Posted June 28, 2010

Finally after ordering my rotors and pads almost 10 days ago from Buybrakes.com they will finally be shipped.

The story from EBC and BuyBrakes goes like this;
1) EBC has never received the RDX USR rotors in North America and at the time of my order despite being in their catalogue and an available part number through Buybrakes.com were not available.
2) I got an email 2 days after order from Buybrakes saying that the usr's were not available and the only ones EBC had were the basic non drilled or slotted rotors.
3) I called EBC and told them that they should not have rotors available in their catalogue if they were not available for order. I was informed from the EBC rep. that they had just arrived and would be available. I called BuyBrakes back and asked them to order.
4) Another 2 days pass and I receive an email from Buybrakes saying that the person I was talking to at EBC was mistaken....
5) The Buybrakes rep. I'm dealing with goes on a 3 day training, and is unavailable.
6) I email EBC and Buybrakes expressing my dissatisfaction with their service, I believe my exact words to EBC was "your products speak for themselves, unfortunately so does your customer service".
7) I spoke with Buybrakes rep. today and they have the blanks at EBC to create my rotors and ship them to me.

Wow, what a pain in the A$$. They better be worth it!



Posted July 17, 2010

Final update for my experiences with Buybrakes.com, and EBC.

I finally received my pads and rotors delivered Tuesday July 13th, based on an order placed June 18....yes 5 days short of 1 month.

So here is how the final chapter of my experience came about:

1) Please read my previous posts 6/18 and 6/28 above regarding what has happened up until now, as this experience only gets better.
2) So on Thursday July 1, I took the opportunity to call Buybrakes.com's but instead of dealing with the sales person I request her supervisor.
3) I explain the situation to the supervisor basically stating that I had ordered these brakes almost 2 weeks ago and been promised they would ship on June 29 or 30.
4) The supervisor from Buybrakes.com got on the phone with the sales rep. from EBC and inquired of the status of my brakes, at which time EBC said the brakes would be back from the platers tomorrow (Friday), and since Monday was a holiday would ship Tuesday.
5) At this point I am quite annoyed and request to have a discount based on the fact that I have already spent in excess of 2 hours arranging to have my brakes made and shipped, what am I paying Buybrakes.com to do if I am making all the arrangements, and following up with the manufacturer. The supervisor agrees to credit me $10.....
6) Tuesday July 5 rolls around and I have received no shipping information so of course I call Buybrakes.com supervisor back.
7) Immediately once I start discussing the status of my brakes with the Buybrakes.com supervisor he brings up the fact that I have posted details of my experience on Acurazine, and figures that since they are trying to work with me I should be more understanding. At this point I suggest to him that nothing that was posted was incorrect or inaccurate in anyway and that if he has issue than he should deal with the issue he created.
8) So once again we call EBC and discuss with the same sales rep the status of my order. The sales rep. states that the plating is not complete as of yet, and the Buybrakes.com supervisor starts into how long the plating process takes. Up until now I have not told either of them that I am a Mechanical Engineer who has worked in automotive for 12 years, and throughout all of my career have dealt with plating practices of all kinds. So at this point I express to them that they are full of shit and I am sure I know a little bit about plating.
9) The Buybrakes.com supervisor at this point tell me, "I am an un-realistic customer", which of course doesn't sit too well and I ensure they understand my position regarding the situation. The Buybrakes supervisor following my rant tells me that if I wish to cancel my order that would be okay, at which time I express to him that I have invested almost 3 weeks into this purchase and that, "I don't order brakes if I don't require to replace them".
10) EBC then assures the Buybrakes.com supervisor and I that the plating will be completed tomorrow, I then tell them that when the plating process is complete that someone other than me is paying to have the order expedited because I am not waiting another 2 weeks to receive my parts.
11) At this time the distribution company Buybrakes.com's supervisor tells EBC that they need to fix their internal problems regarding this type of situation, and tells EBC to deal directly with me. At this point I just chuckly thinking, wow Buybrakes.com doesn't want to take responsibility for their own supplier, or customer. What little respect I had for Buybrakes.com is now gone.
12) So the following day I call EBC sales rep. who informs me that the order has left 3 day expedite, and provides me a tracking number. What is not told is that there are actually 2 packages, 1 that shipped that day and another that shipped the following day.
13) During my conversation with EBC I suggest that they may want to look for another distributor because any distributor who would throw them, "under the bus" like that while on the phone with a customer is one that I would not want to deal with.

Long story longer - My initial impression of the brakes is quite good, nice feel and definately an improvement over OEM. I will let you know how they are down the road. I would if all goes well, based on initial impression purchase these brakes again with the expectation of waiting 4-6 weeks for delivery, not the 3-4 days stated on the site.

As for Buybrakes.com I would not recommend this company, they were unwilling to take responsibility for the product they sell, no interest in customer service, and no interest in making the customer happy.