[coh4777]

I was looking at Alufelgen when I was shopping for new wheels recently, but saw that they had dropped the ball on communication and delivery times in the past as well. Glad I went a different route!

[carlitosz]

This is Carlos. Owner of ALUFELGEN. This has to stop. I understand the majority of you all very upset the wheels arrival got pushed back a few days but this is not the way to demonstrate your frustration. I cannot allow you to come to the boards and bash Matt and Alufelgen. Matt does a hell of a job here and is the best at what he does. He is knowledgeable, efficient, respectful and very professional and I thought I owed him the respect of backing him up on this one. Please read below.

Originally Posted by cssnms

POSTED 10/22

According to Alufelgen on 10/22 the wheels were already "on the water" and were to arrive in less than 30 days, but that did not happen. Does it really take 35 days for a cargo ship to cross the Pacific and to the east coast?

At this rate, EVEN if they show up at the port on the 25th I am will to bet they will not arrive for another week or so to wherever Alufelgen is having them delivered. Then it will likely be another 2 weeks before they get the shipment sorted out and the orders sent out for delivery and given the holidays I would anticipate the delivery process getting bogged down. I am guessing we will not see wheels until the end of Dec or early 2011, but maybe I am being a little conservative.

Matt - How about that request to provide us with the ship's name?

Chris,

Please, if you would like to form an opinion about this you are welcomed to give me a call at xxx-xxx-xxxx. That's my cellphone. Feel free to call me or text me at any time and I`ll be more than happy to answer all your questions. If I don't pick up I might be at a meeting so please leave a voicemail for me. Honestly, what is the point of this thread? If you really want an update call us and we`ll provide it to you. You have email us dozens of times and we have responded to all of them. You know we can be reached multiple ways. You can come to our offices, call us at both our direct line or toll free number, mail us, email us, reach us via MSN, AOL, Ichat, Flickr, Facebook and even old school fax. I was here all day yesterday and we received several calls and none where from you. So please make sure you are calling the correct number. If it goes straight to voicemail it means the lines are busy. If you would like to speak to me directly, my cellphone is posted above.

The wheels left on the 18th, and were scheduled to arrive on the 15th. On the 15th we requested an update from our freight forward and he informed us that the vessel was delayed due to weather conditions and that it`ll be here on Nov. 25th. Believe me, I`m 100x more frustrated than you. We have been without 335i SF-71 fitments for several months now but I gain nothing from bashing my freight forwarder and ranting. At this point it is completely out of our hands, and at the same time I cannot blame my forwarder for the weather conditions. It does take up to 40 days for a cargo to arrive to Miami. If we were in CA it would only take about 2 weeks.

No. It does not take 2 weeks before the shipment gets sorted out and delivered. It takes just a few days.

I will not release the name of the ship. I don't even have it. I would have to ask my freight forwarder and it would be demential to actually release the name of the vessel that is carrying your containers that shipped directly from your factory.

Again, you have my number above. Please call me if you would like to discuss this over the phone. About your order, I just sent you an email and if you would like a refund please let me know. I know you have not requested a refund before, but you need to understand we are not holding your funds hostage. If you`ll like a refund I can process it for you. I have you and a several other customers on our priority list so they`ll be the first ones to leave.

Originally Posted by WW330

+1. Thanks for being on top of this. I know these wheels are quality and they are what I want. That is why I have waited three + months. But, at this point I feel like I have been lied to enough times to warrant cancelling my order. Only on a forum buying car parts would customers be treated this way without an offer of true transparency and possibly a discount.

We are actually very transparent and that might be our problem. We provide our manufacturing process, coating process, wheel drawings, profiles, detailed pictures, phone numbers, emails and even our physical address which most of our competitors keep confidential. We are a very transparent company.

Originally Posted by andy06

Looks like we're all in the same boat guys (no pun intended)...I've been waiting for a single replacement wheel from Alufelgen since Sept myself. I purchased a set of CS7's some time ago but damaged one and thus my predicament. I have been in contact w/ Alufelgen and although the wait is bs...they (female I've spoken to on couple occasions) have been very professional and understanding. I too would like a reasonable, straightforward response on ETA. Driving on this beat up, curbed wheel is the pits. Waiting as well...

Hey Andy.

Thank you very much for your patience and your feedback. You are on our list and we`ll ship that replacement as soon as it arrives. We have an arrival notice for the 25th so we are hoping it stays that way.

Originally Posted by cb1111

I'm not sure what the nationality of the guys at Alufelgen is, but their English isn't very good.

Charles,

Are you serious?


Again, we deeply truly madly apologize for this delay. Perhaps my problem has been giving you the exact information I`m given. They told us the 15th and we told everybody the 15th. They said the 25th and we told everybody the 25th.

This is only a small delay. What really cause the delay was the center caps. Initially we requested our own centercaps to include with the wheels but they were machined the wrong size and the wheels center bore was machined for the caps and not at the standard 70mm. It was about 10mm shorter. So OEM caps wouldn't fit. We had to redo the entire batch. That caused the majority of the delay.

The wheels were already made, packaged, and ready to go and we had to scrap it and re-do it. I could've ignored the fact. Sent the wheels with our ALUFELGEN caps but then your BMW caps would not fit. Instead, we took the decision to absorb the cost and especially the time and redo everything again. You can see a picture of the wheel with the small cap hole below.




There is a lot of things that happen behind the scenes. Running a wheel company (two actually) takes a lot of time and effort. It took months, literally months to correct this issue. Were we at fault? No. There was a miscommunication between us and our factory and the wheels cap size was made 10mm shorter. But there was nothing we could do other than accept the production and deal with pissed of customers when their OEM caps didn't fit or fix it, absorb the cost, wait another 60 days for the entire production to be made and deal with the consequences. We chose the latter.

My phone number is above. If anybody has any questions please call me directly and I`ll be delighted to answer any question. Please learn the facts before you judge or form an opinion. We are a solid, reputable, transparent manufacturer that offers the highest quality wheels in their category and it`ll stay like that for a long time.

Thanks for listening.

Carlos

[cssnms]

Originally Posted by carlitosz

Honestly, what is the point of this thread?

This....

Originally Posted by carlitosz

If you really want an update call us and we`ll provide it to you. You have email us dozens of times and we have responded to all of them. You know we can be reached multiple ways. You can come to our offices, call us at both our direct line or toll free number, mail us, email us, reach us via MSN, AOL, Ichat, Flickr, Facebook and even old school fax. I was here all day yesterday and we received several calls and none where from you. So please make sure you are calling the correct number. If it goes straight to voicemail it means the lines are busy. If you would like to speak to me directly, my cellphone is posted above.

The wheels left on the 18th, and were scheduled to arrive on the 15th. On the 15th we requested an update from our freight forward and he informed us that the vessel was delayed due to weather conditions and that it`ll be here on Nov. 25th. Believe me, I`m 100x more frustrated than you. We have been without 335i SF-71 fitments for several months now but I gain nothing from bashing my freight forwarder and ranting. At this point it is completely out of our hands, and at the same time I cannot blame my forwarder for the weather conditions. It does take up to 40 days for a cargo to arrive to Miami. If we were in CA it would only take about 2 weeks.

No. It does not take 2 weeks before the shipment gets sorted out and delivered. It takes just a few days.

I will not release the name of the ship. I don't even have it. I would have to ask my freight forwarder and it would be demential to actually release the name of the vessel that is carrying your containers that shipped directly from your factory.

Again, you have my number above. Please call me if you would like to discuss this over the phone. About your order, I just sent you an email and if you would like a refund please let me know. I know you have not requested a refund before, but you need to understand we are not holding your funds hostage. If you`ll like a refund I can process it for you. I have you and a several other customers on our priority list so they`ll be the first ones to leave.



We are actually very transparent and that might be our problem. We provide our manufacturing process, coating process, wheel drawings, profiles, detailed pictures, phone numbers, emails and even our physical address which most of our competitors keep confidential. We are a very transparent company.



Hey Andy.

Thank you very much for your patience and your feedback. You are on our list and we`ll ship that replacement as soon as it arrives. We have an arrival notice for the 25th so we are hoping it stays that way.



Charles,

Are you serious?


Again, we deeply truly madly apologize for this delay. Perhaps my problem has been giving you the exact information I`m given. They told us the 15th and we told everybody the 15th. They said the 25th and we told everybody the 25th.

This is only a small delay. What really cause the delay was the center caps. Initially we requested our own centercaps to include with the wheels but they were machined the wrong size and the wheels center bore was machined for the caps and not at the standard 70mm. It was about 10mm shorter. So OEM caps wouldn't fit. We had to redo the entire batch. That caused the majority of the delay.

The wheels were already made, packaged, and ready to go and we had to scrap it and re-do it. I could've ignored the fact. Sent the wheels with our ALUFELGEN caps but then your BMW caps would not fit. Instead, we took the decision to absorb the cost and especially the time and redo everything again. You can see a picture of the wheel with the small cap hole below.




There is a lot of things that happen behind the scenes. Running a wheel company (two actually) takes a lot of time and effort. It took months, literally months to correct this issue. Were we at fault? No. There was a miscommunication between us and our factory and the wheels cap size was made 10mm shorter. But there was nothing we could do other than accept the production and deal with pissed of customers when their OEM caps didn't fit or fix it, absorb the cost, wait another 60 days for the entire production to be made and deal with the consequences. We chose the latter.

My phone number is above. If anybody has any questions please call me directly and I`ll be delighted to answer any question. Please learn the facts before you judge or form an opinion. We are a solid, reputable, transparent manufacturer that offers the highest quality wheels in their category and it`ll stay like that for a long time.

Thanks for listening.

Carlos

Carlos -

Thank you for your e-mail and for coming on here and providing this response. Your explanation and attempt to ease anxiety levels is certainly a step in the right direction and far better than just "the ship is late." And with all due respect to Matt he could stand to learn a thing or two from you when it comes to the type of communication your customers need and want esp at this stage in the game.

I will admit it was unfair of me to speculate that I know anything about the shipment process. That being said, could you provide a timeframe in terms of how long it will take after the ship arrives until the wheels show up on my doorstep?

I think I can speak for everyone when I say I am looking forward to Nov 25th.

[andy06]

Thanks for owning up to your customers Carlos, its greatly appreciated. Like stated earlier, I have these wheels now and know the quality of craftsmanship behind them. I could have gone a different route, but wheels of this caliber are a steal for what you offer them for. Thanks from a loyal customer and I too cant wait to receive!

[Javier]

Whats with all the bashing?

Honestly i've never heard of a wheel company that doesnt have to deal with delays.

So i don't know what all the fuss is about.

I'm also waiting (patiently) for my SF-71's

[Javier]

also, i'm curious. Is that wheel powder coated yet? ^

[Das.Euro]

Major problem with shipping a container is a company will not ship a container until it is full. A friend of mine does overseas shipping for cars and he wont send out container until it is full.. Anything overseas you can expect delays on, esp when coming into customs, need to do full search of items, due to drug smuggling or terrorist plot etc.Just give it time guys, if they dont have an update from the boat , they dont have an update for you. Its simple as that.

[ajsalida]

I was in on a GB with one of the vendors. I think all of us understand production/shipping delays. I also think communication could have been handled better, as there was clearly not 100% of status info being passed down the chain to buyers. Not sure where in the chain things got muffled.

I ended up pulling out and getting my deposit refunded. I live in the mountains and beyond October you need a winter-capable set up, so nice shiny 19" wheels showing up late Nov do me no good until May at the earliest. The refund was handled professionally and quickly, kudos to Wheel Addicts. When I ordered in early sept I was told plan on 9/25.

All due respect to Carlos, this could have been handled better on the manuf/vendor end. For some folks 2k+ for wheels and tires is not an insignificant expense. And ther are other logistics customers have to care about. I ended up having to buy a set of AS tires for my stock rims, instead of snows that I would have bought had I already had some summer only rims/tires. These will get me through 90% of the winter weather, I hope. I had a bubble in one of my RFT's in early sept and had to buy something and it was not going to be another RFT. And it was too early for snows at that time. Now I'll stick with these all year, or wait and see what pops up in terms of summer-only over the winter. I also put off some suspension mods I wanted to have summer tires to test around.

I do not react well nor have any sympathy for vendors who get all upset about their integrity when basically, they have a ton of customers who have been repeatedly "misinformed" about delivery dates, now sitting around waiting for nearly 2 months on a late shipment. You ought to be apologizing upside down and sideways, and finding out why people got told over and over wheels would be here in a few days when clearly that was false, and making sure it never happens again.

[FinerThingsinLife]

What is Aflugen doing to rectify the situation? I understand that shipments get delayed, but don't you normally track the shipment? A day or two isn't a huge deal but another 10 days someone at your shop should have known where your shipment was and word should have gotten to the customer before the day we thought they were to arrive.
Now the wheels will be arriving on Thanksgiving, which no one will be working and than the weekend so we are all looking to receive our wheels hopefully by December 10th.

Don't forget the benefits of good customer service.

[drmalmgren]

I had just called Discount to order two new PS2 rear tires the night before I bent all four wheels in a intersection that was improperly prepped for resurfacing. I needed to either pay to fix the wheels or get a new set. I did some research and decided the Alufelgen wheels were a good route.

I ordered the wheels 9/28 and decided to put off getting new rear tires because I was under the impression the wheels would be available early October. I didn't want to spend the money to mount, dismount, and remount the tires. My rear tires are shot. the belt is showing (1 inch wide) the full circumference of both wheels and there is little traction in the the dry, let alone the wet. My car has been garaged for over a month now.

Had I known it would have taken two+ months from when I ordered the wheels, I would have gotten the tires in September and dealt with remounting when the wheels arrived.

[FinerThingsinLife]

Are the wheels going to arriving this Thursday November 25th, and when will they be shipped out to the customers?

[cssnms]

Originally Posted by hamilton_wong

Bump for an update! There are some great deals for BF from some of the other vendors, if the ship date gets pushed again i may go a differernt route.

HW bumping any one of the Alufelgen threads on the commercial wheels section will probably get more attention, but wouldn't expect anyone to be working today anyway. I know Alufelgen is closed today and tomorrow and will reopen for business Monday. Fingers crossed they arrived at port today.

[bmwmthree]

Originally Posted by AluFelgen

No. The holidays shouldn't cause any delays.

why are you dodging his main question

Originally Posted by cb1111

What they seem to be good at is avoiding direct questions.

Accordingly, we can say "if the subject hasn't answered the question, then the subject answered the question."

+1

[FinerThingsinLife]

looks like the holidays caused delays

[cssnms]

Originally Posted by hamilton_wong

Great news! Looks like the wheels arrived today to Alufelgen, per wheel addicts! Woot!



http://www.e90post.com/forums/showth...=388346&page=6

Yup! Great news.