(nt)

[2323]

(nt)

[MrNvgtr]

Body panels (particularly hoods) on late model BMWs. My personal experience was when I had a replacement hood installed that a had subtle crease in it. My explanation from the body shop guy was that a lot hoods with errors are kept in a different pile and then stocked for parts orders. The intent was that body shops would fix the problem in the end. Well in my case, I noticed it after the car was delivered back to me and I had to ask them to fix it.

[c.d.iesel]

IF YOUR PURCHASING FROM A DEALER -

and you have a 'defective ' part,

you have a 2-year/Unlimited mile replacement part warranty

but with trim items, or electronic parts,

have common sense- If it looks like something was installed

(improperly) that is not defective.

You must always inspect any part on purchase and

return any that your not happy with because of a flaw,

deformed, cracked, broken at point of purchase.

Otherwise you end up with 'issues' as your stating.

NOW if your purchasing from some 'other' so called

bmw oem - that is a wide open subject

Kindly be very specific so others are not misled

[dubois]

it is not unusual for new sheet metal panels to come in with some sort of defect. We inspect ALL, prior to hang them. We usually rectify anything minor, but major dents we ask the dealer for credit or send them back. In general all sheet metal from German manufacturers is not shipped in a box, it is usually received with no package or protection. Everybody else, boxes their hoods, door, trunks etc. Contrary to what I would have guessed, the German parts rarely have any damage! I think, because of the lack of protection they don't get thrown around. We can't paint over those defects, because at the end, we wouldn't be able to justify it to the customer.

I think old OEM parts would suffer of what it is " the bottom of the pile", it is the stuff that was returned, kept for the next guy. They buy used parts, don't they? type of rationale...

[2323]

(nt)

[eastsidebimmer]

I purchased the grilles from Blunt Tech Industires in Sept of 2008 for $412 a piece and did not install them untill February of 2009. Here's what the right grille looks like when viewed from straight ahead and here's what is looks like when installed on the vehicle. I'm trying to resolve this issue as I am certain it's a manufacturing defect. I was hoping that a BMW OEM part retailer would stand behind thier products to satisfy a customer but we have not been able to come to an agreement.

Fitting a new set of grilles to a 2002 takes time and patience. I've done it and discovered that a fair amount of tweaking was necessary to "mold" the parts to the car. Based on what I can see in the pictures, you may need to put a slight bend in each slat to match the angle of the neighboring slats. These babies are stamped from aluminum--it would be hard to expect them to have the correct angles or shape for every application.......ever go swimsuit shopping with a woman?

(by the way, my grilles did not seem to be the of same "quality" as the dingy original ones I was replacing, but they sure are shiny!)

Mr. Blunt is a fair and reasonable person...I'm sure others will agree.

[BLUNT]

Id be more than happy to share my side of this story. steve cox has purchased a good amount of parts from me over the last year and has always been pleasant and professional to deal with. i will detail the best i can our past transactions since i feel im required to defend my reputation. Ive always prided myself on being honest and fair in my dealings as well as offering personalized service.

on 5/15/08 steve ordered several items that included a center grille and a set of euro turn signals among other things.

steve emailed me and told me of a problem with a damaged seam cover and a cracked euro signal . i promptly replaced both items at my cost on 6/08/08

heres a snippet of the email he sent me

"As for the right front turn indicator, It was packaged well and it looked more like a manufacturing defect rather than something caused by the post office."

note that there was no mention of any damaged center grille.

on 10/4/08 5 months after i sent the original shipment he emails me and tells me the center grille has a scratch. i asked him to return it and promptly sent out a new one at my cost on 10/07/08

i absorbed the cost of the grille and sold it as damaged

on 9/17/08 steve puchased new aluminum front grilles.

they were shipped out along with new tail lights and insured for 1300.00 on 9/29/08. steve then told me they were taken to the body shop out of his care

on feb 14th 6 months after i sent the grilles i get another email claiming damage to one of the side grilles. these grilles are inspected by my supplier and then again by me when i pick them up. i would expect someone spending 1k on grilles to inspect them upon receipt. the time frame for me to file any kind of claim is now long gone. after several emails back and forth with steve i begrudgingly agreed to accept the grille back for inspection. i told steve at that point if there were a manufacturers defect present i would work with him to resolve the issue but if it were damaged in any other way i could not help. 2 weeks later steve sent the grille back and upon inspection this is what i found. please see pics. the grille is scratch and bowed. and the screw holes are so badly deformed and mutilated the anodizing is cracked and the grille is deformed. admittedly there were several problems with steves order which i promptly fixed and absorbed all costs related to these problems. i honestly tried to do everything i could to please steve but one has to draw the line at some point. please see the pics and make your own judgement.

im sorry i have to waste anyones time with this but i feel steve is being unreasonable in his demands easpecially since these parts were out of his care and control.

[kbken62]

I'm sure it is just a coincidence that the picture shows a tire laying in front o the the car when the bent grill, but it looks from the picture that the tire fell on the grill.

I'd use a different picture if you are trying to show a defective part.

I ran into this problem in the past with a dinged part.

[dp]

Theres a topic for complaints in a different forum, 2323 should know better than to a) make public something he is working with his (non-BMW dealer) supplier in this thread and EVER expect anyone on this forum to trade with him in the future after airing this beef in a way that forced blunt to systematically dismantle the complaints publicly to defend himself.

My suggestion to the faq "member" 2323? Go to your local dealer in the future for fragile parts that need to be permanently cosmetically perfect. See how your local dealer responds to an attempted return 6 months after delivery! If they buckle to your attempts to excise selfish, unthinking wants out of them, great. And if you have no idea what I am poking at you for, take a job in retail for six months yourself and then try to figure it out!

[dirk2602]

I have literally ordered 100's of parts from Blunt over the past 3 years. All parts are always immediately inspected. On the one occasion that I found two parts to be defective (door panels), the parts were immediately replaced with new ones in the shortest of delay, at no cost to me. Let me add that I am pretty anal and most people would not even have seen the defects.

BMW makes no parts. They use part suppliers, who in turn may use sub-suppliers. Some of the parts manufacturing facilities are located in places where the labor cost are lower than in the Vaterland. BMW is supposed to have a quality control in place. However in this day and age of cutting cost, management-by-exception, meeting financial targets and what not, it is cheaper for the companies to replace defective parts and to move on with business. Effectively what they have done, is to shift the final quality control function to the end-user. It is unfortunate, but that's just the way it is.

Bottom line, buy from a reputable dealer and check your parts upon arrival. Reputable dealers such as Blunt and Max (and I am sure there are others) do stand behind there products, but don't start whining many months after the fact.

[2323]

(nt)

[BLUNT]

steve, my intent was not to insinuate i was doing you a favor. i agree with you that it is my job to replace damaged items that are reported in a timely manner. i do think i did you a favor by replacing it 5 months after you took receipt of it. i have no hard feelings and i hope you dont either. maybe we can both learn from this matter. i can put a policy into effect stating "inspect your parts and file a claim within 7 days for any damage and you can check your stuff in a timely manner. best wishes to you steve and im sorry for the way things worked out

[dp]

I hope to become a more dilligent consumer ....

Go do it at another crowd's expense, masquing a thread and then bombing a non-BMW NA "dealer" (who DOES provide a service whether you think so or not) was, frankly, bullshit.

For a couple decades '02 people had a (deserved rep) for being tight, stupid, and offensive.

Many of us have made a lot of effort to dispell that image however, you sir, totally deserve it.

[robspeed]

I hope to become a more dilligent consumer ....

Go do it at another crowd's expense, masquing a thread and then bombing a non-BMW NA "dealer" (who DOES provide a service whether you think so or not) was, frankly, bullshit.

For a couple decades '02 people had a (deserved rep) for being tight, stupid, and offensive.

Many of us have made a lot of effort to dispell that image however, you sir, totally deserve it.

Jeeze, a little too much coffee today? I think Blunt handled it fine, and didn't need your help. For whatever that is worth.

Steve asked me to delete this thread as he didn't mean to raise so many emotions from board members. Try to remember we are all more or less in this together, no need to jump down each others throats.

P.s. we dont delete threads here.

[BLUNT]

I hope to become a more dilligent consumer ....

Go do it at another crowd's expense, masquing a thread and then bombing a non-BMW NA "dealer" (who DOES provide a service whether you think so or not) was, frankly, bullshit.

For a couple decades '02 people had a (deserved rep) for being tight, stupid, and offensive.

Many of us have made a lot of effort to dispell that image however, you sir, totally deserve it.

Jeeze, a little too much coffee today? I think Blunt handled it fine, and didn't need your help. For whatever that is worth.

Steve asked me to delete this thread as he didn't mean to raise so many emotions from board members. Try to remember we are all more or less in this together, no need to jump down each others throats.

P.s. we dont delete threads here.

just to clarify, i did not request any thread be deleted