What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? CA
I purchased a set of Long-tube headers and midpipe from a local aftermarket car company sometime at the end of April. I believe I had the 2nd set made by them, the first set was made for the owner, Brian's personal car. I got an introductory offer, which was the biggest reason I went with them. When I picked them up they looked ok, especially for the price we agreed upon, which was significantly less than any competitor. The outside flange welds were rough and the inside of the primaries were not welded, just the outside. Other than that, it looked fine compared to everything else I've seen on the market.
I didn't get around to doing the install until May 19th. Prior to that, the aftermarket shop that sold me the parts offered to do the installation, but wanted $1,250 plus 2 days installation time. This car is my DD, so I wasn't excited about the price or the time needed. I made a few calls and found a few other installation shops that were willing to do it for half of their cost and in 1 day's time. In the end, I chose to go to with ANOTHER aftermarket shop based on there extensive experience with header installation, great reputation, fair price, and I could get the a car tune done in-house within minutes versus having to ship out my ECU and taking 3 days time if I went with the shop that made the exhaust parts.
I drove down to SD early on the 19th from Los Angeles (280 miles roundtrip). the installation shop took care my car right away, dropped the stock headers and mid-pipe in about 2-2.5hrs time. We proceeded to bolt on the aftermarket Long Tube Headers and this is when we were surprised.
End's up, the driver's side collector was welded on improperly and per Brian, the owner of the shop I bought the parts from "this situation was not due to neglegence on my part it was a simple issue caused by a dropped fixture and bend on the collector end plate which caused the collector to have an incorrect rake angle" at his production shop leading to this poorly constructed item. The driver's side header was pointing ~10-15 degrees towards the ground. It just looked completely wrong. The mid-pipe would no longer fit and was over 1ft. from reaching the rest of my exhaust. The steering column heat shrink tube was also touching one of the primaries and was very close. I was also told that this was a complete bolt-on system, yet I wasn't given any exhaust brackets to connect the Long Tubes to Mid-pipe. When I asked, the owner, Brian, he said it would just slip on and I assume he implied that it would just stay on. It didn't sound or look reassuring, but the installation shop disagreed and were ready to pick up brackets if necessary, however we never got that far. I was also never told about using new exhaust manifold gaskets and when I emailed Brian on May 19th, he said it would be "best to install new ones". It would have been nice to know this before hand because no MB parts dealer in the area had them in stock.
We put the car back on the ground and saw the collector was about ~4inches from touching the ground and just looked like it was very close to scraping. At that point just in order to make it home the same day, I asked the installation shop to put the stock exhaust system back on and I would just return the product and get a refund.
The installation shop charged me a pro-rated installation fee ($500) because of how screwed up the situation was even though they probably worked on my car for 7 hours and they rightly deserved the full price that was agreed upon. I contacted Brian and asked for a full refund. He offered to fix the set of headers and do the installation for free this time, but I refused because of many reasons I outline below.
In summary, Brian refunded me the money for the headers + $55 for inconvenience within a week of me asking. I'm still out $445 for the rest of the installation fees I paid on a defective part sold to me by Brian.
Other than that, there isn't much else to say, Brian said that the installation shop shouldn't have charged me for the installation and he explained some story about a past example where he didn't charge them back for a defective item. I understand mistakes happen in production and mentioned that there could have been some quality control i.e. fitted on a block, checked the angles, etc., but I don't see how the customer is liable for installation on a defective item, which was sold to me as a guaranteed fit working piece.
These long-tubes were in Brian's possession for weeks if not months, so he had time to do any quality checking. It was obvious after fitting the headers on the engine that the angle of the welds were completely off. I do believe there should be some quality control not only for the flange welds, but the angle of the collector, which is a lot easier to notice once placed on a block.
In addition to why I didn't have Brian install his own personal designed headers at his shop. Besides the almost ridiculously high installation price (quoted 1600 dropped to 1,250 for me) and the almost suspiciously high install time for a company that designed the headers (2 days vs 6-8 hours by two other aftermarket shops I got quotes from who never saw the pieces before quoting me), when I went to their shop in late April I met Brian and purchased the headers. He basically told me that his company was recently 'bought up' by another company TRD (sp?) and that they re-hired Brian and some of his coworkers to continue the European car division. I was a little skeptical that Brian's company was bought out. When I also visited in late april, the new shop was nothing but drywall and construction equipment, with the back auto shop relatively in tact. I didn't get a good gut feeling to have my car installed there when I saw that there were more construction workers than employees and cars combined. It looked like the shop was coming out nice, but there were a million other tasks going on and wasn't sure that my car would best in the shop this early. So I decided why not go to a cheaper, faster, more reputable shop installation shop elsewhere.
All of this contributed to why I initially didn't want Brian for the installation and I refused to have them do it even for free after. I sort of feel lucky in a way and I believe now that I might of saved myself serious headache in a year's time from a cracked header weld and would be left in a very bad situation, but I still feel that I am not liable for installation fees on defectively made items. I can show pictures if necessary, but I am curious to know what the law states and what outcomes I should expect in small claims. Thanks, this is my first post.
I purchased a set of Long-tube headers and midpipe from a local aftermarket car company sometime at the end of April. I believe I had the 2nd set made by them, the first set was made for the owner, Brian's personal car. I got an introductory offer, which was the biggest reason I went with them. When I picked them up they looked ok, especially for the price we agreed upon, which was significantly less than any competitor. The outside flange welds were rough and the inside of the primaries were not welded, just the outside. Other than that, it looked fine compared to everything else I've seen on the market.
I didn't get around to doing the install until May 19th. Prior to that, the aftermarket shop that sold me the parts offered to do the installation, but wanted $1,250 plus 2 days installation time. This car is my DD, so I wasn't excited about the price or the time needed. I made a few calls and found a few other installation shops that were willing to do it for half of their cost and in 1 day's time. In the end, I chose to go to with ANOTHER aftermarket shop based on there extensive experience with header installation, great reputation, fair price, and I could get the a car tune done in-house within minutes versus having to ship out my ECU and taking 3 days time if I went with the shop that made the exhaust parts.
I drove down to SD early on the 19th from Los Angeles (280 miles roundtrip). the installation shop took care my car right away, dropped the stock headers and mid-pipe in about 2-2.5hrs time. We proceeded to bolt on the aftermarket Long Tube Headers and this is when we were surprised.
End's up, the driver's side collector was welded on improperly and per Brian, the owner of the shop I bought the parts from "this situation was not due to neglegence on my part it was a simple issue caused by a dropped fixture and bend on the collector end plate which caused the collector to have an incorrect rake angle" at his production shop leading to this poorly constructed item. The driver's side header was pointing ~10-15 degrees towards the ground. It just looked completely wrong. The mid-pipe would no longer fit and was over 1ft. from reaching the rest of my exhaust. The steering column heat shrink tube was also touching one of the primaries and was very close. I was also told that this was a complete bolt-on system, yet I wasn't given any exhaust brackets to connect the Long Tubes to Mid-pipe. When I asked, the owner, Brian, he said it would just slip on and I assume he implied that it would just stay on. It didn't sound or look reassuring, but the installation shop disagreed and were ready to pick up brackets if necessary, however we never got that far. I was also never told about using new exhaust manifold gaskets and when I emailed Brian on May 19th, he said it would be "best to install new ones". It would have been nice to know this before hand because no MB parts dealer in the area had them in stock.
We put the car back on the ground and saw the collector was about ~4inches from touching the ground and just looked like it was very close to scraping. At that point just in order to make it home the same day, I asked the installation shop to put the stock exhaust system back on and I would just return the product and get a refund.
The installation shop charged me a pro-rated installation fee ($500) because of how screwed up the situation was even though they probably worked on my car for 7 hours and they rightly deserved the full price that was agreed upon. I contacted Brian and asked for a full refund. He offered to fix the set of headers and do the installation for free this time, but I refused because of many reasons I outline below.
In summary, Brian refunded me the money for the headers + $55 for inconvenience within a week of me asking. I'm still out $445 for the rest of the installation fees I paid on a defective part sold to me by Brian.
Other than that, there isn't much else to say, Brian said that the installation shop shouldn't have charged me for the installation and he explained some story about a past example where he didn't charge them back for a defective item. I understand mistakes happen in production and mentioned that there could have been some quality control i.e. fitted on a block, checked the angles, etc., but I don't see how the customer is liable for installation on a defective item, which was sold to me as a guaranteed fit working piece.
These long-tubes were in Brian's possession for weeks if not months, so he had time to do any quality checking. It was obvious after fitting the headers on the engine that the angle of the welds were completely off. I do believe there should be some quality control not only for the flange welds, but the angle of the collector, which is a lot easier to notice once placed on a block.
In addition to why I didn't have Brian install his own personal designed headers at his shop. Besides the almost ridiculously high installation price (quoted 1600 dropped to 1,250 for me) and the almost suspiciously high install time for a company that designed the headers (2 days vs 6-8 hours by two other aftermarket shops I got quotes from who never saw the pieces before quoting me), when I went to their shop in late April I met Brian and purchased the headers. He basically told me that his company was recently 'bought up' by another company TRD (sp?) and that they re-hired Brian and some of his coworkers to continue the European car division. I was a little skeptical that Brian's company was bought out. When I also visited in late april, the new shop was nothing but drywall and construction equipment, with the back auto shop relatively in tact. I didn't get a good gut feeling to have my car installed there when I saw that there were more construction workers than employees and cars combined. It looked like the shop was coming out nice, but there were a million other tasks going on and wasn't sure that my car would best in the shop this early. So I decided why not go to a cheaper, faster, more reputable shop installation shop elsewhere.
All of this contributed to why I initially didn't want Brian for the installation and I refused to have them do it even for free after. I sort of feel lucky in a way and I believe now that I might of saved myself serious headache in a year's time from a cracked header weld and would be left in a very bad situation, but I still feel that I am not liable for installation fees on defectively made items. I can show pictures if necessary, but I am curious to know what the law states and what outcomes I should expect in small claims. Thanks, this is my first post.