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Old 12-16-2010, 12:50 PM   #1
Darth_Emma
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Drives: under contruction
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Marysville, Ohio
Posts: 12,996
Problems with Savini - beware

EDIT: I just got a call from Savini. They issued me a refund for the entire amount. So, this issue has been resolved.

*********************

I want to share my story of what has happened with the very expensive Savini wheels I ordered back in May of 2010. I’ll start out by saying that I do NOT recommend buying Savini wheels.

Sorry this post is so long, but I thought it was important to share this because wheels are a very expensive investment and I want anyone who is considering new wheels to know this.

Here is the story.

I ordered Savini wheels back in May of this year for my 2SS. Six weeks after ordering them, they were delivered and I took them to IPS Motorsports to mount and balance. IPS took them to a local specialty shop that has a “touchless” wheel mounting system. This shop works on the wheels of a lot of high end cars, so IPS highly recommended this tire shop.


I got a call from IPS later that day saying the tire shop said the paint work on the wheels is not right. The wheels were not properly prepped and that paint chips where falling off the lips of the rims and around the lug holes even though they were being very careful with them. The wheel shop said they’d never encountered wheels with such badly prepped paint work because the paint just did not adhere to the wheels. (By the way, the guys at IPS put the wheels on the car and tightened the lugs by hand using a lug wrench with a thin-walled socket being very careful not to damage the paint around the lugs.)

The tire shop touched up the rims with some paint and IPS called Savini to talk about the chipping around the lips of the wheels and the lugs. IPS told me Savini agreed to refinish the rims under their warranty.

So, in July the chipping on the wheels was so bad that chunks of paint were breaking off when I washed the car. So, I called Savnin and I talked to Tu (the Sales Manager at Savini). I said, “My wheels are chipping pretty badly around the rims and lug holes can you fix them under warranty?”

Tu from Savini said, “Sure, but go ahead and drive on them for the summer and enjoy them. Then, in the fall send them to us when you put your car away for winter. We'll fix them under warranty.” (Their one year warranty states that I pay the shipping to send the wheels to Savini and they’ll refinish them and they pay the return shipping.) So I told Tu I would do that.

In late August, I called Savini and talked to Nick and I said, “I'm ready to send my wheels back while the car is in the shop for some other work. But, I would like the wheels to be powdercoated instead of painted for durability. The lips of the rims as well as the lug areas are all chipped up and need to be refinished.”

Nick from Savini: “We will repair them under warranty, but powdercoating costs an extra $50 per wheel ($200 for all 4). We can also take the tires off and put them back on for you to avoid any more problems with that at your end.”

Me: “That sounds good, so, how much will it all cost?”

Nick at Savini: “$200 for powdercoating, $135 to mount and balance, $150 shipping because shipping the whole wheel with tires costs more. Total $485.”

I confirmed all of this via email and I agreed to pay the $485. It seemed fair and reasonable.

Wheels shipped to Savini on September 13. Shipping cost I paid: $365 to have IPS box them up and ship the whole wheels (with tires on them) to Savini in California. On September 29, I called Nick and give him my credit card info to pay the $485.

Ocotober 27, Nick from Savini: “Your wheels are about done and we didn't even have to take the tires off.”

Me: “How did you refinish them without taking the tires off?”

Nick: “We only refinished the centers (spokes).”

Me: “You needed to repair the lips of the barrels too. I was very clear about that.”

Nick: “That will take 2 more weeks.” He looked at the wheels and agreed the lips were chipped and should be refinished.

December 3, I got an email from Nick's saying “Your wheels are done and I need to send you your bill, Fax or Paypal?”

Me: “I gave you my credit card info in September. Didn't run the card?”
(I checked and there was no charge on my credit card for it.)

So, I told Nick to send me a Paypal invoice for the $485.

Nick’s email back to me: “You owe us $1285. The lip area isn't covered under warranty because the damage was caused by the tire shop, so we won’t cover that.”

So, I call Nick and we had a discussion.

He said the lips of my wheels were damaged by the tire shop. I say they used a "touchless system" and that the tire shop said the paint prep was not done properly. I reminded Nick that Savini had promised to repair them under warranty before I ever shipped the wheels back to Savini.

Nick said: “I told you on October 27 we only did the centers.” He said that only the centers were previously painted and they only refinished the painted areas. The barrel was apparently powdercoated originally (which I didn’t realize at the time). But, I had made it very clear that the lips of the wheels needed to be refinished before I ever sent them to Savini.

I replied, “You can't change the terms of our agreed price AFTER I sent the wheels back to you.” I told Nick I would not pay the extra $800 they wanted to charge.

Nick said he would talk to the owner and call me back.

Two hours later Nick called me: “The boss says we can come down to $885.”

I said, “No, that is still $400 above what we agreed to.”

Nick: “I’ll pay the return shipping and take $685.”

At first I said no, but then I reluctantly agreed just to get this over with. It was still $200 over what we had agreed to originally before I shipped the wheels to Savini.

In the meantime, I called Tony (Nine Ball), who sold me the wheels, and I told him what had happened. Tony sent Tu at Savini an email requesting that Savini stick to the original $485 that we had agreed to.

I have waited 2 weeks and I have not heard anything from Savini, so I guess they aren’t going to do anything about it at this point. I think they really should give me the $200 back.

I have all the email correspondences to back up my story and I can document everything.

So, I feel like Savini tried to screw me out of $800, then $400, and then I still ended up paying $200 more than we had agreed to. Savini lied to me and didn’t stand behind their product.

By the way, I am totally grateful to Nine Ball (Tony) who has tried to help me with this. I have nothing but good things to say about him and his customer service.

I know painted wheels can chip. But, what I do find problematic is that Savini didn’t do what they promised to resolve the issue. I paid $6000 for these wheels. I now have well over $7000 (not including the tires) invested in them with all the extra shipping, mounting and balancing, plus refinishing. For that kind of money, they should stand behind their product with better customer service.

The wheels are now back here in Ohio. I haven’t opened the boxes yet. I don’t think I ever want to put them on my car again. I wish I’d never bought them.

Last edited by Darth_Emma; 12-16-2010 at 07:45 PM.
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