Why I will never be purchasing from FT86 Motorsports again

[NoHaveMSG]

Originally Posted by knapper

Yes, sorry, I only saw your second one there.

No Problem.

The way I see it you have two courses of action. Contact the manufacturer, tell them the company you bought it from is a pain to deal with and you are having this issue. They may help you out but want you to ship the part to them.

You can see if you can do a chargeback for faulty product. Even if you don't win it, you may be enough of a pain they just take care of it.

[spcmafia]

I think it is pretty clear to OP that 5 months after the purchase there is barely anyone that will offer a return, unless it is an specific item with an specific warranty time frame, i.e., Edelbrock SC, headers, etc.


I would have to side with knapper in the sense that it is a really bad business practice to belittle your customer for making a "cheap" purchase, and basically tell them to go kick rocks and find somewhere else to buy. I have never seen a "customer service" rep reply to an email in that way. Basically telling OP "This is what you get when you buy cheap shit, and its your fault".

On the other side of the token, the vendor is right in the sense that their suppliers won't exchange something 5 months after the fact, just completely and utterly went about it the wrong way.

I agree in standing by your product, having accountability, just an unfortunate situation from both sides, but I would be wary of making purchases from a business that could possibly deny me an exchange because I went for the cheap stuff. Regardless of the time frame of my return.



Anyway, lesson learned, OP. Always check gifts/purchases.

[gen3v8]

Don`t get so upset with yourself that you did not check the product in due time, but it is your fault, whatever the reason. Their customer response, well, is they obviously don`t respect, want or need your business.

[projek_01]

I agree that the language/tone used was pretty unprofessional.

I don't think they are being unreasonable for declining your warranty request. You can't expect anything more than an "eBay" grade carbon fibre part for ~$300. Especially if it's been 5-6 months. Nothing stopped you from opening up the box to inspect for shipping damage or defects.

[Muskoka800]

I’ve had no negative with FT86MS until recently.
Dealing with Troy in the past was always seamless.
Recently I’ve noticed many products on my ‘wish list’ have vanished from their site and inquiries has brought much higher prices.
More recently, in February, I ordered four items for winter installation.
The next day I received an email from Sylvain stating that the supplier prices had increased.
I okayed the increased prices then heard back that one item was on back-order with no exact date.
As it was only then Feb. I said it was okay to wait rather than cancelling that item. I received my shipment last week (last week of Apr.).
It would seem that their 86 business is winding down. I will consider import future purchases. I have had great success with Cross Border Pickups for private sales from members in the US.

[Lynxis]

Originally Posted by Muskoka800

Recently I’ve noticed many products on my ‘wish list’ have vanished from their site and inquiries has brought much higher prices.
I okayed the increased prices then heard back that one item was on back-order with no exact date.
As it was only then Feb. I said it was okay to wait rather than cancelling that item. I received my shipment last week (last week of Apr.).

In fairness here, inflation has been driving up the prices of everything. Regarding back ordered items, depending on what you were buying, it wasn't uncommon for certain items to be back ordered for months at the best of times and then we have supply chain issues exacerbated by the pandemic. I'm not defending or attacking ft86motorsports here but I just mention this because these issues aren't specific to them and you'll have these issues no matter where you order from.

[Dirty Harry]

I’m surprised some on here are letting the vendor off the hook. Sure, 5 months is too long for an exchange etc. but the responses, to put it politely, the vendor comes across as a bit of a c**t.

He could have spent the same amount of time responding saying: “sorry for your experience but due to the timeline we are unable to assist and suggest you contact the manufacturer directly, here are their details…” etc. or even made a quick call to the manufacturer to see if they’d return/assist etc.,what a 10 minute phone call.

OP, I think you handled yourself well, I’d post the email chain on his Facebook page or Instagram etc. and let others make up their own mind. This page has 600+ views already, looking at this I’d think anyone would be foolish to buy anything from them.

[soundman98]

Lol, "you bought the cheap version instead of a super high value product."
"But they wouldn't accept a return after 5 months anyways"

So then why bring it up?...

[knapper]

Originally Posted by Dirty Harry

I’m surprised some on here a letting the vendor off the hook. Sure, 5 months is too long for an exchange etc. but the responses, to put it politely, the vendor comes across as a bit of a c**t.

He could have spent the same amount of time responding saying: “sorry for your experience but due to the timeline we are unable to assist and suggest you contact the manufacturer directly, here are their details…” etc. or even made a quick call to the manufacturer to see if they’d return/assist etc.,what a 10 minute phone call.

OP, I think you handled yourself well, I’d post the email chain on his Facebook page or Instagram etc. and let others make up their own mind. This page has 600+ views already, looking at this I’d think anyone would be foolish to buy anything from them.

Agreed. There was absolutely no reason for him to reply that way. I was very polite in my initial exchange, and remained professional throughout. Perhaps I was just raised differently, but you don't speak to people that way, especially paying customers. You NEVER know who you are speaking to.

All of your offered solutions above would have been a much better path, and to be honest had he responded that, I would have written write back "Yeah, I sort of figured it would be too late to rectify, but I appreciate your response."

I posted a review on Google Review, which they responded already with a canned "we are so sorry for your experience, but we could not exchange this bla bla bla" never mentioning the disgusting language or apologizing for his behavior. So, I added an edit and all of the photos of the email exchange so that at least readers can see the truth.

[Dirty Harry]

Originally Posted by knapper

I posted a review on Google Review, which they responded already with a canned "we are so sorry for your experience, but we could not exchange this bla bla bla" never mentioning the disgusting language or apologizing for his behavior. So, I added an edit and all of the photos of the email exchange so that at least readers can see the truth.

I think that’s all you can do and people can see their default response to customer service.

[NoHaveMSG]

Originally Posted by Dirty Harry

I’m surprised some on here are letting the vendor off the hook. Sure, 5 months is too long for an exchange etc. but the responses, to put it politely, the vendor comes across as a bit of a c**t.

It's a pretty bad response. You never belittle a customer like that over anything.

I have history for my customers down to the invoice, tracking numbers, individual pallet/box weights and even when I can prove they are lying to me, I don't talk to them like that. I cordially go through the motions and oftentimes end up replacing items even when they lost or damaged them.

[RToyo86]

Originally Posted by Muskoka800

I’ve had no negative with FT86MS until recently.
Dealing with Troy in the past was always seamless.
Recently I’ve noticed many products on my ‘wish list’ have vanished from their site and inquiries has brought much higher prices.
More recently, in February, I ordered four items for winter installation.
The next day I received an email from Sylvain stating that the supplier prices had increased.
I okayed the increased prices then heard back that one item was on back-order with no exact date.
As it was only then Feb. I said it was okay to wait rather than cancelling that item. I received my shipment last week (last week of Apr.).
It would seem that their 86 business is winding down. I will consider import future purchases. I have had great success with Cross Border Pickups for private sales from members in the US.

They switched suppliers which limited availability on parts. Now they're slowly going through the site cleaning up items that are discontinued or not viable to bring in at a reasonable cost.

[RToyo86]

Originally Posted by soundman98

Lol, "you bought the cheap version instead of a super high value product."
"But they wouldn't accept a return after 5 months anyways"

So then why bring it up?...

It's a common theme when he deals with customers. I don't know if it's a language barrier issue since he's french or what.
I've spoken to other locals with similar issues.
Maybe he means well but the message isn't recieved that way.

It's a shame since they have some great employees at the company. I deal with a guy named Jeremy who I understand runs the day to day and he's always been great to deal with.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by RToyo86

It's a common theme when he deals with customers. I don't know if it's a language barrier issue since he's french or what.
I've spoken to other locals with similar issues.
Maybe he means well but the message isn't recieved that way.

It's a shame since they have some great employees at the company. I deal with a guy named Jeremy who I understand runs the day to day and he's always been great to deal with.

That's a very likely part of it right there.
A lot of this situation also relies on how you read his first response. If you read it in a snarky tone it comes across condescending. If you read it in a neutral tone then it is just a simple statement of facts.
I personably would not have had any issue with his first message. The following ones he is just pretty much responding in the same fashion as the OP.
If I had been the vender here I would simply not have replied to the second message and that would have been that. Losing a customer that bought the cheapest thing they could and then just presumed it would be replaced from stock 5 months later would not break my heart. Potentially losing many customers because I continued to argue with them would be a different story though.