A costly lesson learned, but resolved no questions asked.

A customer got a set of black obsidian housings and an Iron-Man v2.5 installed on their G37x several weeks ago. They called me a few days later saying there's moisture in the headlight... without hesitation I asked her to come in so I can take care of it. So the customer comes to me today, and I observe the lights... and see that the entire inside of the lens is frosted, literally 1/2 of the drive side lens was frosted to a point where you could not see thru it, as if you took a bottle of vodka out the freezer and it had the frost on the bottle. The passenger side had very minimal frosting, but still a bit. I had no clue what the hell it was and what caused it, never seen anything like it before.. but I knew for a fact that it was no moisture since I haven't had that problem in a really long time.

So I remove the headlights, right when I start seperating them, a smell of fresh paint hit me really hard, as if the headlights were just painted or something, and then it hit me...

This frosting came from assembling a headlight too soon before the paint fully dried, it released paint chemicals while it was drying and damaged the lens. The inside of the lenses are extremely fragile, to a point that even a brand new microfiber cloth could scratch it, so I never really clean or touch the inside of my lenses unless I really have to.

I ended up replacing the lenses with a pair of fresh ones off my spare lights that cost me $450 a piece at the time of purchase... so yea... a $900 lesson learned the hard way. Total for the job was $530, mistake $900, ended up coming $370 out of pocket. I wasn't bullsh1tting when I said:

I hate Wednesdays... they never bring me anything good. lol

 

Speaking of Wednesdays, August 19th (Wednesday) was kind of similar, haha.

 

True story...

In case anyone is wondering. His car was parked in the driveway of the shop, slightly poking it's nose out to the street. A lot of trucks and busses drive up and down the street since it's pretty busy... so I left the car in the drive way, went to get my tools to start taking it apart, only to come out to his car missing the entire bumper, laying 10ft away from his car. Witnesses said that a car was coming down the block and was going around a double parked car at the same time a truck was going the opposite direction, the trucks rear tailgate caught the edge of the bumper and tore the whole thing right off. Leaving me with $900 in damages and $200 for hotel stay so him and his parents could stay over night while a new bumper along with a grille was ordered the following morning, painted and installed back on his car so they can drive back the same day. That was a fun lesson too.

2 costly lessons in 1 year... I guess it's not so bad. lol

 

hey man that takes a lot and im sure she appreciated it! Glad to see ur understanding and back up ur work. Everyone makes mistakes and we learn from them! Thanks for sharing and i cant wait to send u my lights when i start making $$$, u do great work and are obviously a stand up dude!

 

damn, that sucks! sorry to hear! that's why i stopped doing them now. the internal parts of the headlights are way too fragile.

 

hard lesson learned, but this is the kinda customer service i look for. can't wait to do my headlights, saving for it pennies at a time...

 

+1 for good customer service!

 

thank you for sharing this. you have my headlights currently in your shop and now i am 100% confident you will take good care of them. good to know you run your business with honesty and integrity.
++1 for being one of the best vendors out there

 

Hey look at the bright side. I was on time today. lol

You really do go out of your way for our customers.

 

I really am lucky that you guys have such great customer service. It could have been so easy for you to turn me down and say that it wasn't your fault. Yet you took the loss, and even were grateful enough to pay for an extra night stay. This (and the amazing work you do) is the reason why I recommend you to so many people.

Keep up the good work

 

Thanks for the kind words Arjun, we really appreciate it.

 

That s very grand of you to come out and lay it on the table. I was lucky enough to not experience any of that with your work. knowing that you stand behind it 100 percent is very reassuring for future business!

 

The money lost is nothing compared to the money gained with all the referrals and work yet to come. It is unfortunate you do not live in NorCal!

I only wish more shops and vendors would follow your path so that more people can be happy, keep up the great work

 

And that's how you do it +1 to 180Custom











Let's face it though, You only did it coz it was a chic hahaha

 

When paint dries, it releases gases, which gets trapped and binds to the plastic. Must let the housing cure fully and give it enough time before playing with it

We all have hiccups, and can never claim 100% success rate, but that's where you can make up for it. Good to hear you took care of it.

If it was your first screw-up, just think of it as a learning experience, I know I did.

Keep up the good work.


PS. I wonder what the pros and cons would be if http://www.lmted.com and 180 Customs did a East coast/West coast collabo project
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