Why Close "BROKEN - Brand New Elephant Racing Torsion Bars" Thread?

[winders]

Why was this thread closed? The OP was fair to the vendor. The other posters were fair to the vendor. The vendor was not mistreated. The vendor could certainly have posted in the thread.

Does the new management here at Pelican protect vendors over the individuals who make up this forum?

[Jeff Higgins]

Originally Posted by winders

Why was this thread closed? The OP was fair to the vendor. The other posters were fair to the vendor. The vendor was not mistreated. The vendor could certainly have posted in the thread.

Does the new management here at Pelican protect vendors over the individuals who make up this forum?

Really - the OP was "fair to the vendor"? From his very first post:

Yesterday the same workshop disassembled the rear.

Look what happend.

Now the worst. The elephant racing service is really bad and slow and they want to check if itīs their fault.

Yesterday - this guy posted literally the day after his shop discovered the broken torsion bar, and was already accusing Elephant Racing's service as being really bad and slow. The OP is in Germany, ER is in California - there is clearly a time zone issue in play as well. So in one day, from a time zone literally halfway around the world, he is already accusing ER of having "bad and slow" service? That's "fair"?

He did not give ER any sort of a reasonable chance to evaluate the situation. He didn't like their first answer (which was apparently a request to be able to evaluate what happened), so he elected to come to a public forum (for the first time ever, by the way) and trash them in hopes of exerting pressure on them to meet his demands. With nothing to go on other than his word and a couple of photos. In one day...

[winders]

Jeff,

The photos clearly show the part was defective. It had failed and the area of failure was on the inside of the hollow torsion bar. ER having to say they needed to "evaluate" the failure is crazy. The right answer is to offer to replace the broken torsion bar immediately and apologize for any inconvenience caused. Maybe that had not seen the photos yet. If not, I would cut them a bunch of slack on that. But, brand new torsion bar failures are not likely to be anything other than faulty parts.

Now, I don't think ER needs to pay anything other than for the shipping of the new replacement bar. The OP can certainly ask for more but he was told by everyone in the thread that that was not realistic. If ER refused and he complained, the people in the thread would have set him straight on that.

I don't know what you think, but a torsion bar failure like that is a serious problem and could have resulted in the total loss of the car AND possibly loss of life. So, yeah, it's a big deal to the OP and would be to me. A CYA initial response would bother me too.....

[Jeff Higgins]

I agree with all of that, Scott. My issue is how quickly he ran to the internet to proclaim "ER sucks" - one day, across international time zones. That's likely not even enough time for ER to have verified they had actually sold those torsion bars to him, to have looked up their records, to have done any research whatsoever, to come to any sort of a real understanding of the situation. Just a cold call, or an email out of the blue, containing demands for a new torsion bar. I think any of us, receiving such a communication, would want to dig deeper and get more information. Then to have that customer - assuming he really was - jump on a popular forum essentially that very same day, proclaiming how "bad and slow" your service is? Very, very unfair.

[winders]

Well, it appears both Sanders and Sway-A-Way had time to respond to the OP.

Look, I just read through the the OP posts again. I don't see it the way you see it. Considering what happened, I think his posts are all fine.

[AG81]

I read the administrator, "Black 993", comment.....I could not agree more with what he said......It's a car part and chit happens. The demands that were presented in the manner they were presented seemed, to me, a tad over the top. Try that with a big parts house and see what happens.... At best they would replace the part.

[winders]

Originally Posted by AG81

....a tad over the top...

Would it be over the top if the guy crashed, destroyed his car, and ended up in the hospital all because the clearly defective torsion bar broke?

Look, at least most of the posters told him that he was not going to get anything but a replacement, but I understand where he is coming from because of what could have happened but luckily did not.

Every party involved is fortunate that the torsion broke when it did. When it's your life on the line, let's see how you react.

[proporsche]

i`m with Scott on this ..i wonder why ER did not do any re here ..It is so simple to say something..nobody is stupid here and we know metallurgic of material can go bad ,but not saying anything beats me.I am sure they see this..
Again, the op is lucky the material failure did not happened in a high speed....
Of course some of the post had some harsh words but again who would not be pissed off????

Just my 2c

Ivan

[OSC911]

The thing that bothered me with the entire thread was the fact that ER hadn’t really had much of a chance at making this right yet. Either replacing the defective part and or paying for the installation costs. Every dealing I have had with ER has been first class. I find it a little off putting that the first thread ever on this forum is to air a grievance. I too didn’t like the spirit of the thread from the get go.

[RWebb]

I agree with everybody on this

[proporsche]

Rwebb..so funny, you are;-)made me smile;-)
Ivan

[Canada Kev]

Originally Posted by RWebb

I agree with everybody on this

Originally Posted by proporsche

Rwebb..so funny, you are;-)made me smile;-)

Me too.



Against my better judgement, I think I'll wade into this a little...

It's my opinion that the moderator that closed the thread overstepped and should not have done that. I didn't read anything in that thread that was untrue or malicious. If the OP said, "The elephant racing service is really bad and slow", then that's an opinion, and I think we're all entitled to one. The comment is from his perspective, and it's perhaps defendable. And let us all consider the nuances in the translating and writing of someone who's native language is obviously not English. His delivery seemed a tad confrontational, but let's not get hung up on that.

We know that Chuck knows of this issue, and I'd be very surprised if he is unaware of this topic being played out here. I think it's classy that he's staying out of it to let all of us express our thoughts uncoloured by his own.

However, what I'm displeased with is how Chuck is handling it (from what we have been told by, admittedly, the one aggrieved party - and we know there are always two sides). The original post came up Friday morning just before 9 am Pacific time. I can only assume Chuck was aware of it at least the day before. If I was in ER's position and seeing those photos, I think I would have had a replacement set of torsion bars packaged up and on the nearest Fedex plane heading to Germany. Then post that here. Case closed.

As for being liable for the install cost, I can see it from both sides. However, that really is a conversation that should be happening between the OP and Chuck. Maybe they will reach an understanding that's a reasonable compromise for both parties. If Chuck told him, 'No, you're on your own', he'd be within his rights. Just like every other parts supplier. Their warranty is typically limited to parts replacement alone, without labour. Perhaps spectacular customer service might involve eating some of the labour cost, but it's not an obligation.

But to close the thread? Not cool. Nobody was getting hurt by the dialog and I didn't see anything inflammatory or libellous. Emotion filled and confrontational? Sure, but this is a public forum filled with all sorts of personalities. Let the boys duke it out in the back yard. Sticks and stones and all that. Everyone will come out in the end, tired and shaking hands and looking for a beer. Maybe I'm being naive, but it's always worked for me.

[icarp]

When I first looked at the broken TB , I knew in less than 5 seconds that the bar had an internal failure . I'm with scott

[proporsche]

Kevin..well said......

Ivan

[WPOZZZ]

I believe the thread could have continued as posters were objective about things. The point of contention was cost of installation.

I look at it this way, if I bring in a part for my mechanic to install and it fails, it is on me. If my mechanic supplies a part and it fails, it is on him. That is pretty much how my mechanic operates, and it makes sense to me.

[Black 993]

Gang, I don't have much to add to the note I attached to the other thread when I closed it.

There is a place on the forums for responsible, fact-based airing of grievances after you've attempted to work out a problem with a vendor but to no avail. But this is a case of airing of grievances before any such attempt was made. This is unfair to vendors (put yourself in their shoes for a moment), and it is an inappropriate use of the forums, which cannot be a place that encourages or incentivizes flame wars.

Thread closed again.