I call BS on Just Suspension

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Darwin

Darwin

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Muskego WI
Heres the story.
I ordered a complete front suspension kit, upper and lower ball joints, poly LCA bushings and strut rod bushings, tie rods and ends, back in Dec. 2010 through my brother, a 30+ yr veteran in the auto repair business. I'm finally at the point where I can take it for a front end alignment, so off to the shop it goes, about a week ago. The guys at the alignment shop called me the next morning to inform me that they can not align the front end with that "bad" lower ball joint on the right side...WHAT?...Everything is brand new. So I picked up the car and took it back to my brothers shop and did some investigating. Sure enough, the ball joint moves about 1/2" side to side, not good. My brother got on the phone with Just Suspension and was told by them that he needs to get a second opinion...Huh?...They don't respect the opinion of a 30+ yr veteran who happened to spend thousands of dollars with them over the last few years. So he aquired a copy of the alignment shops findings on their letterehead and along with his forwarded both to JS. He then followed up with a phone call and was told "well this has never happened" this is "very rare" and that he needs to send them the defective part and they will determine if it is bad before they can send a replacement. At my expense,of course. How can a parts supplier claim they never sold a defective part, they don't make the parts, they just buy from the JA Pan Co, repackage them in kit form and sell them to unsuspecting buyers like you and I. Oh, by the way, heres an RA# that must be clearly marked on the mailing label.
So now what? I'm supposed to leave my car on the hoist at my brothers shop till they get around to determining whether the part has a manufacturers defect? How long do you think they will keep me "Just Suspended"? Keep in mind, this car has about 9 miles on it since the front suspension was rebuilt.

Should have gone to PST.
 
Won't they honor a exchange of the lower ball joint?
 
I call BS on ALL those kinda kits. I always use Moog. Piece together your own kit with known good parts. Costs a lil more, but worth it.
 
I just bought a kit "my kit'' i pieced everything together myself. All moog stuff from rock auto and it worked GREAT!! I never liked those ''kits''.Sorry ur havin problems i hope they get it resolved fast.
 
old tired rebel said:
Won't they honor a exchange of the lower ball joint?
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Thats just it. They won't exchange the part until they have the junk one in their hands. And only if THEY determine it to be defective. Even at that, I"m supposed to wait around through this whole process? Bogus!
I went ahead and picked up a Moog part which I'll be changing out today. I'm still going to send the other one back and see how they handle this whole thing.
 
StrokerScamp said:
I call BS on ALL those kinda kits. I always use Moog. Piece together your own kit with known good parts. Costs a lil more, but worth it.
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Thats what I get for trying to save a buck. I did replace the pitman and idler arms with Moog parts though, that I picked up on my own.
 
78kitcar said:
I just bought a kit "my kit'' i pieced everything together myself. All moog stuff from rock auto and it worked GREAT!! I never liked those ''kits''.Sorry ur havin problems i hope they get it resolved fast.
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Speed doesn't seem to be in their vocabulary, I guess thats why they call themselves "Just Suspended", or should I get a second opinion on that. lol
 
If you bought the kit with a credit card, call the credit card company and tell them. They can retract the payment, that will get their attention.
Rod
 
StrokerScamp said:
I call BS on ALL those kinda kits. I always use Moog. Piece together your own kit with known good parts. Costs a lil more, but worth it.
Click to expand...

Me too. If I buy a bad part locally I go back and throw it on the counter. Advance Auto Parts recently lost my business. Let's not kid ourselves though. They dont care. Hordes of new customers/suckers arrive daily.
 
I agree with " stroker scamp" and I use Moog only and PST bushings. Don't use that jap junk.
 
Wow!! you posted this just in time. I was going to order something else from them but,

"any supplier that jerks around a FABO member, is dead to me"

Think I'll go elsewhere, thx for the heads up.
 
StrokerScamp said:
I call BS on ALL those kinda kits. I always use Moog. Piece together your own kit with known good parts. Costs a lil more, but worth it.
Click to expand...

Had a similar experience with PST on my first Dart, a '67 slant 6 with the 'one-year-only' idler arm. It was the first suspension I had ever done, but my buddy was an ASE certified tech, so it was done right. Within a few weeks the idler arm went out, so I called PST and they were out of stock and would be able to send a new one out in about 2 months- but only if I sent the bad one back and let them determine if it was defective first. Being my driver/school car, I couldn't wait that long (plus my suspicion that the CSR was an a-hole, he had great customer skills). So I had to pony up $120 plus tax to buy it locally. Never had a problem, but they burned me once so screw PST and the others like them. Buy the 'known' quantity and save yourself and headache and fun of re-doing a job.
 
Not to take their side on this, but I'm sure they receive thousands of these calls a year, many from people that have no knowledge, limited capability, or have destroyed the parts during an attempted install. It would be nice to just be able to send out replacement parts after a phone call, but not too business smart.

One of the problems with purchasing over the internet is that when you do have a problem, you have to wait the period of time for any resolution. If you buy locally, then you can minimize that time by returning it in person.

However, I just cant call up my local part supplier, tell them I have a problem with one of their parts and expect them to just ship me one (at no charge for part or shipping) either. It's my gas and my time to have it dealt with.

Did you install the kit? Did you not notice it was bad? Did the shop you were dealing with f$^% it up? Did you not read their policy in the event of a defective part?

Not berating you, but I think with 1/2" of play, this could have been found out and rectified long ago. It's not their fault that you are "on the rack"

Grant
 
OneOfMany, I can see your point of view but, as stated in my original post, my brother has been a mechanic for 30+ yrs and has been doing business with Just Suspension for several years. He has sent parts back to them in the past and recieved full credit, so why the run around this time?
As far as not noticing the defect until now, ya the parts were installed back in Jan. but other than rolling the car around a little bit it hasn't seen any milage until about a month ago. You know how long projects can take, its not like I'm working on this 24/7. I didn't even get a chance to adjust the tow in until about that time and thats when I kind of realised something wasn't right. I'm no expert on car repair but I've been around the block a few times, how do you damage a lower ball joint installing it?
My brother gave them his professional opinion and at their request, got a second opinion and still the attitude form them. At this point I'm not looking for a replacement, I'm just hoping to get a refund. I'll ship it back, follow all the rules and see where it ends up.
 
Last I checked Napa's parts are made by MOOG.....might pay a bit more but.......FWIW a former co-worker got a kit from on of the companies, 1500 miles later 1 dead upper and 1 dead lower ball joint......
 
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