My saturday (56k) BadgerType Update

[dynasty]

lol Wow, this thread kind of got out of hand. Anyways, I'm Rich from Customlightz. First off BadgerType, you are taking this way out of proportion. It's funny how you can speak for someone when you do not even know everything behind the scenes. Anyways, for his HID kit not working, intake being cut open, and windshield washer fluid being cut.....how is that our fault? I have been doing 6th gen accord retros for 4 years now and never have I heard of any of my customers cutting things except for you. I did not make his retro any more different on the back side than I did with others. For the pricing, many of you are considering it to be "too expensive", but you are not considering that these are S2K projectors. Not the cheapest on the market. If you can find S2K projectors for $200, then you got them for a steal. The HID kit, well we test them all out before selling them to any of our customers. Ballasts are used for only several hours, but bulbs are brand new. HID kit usually goes for roughly $250+, S2K projectors for about $375+, labor is about $300+ whatever else you want extra. I mean price is already up at LEAST $925 right there. Now you got headlights. Well oem headlights normally go for about $100. TYC lens? Well back when he got them they were going for roughly about $200. Then you got wiring harness as well. I mean the list goes on. His retro is already up to about $1225. Also what about shipping both ways? We only pay for shipping for warranty work, but not for the retro. That's already roughly about $50. I dunno where the additional cost is, but I'm sure it's there somewhere. For the headlights leaking......yes, we may have not sealed it correctly, but we WILL be willing to fix it at no charge. When you say that we ignored him, we do not ignore any of our customers. We try our best to get to all our customers as quick as we can. I'm sorry that BadgerType feels that we ignored our customer, but come on. Dealing with 100+ emails, pm's, and phone calls a day, PLUS trying to get retrofits done at the same time is not the easiest in the world. We are only human and only have 2 people working in customlightz. Bjorn and myself. As for taking 6 months for the retrofit, I do not remember off the top of my head, but I believe there was a good explanation. For example, maybe TYC headlights didn't come in at a reasonable time or maybe shrouds or something. All I know is there is always a good reason. We do not sit here holding onto customers headlights for as long as we can and we do not rush any of our retrofits either. We work on all retrofits with the best quality and service we can provide. The rattling in the headlight could be a possibility based on shipping. I have never had problems with retrofits falling apart. I'm sorry if there was a big misunderstanding, but hopefully we all came to a conclusion that we are not here to rip anyone off, only to help everyone out the best we can. If anyone got questions, please send me a pm. Thanks.

I probably didn't quite understand you but you guys only have 2 people working for the company itself? You have got to be kidding me. LOL. I guess retrofitting isn't as popular to get as much customers but 2 people doing retrofitting? I think you guys should have more people organizing. Like, a person ordering the parts, one or two do retrofitting, etc. If customlightz is consider as a company, then you guys should have more members just to satisfy the customers. But if there's more than 2 people in customlightz, please disregard this message.

 

[BadgerType]

first off rich, i have always respected you and your car. you know your stuff, and i give you credit where credit is due.

i once considered buying a set this past june if it was not for my wreck.

i was shocked at when i saw these things at detail and heard about them from fred. i am a near perfectionist when i work on others cars; if it aint right, ill do it again or its free. thats the shops policy and its stuck with me.

when u get down to the details of the retro, thats where i had problems.

the gap around the projectors could have been for heat or some other factor, but i noticed it in 10 seconds of picking it up. (problem 1)

the silicone around the headlight was even and plentiful, was there was fogging after a wash of the car.(problem 2)

the cutting of the washerfluid tank and intake tube was not a big deal, but it still had to be done.(problem 3)

i will say i dont know hids or projectors or any of that. $1400 is alot of money for a retrofit, no matter how you slice it. but i compare it to a turbo, since im a performance guy. i see it like buying a garrett gt30r and finding a little chipped fin or a little hairline crack or anything that could make it fualty in the long run. (problem 4)

as far as customer service, i understand getting called around 9pm on a saturday maybe hard to answer, but this is how i heard it happen.
6pm- call from fred saying one hid not working and one lense fog(problem 5&6); I said find the two inline fuses and see if one of those blew and check the ground. then i say call CL and tell them what happened, see if they will reseal it.
830pm- call from fred saying he talked to CL and said they will send fred some silicone to repair it (problem 7); i dont know exactly what was said abt the one light not working. i said call them again and see if u can send i to them so they can fix all these little things
9pm- fred calls again; i ask what did CL say; fred says he left them a message cause they didnt pick up(problem 8)

do you see where i saw all these little problems add up to one big problem.

i was never bashing you; i was mearly stating what i saw and what i was told.

 

[99AznAccord]

I probably didn't quite understand you but you guys only have 2 people working for the company itself? You have got to be kidding me. LOL. I guess retrofitting isn't as popular to get as much customers but 2 people doing retrofitting? I think you guys should have more people organizing. Like, a person ordering the parts, one or two do retrofitting, etc. If customlightz is consider as a company, then you guys should have more members just to satisfy the customers. But if there's more than 2 people in customlightz, please disregard this message.

Well what you say is a good point. A "company" should have more than 2 people. But look at it this way. We are still kind of new to the game. Well I've been in it for years personally then just started up customlightz beginning of last year. I have never dreamed customlightz to grow so fast as it has in one year. Even though we are big for what we are, we do not have the funds to go hire anyone and everyone to come work for us. It's hard to say, "hey, you want to come work for us full time? Well just to let you know, I can't promise you that this will be an ongoing job, but in the mean time, I'm going to have to ask you to give up your day job." Not only that, but we wan't people to work for us to have fun. Not something like, "oh god, another day at work....same ol' same ol'." lol. We do have 1 other guy helping us out and also plan to exapand out towards LED taillighting which we have anotehr guy helping us out experimenting on that for now. There is also one more that may come into customlightz helping out as well. So basically, we are slowly getting there. Hopefully we will be more efficient to help everyone out the best we can, but in the mean time, we are trying our hardest. Oh and not to mention, we just moved to a new location as well, so that doesn't help much either. lol.

 

[ryan s]

just for clarification...i see a matsuhi.ta ballast in one pic, but a kit ballast in another (2 down, the promax). which one went out in the carwash? it would be kind of hard for the matsu to go since its fully potted inside. do you know off hand, matt? or will the owner reply? just curious

 

[99AznAccord]

Oh I completely understand your concern BadgerType. But first, we have to look at it like this as well. Ok fine, problem 1, I udnerstand the gap, but have you seen a lot of other peoples retrofits as well? Compare mine with theirs and tell me who's is truly better and cleaner. I have seen a lot that are very sloppy. Look at your pics one more time. In your pics, you cannot see the "gaps" you are talking about clearly at all, which is why others don't know what you mean. Same goes for everyone elses retrofit that they have either done themselves, or others doing it for them. Nothing is always 110% purely perfect unless coming straight from factory. Problem 2, Yeah, there was plenty silicone, but there have ALWAYS been issues with 6th gen accord headlights and leaking problems. Not on all, but some there are. Ask a lot of people that have done either their own retro or others that have one 6th gens. It is not an uncommon problem. Not saying that we should be proud of that, but I am saying that that problem doesn't not happen quite frequently with our other retrofits. Hardly any, even if that. Problem 3, I don't get how you are saying that should be our fault, when the install was done by you. Yes, you may say that it "had" to be done, but truthfully, I have never had to do that, neither have I heard anyone do that with all the 6th gens that I have made for others. Either way, like Bjorn said, we will still take care of that at OUR expense. Problem 4, $1400 is still $1400, I understand, but truthfully when it comes down to it, we only made about $300 on the entire retrofit. All the parts were given at OUR cost. Not to make profit on parts. So if you still feel that we should not make a dime, then I'm sorry, customlightz will not survive. It's like saying, I don't think you should make a cent for working on my car or anyone elses. Look at what I had typed about the parts list. That alone is the majority of where the money went. Parts. We are not here to screw anyone over and will never do so. Problem 5, 6, and 7, you may understand getting called around 9PM. Well that's just one or few times for you. Try getting called around 1, 2, or even 3 in the morning several times a week. It still doesn't matter because we are still there for our customers. What you do not know about the situation is that Bjorn left his phone at home and went out. This is the reason for not answering. Not because we are sitting here ignoring calls. If we were truly going to do that, then why did we even bother to return the call back? As far as one fo the HID not working, that is based on installation, which was done by you, not us. You cannot blame fogging as an issue for the HID not working. I have seen an entire headlight filled with about 1 inch of water and HID's still working without a problem(not one of my retros). And for the sealing, I dunno what happened in the conversation, but I do not believe that Bjorn told him that we will only send him the sealant and he can do it himself. I believe what really happened was we gave him a couple options. 1, send it back and we will reseal and fix whatever problems there are, or 2, we will send the sealant we use and if you want, you can seal it up. But we always ask for our customers to send retrofits back IF there are any problems. Option 2 is hardly ever used, even if that. So honestly, I don't see that much of a problem here except for the issue being blown up more than what it truly was. I don't want to sound like that I am attacking you, but I do not want CustomLightz to look as bad as you make it sound like it is because it truly is not. If that was the case, then why are so many people raving about us all over the place? Most of it has to do with our customer service. As around and see for yourself if you don't believe me. I just hope we can finally come off on good terms.

 

[BadgerType]

his old setup was the promax, those are the ones that are goin in my car or sold

these matsu were the ones that got wet

 

[BadgerType]

first off rich, i have always respected you and your car. you know your stuff, and i give you credit where credit is due.

i was shocked at when i saw these things at detail...

i was never bashing you; i was mearly stating what i saw and what i was told.

im still not bashing you. you and customlightz are well respected

...but I do not want CustomLightz to look as bad as you make it sound like it is because it truly is not. If that was the case, then why are so many people raving about us all over the place?

I still dont see where im bashing you? i am telling you and everyone here what i SAW and what i was TOLD.

im also gonna let that install remark pass by this one time.

 

[crave_accordv6]

This needs to stop

I am the owner of this accord the problem has been taken care of, this is a waist of time, customlights will continue to be a business, and badger should continue with your life this is becoming ugly again, its not worth it.

besides, since Im the owner and I'm fine with this process, why are you still going at it, LET IT GO

 

[talontsiawd]

Can we keep vender posts to a minimum? On other boards, it's pretty much a hard fast rule that vendors are not allowed to come and defend thier product in anyway since it discourages any reviews that arn't 100% postive to any known vendors on the board.

To the vendor, i'm not saying you lost a potential sale as there was no sale to be made but you are being very overbearing about your product. I saw nothing negative in badgertype's post. I saw him speak of the quality of the product and his personal experience with the install (which i don't take to necessarily be the norm). Please let people post thier threads without intervining and making them uninteresting and very personal between you and a member. Thank you.

 

[blacknight]

Temporarily closed pending admin discussion!