived damaged and Seibon refused to refund my money. I ended up canceling a credit card after the hassle was over. FUCK Seibon, you cant treat people like that.

The moral of the story is this: The product is probably within what most of us would accept as a reasonable failure rate, but if said company isn't willing to stand behind it's product than it's not a manufacture you should be dealing with.

The only way to fix the problems is for the vendors to refuse to sell their products until issues are resolved. Push back on seibons sales team and keep linking them to these threads. This is not the first time I have seen this. I was considering their trunk but after seeing how they skate responsibility forget it.

There are plenty of niche aftermarket parts makers who understand customer service and quality complaints. This isnt the 90s anymore people don't or have the FU money or time to waste with companies like this. Good luck!

very good job on ft86's part. i have only had great service from them. poorly played by seibon.

Thanks now we know who not to buy from

Don't forget how crappy Maganaflow treated Chate when he let them use his car for prototyping...

OP: Sorry to hear about the way things went with Seibon...

But the real moral of the story...spend money on go and not show :D

This!:thumbsup:

Oh man... I wish I saw this earlier...

I just put it in an order for an SN spoiler from @Stav a few days ago. Hopefully something can be done about this...

Hope the replacement works for you @Jason952

This is kind of a disheartening thread, I got lucky and based on what I received from Seibon I would have recommened them in a heart beat. Sad to hear so many people have had issues.

Is this rice? I like to think that it's subtle, tasteful, and clean. Of course the hood is a little rice but once it's painted I think it will be perfect!

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DSC00101 by Supermassive80, on Flickr

Sadly this won't dissuade Seibon or any manufacturer, Seibon provides something no other company does. CF options galore in many different variations at a price that is tough to beat. The other thing Seibon clearly states on their website when you order is parts should be installed by a professional. This is one of those cover your ass things companies in America do to keep some average Joe from messing up an install and having to pay for it themselves. It's bullshit really but Seibon isn't the only company that does this kind of stuff.

I used to think that I am lucky in that nothing about this car has been a headache, no issues with the car, no issues with any of my parts (save my shortshifter but that's being worked out), and no issues with dealers or vendors. But now I think there's just a vocal minority, which have every right to be pissed, that aren't the norm, but because of the nature of the internet and forums, get the most spin. I'm not backing Seibon here, they should resolve issues like this and say thank you to the customer for bringing it to their attention so that it never happens again, instead of how they're handling it. But from my "personal" experience, I will likely buy from them again because they offer stuff that no one else does...

Man I love their trunk with integrated spoiler. But after reading this thread, I'm hesitating on that purchase. If I spend hundreds of dollars on a product, I wouldn't want any problems.

We also have a negative review about Seibon that we will be posting soon if they don't correct their mistakes. We ordered a carbon hood, lip, and grill for our shop evo x. So far :thumbdown: :barf: to SEIBON.

-Chris

I have always heard negative things about them and it's not like they are economy priced where you would expect fitment issues. If you spend over $400 for a spoiler or front lip it should be perfect.

Thought maybe they had changed their ways and with all their stuff on SEMA cars you would think they would handle this better.

Would tnis have been a night the pavs........ the night i was there....

I've said it 1000 times...Seibon IS JUNK!! Don't waste a single dime on any of their parts, ever!! They NEVER fit and almost always weigh more than the factory parts they replace. I will never install a Seibon part on my car and warn everyone that mentions them.

Maybe...

Well hopefully Seibon pulls their head out of their ass but I'm not holding my breath, glad my stuff is perfect so I didn't have to go through this nonsense. Luckily I have pretty much all I need from Seibon (was seriously considering the 10mm wider vented front fenders in carbon, but I'll hold off while we see how all these issues pan out. Can't really support a company that doesn't support it's customers.

I don't feel like searching through my posts, but I've always hated SEIBON. I tried to warn as many people as possible... even on this forum. Long story short... cf hood caused $7K+ damage on my G35 because of a defective latch. I was told I wouldn't need hood pins because I didn't want to have them sticking out. I was guaranteed 100% fitment ... "Calvin Wan doesn't run hood pins with our hood and he's drifting his G35 in FormulaD"...

I was pretty surprised that they had such a strong presence at SEMA... but I guess not much has changed.

p.s., They never offered me anything... not even a new hood.

Hmmm this might make me rethink my plan to buy some Seibon parts but idk, the only problem I ever had with my Seibon cf hood on my civic was that the windshield sprayers didn't fit. other than that it was perfect.

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2

I built the first widebody 2010 camaro and took it to SEMA that year...it was the only widebody at the show. (The following year Topo Designs had 5-6 widebody camaros there) I had LSD begging me to put their door hinges on it but the owner of the car and I protested it to the end. Seibon called me every single day offering me anything I wanted to run just their hood and trunk. It was a black camaro so I asked them if I could paint the majority of the hood and trunk and just leave two small "windows" of carbon showing through. They gave me free Hankook tires for installing their parts so I tried them out. I spent more messing with the hood and trunk alignment and fitment than I did stretching the factory sheet metal 9" to fit 26"x13" wheels in the rear while still tucking rim. They never aligned perfect no matter what I did with the adjacent panels, there were uneven gaps as well as high spots and low spots galore. On top of the fitment the resin on the parts was so fresh that a week after painting them they shrunk even further and the weave started to show through the paint!! Worst of all the factory hood WITH the latch AND liner on it was still lighter than the Seibon hood. The factory trunk was lighter as well. I called my contact there and screamed and yelled and told him even though the parts were "free" they had costed me thousands in labor and days of time and in the end were junk. He told me it was because they were "new to market" but would get better in quality. I showed up three days before SEMA at their California headquarters with every other Seibon SEMA car going in their booth. I walked around quietly and looked at the 12-15 other cars there and solely at the fit and finish of their products on these cars. EVERY SINGLE CAR WAS AS BAD OR WORSE!! I burned rubber back to the shop, swapped back to the factory parts, and showed the car.

I have been building cars at a professional level for 16 years...I know my shit when it comes to cars. If you guys are car guys and watch car shows then I'm sure you have seen my work on many occasions. I'm not "trolling" (such a stupid term) but simply warning consumers not to waste their hard earned $$ and time on Seibon.

Some people have said in this thread "if I spent hundreds of dollars on a CF part it better fit perfect"...that's almost as concerning as Seibon. Real CF that's done properly and "dry" will save weight and fit perfect but "hundreds of dollars" is more like THOUSANDS of dollars for these parts. People spending $400-600 on hoods and trunks from Seibon are getting what they paid for...junk!

I'll post a link to another thread that a guy was obviously sponsored by Seibon got upset when asked about fitment by another user I replied and said "look at all the gaps around the hood" and he got upset with me and blamed it on other issues. In the end of the day he was dead wrong and couldn't argue with straight facts.

We're all here for one common reason..we LOVE our cars!! We're "car guys (and some girls too)" and want to make our cars the best possible and share amongst each other. Part of this should include being honest about parts used and experiences with companies. I've told my story with Seibon, please tell yours...people deserve to know the truth!!

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19699

Here is the thread.. Look at the last few comments. I've told the guy how nice his car is on multiple occasions but because I pointed out the bad fitment of his hood (which is obvious) he took it personal and got mad. I stated that the factory parts are lighter and fit better so why not just throw them back on? I even own a place in his same town so I hope to run into this guy in person sometime and really check these parts out and then listen to his excuses. It's clear he got them free from Seibon for SEMA and is trying to defend the company but my word is everything and I can't be bought with money or parts. I get free parts, I get dealer accommodation on parts, I get all sorts of deals in exchange for exposure and showing my cars at high traffic venues...I'm still brutally honest about the quality and fitment and customer support. This guy just took it personal instead of saying "yeah, there's some fitment issues and they weigh more but I like the carbon look"...

I may be "new" to these forums but I'm not a "troll" and I'm here to help. I'm not hiding behind a screen name either. My name is Chad Utt...google and see the builds I've done and the quality of work I'm capable of creating. "Chad West Coast Customs" may also yield some good videos and builds I've been involved in. Hopefully people here will realize I love this platform and I'm here to help others in the community and learn as much about this platform as I possibly can so I may help on projects as well as steering people away from traps like Seibon.

There's my rant..lol..you will now be retuned to your regularly scheduled show.

Chad

Thank you for the write-up. I was planning to buy their trunk with integrated spoiler... not any more.

As an aside, I have the carsmo spoiler on my car right now, installed it myself, and it fit flawless. I would expect the same from any quality part.

This makes me glad I paid the 450 for dealer installed OEM wing.

Stories like this make me scared since I plan to do FI and hope something like this doesn't happen when I do.

I've never bought seibon parts and never plan to. I'm not a flashy type of guy anyways,s o if I'm going to buy aftermarket parts to save weight, it's going to look as stock as possible

I also have the Carsmo spoiler on my car. The fit was perfect!! It did need some body work on the top side to smooth out some ripples but now its gorgeous. I'd be willing to bet that the Carsmo fiberglass spoiler weighs less and fits way better than the Seibon spoiler. I think carbon should be used in weight saving applications where it makes a major difference in weight and I would never install a CF part as big as a hood or trunk without painting at least 90% to match the car. There are a few lip spoilers for the bottom edge around the entire car that look great while left in carbon but the parts are small and close to the ground...

If my experience being shared saves one person the headaches I experienced over their horrible quality parts then it was worth the time I spent typing it.

Such shitty quality :)

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All I hear is accusations with no pictures to back up the claims, the only person with "proof" of a bad experience is the OP. To anyone else, without pics, or some copied correspondence with Seibon, your argument is pretty much just conjecture, since I am sure there are plenty of satisfied people with Seibon. The fact that you have managed to turn this into another "Agency Power" thread when we should be hoping for the best possible outcome for the OP is lunacy. I wish i had a bad experience with something for my car so I could join the "Hate Brigade" on this forum...

Also no, I am not sponsored by anyone.

I'm sure I can dig up some pics if that's what it takes...this was 3 years ago. I've heard similar stories from 10 years ago all the way up to this thread today.

The part the OP is referring to is installed with 3M VHB tape.. Seibon denying him the opportunity to swap it with another part if this is truly an isolated issue.

Btw, supermassive, your car looks hot!! In my opinion it would look good with some white on the hood with just small amounts of carbon showing so it looks more like accents as your wheels do. Either way, looks great and I'm glad you're happy with your hood!! :)

Supermassive, I like the carbon in smaller doses like your roof lip spoiler and your trunk spoiler..looks good there!! Maybe paint the hood and leave some unpainted areas around the vents or body lines to tie it all together...just some constructive criticism as overall your car is gorgeous!!

Yea it sounds like a sin but more white on the hood with black vents. Either way his Seibon parts do look good. Looks like it's just hit and miss with the company. I might press my luck because that hood with integrated spoiler is too hot. :w00t:

Are you ignoring the (uneven) gaps around the hood or do you really think that fitment is like OEM? Any more pics of how it lines up specifically. Sorry some people are picky and post about it.