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      11-12-2008, 09:08 PM   #1
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Let down by Longtran

Well I know everyone on here speaks so highly of Long and the things he does for the members of this site. While I do not deny these things, I had a horrible experience with him and a product that came from him. At the risk of being flamed publicly... here is my LONG story (no pun intended).

In early September I purchased a CF trim set from an E90P user and upon receiving it and fitting it, I found out that 2 pieces didn't fit properly. The 1st was the ashtray cover which I had to grind down with a dremel, finally making it into the shape to get it to fit, however it still wasn't a proper fit as when it flipped up one side of it hit the back of center console trim piece and one didn't... so it didn't flip up as far as it should have. The other piece was the large dash trim piece. Not only was it not sitting properly on the dash, the opening where the ignition button goes wasn't aligned properly both laterally and in depth... so the button was not only nowhere close to flush but it stuck out and jiggled when you pushed it. I contacted the guy about it and he said it was from Long and if I sent it to Long directly, he would get me a replacement as he'd already spoke to him about it. So I did, on Sept 15th along with these pictures that I took 2 min before boxing it all up for shipping.







After he finally got it via FedEx like a week and a half later of it sitting at his neighbors house, this was the response I received:
Quote:
Originally Posted by longtran
I just got it, fedex didnt leave me a note. but anyways, we have a problem. the trim have hairline cracks all on top. my first fit of cf trim had the same problem when i pulled it off. so i can not do anything for you. you cracked the trim when pulling it off.
He sent me this pic a few days later of the damage.


I replied several times, going back and forth about the issue - I felt I was entitled to a new piece or partial refund because of the fact that the piece was initially defective. He said that because it had somehow sustained cracking (cracking that I did not inflict because I know I was SUPER careful installing/removing as I've done it a few times and know how fragile the pieces are) and because of that the supplier he got the trim from wouldn't take it back.

I asked him to give me the info for the shop that makes the trim and he claimed he could not reveal the shop he is using because he "promised them he wouldn't". I obviously found this to be pretty bogus when I'm being told they won't take the piece back because it was cracked. My only thought at this point was that they wouldn't take it back cracked because that would mean they couldn't resell it to someone else and would end up losing a little money on giving me a replacement... hardly what I would call customer service.

Now I'm not nieve, I understand how business and customer service works, but how the hell are you gonna tell me you won't take the piece back because its cracked, over the fact that it didn't fit properly in the 1st place. That is like me selling you tires and after you leave you notice one has defective tread and is bald in a bunch of spots. On your way to drive back over for a return, you hit a nail and put a whole in the tire. Do I now not owe you a refund/replacement since its punctured? Any decent human and anyone savvy in the ways of business would agree that a refund was due because it was the initial mistake by the seller/manufacturer that caused the 2nd problem "incident" to occur. If the piece had fit properly in the 1st place, it wouldn't have been sent to Long and thus wouldn't have been damaged, what/whoever the cause of the damage was, FedEx, Long or even me "allegedly" pulling the thing off my dash with the force of a Mack truck.

Anyway back to the story before I

He then said on 9/25 that the only thing he could do was test fit it on his car to confirm that it didn't fit well and try to do something having seen the poor fit first hand.

To spare a lot of time reading an already SUPER long post and some redundant arguments and me hounding him to test fit it over and over and over and over... I'll fast forward to Oct 7th. It had been 2 whole weeks since he said he would fit the trim and get back to me and he was getting married the next day. While I am not unrealistic, I understand a few weeks up to your wedding is a hectic time, however I don't see where he couldn't find a few minutes at work where he could fit the piece for me like he has said he would... it's not like he's a school teacher and is in a classroom all day, this guy has his own shop, doesn't he???

Anyway, he told me he'd be on his honeymoon for a week and when he got back things would be back to normal. Well 10 days later, 3 or 4 after he had gotten back and was into his so called "normal routine" and 3 unanswered PM's later, this is what I got:

Quote:
Originally Posted by longtran
i am just swamp with work. by the time i get home i am too tired to do anything. i will make sure i fit the piece tomorrow.

This was sent to me on 10/20... a month and 5 days AFTER I had sent him the trim initially, I was obiviously getting pretty about the whole thing. So after him telling me he had some car trouble of his own recently he said he had tested the part but didn't offer to do anything about it and was just going to send the broken piece back to me.

He overnighted the piece to a person I sold the trim to at the beginning of October, expecting the poorly fitted piece would have been replaced like it should have been. Finally on 10/24 he sent me the tracking info, however it never made it to the buyer, as after checking the tracking, it was sent right back to Long. Whether there was a mixup in the address or USPS just being weird, Long said nobody claimed it, however no notice was ever left at the buyers door stating that a package had arrived.

After asking him SEVERAL times to call USPS and find out what had happened, he finally did so on 11/2 and then resent the (still broken) piece out again on 11/10 (this past monday). It arrived via FedEx to the buyers house today (11/12) which means that this WHOLE thing took 2 months and nothing was accomplished. No new piece was sent to me for the piece being a poor fit and now the piece somehow isn't only cracked, but the buyer said it looks even more cracked than indicated in the pictures Long sent me originally (which is even MORE frustrating because I sent him a piece that wasn't cracked to begin with and now its twice as bad).

I guess after all the rambling, bottom line is that as great as Long might seem to be on these boards, watch out when you do business with/through him. The only thing I ended up getting out of all of this mess was a busted up, unusable trim piece, several broken promises and a shit ton of excuses on why he couldn't do something he said he would.

Now I have to go about finding somewhere to get a new Titanium CF trim piece (PM me if you know of anywhere) because I, unlike others mentioned in this thread, will not leave the buyer of something I sold high and dry. So I guess this means I'm going to be at a $100 or so loss because of all of this....

thanks again Long.
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      11-12-2008, 09:48 PM   #2
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      11-12-2008, 09:54 PM   #3
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dude there are 1.000's of users on e90 post and long is a 1 person, from all the things that he does for this site and users you don't excpect him to be perfect do you ?
he is not a god you know, he makes mistakes, everyone does and i think he will try to fix it if he already hasn't
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      11-12-2008, 10:00 PM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by godora View Post
dude there are 1.000's of users on e90 post and long is a 1 person, from all the things that he does for this site and users you don't excpect him to be perfect do you ?
he is not a god you know, he makes mistakes, everyone does and i think he will try to fix it if he already hasn't
i doubt it... after 2 months of this shit, he just wants to wash his hands clean of the situation.

I realize he's only 1 person but busy or not, 2 months is unacceptable to take 10 min to test fit a piece of trim IMO.
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      11-12-2008, 10:17 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by UdubBadger View Post
i doubt it... after 2 months of this shit, he just wants to wash his hands clean of the situation.

I realize he's only 1 person but busy or not, 2 months is unacceptable to take 10 min to test fit a piece of trim IMO.
yea, you might be right in that, i can't disagree with you on that subject.
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      11-12-2008, 10:22 PM   #6
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ok, first off. i didnt sell you this kit. someone else sold it to you. i was nice enough to help you. i shouldnt have helped you to begin with. you did not pay me, did you? i took my time to try to get you a a new piece. you sent back a crack trim and wanted a new piece? just because the part was a defect, that does not give you the rights to crack the piece. the kit was brand new and you expect the shop take it back when you damaged it? i even spent $33 dollars out of my own money to overnight the piece to the person you sent it to. the part got return because no one claimed it, and i resent it out again. today i see this??? wow. remember, you DID NOT PAY ME for this. you are one smart cookie. you wait til i send out the part and then you post this. had i knew this was going to happen. i should have just threw that piece away...

Last edited by longtran; 11-13-2008 at 11:09 PM..
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      11-12-2008, 10:31 PM   #7
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hey, FYI, longtran doesnt make the CF trim, just like my company doesnt make gp thunder
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      11-12-2008, 10:35 PM   #8
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longtran's the man........

if he can't fix it.....no one can!
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      11-12-2008, 10:36 PM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by longtran View Post
ok, first off. i didnt sell you this kit. someone else sold it to you. i was nice enough to help you. i shouldnt have helped you to begin with. you did not pay me, did you? i took my time to try to get you a a new piece. you sent back a crack trim and wanted a new piece? just because the part was a defect, that does not give you the rights to crack the piece. the kit was brand new and you expect the shop take it back when you damaged it? i even spent $33 dollars out of my own money to overnight the piece to the person you sent it to. the part got return because no one claimed it, and i resent it out again. today i see this??? wow. remember, you DID NOT PAY ME for this. you are one smart cookie. you wait til i send out the part and then you post this. had i knew this was going to happen. i should have just threw that piece away...
no you are right, i bought it from someone else who paid you, and i paid them, so don't act like you never profitted from this trim set. I didn't send you the piece cuz it was cracked, it wasn't cracked after i sent it. I sent it to you cuz it was poorly made and didn't fit which the pictures prove. youre right that i didn't pay you directly, but drew did and the bottom line is that its a product from your shop, so you should be standing behind it no matter who bought it, especially since you pointed out the fact that it was brand new. so how come it didn't fit the 1st time around if it was new? What I'm saying saying is youre completely dismissing the fact that it was an unusable piece because of the fit, not because of the cracking. You SHOULD have just thrown it away, because it should have been thrown away and me sent a new one that fit, regardless of the cracks, from the beginning.

Last edited by longtran; 11-13-2008 at 11:09 PM..
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      11-12-2008, 10:37 PM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by electronicwoot.com View Post
hey, FYI, longtran doesnt make the CF trim, just like my company doesnt make gp thunder
yes i understand this... however he wouldn't even put me into contact with the people who do so i could try to resolve this matter with them directly.
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      11-12-2008, 10:41 PM   #11
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lol...man you shoulda just gotten the trim from me... wait it is the same trim as this one! but wait, what? mine fit 100% fine. huh? maybe your installation was mentally challenged?

i have to agree with long on this one. you cannot blame him for your mistakes. he didnt sell this too you. so why blame him? if i were you i would pay long for actually spending his time helping you.

good luck to you.
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      11-12-2008, 10:43 PM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by longtran View Post
wow. what a jackass you are.
oh and save the name calling, you're acting like a 12 yr old and as a mod on this site I'd expect something a little more grown up from you.

I was at least respectful in my posts and didn't sink to that low of a level... even though I probably wanted to.
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      11-12-2008, 10:45 PM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by UdubBadger View Post
yes i understand this... however he wouldn't even put me into contact with the people who do so i could try to resolve this matter with them directly.
if he said he cant reveal the shop he got it from, HE CANT! do you not understand why he cant? thats like asking me to reveal my social security number.

if the product was cracked while it was being sent to long, you have to claim a dispute against your shipping company but why would you.. The piece couldve been broken from your misinstallation. but who knows.
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      11-12-2008, 10:46 PM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by PAKMAN View Post
lol...man you shoulda just gotten the trim from me... wait it is the same trim as this one! but wait, what? mine fit 100% fine. huh? maybe your installation was mentally challenged?

i have to agree with long on this one. you cannot blame him for your mistakes. he didnt sell this too you. so why blame him? if i were you i would pay long for actually spending his time helping you.

good luck to you.

install was fine... the piece wasn't aligning properly with the end and the start button and it wasn't cracked when i put it in a box to ship to him.


if I bought a GPS from Best Buy and sold it to you the next day and it didn't work right... what would you do? You'd take it to Best Buy. You might have to go to Garmin or whoever made it in the end but Long wouldn't give me that info for me to go to the manufacturer. If you're gonna sell it, you should be prepared to take it back if it doesn't work.

Even if the screen in the gps had a crack in it... but you brought it back cuz it said you were in Iowa when you were in Texas... the crack is secondary to the fact that it is still broken if you're willing to negate the fact its cracked and use it. The trim piece is the same thing... even if I choose to use it now (or the buyer) its still not going to fit correctly.
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      11-12-2008, 10:47 PM   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by UdubBadger View Post
oh and save the name calling, you're acting like a 12 yr old and as a mod on this site I'd expect something a little more grown up from you.

I was at least respectful in my posts and didn't sink to that low of a level... even though I probably wanted to.
btw. long was swamped with work. his wedding was probably during the time you sent it. so give him a god damn break. shit.
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      11-12-2008, 10:50 PM   #16
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Quote:
Originally Posted by UdubBadger View Post
install was fine... the piece wasn't aligning properly with the end and the start button and it wasn't cracked when i put it in a box to ship to him.


if I bought a GPS from Best Buy and sold it to you the next day and it didn't work right... what would you do? You'd take it to Best Buy. You might have to go to Garmin or whoever made it in the end but Long wouldn't give me that info for me to go to the manufacturer. If you're gonna sell it, you should be prepared to take it back if it doesn't fit.
This isnt Best Buy! this is the aftermarket car modification industry. trust me, ive been through this situation with EISENHAUS. they wouldnt tell me their distributors of their exhausts, so you know what? i said fuck it. and sold it, myself loosing HUNDREDS of dollars. i understand what you mean and how you feel. BUT long wasnt the one who sold you this product in the first place.
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      11-12-2008, 10:52 PM   #17
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Lets take a Iphone for example. You have a 1 year warranty under APPLE if anything happens to it internally, you're covered. But if anything happens to it externally your out of luck, i.e. cracks, scratches.
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      11-12-2008, 10:53 PM   #18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by PAKMAN View Post
if he said he cant reveal the shop he got it from, HE CANT! do you not understand why he cant? thats like asking me to reveal my social security number.

if the product was cracked while it was being sent to long, you have to claim a dispute against your shipping company but why would you.. The piece couldve been broken from your misinstallation. but who knows.
tried to do fedex but as i suspected they said no dice... after speaking with the place that packaged it they said it SHOULD have held up (but i guess we'll never know will we)

dude, I've taken off/put on trim pieces about 20-30 times cuz I'm always fidgeting around in there... I know how to install a trim piece... the damn thing won't fit, but I get it... stick up for your boy Long no matter if is business principles are all outta whack... I'll bet you get a nice discount. enjoy it.
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      11-12-2008, 10:56 PM   #19
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Quote:
Originally Posted by PAKMAN View Post
Lets take a Iphone for example. You have a 1 year warranty under APPLE if anything happens to it internally, you're covered. But if anything happens to it externally your out of luck, i.e. cracks, scratches.
yep your right.... unless you aren't retuning it cuz its cracked. if you return it cuz it won't let you call out, even with a crack in the screen they'll take it back. and don't say they wont cuz i had to return my 1st gen iphone cuz it was messed up and it had a chip on the top of it... they gladly exchanged it out for me.
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      11-12-2008, 11:02 PM   #20
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Quote:
Originally Posted by UdubBadger View Post
install was fine... the piece wasn't aligning properly with the end and the start button and it wasn't cracked when i put it in a box to ship to him.


if I bought a GPS from Best Buy and sold it to you the next day and it didn't work right... what would you do? You'd take it to Best Buy. You might have to go to Garmin or whoever made it in the end but Long wouldn't give me that info for me to go to the manufacturer. If you're gonna sell it, you should be prepared to take it back if it doesn't work.

Even if the screen in the gps had a crack in it... but you brought it back cuz it said you were in Iowa when you were in Texas... the crack is secondary to the fact that it is still broken if you're willing to negate the fact its cracked and use it. The trim piece is the same thing... even if I choose to use it now (or the buyer) its still not going to fit correctly.
Why did you not go after the guy who sold it to you?
If you cracked it while taking it off, that is your mistake. Buy a new one.

Gary
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      11-12-2008, 11:06 PM   #21
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Well, Long is not Best Buy. When buying used items at a discount over the internet, I don't expect perfection. Sounds like Long did try to help but somehow things just didn't work out. Sorry to hear about the unfortunate incident but hope everything will work out in the end. Good luck.
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      11-12-2008, 11:10 PM   #22
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Quote:
Originally Posted by garyhgaryh View Post
Why did you go after the guy who sold it to you?
i did... he referred me back to longtran and said he was going to take care of it.

If i had cracked it installing it, i woulda owned up and just bit the bullet but

1. i didn't crack it during install.
2. again we are taking about something cosmetic about the piece when that isn't the problem with it. it DIDN'T FIT. What am i supposed to do with a trim piece that doesn't fit, frame it and put it over my fireplace? This is why I was eager for Long to test fit the trim to see that it didn't fit properly... which took almost 2 months for him to do and even then he said he didn't test it properly cuz his m3 and my 328 are different. either way, cracked or not, it isn't like it would fit properly on any e90 so how could a crack make a difference and like i said before the only answer i can come up with is that it can't be resold to someone who won't notice. now that its cracked they'd have to pony up a new piece for me and throw the old one out which to the maker of the trim, apparently isn't acceptable.
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