[pits200]

Sorry to have to do this but I'm at the point where my frustration level has reached its max and I'm typically a pretty levelheaded person.

As all us xi guys know, our options are limited for a quality coilover so whenever a good product comes along with get all excited. Well when AST finally said they would make coils for the xi, I thought, Great! Yes I was told these would be custom order and take 4-6 weeks and they should be finished by mid-Jan. By the way, I placed the order a few days before Thanksgiving and prepaid close to $2k.

Fastforward 2.5 months and still no coils, still no firm time as to when they will be getting produced. I finally spoke with Brian yesterday and he acted like I was bothering/inconveniencing him because I was curious if I could get a timeframe as to when I can expect my coils. His explanation was they received a big job from some big show and that this is so low on their list of priorities that maybe they'll get around to finishing my coils in 3 weeks.

CLIFF NOTES

So all I'm asking is that no one else orders AST coils until they uphold their promise to provide products to some of who have been waiting for months. This also can save you the hassle of you having to run into the same issue down the road and getting treated like a second-hand citizen because they don't give a sh#t about my $2k because that is chump change to them.


Sorry for the rant, but this is part of what public forums are about, to help others with the experiences of the unfortunate.

Also - No one really reads the XI section, there are like 25 of us.

Go Steelers.

[ENINTY]

Sorry to tell you this, but I just read on Go-Pack-Go.com that as celebration of the Packer's NFC Championship victory, the town of Green bay sold a whole bunch of extra sausages to Israel last week and bought all the Packer players 335xi's as a bonus. Unfortunately, most of them ordered the AST coilover suspension last week (hey it's Green Bay after all). So it may be a few more months...

[pits200]

That actually might help me with a bigger xi market. But hey even up in gb we all know you don't need an xi because the I with snows works even better according to the masses.

[2kaccordocoupe]

You said it would take 4-6 months and you're on the vendor after 2.5 months? Am I missing something here?

Why not wait until month 5 to get a status as opposed to getting your blood pressure up for no reason. You knew the delivery terms ahead of time. If you don't like it, then don't buy it.

Pretty simple really.

[cssnms]

If you are not happy they did not deliver the product 4 months prior to when they said they would or if you just don't like their attitude, cancel the order, get your money back and stop your whining!

[pits200]

Originally Posted by 2kaccordocoupe

You said it would take 4-6 months and you're on the vendor after 2.5 months? Am I missing something here?

Why not wait until month 5 to get a status as opposed to getting your blood pressure up for no reason. You knew the delivery terms ahead of time. If you don't like it, then don't buy it.

Pretty simple really.

Ha, it was a typo, I meant 4-6 weeks, it is now fixed.

[pits200]

Originally Posted by cssnms

If you are not happy they did not deliver the product 4 months prior to when they said they would or if you just don't like their attitude, cancel the order, get your money back and stop your whining!

Relax Relax, it was a typo, it was a 4-6 week estimate. Obviously I'm not whining about it not being done months ahead of time.

[pits200]

Hm, I had ASTs prior to this purchase on another vehicle and they were great.

Not sure about what engineering problems they've had, care to elaborate?

Thanks

[JaysBlueE92]

wow sounds a little annoying..even KWs have issues on xis. Kind of a lose/lose for those of us with xi.

[pits200]

Originally Posted by JaysBlueE92

wow sounds a little annoying..even KWs have issues on xis. Kind of a lose/lose for those of us with xi.

I know, I'm just hoping that this isn't going to end up being a quality issue like the kws and just stays a customer service problem.

[Noah@CamberToe]

the only thing i like about the ast kit is that you can get linear springs, but ive had nothing but good experiences with my prior kw v3 set ups. the fact that the guy mad you feel that way is ridiculous, i believe that solid customer service really is the corner stone for any good business, i would just get my money back and go a different route , no one deserves to be dicked around like that

[Marky70]

Just call him everyday until he gets you the product he promised. Squeaky wheel gets the grease. Make it so he gets you taken care of so you will go away. I am sure one week of hearing froyou politely everyday will make him deliver.

[Pathy01]

I'm relatively new to the BMW world, but it seems like more often than not, the vendors here are not at all interested in customer service. I've never seen as much of the non-sense where vendors won't publish a price on a forum and you have to PM to get a price.

Or you contact a vendor via PM with specific questions and they just give you some canned response they copy and paste from somewhere that tells you a bunch of their products to buy. Or they do the same in any and all threads related to something they sell, pasting the same message over and over again.

Or they post 5 times a day marketing a new product, then once they get your order and money, and you question why they don't deliver updates when promised, they act like every individual should call, PM and e-mail them to get the update, because they're too busy to check the board. They weren't too busy to be on the board or to take money months in advance.

I miss having vendors that actually care about their customers. The one exception I've found here so far is Tischer, very good service and follow up from them. I hope to find more good vendors here, as I've already got several that I've ruled out doing business with again in the future.

[pits200]

I just wanted to make everyone aware of this situation because I can almost guarantee that the vendors who are selling the ast xi coils are probably still telling their customers that yes, they are custom made BUT will be done in about 4-6 weeks.

They vendors aren't stupid, they realize that people are impatient now a days (Myself included sometimes) and if they tell the customer the actual estimate of 13-16 weeks that they will more than likely lose a couple sales.

Ast might have a slight edge in the xi market because of the small choice of coils for the car but I love how they forget about future business they may lose due to poor service now.

[PKumarM3]

why don't you just get your money back and get the H&R coilovers w/winter protection spray from turner motorsports (spray the adjustment grooves)?

[pits200]

I'm already invested almost 3 months. Also, nothing against hr but ast makes superior coils based on my prior experiences.

[Doyle]

Bit of a necropost, but still relevant--

Since it now appears that there are no quick, quality, well-priced solutions for the xi, I thought I might do some hunting. I plan on calling Bilstein and seeing if they can do this, but as of now, I have no reason to believe they couldn't:

-Bilstein B6/B8 shocks ~ $700
-custom valving ~ $300
-front coilover sleeves ~ $100
-rear ride height adjusters ~ $150
-linear springs ~ $400
-vorshlag camber plates with appropriate spring perch ~ $500

This gives you a very high quality coilover and camber plate for around $2150. This will be more than enough for most people. If you still need adjustability, Bilstein also just released a 10-way single-adjustable insert that looks like it may fit the B-series shocks. If so, you may have a killer setup for around $2500-3000. Obviously, this works for all cars that Bilstein has B6/B8 shocks for. Could be interesting...