[daveoreo]

My DPE Wheels buying experience.

Summary:
I purchased wheels from DPE which were to be finished and delivered in 10 days. The wheels were late for delivery (30+ days), painted the wrong color, not drilled for TPMS, and most importantly, did not fit. After countless hours arguing with DPE, being called “dude”, “bro”, “man”, being disrespected, discredited, and receiving wheels that did me no good, DPE refunded me $400, paid for halfway mounting the wheels that did not fit, and agreed to express my wheels back to me once they were corrected (Which should happen sometime next week.) The $400 discount I received barely covered my costs from their errors, and my time wasted cannot be recovered.

I understand humans make mistakes, but I received an abundance of mistakes and feel that other buyers should be aware of my experience with DPE Wheels.


FULL STORY:
My story begins at the beginning of April when I bought a 2007 BMW 335i. Beautiful car with DPE Wheels, but they had been curbed and repaired by the previous owner. I gave DPE a call, spoke with Sean (who is a manager), and he said they could refinish the wheels for me. I planned to have the outers painted black instead of the current chrome, so I took all four wheels off and shipped them from Illinois to the DPE offices in California at a cost of $400.

They received the wheels and told me that to refinish and repair them, it was going to be around $2,400 and take approximately 3 weeks. I told them I needed the wheels sooner, so they said they could give me a discount on a new set of wheels that they had in overstock. They said they could give me the DPE S7’s for $800 each – a total of $3,200 and have them delivered in 10 days. I agreed.

I checked in with DPE every other day and they updated me on the progress of the wheels. On the 9th day, I gave DPE a call because I had not received a tracking number. They informed me that the wheels were not yet completed and that the wheels would be finished in 10 days, not delivered in 10 days (contrary to what I was told when I placed my order). I was not happy, but told them I would call them back tomorrow. They apologized and agreed to discount the wheels $125

I called DPE on day 10 and they informed me that the wheels would be finished in 10 business days, not 10 days. I was even more disappointed because this meant even longer that I would not have wheels to drive my new vehicle, and my car was on blocks because DPE also had my old wheels. They agreed to ship my old wheels back to me and told me I would be fine to drive on them in the meantime.

DPE Wheels called me on the 10th business day at 4:15PM – with 45minutes left to ship the wheels they had promised. They informed me that “their guy” painted the wheels the wrong color – but that it wasn’t their fault because the guy didn’t work for DPE. The outers and inners were to be gloss black and the centers were to be matte black. Unfortunately, they painted the entire wheel gloss black. At this point, I was connected to Manu, who is one of the owners. I told him I wanted the wheels I ordered and told him to re-paint them. He credited me an additional $275 for a total of $400.

I informed Manu that I would be out of the country from May 19-29, so asked that the wheels be waiting for me when I get back on May 30th. They were not. I called DPE the day before I would be back in the country and they had not yet shipped the wheels. Manu assured me he would send me a tracking number on three different occasions, and never did so. The wheels were still not at my house today, 2 days late, so I drove to the FedEx facility and picked them up.

My shop started to mount the tires to my rear wheels only to find that DPE “forgot” to drill for TPMS. I immediately tried to call Manu on his cellphone. He did not answer, so I sent him a text explaining and asked him to call me ASAP. I called DPE in CA, spoke to Sean, and they apologized and said they would send me adapters. They also informed me that Manu was traveling but would be back in CA at 4PM.

The tires were temporarily mounted to the wheels while I waited for the adapters. The wheels and tires were ready to be put on the rear and (drumroll)…. THEY DIDN’T FIT. The centers were not cut large enough and the wheels would not fit on the vehicle. I immediately tried to call Manu again on his cellphone – he didn’t answer. I called Sean in CA @ DPE who said that there was no way they didn’t fit because he had his spec sheet in front of him and they were cut correctly. He also said that they have cut over 10,000 wheels and it’s not possible for them to not fit. We measured the wheels compared to the old wheels and they were visibly different. After questioning the reputation of my installer, Sean @ DPE was sent pictures and was also able to visibly confirm they were incorrectly cut. He immediately emailed me four FedEx labels and the wheels are to be picked up the next day. I asked Sean twice to have Manu (Owner of DPE) to call me as soon as he landed form his travels, regardless of what time it was, and he agreed to do so.

In total, I had called Manu multiple times, left a voicemail, and sent him a text message asking to call me ASAP. My call was not returned that night, but as some of you may know of the feature, my iPhone confirmed with Manu’s iPhone that he had “Read” the message soon after I sent it.

I called DPE today and finally spoke with Manu. He told me he had nothing to tell me aside from the wheels were being sent back and he would fix them and express them back. He also told me nothing more would be done because he did not like the way I handled the situation because I “yelled” at him. This was in fact true. While speaking to Manu previously, I was continually interrupted, cut off, ignored, and shouted at. In my numerous conversations with Manu I was also referred to as “man” “bro” and “dude”. Manu also questioned my credibility as a “business professional”. I willingly admit that, unfortunately, I let my emotions take control and shouted back at Manu in frustration.

Before ending our final call, I made Manu aware that I would be sharing my experience online. He replied, “Go ahead, I don’t care”.

I’m very active online and feel that I have an obligation to share my experience with DPE Wheels. Although from what I have read my experience seems somewhat abnormal, my issues with the company seem to have snowballed.

[Slow_335i]

wow that was long

Hopefully they get everything taken care of!

[NEXUS4G]

sorry to hear about your experience. i've always liked their wheel designs especially the st7. i think this might belong in the vendor review section though

[JDMKS]

Never had 1 issue with Sean and that's who I deal with anytime I email or inquired about new wheels for my car

[bmw325i]

$400 off a set of rims to have your car sit on blocks for over a month is definetly not worth it. You should have had the old rims repaired locally. Hope it all works out for you.

[daveoreo]

Originally Posted by JDMKS

Never had 1 issue with Sean and that's who I deal with anytime I email or inquired about new wheels for my car

Overall, I would agree. Sean was very helpful, apologetic, and professional.

[daveoreo]

Originally Posted by bmw325i

$400 off a set of rims to have your car sit on blocks for over a month is definetly not worth it. You should have had the old rims repaired locally. Hope it all works out for you.

I agree. Had I known I would have had this many issues I would have bought a set of stocks for the meantime.

[MRRwheels]

Wow, I think a red flag was when they mention they had over stock on a wheel model then they told you it will take 10 days to make. Hello over stock means is in stock ready to ship the same day. I guess every company works different. Sorry for your troubles.

[bmw325i]

Originally Posted by MRRwheels

Wow, I think a red flag was when they mention they had over stock on a wheel model then they told you it will take 10 days to make. Hello over stock means is in stock ready to ship the same day. I guess every company works different. Sorry for your troubles.

Lol didnt even notice that

[matteucciE92]

That is fucked up by dpe man I would not depend on them for wheels.

[Blindside_137]

Originally Posted by MRRwheels

Wow, I think a red flag was when they mention they had over stock on a wheel model then they told you it will take 10 days to make. Hello over stock means is in stock ready to ship the same day. I guess every company works different. Sorry for your troubles.

+1

very sorry to hear, I really admire some of the wheels they make but this is pretty sad.

Hope it all works out alright for you.

[EYE4SPEED]

I called DPE a while back to see if they could swap out some barrels to achieve a different offset - told me no way, not possible on my three piece wheel? Even if that is the truth, they didn't seem to want to help much either since the set was purchased used.

Had to have some work done on a set of used HRE's I recently purchased. They always pickup the phone and kicked me over to Vince in repairs. Awesome customer service, fast response time, so far a pleasure to work with.

Both make good quality wheels, but HRE for sure has better customer service. Sorry for your bad experience, hope they do you right. For a company not to care about enthusiasts on the forum could hurt their business a lot more than a little bigger discount for the screw up. Whoever they contracted the paint to, it is still their name being represented. Terrible excuse.

BTW - did you overnight the wheels for $400 shipping? That is really expensive, especially if they didn't have tires on them.