RaceRoots: Feedback
 

October 9th 2009, I bought a TURBO XS FULL EXHAUST at Fluidmotorsport and sent Brice $ 989 as payment. He got my money 3 days later.
So far……..I still have no exhaust!!

I’m currently having Jeff (MAZDAMANIAC) tuning my accessport. I’m gonna have him tuning it (and pay for it) by Jeff again when (and IF!) my exhaust arrives…..

I bought greddy turbo kit for my rx8, I bought many parts from USA and other countries but never had a problem with anyone except for Brice and FLUIDMOTORSPORT/RACE ROOTS.
I understand that problems might happen but I’m definetly running out of patience and seriously thinking that I’ve been frauded!

I’m from Italy and don’t usually write on RX8CLUB because of my bad English (a friend is helping me now) but I’m a member of RX8 TRIBE (the Italian forum about our car, www.rx8tribe.com) and want you to be aware of this unreliable company!
I hope you guys can tell me what you think and suggest. Thank you for your help.

A mailing exchange report between Brice and me follows.
-BRICE to ME (10nov2009) : It just came in from Turbo XS so it will be shipping this week. Just waiting on tracking on my shipping dept.
- BRICE to ME (24nov2009) : They only sent the catback and no race pipe so I am getting that straightened out now. My apologies for this inconvenient delay.
- BRICE to ME (8dec2009) : Midpipe is enroute
- BRICE to ME (11jan2010): I am still patiently waiting from TurboXS, I think the delay is because it is coming in a bulk order thru my supplier.
- BRICE to ME (13jan2010) after I asked Brice to refund my money : I have already paid in full for the exhaust, because of an issue with the vendor not fulfilling the order like they are supposed to.
- BRICE to ME (19jan2010) : I am waiting on a reply email and phone call from TurboXS as to a exact date.
- BRICE to ME (28gen2010) : We just got a reply from TurboXS yesterday, they are out of stock and their eta is 3 weeks.

Brice dont need to steal your money. He makes a ton by selling parts to poeple like me.
It takes a time to get parts that are on backorder. Just like it takes time for people in the usa to get parts from japan ect.
Look on the bright side, there are people who waited a year to get a turbo :rofl:

This must be a fluke.. Brice has never had any problems shipping stuff to me! just be patient my friend :)

Hell i think 90% of the stuff on my car came from Brice

The Catback is here, TurboXS or my distributing supplier made a mistake as I had ordered it with the midpipe but it never came, after constant emails back and forth I had it straightened out. At that time they were currently out of stock for the midpipe so now we wait for the midpipe.

If you want I can ship the catback now, when the midpipe comes in you can pay the additional shipping.

Really out of my control, my apologies.

Let me know.

Brice is legit

this is a first ive dealt with brice a lot and never had a problem ... he even lent me a fuel pump tool to change the pump he sold me once

I had no problems with RR either but I will say, Lack of communication and/or excessive wait times for products seems to be a HUGE issue with many of vendors here.

+1 he let me send 2 separate payments because i was broke that week

That was swoopes tool he was kind enough to let you/me borrow it, I was merely helping out.

Yeah every situation is different, my suppliers give me xyz date I estimate, I make mistakes they make mistakes.

I try my best to estimate in this case with the exhaust Either Turboxs or my supplier failed to communicate the need for a midpipe, who knows. All I know is it didnt come in my shipment and the customer needs it.

Fact of the matter is I can kick and scream all day at both of them it is not going to fix the situation or make them move any faster or not make mistakes.

Wish I could be perfect and stock 100% of the inventory we sell, no company can support that. Even my suppliers that are industry giants like agency power frequently run out of their product and have looong wait times.

It just happens planning and timing is everything.

I second that.

brice is a goodguy, you just have to understand he runs this business himself. Bought coils and plugs off him before and recently bought a gauge setup off of him, took a while to get shipped because out of stock but I would gladly do business with RaceRoots again anytime I need something.

brice is a good guy just got my evo r end links from him and the sway bars just sent out today.

Brice is legit. However, Brice, please do right by Robert205. If you can ship the catback now, you should pick up the additional shipping when the midpipe comes in and ship at your expense. If that means you lose money on the deal---OH WELL. That is customer service.

Please keep in mind that I am on your side. Your reputation is not worth any small loss you have on the additional shipping. If any thing, a reputable resolution on a mishap that was not your fault will only promote your vendor status.

Make us proud! We need to keep and have great vendors for the RX-8 platform. It keeps me excited about the car I drive.

Just my two cents.

Thanks for the comments guys! :)

The customer is waiting to tune so he will need the midpipe regardless - it would have been a kind offer though.

This line was the one thing that bothered me in RaceRoot's side of things:

You are the Vendor - you are to take care of your customer, not tell them their SOL and leave them hanging on potential extra shipping charges.

I have dealt with various vendors and though I do not expect them to break their backs, if an estimated delivery time is known not to make it, an offer of a full refund will help a good deal. Still, the idea that the vendor values the customer over themselves is what is most important. It may be easier said than done but indeed their are vendors out there that follow this modo without leaving customers felt as if they're left in the dust.

Just some consumer input. I don't deal specifically in the car parts market but customer appreciation is king in any consumer's market, regardless of circumstances.

I haven't dealt with bryce directly but I will honestly say this won't deter me from doing so, either. Simply made a mistake, things will eventually be righted, people make mistakes.

brice is good guy, i aint gonna lie like 98 percent parts on my car is from him...

There are lots of creative ways to mitigate things beyond one's control: Throw in an extra set of spark plugs free of charge. Or, better yet----What better money spent in marketing than sending a no charge sales sample to Italy of one your your custom pieces like your shift gate stopper? Sure, the customer is still held up from doing his tune but it sure lessens the sting. Plus he goes to his buddies and shows off some of his goodies from Race Roots.

Everyone realizes shit happens. When somebody gives a damn, that's when we stop and say, "Hey, that guy will do right by me if a transaction when awry."

I always realize how someone treats another is how I'll most likely be treated. The past is often indicative of the future.

Anyway, as stated---I have faith in Brice. I've seen him operate via these boards before and I've been impressed. He always seems to take the high road and I respect that.

I dealt with Brice twice. No problems what so ever. Good guy. I even referred two friends to him they haven't had any problems either. I would buy from him again.

I fully understand that there may be shipping complications due to your location(see my current location).... but you do know that the TurboXS sells for $500? Hell even on his site its listed as such. I hope to god you didnt pay $400 for shipping?

I have met Brice and his family. He is a stand up guy. I was wanting a set of Stance coilovers at one time and he told me up front that they were backordered and it would be awhile before he could get them. This was BEFORE any money swapped hands. He was also willing to price match anyones elses prices.
Any business is going to have a screw up sooner or later. Just let Brice take care of it. He will make it right.
OD

Ive had a few large shippments of parts from Brice. The first one was a situation like this. I bought a cat-back and intake, just shy of 1k. Parts didn't come in when expected, and missed out on a great opportuinty. I was bitter at first, then understood things happen.

I tried again back in May-June and spent close to another 2k in suspension parts. I gave him a timeline that I needed all of the parts by as I was driving the 8 across the country and it was going to sit for a year while Im in Iraq. I got most parts within the week and the only 2 that didn't show, Brice made damn sure I would get them in time for my install with the Seattle guys at the army base shop. They came in 2 days prior and everything went smoothly.

Since Ive been in Iraq, I made another $750ish purchase and had it shipped to my friends house. Everything came on time and I still ask about parts monthly and if he can get a great deal on them.

Take a breath and sit back. It will work out.

During the few purchases I bought from Fluid/Roots Brice communicated each day answering my questions as well as going over and beyond to fix an error. He corrected an issue where the wrong part size was sent and wound up putting my car out of commission for a day. Once I explained the problem and what happened he immediately sent the correct part overnight shipping for free so I could fix the vehicle and get it up and running the next day.

My point alike to others is people mess up, but Brice in my experience manned up and got the problem fixed pronto. That's customer support IMO and based on my conversations with him I don't doubt he's trying all he can to remedy the problem.

ouch .... i would be one of those guys and still waiting lol ....one day....one day

ive had a good experience with raceroots so far with no issues, fast and prompt and handled all my questions

I have made two separate orders from Race Roots/Fluid. The first was for a new brake set-up, the second was a set of RPF1s. There were issues with both orders not coming in as estimated (and I mean month(s) behind), some of which could have been reasonable and others certainly were not. However, my largest issue with the interaction, was the vendor's lack of communication and follow-up. To help curb the sting of the situations (after I had repeatedly PM'd), Brice offerred to send me free lugs for the new wheels which I thought was a decent touch to smooth things over. However, many months later, I have not recieved these either, and, frankly, it is not worth my time to pursue. Well over a dozen PMs had to be sent just to get ship dates or accurate order status on items which I paid for.

Brice is fully aware of my history, as I have spoken to him on several occassions. I will say that he seems to be a good guy, however, I will not be doing any further business (as much as I would like to) with Fluid/Race Roots due to the lack of service and complete lack of communication.

I feel that we need to separate something here: Brice is running a business. Brice may be the best guy in the world, but the business currently has some serious issues which need to be addressed. I do sincerely hope that these issues are remedied, and Brice is successful (or more successful). We need some reliable vendors, and I would love to see capitalism at its finest within our own rx-8 community.

Brice, I hope that I have accurately portrayed the issues which I had. I do not mean to throw anyone under any buses (you know that I have not publicly shown my distaste on any of these good guy/bad guy forums), but I felt that some accurate feedback was needed as an additional example in this particular thread. Best of luck. Handle this guy and turn the complaint into a positive, amigo.

Thanks.

I would add that these issues are not specific to this vendor. I've had similar problems with large, national-level vendors. For the most part the majority of internet-based retailers say something is "in-stock" when they really mean "we have agreements with our warehouse suppliers and usually I can get them to send it within the normal few days, but if for some reason THEY dont have it and can't get it from some affiliated supplier, then you're going to be waiting for a few weeks". If RR is running out of someone's house then of course they are subject to these same issues, which isn't necessarily a problem.

*BUT* This is annoying, but at least many of the better retailers I've dealt with basically tell you this ahead of time. The issue here with fluid / race roots is that he does not seem to want to communicate these issues with customers. He seems to have very wonderful communication and customer service when parts are available, which is why he has plenty of great reviews, so that's a good thing. But I think most people would agree with me is that the hallmark of customer service is how properly things are handled when something goes wrong, especially if that's not a really infrequent occurrence. The ongoing mazsport connection still concerns me as well (just earlier I saw a thread where he offered to convert an Int-X in the for sale section to the turbo version, which is slightly interesting). So there is more to a vendor and customer service than quick shipping 'most' of the time....


Edit: PS- Seriously though, anyone who buys car parts on the internet and does not know what "drop shipping" is just asking for confusion and disappointment.

@!!narotordo, why must you flame and act like a fan boy in every post? You are quite annoying.

I have had multiple problems with Brice, Fluid, and Race Roots.

Don't stop, believinnn!!

NANANA!!

Brice is a good guy, I've bought most of my parts from him, and yes, sometimes there are issues getting things in on schedule, but what's the rush? You know he'll get it to you, and he'll get it to you in great condition. If you have ANY questions or concerns or ANYTHING, just send him a P/M and he'll answer same day.

Meh, people just need to learn patience.

The OP doesn't really speak english so he needs somebody to translate :)
I will help me if he wants me to.

Since he asked for a refund (that's what he told me) i don't understand why people are still talking about resolutions and patience. Waiting for an "in stock" exhaust for nearly 4 months while asking for a resolution shows patience, especially when there's a tuning schedule involved.

Just remember the time frame:
I have personally never ordered from Brice but spoke to him on a couple of occasions where he politely replied so i can't share my personal experience.
What Rich would like to know is if he's going to accept to refund the 900 or so $ that he paid upfront. That's pretty much it, he doesn't like this way of dragging it on to avoid to refund him since he now wants his money back.

I hope that it makes sense.

I'm sorry guys but as bse said i don't speak english very well. I would be happy to see him helping me here to answer quick and try to solve my problem.

Bought a lot of stuff from Brice, overseas also and never had a problem. I haven`t realized that he changed the name to race-roots and i stopped buying stuff from the forum.

I still intend to send his exhaust, I am waiting on the midpipe from TurboXS.

I have other customers that have been waiting for other stuff as well and they have the patience and understanding to wait as they are informed.

Still here :) Haven't heard from you in awhile.

Brice,

Since you're still intending to send him his exhaust after 4 months and considering what your latest update was (bolded) can we make an agreement that, if within 10 days from tomorrow, you don't provide Rich with a tracking number you will then proceed with a refund for what he paid?
We can understand waiting from october to the end of february for a turbo kit or something like that but for an exhaust that was said to be in stock that's not acceptable.
He's not willing to wait further than your last ETA, that should be pretty clear.

Is this resolution ok for you? It seems to be a good old gentlemen agreement for the parties.

Feel free to pm me the details, thanks! Rich paid via paypal so his customer protection time is running low. He doesn't even want to use it, Brice's word here to accept the "conditions" posted above (Package shipped within the last declared timeframe or a refund) would do!

Honestly we don't want to start any kind of discussion about what a good customer service is here, we just have a little situation to be looked at with concrete answers and actions. Hearing that somebody received everything in time doesn't help either so please refrain from saying so.
Also keep in mind that doing what we think is the right thing to do would not make Race Root look like a poor business for we'd all rather buy from somebody capable to handle some kind of issue during a transaction than just hope that everything works out well!

i have had delayed expensive items from brice, but when he says he'll straighten things out, he really means it and does a good job at what he does.
its all about patients, you'll get your exhaust. he wouldnt fraud anyone.

This should be seriously reinforced on all good guy / bad guy threads....

I sincerely hope that Brice is not out to screw us up, that's why Rich didn't file any dispute but asked him some resolutions. If something is said to be in stock or has a delivery time you have to inform the owner and at least offer him the possibility to choice.
I hope to see him posting here saying that he accepts our proposed agreement (If he doesn't respect the last ETA he refunds Rich), showing that his company is reliable enough to take care of troubles.
If he struggles to do so Rich will be forced to seek legal action since the 45 days of paypal's customer protection are now over and Rich has been so kind not to use it, trusting Brice and his delivery promises.

Guess we'll have to wait and see. Where are you Brice?

October -> Feb.. 5 months for an exhaust...

Agency Power (went to them direct for my exhaust) Took me 7 months, and it shipped with bent exhaust tips..

Shit happens with car parts man..

The fact is that first Brice stated that the midpipe was en-route and then said another thing. We're here trying to work out a resolution so please don't try to teach us that it may take a long time to receive parts. We already know that, thanks.

Shit happens, i agree. By the way since this item was never shipped it is up to the reseller (he's not a distributor, just a reseller) to work things out. If it was lost by the postal service we would be blaming them and not his company.

Brice is apparently not posting here either, ignoring the issue and our resolution proposals. Other companies followed the same lines in the past so i will stop posting if not to reply to his messages here that will hopefully follow soon.

i've had several good experiences buying from brice. it's usually very quick. but if it is going to take a little longer, he let's you know in a courteous and professional manner, and he demonstrates his dedication to completing your transaction.

one thing he might do is try to keep his site updated with time of delivery estimates. that might seem like a lot of work, but you could have 3 categories.

there's stuff you know can always get quickly and some stuff you have in stock.
there's stuff like certain exhausts that you know are more difficult to get or otherwise take a bit longer to acquire for the customer.
there's stuff you think you might be able to get, but you need to check on availability.

that would solve a lot of this i think. maybe not. people (customers) are crazy.

i stil haven't picked my exhaust exchange up from the dealership brice worked a warranty claim with for me. that was like 7 months ago. and everything is still cool. i can go pick up my exhaust anytime.

Brice wont' issue a refund on this without lining up another buyer first because then he'll be stuck with a Turbo XS exhaust that he might or might not be able to move quickly

If an item is labled 'in-stock' then it should be delivered in a timely manner
If Turbo XS misinformed Brice then that's BRICE'S problem and he needs to figure out how to resolve that with Turbo XS and keep his customer satisfied. If this is typical of TurboXS, then maybe RR/Fluid needs to reconsider who they want to do business with as it'll only continue to negatively affect THEM and their customers.
Ignoring the customer's CONSTANT requests for refunds is not an appropriate way of handling this but it is Brice's normal pattern.
For anyone who doubts that, simply see Brice's old Group Buy thread on Tein dampers where I repeatedly asked for refunds only to be ignored. He's done it before (that was years ago when he posted under BluMonstrRX8), he'll continue to do it.
https://www.rx8club.com/group-buy-center-85/group-buy-tein-hood-dampers-116734/page6/


I hope this gets resolved because waiting 5 months for an exhaust is ridiculous.



216

I just PM'd TurboXS directly here and asked them what the ETA was for the midpipe, INSTOCK! was their reply.

So I can only imagine what has happened along the lines of communication between everybody.

I am on the phone as we speak with my supplier to get this issue resolved and get the customers long over due order shipped out. ASAP!

Thanks

Brice

Brice, curiously enough i contacted TurboXS as well and they said that they knew nothing about this delay.
I won't blame you since you're just a reseller and not a distributor BUT do you agree with our proposal that if you can't meet the last ETA you will refund Rich?
Especially since the exhaust never were on backorder and all this bullshit Rich wasted 4 months when a fast call to TurboXS would have solved this.
I do know that they had them in stock all the time by now so you either didn't call TurboXS directly but relied on your supplier OR invented your phone calls etc. I firmly want to believe that your supplier is an asshole :)

So... do you agree?

I dont consider my supplier an a-hole they are one of the biggest in the industry if not the biggest they are way beyond too busy. And yes I was relying on only talking thru my distributor.

Just got off the phone and it has been ordered. I will be getting it mid next week and we can finally ship out everything.

It will be shipping Fedex so the customer will have it sooner than later.

Well, i hope that by next week we'll have a tracking number then. Anyway keep this in mind:

Now you finally said that you only spoke with your distributor... Then why you lied?
TurboXS? Out of stock? Eta? Turbo XS was never aware of this problem and they had the exhausts.

Please be honest next time, blaming a company that is not even involved isn't fair.
Maybe it's also time to change distributor, big or not they show a lack of communication.

Anyway what happens if you can't get the exhaust during next week?

Thanks for the replies,
Giorgio

I never lied, a response from Turboxs is not possible to be said a response from Turboxs if I did not get that message thru my supplier?

These messages change on a frequent basis and I go off what I am told at that moment, either thru the phone, AIM, or email with the corresponding supplier that I am getting it thru.

It is obvious to me what happened and well I am less than pleased I dont see why you continue to harp on the subject. The issues has been addressed and will be resolved shortly.

I'll poke my head in for a moment. . .

I know I've said this before in another thread about Raceroots (formerly fluid). . .

In my opinion, it should be known to the buyers/customers that Raceroots does not have the product in stock in most cases. . . It just doesn't seem like there is that transparency and many buyers. I just feel they should be aware.

In most cases, Customer orders from RR; RR orders from supplier. . . 3-5 days later, customer gets product.

However, with this middle man comes back orders, delays, and mis communication. So every now and again someone gets caught in the middle of the supply chain finger pointing.

I've purchased from fluid/Raceroots a few times now, for my AP exhaust being the largest item. It was fine, great price, etc.
However, I personally don't like the business model. . . as the company receiving the end user's money directly, RaceRoots should stand behind the product, service, and shipping of the products they sell. Not point the finger on back at their suppliers or manufacturers.

Raceroots is a solid company, and isn't out to screw anyone and I feel will do the right thing in the end, regardless. I just wish that they were a bit more upfront with their business model, because every couple of months, something like this seems to happen.

I'm sorry be the advocatus diaboli and i'm just trying to make things clear as to know what went wrong.
If you never lied then your supplier did because they said that an item was on backorder with a long wait when it was actually ready to be ordered.
Apparently your supplier didn't even contact TurboXS for this matter since they were not aware of this delay!

Now that the issue has been addressed, as you say, can you please explicitly say what will you do if we don't receive a tracking number in the next ten days (should be enough, right?).
We all want to believe that you are really taking care of us so please reply. You avoided answering this question in the previous posts.

Thanks,

Giorgio

@Vyndictive: I agree with you but apparently small companies like Race Roots have only got the possibility to stock a limited amount of items at a time so they MUST rely on the dealers and suppliers. Nothing wrong with that!. The difference generally stands in how a company deals with the problems that may arise in such circumstances. Clearer replies and further invastigation would have solved this issue in a week. We waited 4 months and didn't receive the exhaust yet :)
There are companies that directly contact you to give you informations about the delays spontaneously offering to refund the money if the delay is unbearable.
Race Roots apparently lacks this kind of communication with the products manufacturers and parts supplier.

Agreed, but I don't feel Raceroots is very open that this is their standard operating procedure. . . I don't know how aware most customers are that Raceroots often times doesn't order the product that they've purchased until AFTER they've paid for it. . .

Its just a question of transparency I guess.

Agreed again. The problem with is that another company went bankrupt for the same reson (plus others but that doesn't matter here) and left somebody without both money and products.
What i don't get is why Race Roots still replies here saying that he's sorting everything out but keeps refusing to tell us what happens if he doesn't get the exhaust in time.

It's not the wait, the problem is the reason why you wait 4 months for a part that is in stock :)
That's the reason why i'm very picky about the companies i buy from :)