zmcgovern4

iTrader: (2)

I've always been one to leave feedback for items I buy online... whether it is Amazon, eBay, or whatever, if I get good service and a good product, I share my experience so others can feel confident about what they are buying and who they are buying it from. Unfortunately this is not one of those cases...

I purchased my car on 5/31, and a day later I bought a set of 2011 LED headlights from eBay seller lexmaniac2 (his name is Al) operating the eBay store Original Lexus Parts. I paid $1675 shipped for what was described as a used set of loaded headlights, pre-wired for 100% brightness, no broken tabs, no damage, in good working condition.

My headlights arrived on June 7th, and I installed them on June 9th. Once installed, I turned them on to check that everything worked properly. CL member nicklausw was helping me with the install, and we both noticed that the passenger side LED was not quite as bright as the driver side. It was as if the passenger side was at 90% and the driver side was at 100%... just slightly different, but enough to notice. I called Al immediately as I did not want to put the entire car back together in case he wanted me to return the lights ASAP. He told me that there was no way one LED should be slightly less bright than the other, and that I should drive with them for a few days to see if it bothers me or not (yes, it bothers me, that is why I am calling you). His only suggestion was to check the connector, so I tried cleaning the pins, and that did not do anything. I also noticed that the outer most bulb on the driver side headlight was not working and did not appear to be serviceable. When I mentioned this to him, he avoided the topic and didn't seem to care about helping me resolve this issue, but he did say that they would take care of me if the passenger side light did not "fix itself".

So with that in mind, I decided to put my bumper back together and leave the lights installed as he suggested to see if the LEDs magically matched after a few days. When I arrived home from my shop, I noticed the passenger side headlight was full of dust and dirt... possibly the cause of the dim appearance?, so I called him back and told him this. He told me that he does not ship dirty lights and that was impossible. He seemed upset that I was telling him this, so I sent him these pictures...

Shipment #1: Passenger Side - Dim LED, Full of Dirt. Driver Side - Faulty outer bulb




The issue with the passenger side LED did not go away, and with the dirt inside the light, I did not want it anyway. So after a couple of weeks (on 6/13), he agreed to send me a replacement passenger headlight, but requested another $400 from me as a deposit, which I paid (they now have $2075 from me).

After another week or so, my replacement headlight arrived.... except it was a 2012 headlight, not a 2011. If you're unaware of the differences, the 2012 LEDs are slightly different color and the clear lens has a bumpy pattern in the outer corner. I called Al to explain what had happened and that I wanted a matching 2012 for the driver side before I bothered removing the bumper to install the replacement lights. He agreed to help me and asked for photos of the passenger side light so that he could send me a matching driver side. I sent him the following photos.

Shipment #2: Passenger Side Light - 2012 Version with Chrome Housing above LED Strip




On July 11th, nearly 1.5 months after this fiasco started, I received my replacement drivers side headlight. It was a 2012 light, off to a good start....... but the housing directly above the LED strip was BLACK, not chrome like the passenger side light I had been given. I didn't even know that was an option, but somehow they again managed to send me a light that did not help me out! To make things worse, this light had broken mounting tabs on the headlight housing and also on the main electrical harness.

Shipment #3: 2012 Drivers Side Headlight - Wrong color housing, does not match passenger side - Broken tabs





Up to this point I have been pretty calm, but now I am just ticked off. This guy has over $2000 from me and cannot send me a set of headlights that are in good working condition and match each other... how hard is that?!

I called Original Lexus Parts - no answer. It was after their posted business hours, so I sent Al another eBay message explaining my frustration due to the amount of time and money I have invested into this and the obviously poor attention to details on their end. I ended the message by asking "Are you able to send me a matching set of lights that are functioning and in good condition as originally promised? Or do I need to take my business elsewhere? " His response was "I will call you tomorrow to sort this out as I am as well frustrated with this and it does look like you will have to take your business elsewhere."

Can you believe that... they are frustrated with me? So much so that my $2000 is not good enough for them.

I gave Al a call a couple of days later because they had failed to contact me as promised (which was also a trend throughout this ordeal). Al said he had another set of headlights right in front of him, and these too had mismatched housings, but that it was not noticeable to anyone besides me and that I was just being too picky and expecting too much. He said he planned to sell this mismatched set and was sure the new owner would never even notice. He also said that the broken tabs on the light were of no concern and were not something I should be upset about. Long story short, they were not willing to help me any longer, so I requested return shipping labels to return all 4 lights to them and seek another source for my needs.

It has been 5 days since my lights were delivered to them, and so far I have only received a partial refund because they "don't keep enough funds in their paypal to refund me". Still waiting on my refund so that I can be done with this mess after 2 months.

This eBay seller has a considerable amount of items for sale at any given time, and always 1-2 sets of headlights, so I just wanted to share my frustrations in an attempt to warn the Club Lexus community that you may be headed up a rocky road if you're purchasing used parts from this seller. I am sure this is a rare occurrence, as they have high feedback ratings, so hopefully some of you have had great experiences with this seller, but this was not handled professionally by any means, and if it can happen to me, it can certainly happen to you.

Rickna

iTrader: (3)

Thank you for sharing your experience. I have seen his stuff, and I was considering buying a set of headlights. Seems to me is his is turning around (sets of) headlights. Totally unacceptable.

imp0rted1

good looking out.

I was looking at them for my 2012+ conversion. Ended up sourcing 2 used lights from 2 different sellers.

I didn't realize that they sell both used and new conversions.

best of luck going forward.

nicklausw

I bet you see these exact same lights back on eBay sooner than later.

STLblueF

iTrader: (3)

Looks like they just sold the ones that were shipped back:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/PAIR-LEXUS-I...lXlfre&vxp=mtr

Read the details.. Hope you get the rest of your money back soon, Zach.

I8ABMR

Thanks for the heads up. These people need to realize that we are a community and will spread the word

STLblueF

iTrader: (3)

Casually asked seller why the left led is dimmer than the right and he stated "camera and angle, they're the same". Yeah, right.

Rickna

iTrader: (3)

That's what I was saying. I would buy only new ones.

k20trick

iTrader: (3)

Hello zmcgovern, good job on pointing those bad merchants out, sorry about the loss. There are way too many bad sellers online, why not use the ebay buyer protection and do a chargeback?

I know when I sold my supercharger some guy actually charged the transaction back for the full amount 5 1/2 months later out of no where claiming that the throttle body was damaged during shipping ultimately agreeing on a $300 refund which I just gave to keep the buyer happy. It sucks for the seller I know, but since your the buyer I would go ahead and file a dispute with that transaction. Paypal/Ebay sides over the buyer almost always. And the right thing to do for you would be to return the item back to the seller. Unfortunately, in my situation, the buyer kept the part and took a refund which was lame, because I know a few friends that actually that wouldve actually put the "said" broken part to good use especially for free.

Meraki Autoworks

iTrader: (8)

Nice catch and write up... One bad rep can ruin his career.

-Josh

zmcgovern4

iTrader: (2)

Yup, that definitely looks like them!

I'm not to the point where I need to take that action. The seller has refunded me $400 and has said I will receive the rest by the end of the week. If he does not refund my money, I will of course take it up with PayPal as I have all the proof I need that I did not get the products I should have and that they were all returned to the seller.

Not out to ruin anyone, and I doubt missing a few sales on headlights will have a huge impact on his business given the amount of parts they have for sale, but just want to spread the word so others can avoid similar issues.

Sean

iTrader: (3)

I remember looking at his offerings before deciding to play it safe spending a bit more and just get a new set from Sewell. Anyone looking to save on this upgrade might be best off waiting for a set to appear on the CL classifieds. Most likely, you'd have better interaction with the seller and more confidence that what you are buying doesn't have any undisclosed defects.

zmcgovern4

iTrader: (2)

Yup - I ended up getting a great set from CL member STLblueF... they are way better than the crap lights lexmaniac2 was sending me.

The good news is I just got my full refund, so now I am completely done with this mess.

SoulFreak

iTrader: (1)

Good riddance! I'm glad everything worked out for you!

STLblueF

iTrader: (3)