shardul

iTrader: (1)

And I was considering getting a set of 18's

emoving

This whole thing is pathetic. I feel bad for you guys that ordered rims. No way in hell it should take anywhere near that long for a wheel to be made.

WhitePano

I was just reading a huge post on m5board about how they told a guy to run spacers HAHA!

Like they say, you get what you pay for. This company is owned by iForged who is notorious for bad fitments, telling people to run spacers, leaking issues, etc.

The best part is how they say they are "forged" lmao

mikey33

Just because there are delays does not mean you have to put down the quality of the wheels especially if you do not have them! I truly feel sorry for those who have gotten the shaft from "Godfather," but just because you hear these stories on the internet in regards to spacers and quality should not reflect forgestar and their wheels; most of these stories are coming from forum members who are buying from board sponsors who are not living up to their part of a deal. I chose to buy from discount tire a large reputable company, so I will report back in 6-8 weeks to tell how my experience has been.

pearlpower

At one time I use to order items from Dell. After 21 days, if they knew it would be more than 30 to receive my item, they would request I acknowledge the delay beyond 30 days, otherwise cancel my order per law.
Same applies here.
Though I enjoy the wheels (Godfathers old wheels of all things ), the company (iForged) is horrible to work with. With reported financial issues with the company starting to crop up, I would get your money back while you can.

mikey33

To be honest I think the problem comes down to the vendors and not the manufacturer (forgestar). I think some of these sponsors who call themselves businesses are only 1 person running the rodeo with not a lot of capital to work with. That being said, if a company is trying to leverage many high dollar wheel orders just to make $200-$300 a set than down the line issues are going to arise, and when they do it will set off a chain reaction. I believe this is the hidden issue that some of these sponsors are not telling their customers and they are passing the blame on to the manufacturers; the reason, I know vividracing.com and elementwheels.com carry forgestar and I have talked to them since they are by my location and they say every time they place orders the wheels arrive in the allotted six to eight week time frame. This tells me that the issue is probably with the sponsors and not the manufacturer.

My .02c

WhitePano

Just because you ordered them. does not mean you have to defend them. do a search online.. countless problems with iforged, countless problems with Forgestar. I've had countless sets of aftermarket wheels & I know many people in the industry.. I don't talk out of my a$$

mikey33

How about you get a brain and use it busta! If you want to come here and start bashing forgestar and making generalizations then how about you post links to backup your claims. Who in the industry do you know? How does you having countless aftermarket wheels qualify you to speak on the behalf of forgestar and their quality if you never owned them???

Again, how about before you talk out your a$$ you have facts to back it up. I am not spewing generalizations, but simply stating the fact that 99% of the problems are from a select few forum sponsors and not the manufacturer themselves.

chawkins2001

I got my forgestar rims in matte black from oneautosport last week, and let me tell you, they are worth the wait. The wheels are absolutely sick for the price. Other than a few small mods like buying your own bolts and modifying the front dust bearing cap so that the center caps can fit correctly, they are down right sexy. I have got so many compliments already and could not be happier.

27300man

Most business in Socal does NOT likes dealing with Forgestar. Discount tires has tons of negative customer reviews regarding that company (call em n ask). The wheels are siik tho!

Godfather@ONE Autosport

I was gone since last Thursday out of state and unreachable. Last I talked to Forgestar prior to yesterday afternoon, I was told your wheels were in production. I asked them again today to give me a REAL ETA. So I'll have that shortly. If I can't get a straight answer, I'll give you a refund.

Bro, you're retarded as hell. Discount Tire isn't even a Forgestar dealer. As a matter of fact, I discussed your particular alleged order with Forgestar, and as I had previously been informed, there is no way in hell they will be done in 8 weeks. So while you're excited about getting your wheels, you simply won't. Not in that timeframe. Whoever told you they'll be done and ready to ship in 8 weeks straight up lied to you.

Of course, everyone will say 6 to 8 weeks, but then it'll be longer and people will be sad and bent out of shape.

I have a dozen people READY to order today, right now, right this second, but I won't take any orders unless I know for sure what timeframe they're looking at, and I won't give them the canned answer "6 to 8 weeks." So instead of blaming the vendor (ie me), use your brain a little and realize that I have absolutely NOTHING TO GAIN from taking your order and sitting on my *** waiting for the wheels to appear out of thin air, just as much as Forgestar doesn't have anything to gain by not making your wheels. They are backlogged, yes, but they are working on improving their turnaround. With that, I'm not jamming them up with new orders. While other Forgestar dealers may take your order and tell you 6 to 8 weeks, I try and provide accurate delivery estimates.

So in short, stop giving people misguided information.

mikey33

Damn godfather business not going so well nowadays??? You need a loan to stay afloat???

Seriously, bro, if you "think" you have such a good rapport with forgestar then why are other companies getting wheel orders such as vividracing and elementwheels in six to eight weeks and you are not? Also, why have you been selling other sets of forgestar wheels when you have not even taken care of your customers who ordered and paid for their wheels months ago?

As per your request, me using my brain, I can logically conclude that you are no longer taking orders because you have realized that your past claims of delivery and fulfillment time frames are grossly inaccurate. In addition, you seem to bait and string customers along by not responding to e-mails which is unprofessional; if you cannot fulfill an order you should notify the customer and ask if they want a refund or to wait.

To add, please do not comment on discount tire who you have no clue if they can fulfill my order in the time frame provided; discount tire has a lot of influence and if you think you are bigger than them, well, you are the one who is misguided.

mikey33

Congrats! Throw up some pictures and post them so I can drool!

chawkins2001

I will this weekend. The front center caps are missing as they dont clear the bearing cap so for now I just sprayed them matte black. To be honest, the bearing cap looks like it is part of the wheel and does not look that bad.

lowprofile

For what it's worth, I recently ordered a set of F14s from Mike and he was very clear on the "expected" timeline. He was forthcoming, and didn't just give me a canned response.

vegas55amg

And I'll add that the wheels are damn nice! ESPECIALLY for what they cost!

I just put a set of 18"s on my CLK55 and they totally dress up the car.

Did I have to wait a few months for them? yes, but big deal, it's not like the car was sitting on cinder blocks or something, heck it gave me something to look forward to, like a kid 2 or 3 months out from Christmas!

For what they cost, I could've gotten some cheap heavy wheels from TireRack or Discount Tire in a few days, but they would've been exactly that: cheap and heavy.

Forgestar is dealing with huge demand because they are VERY nice wheels at a VERY nice pricepoint. Could they bump up the price 50% and still sell these wheels? having a set, I certainly think so, they are simply that nice. for real. so if they bumped up the price 50%, demand would go down, and they would be able to keep up, but profit margin per set would go up hugely, so the company would probably still make the same.

We should all just hope they don't do that.

you can't expect Saks 5th Avenue service, when you are demanding AND paying only Wal-Mart prices.

from reading lots of these threads, it looks like Godfather is doing everything he can to keep up with his end of the deal. people should stop "shooting the messenger".

Bottom line, the wheels ARE worth the wait.

they are nice enough that if I didn't already have expensive Brabus wheels on my E63, I would order a SECOND set, even knowing I might have to wait 3 or 4 months.

Uber Wagon

Quote:
Originally Posted by AWOL

forgestar is telling me that I have to work with godfather.

Godfather sent me a pm about getting a refund, stating he was issuing one - I was happy, but only to find out he confused me with another member. Refund attempt was denied.

Then he was under the impression I wanted 19's, and said mine were in production as of 5/3 and I should be receiving them shortly. The only problem was I order 18s and gunmetal.

Then on 5/5 he said "Scott, I double checked your order after I asked you which it was. Let me wait back from Forgestar, but I think I'm gonna give you a full refund. I'll keep you posted." He follwed that PM by saying he got a call they were in production, but I already asked for my refund before that.

He followed with "As I was informed, these are in production, which means I'm responsible for 100% of their costs, as you are. I haven't had a chance to ask Forgestar for details these last couple of days, but I will on Monday and get you a straight answer." - that was on 5/8/10

And here I sit, wheel less, and no word after 2 attempts at an update.

Response by GodFather
I was gone since last Thursday out of state and unreachable. Last I talked to Forgestar prior to yesterday afternoon, I was told your wheels were in production. I asked them again today to give me a REAL ETA. So I'll have that shortly. If I can't get a straight answer, I'll give you a refund.


this guy is owed a refund NOW. 5/3 was 16 days ago. "In production" isn't a delivery date. You are required to give firm dates. And actually, Forgestar is required to give YOU the same information (so you can use this same law to get YOUR money back from THEM)

And - if you are the only person running this business - you cannot be "out of state and unreachable". It's the Information age - between cell phones and wireless hotspots, there's simply no excuse for being unresponsive to customers. And lastly, either get enough working capital to order these parts form your supplier, or get some credit with them, etc - and stop charging full price up front. Even if you have to charge a little more so the cost of money - a legitimate business venture has enough working capital to conduct commerce in this manner.

motorkas

Yes, actually, he can; and yes, there are valid excuses for being unresponsive to customers. If you can honestly tell me that you would hold yourself to the same standard you are professing (ie - keeping contact with business relationships in a family emergency or, God forbid, tragedy or work while on vacation) then in my humble opinion - you got bigger problems than having inadequate capital to sufficiently run a business. That being said - love the Estates and am insanely jealous you have one.

With recent financial shenanigans - I would think that it's been well documented that "legitimate business ventures" don't always have "enough working capital". All the working capital in the world will not change simple economics - as demand increases, supplies get short and no amount of capital is going to change that short term predicament (can anyone say Continental Extreme DWS's).

Full disclosure: I purchased forgestars from Mike. They took longer than expected. Mike was honest with his communications. I think it sucks what is happing with AWOL. Doesn't change my positive experience with Mike.

pearlpower

To a degree, from a customers point of view, they do NOT CARE about your personal interventions in life that distract from customer service. Why should they? This makes things ever more challenging for the sole proprietor, I am there myself. I have two full time 60 hour (that I get done in less time ) a week jobs and several income generating websites. It is tough to juggle, but again, the customer does not care nor should they beyond receiving what they paid for. Not saying that is what is going on here, just commenting on running a business lone-gunman style.

amdeutsch

1) Its very easy to leave a message on a machine when customers call telling them when a return is expected. Check the messages at your convenience and get back with the customer.
2) There is never a valid excuse being unresponsive to a customer IMHO . If you don't want the customer's money then be that way. Otherwise word of mouth will bite you and your business.

WhitePano

My post got deleted for saying *dbag*, but a vendor is saying to a customer that he is "retarded is hell".. wow! Seems like a quality biz plan.

motorkas

1) agreed
2) I personally think "never" is a very dangerous word in the english vocabulary and should be used very sparingly in a serious context (obviously, joking etc is different). I do think that there are times when it is used appropriately but I just find that there are too many real life unexpected events to have it used appropriately in this context (and I say that from both the business as well as customer perspective). Just my opinion

Godfather@ONE Autosport

To address your first point: IF you are questioning my rapport with Forgestar, you're beyond wrong. I have been personal friends of all of the people there for about a decade now, before I even conducted business with them. I am also their biggest Mercedes account. I'm not saying that I have a better rapport than anyone else, because I don't. But I am saying there is certainly no favoritism either. You cite other vendors getting their orders faster than me, and this is simply untrue. All vendors have access to up to the minute inventory info on parts, we all do, the same info, so if one tells you it'll be 4 weeks, and another vendor tells you it'll be 12 weeks, I would be wary. I don't BS my customers, I tell them what is going on. Sometimes, I can only tell them so much because I only get so much info back from my suppliers, and in this case Forgestar.

As for me not taking new orders now, it's because I tell my customers that "hey, I don't know how long it will take, it could be 12 weeks or so, maybe less, I just don't know for sure yet, and I won't know for another couple of weeks." So at this point, either they decided to go with it and wait patiently, or they say "ok, let me know when you find out the ETA, b/c I REALLY want these wheels."

I bait customers and don't respond to their emails? Are you kidding me? I've responded to every single emails that have come my way! I was unreachable for a week, so I wasn't able to respond to AWOL. More on that below...

As for saying that if I cannot fullfill orders I should refund money, I agree, but I can fullfil orders, it just takes time. These wheels aren't off the shelf ready to go, this is different. Furthermore AWOL's wheels ARE IN PRODUCTION. But I know he wants a perfect ETA and I'm trying to get that for him ASAP. As I said, I can only give him info that is relayed to me. I can't just make stuff up.

As for Discount Tire, believe what you may, but you are seriously mistaking. I feel bad for you because you brushed me off thinking I was just a joker, and when someone told you what you wanted to hear "6 to 8 weeks," it was all it took for you to place the order with them.

BK, thanks for the support. Lowprofile is the perfect example of someone who was made aware that current orders taken now would take a long time to get, but he understood that and placed his order nonetheless.




I love it how people mingle in everyone's affair. The wheels will be done, and that's that.

In regards to me being unreachable, understand that ONE autosport isn't my day job. I was somewhere with no means to reach out to the outside world.

The rest of your business lesson is meaningless and doesn't make any sense.

chawkins2001

These wheels are like gems. I guess I got lucky picking up my set in the vendor forum.

AWOL

Im not bashing anybody except Forgestar's performance. I get where Godfather is coming from, I just hope he sees where Im coming from - if other people are getting refunds for mishaps, why cant I?

Again, Im sure the wheels are hot, but after 5 months - Im no longer interested.

A refund would be spectacular at this point. Thats all I want to be happy, then if they ever DO get made, Godather shouldnt have a problem selling them to someone without the wait time.

Thats where I stand at this point, not trying to be a dbag