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Login to post Forums » Grassroots Motorsports » Am I justified in being pissed?

Jan. 20, 2010 8:08 p.m. Will Reader

I recently purchased a race seat and all the necessary bracketry from a very well known manufacturer to mount it in my car . I didn't cheap out--the seat is FIA certified and cost over $750. The bracketry included a car-specific mount, side mounts to bolt to the new seat, sliders and hardware that added up to more than $300 including shipping. I got the items and started putting them together only to find out it won't all bolt together. The bolt holes are more than 2 inches out of alignment--not even close!

I called the manufacturer and they said "The problem is that the seat you bought is a wide model, so the aluminum mounts won't work. You need to buy the steel mounts and bend them into position."

I'm sorry, but that's insane! $300 worth of mounting equipment, and instead of designing a berkeleying mount for their own wide seat they think it's acceptable to tell people to buy a second pair of mounts for another $100 shipped and BERKELEYING BEND THEM???

Bear in mind that nowhere on the manufacturer's website does it say anything about this problem. I realize there are people here with jumbo metal brakes and welders who could solve this problem in a second. I'm not one of them. I spent extra money to buy parts that should have allowed for a bolt-in installation.

Would you guys be mad, or am I off base?
Jan. 20, 2010 8:11 p.m. 93celicaGT2 SuperDork

No, i'd be pretty mad. Especially with that response...

Send it back, buy from someone else. Make them foot the shipping bill.
Jan. 20, 2010 8:21 p.m. neon4891 SuperDork

I too would exspect that kind of mounting issues is something you would be informed of before purcase. I would take my money someplace else
Jan. 20, 2010 8:24 p.m. Toyman01 Dork

^^^ What they said.
Jan. 20, 2010 8:24 p.m. Spinout007 HalfDork

AMEN to that, take your biz elsewhere, even if it's to get the same seat.
Jan. 20, 2010 8:31 p.m. P71 SuperDork

I got better customer service on mounts for used seats and generic mounts. That is totally unacceptable and I would totally send it back.
Jan. 20, 2010 9:03 p.m. RedS13Coupe Reader

You shouldn't even consider the fact that other could easily bend the mounts to position.

If you are going to go ahead and bend up some metal to make mounts, you sure as hell can do it for less then $300.

The extra cost is what you paid for someone else to figure that all out. To charge you that much, then tell you to make it fit yourself is ridiculous. Money back, go to a company that doesn't charge you to fabricate your own parts.
Jan. 20, 2010 9:23 p.m. Will Reader

I just wanted to make sure I wasn't angry at the wrong people. Work sucked today, and then I got home to this adventure, so I just kept getting madder. Playing with my new seat was going to be the highlight of my day. I shouldn't let it get me so worked up, but I just know I'm not going to sleep well tonight because I'll be thinking about this all night.
Jan. 20, 2010 9:30 p.m. psteav Reader

Since you're justified in being pissed, why not out the company that did this? I would certainly like to know who gave such E36 M3ty service so I could avoid spending any money with them.
Jan. 20, 2010 9:39 p.m. Will Reader

I'm going to guess the GRM folks would prefer I didn't make the name of the manufacturer public on their site, and since I'm a guest here, I'll respect that.
Jan. 20, 2010 9:53 p.m. CLNSC3 Reader

I would be extremely frustrated if that happened to me. The manufacturer should definitely put that information on their website, not having it there is going to result in a lot of pissed customers. No business wants pissed customers...
Jan. 20, 2010 10:21 p.m. JG Pasterjak Production/Art Director

If it's one of our advertisers, please PM or email Per about it. I can't promise anything will happen, but we like to maintain good relationships with our readers AND our advertisers. A large point of ANY magazine is matching good companies with good people who want their stuff, and we like to do what we can to preserve those relationships when we have to.

Heck, even if it isn't one of our advertisers, let Per know. Maybe this is a chance to make a new friend who just happened to be in a bad mood that day, and smooth some stuff over.

Thanks.

jg
Jan. 20, 2010 11:56 p.m. mistanfo Dork

I have a decent idea who it is. Then again, I sold that sort of equipment for a number of years. Told more than one manufacturer that this thing needed to be taken care of, to no avail.
Jan. 20, 2010 11:59 p.m. Keith SuperDork

I don't think I've ever seen a seat mount that actually bolted in as intended. I've had to modify every one I've installed. But then again, Miatas are pretty unusual as a track car, so you wouldn't expect the manufacturers to spend much time on this application.
Jan. 21, 2010 12:05 a.m. grafmiata Dork

Wouldn't it be easier to just bend the car to make it fit the mount?
Jan. 21, 2010 6:16 a.m. John Brown SuperDork

Keith wrote:

I don't think I've ever seen a seat mount that actually bolted in as intended. I've had to modify every one I've installed. But then again, Miatas are pretty unusual as a track car, so you wouldn't expect the manufacturers to spend much time on this application.

I guess my problem is if the manufacturer can't make a bracket to fit their seat, ADVERTISE it. The issue isn't the bracket not fitting the car it is the bracket not fitting the seat.

Simply ponderous.
Jan. 21, 2010 6:53 a.m. redzcstandardhatch New Reader

so the bracket doesnt fit the SEAT!???

but it fits the car!

crazy.

thats why i've always made my own brackets. an old s$%^& bracket we messed with just fit so crazy bad that we made our own .
Jan. 21, 2010 7:02 a.m. BoxheadTim HalfDork

I don't think that this is acceptable. Assuming that you ordered all the parts together, you'd hope that someone would have noticed the parts not working together and maybe picked up the phone or something?

And the response of "we sold you E36 M3 that doesn't fit, tough, we got your money" would make me mad, too. To me it doesn't matter if you have or haven't got the skills to fabricate a mount, you have your reasons for purchasing the seat with mounts and some half-decent customer service should be a little more helpful than this.
Jan. 21, 2010 7:15 a.m. modernbeat HalfDork

Unlike Keith, I've actually found ONE brand of seat that bolted to it's mount correctly, and without modification. Recaro. I've used the Pole Position and the Pro Racer HANS in cars and both went in like they were supposed to.
Jan. 21, 2010 8:03 a.m. minimac Dork

JG Pasterjak wrote: If it's one of our advertisers, please PM or email Per about it. I can't promise anything will happen, but we like to maintain good relationships with our readers AND our advertisers. A large point of ANY magazine is matching good companies with good people who want their stuff, and we like to do what we can to preserve those relationships when we have to. Heck, even if it isn't one of our advertisers, let Per know. Maybe this is a chance to make a new friend who just happened to be in a bad mood that day, and smooth some stuff over. Thanks. jg

I have to agree- totally unacceptable. OTOH, this is why I subscribe(well,one of the reasons) to GRM. Willing to step up to the plate and take a swing. Can anyone say CUSTOMER SERVICE? nAnd it's not the first time I've seen it here, either.
Jan. 21, 2010 8:07 a.m. 914Driver SuperDork

Will said:
Am I justified in being pissed?

Yes, but you have people in your corner. Good luck.

Dan
Jan. 21, 2010 8:16 a.m. CGLockRacer Reader

http://www.despair.com/cudi.html
Jan. 21, 2010 5:28 p.m. Will Reader

JG, thanks for your suggestion on emailing Per. I'll probably do that. I don't have my issue handy, though, so I don't remember if this company advertises.

Before I do, though, I just want to mention a few more points. The fact that they had an instant answer about this problem means they knew about it, but decided it wasn't worth mentioning before they got my money. That's what really irks me.

Ideally, I'd like to see the company in question design a mount specific to wide seats so that instead of just accepting my return, they actually fix the problem for future customers. All they'd have to do is add an extra 1.25 inch of material to each of the side mounts and this problem would go away forever.

Thanks to all who are backing me up on this.
Jan. 21, 2010 5:51 p.m. DrBoost Dork

Keep us informed....

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