Least favorite recent purchases?

Mine are a toss-up between the Miata front BBK and the M3 headlights.
The BBK came with wrong parts, sketchy instructions and stainless flex lines with E36 M3ty adapters.It is a big name kit that I bought through a trusted reseller. The reseller was great and acted as a mediator. I ended up buying a set of the reseller's flex lines to finish the install.

The headlights were a clearance buy and didn't reveal that the kit was for an M3 coupe. I had to buy another set of corner lights for a sedan. The kit came with an extra wiring harness but no instructions on how to hook it up. The reseller was no help and barely communicated with me at all. Funny thing is, they have no problem sending me almost daily sale items even after I've told them I won't buy from them again and why.

If you want to know the manufacturers or resellers, send me a PM. I won't name them here.

So, what recent purchases are you disappointed with?

Why not say who they are? Even if they advertise in the magazine, if they sell junk or dont treat their customers well then people should know about it.

Motorola Barrage....a phone advertised as waterproof and shatter proof. The waterproofing thing worked really well until the screen broke from a relatively minor fall.

racinginc215:
I know what you mean. I bought 2 cheesy beef burritos last night. They've got sour cream on them. I hate sour cream. Where in "cheesy beef" does it say and white E36 M3 too?

Travis_K:
I just don't want to turn this into a sucky seller or mfg thread.

93 octane from mobil, it's expensive and didn't last long. OOooooo wait here's a good one. Bought some Kooks headers for my Trans Am and a Y-pipe. Claimed to be some of the best headers on the market for 4th gen F-bodys. Talked to someone from Kooks about which ones I should get, very helpful, gave me the part number, and I used that to buy from a reseller with free shipping. Get the product and it's not the headers that I had desired to order with Venturri collectors. Whatever, called the reseller they comped me the difference, go ahead with the install of the headers and y-pipe and after it's all said and done, they leak worse than my $300 pacesetters, don't have any clearance for the spark plug wires, and the y-pipe fitment was crapola.

E-mail Kooks with the concern first, wait a week, no response, call a few times to never get an answer, send the same e-mail through their website, then from a few different e-mails I have, no response. Call again, no response, yet when I e-mailed for a future purchase they were quick to respond with "What's your phone number and we'll call you ASAP." It's been a few months now, call once a week to either get a clerk who puts me on hold for a while then it just cuts off, or just no answer. Reported it to the BBB but that may take a while for action to happen.

Mine was the waterpump I replaced on my 318ti.. it was only 45,000 miles old when the bearing went

I recently bought some 3/8" EFi-rated fuel hose from a local auto parts store. The guy measured it (I needed 7') and cut it, then handed me off to another guy to check me out. The guy asked me how many feet and then told me the total. He evidently used regular low pressure fuel line pricing because he told me something really low (think under $10). I told him that this is the EFI rated stuff and should be more like $5 a foot. He said I was wrong and insisted I buy the fuel hose for a fraction of its real cost. If you want to know the name of the store PM me.

How about ALMOST dis-satisfied with something I almost bought?

Went to my neighborhood grocery store saturday evening to get a frozen pizza to snack on. The pizza box on the top of the stack had one end SCOTCH-TAPED closed. Needless to say, did not buy that.

integraguy wrote: How about ALMOST dis-satisfied with something I almost bought? Went to my neighborhood grocery store saturday evening to get a frozen pizza to snack on. The pizza box on the top of the stack had one end SCOTCH-TAPED closed. Needless to say, did not buy that.

Oh, c'mon! You might have gotten them to knock a few bucks off, what with it being a used pizza.

Don't get me started on grocery stores.

integraguy wrote: Went to my neighborhood grocery store saturday evening to get a frozen pizza to snack on. The pizza box on the top of the stack had one end SCOTCH-TAPED closed. Needless to say, did not buy that.

I grabbed a little snack size bag of cookies the other day, and found that the bottom wasn't sealed from the factory. I didn't eat them (you never know), and later noticed that all the others in the box were the same. I called Kraft, and told them about it. They sent me a cheque for $1

I guess they don't want my business.

Zomby woof wrote:

integraguy wrote: Went to my neighborhood grocery store saturday evening to get a frozen pizza to snack on. The pizza box on the top of the stack had one end SCOTCH-TAPED closed. Needless to say, did not buy that.

I grabbed a little snack size bag of cookies the other day, and found that the bottom wasn't sealed from the factory. I didn't eat them (you never know), and later noticed that all the others in the box were the same. I called Kraft, and told them about it. They sent me a cheque for $1 I guess they don't want my business.

That happened to me once with Ritz cheese bits, bought a multi-pack box from Costco, the machine evidently was misaligned and didn't seal most of the packets in the box, crackers everywhere. Emailed the company they sent me coupons/vouchers for more than the purchase price of my defective box. Nabisco for the win.

I haven't really bought anything lately other than parts from pick-your-part on half off, so no regrets here. Flounder?

I recently found out I was allergic to sea salt. Those Wendy's fries were a bitch!

Tasty though!

1988RedT2 wrote:

integraguy wrote: How about ALMOST dis-satisfied with something I almost bought? Went to my neighborhood grocery store saturday evening to get a frozen pizza to snack on. The pizza box on the top of the stack had one end SCOTCH-TAPED closed. Needless to say, did not buy that.

Oh, c'mon! You might have gotten them to knock a few bucks off, what with it being a used pizza. Don't get me started on grocery stores.

How many miles were on it?

Hummmm Most used parts I get from Ebay. I got a open dif 951 trans for my 924s. I specifically asked how it shifted and I was told perfect! Well lets just say 2nd gear syn-crows are not so perfect.

On the flip side of things I got a Inter cooler from a member here and it vastly exceeded my expectations and the packaging was first rate!!!! The darn thing looks almost new!!!! In fact the things I have got from members here have all been exactly as described or in most cases in better condition than described. Again GRM for the win!!!!

2006 Dodge Durango. Traded in our low mileage '05 Silverado because I got tired of fixing things Reman reat calipers at 35k miles after going through two sets of pads in about three months, leaking water pump, dead stepper motors in the gauge cluster, tie rods, front wheel bearings....on and on.

Anyway, The Durango looked great (I even crawled under it), rode great, sounded great, the price was decent and they offered me over what I wanted for the Silverado. Within a few days it stalls after backing out of the driveway while shifting to drive. Hmm, no check engine light, no odd noises, visually nothing wrong so I hope it's a fluke. Nope, it's done it a few more times since then and almost died a couple other times but decided to keep running at the last moment, always under the same conditions. It's also developed speaks, rattles and clunks that it didn't make during my several test drives. Of course I can't locate the causes of any of them and the dealer is, big surprise, no help.

I like exactly one thing about this Durango. The Hemi........yep, that's all I think of.

So, four months in and lesson learned, again. Over the past 12 years I've tried Ford, (a few) GMs and now Dodge. All were mostly junk. However, the one Toyota and two Nissans I've had were great trucks that I regret trading. Each time I needed a larger truck and domestics were pretty much the only choice for full-size trucks. Now that the Frontier and Tacoma are larger I'm seriously considering trading the Durango and taking the financial hit.

Anyone interested in a Durango? It has a Hemi.

integraguy wrote: How about ALMOST dis-satisfied with something I almost bought? Went to my neighborhood grocery store saturday evening to get a frozen pizza to snack on. The pizza box on the top of the stack had one end SCOTCH-TAPED closed. Needless to say, did not buy that.

Were they willing to part it out? I could use about 2 dozen pepperonis.

Wife's 2005 Camry. Let's just say the bulletproof reputation those cars have and the fact that it looked quite clean kept me from thinking I should do a compression check before buying...

Over $800 of new PVC porch railing - sure could ahe thought of more enjoyable ways to spend that....

Whole Foods. Basically $85 worth of non-meat products. I have a ton of fruit and veggies though.

DuctTape&Bondo wrote:

Zomby woof wrote:

integraguy wrote: Went to my neighborhood grocery store saturday evening to get a frozen pizza to snack on. The pizza box on the top of the stack had one end SCOTCH-TAPED closed. Needless to say, did not buy that.

I grabbed a little snack size bag of cookies the other day, and found that the bottom wasn't sealed from the factory. I didn't eat them (you never know), and later noticed that all the others in the box were the same. I called Kraft, and told them about it. They sent me a cheque for $1 I guess they don't want my business.

That happened to me once with Ritz cheese bits, bought a multi-pack box from Costco, the machine evidently was misaligned and didn't seal most of the packets in the box, crackers everywhere. Emailed the company they sent me coupons/vouchers for more than the purchase price of my defective box. Nabisco for the win. I haven't really bought anything lately other than parts from pick-your-part on half off, so no regrets here. Flounder?

I once got a bag of chips out of a vending machine that tasted a little stale. I didn't think much of it since I was super-hungry and badly needed a snack. As I tipped the bag back to finish it off, I noticed light coming through little tiny holes in the bottom of the bag. When I took a closer look, they were definitely chewed into the bag by a mouse. Gross.

In reply to GPDren:

You have a bad cooler return filter in the trans pan causing the stall. There is a TSB out on it.

Back to the original topic, recent purchases require money. I have none.

Speaking of food... My wife got this surprise recently....

In reply to Ranger50: That is one seriously muddy buddy. More like diarrhea buddy if you ask me.

rmarkc wrote: . So, what recent purchases are you disappointed with?

That's easy - A $20k kitchen remodel.

Turkey and bacon club sandwich at a local bar. What kind of club doesn't come with lettuce and tomatoes? The fries sucked too.