I have had a full set of Tokico Blues shocks for right at two years now. I have noticed the front 2 are sagging and kinda bouncy when you push down on the fender now. I looked at Tokico's main website and they said they offer a limited lifetime warranty on them and to contact the seller of where I purshased them.

The problem is that I bought them off of Ebay and since its thats old, the item number will longer pull up, BUT it will still show up under my feedback section. I contacted the company, which is suspensionmax, and told them my problem. I havent heard back from them yet.

My question is, has anyone else had to warranty their shocks or just bought new ones? What was the policy? Did you have to send the old ones back and have no car for a bit, or did they send you some new ones and you sent the old ones back in those new boxes? I cant find the original packing receipt from where they were delivered to the house, but I figured they could pull it up on their end under the item number.

Secondly, whats the average life span that everyone is getting with these shocks using stock springs or even aftermarkets?

Thirdly, do you think I need to try and warranty all four of them while I am it?

Sorry for all the questions, just wanted some input from peoples experiences with Tokico Blues. Thanks in advance.

 

I just hung up the phone talking with Ray in the warranty department at Tokico in California. He told me to contact the company that I originally bought them from, which was www.suspensionmax.com. and tell them about the problem. I contacted them by email and he responded very promptly with, "Well you first need to make sure with Tokico that they do in fact full under there warranty, you will need to call them.

Jacob Lecompte
(714)-632-7024
www.suspensionmax.com

After talking with Jacob from suspensionmax, he did ask me if ray was going to replace them, and I told him no, he couldnt answer that without seeing them first. I explained to Jacob, that I would be willing to pay for the 2 new ones up front today and he could credit my card back once he received the old ones back. He told me thats would be ok, and I would still be responsible for paying for shipping both ways. I didint agree with this. He told then told me that he couldnt do anything about it. I asked him then why are you offering items by Tokico, if you are not going to uphold their end of the deal on limited lifetime guarantee? I dont think its fair that the customer has to pay for crap both ways, for the new and the old ones, if its a company defect on the product. I think he should ask for the shipping charges back from Tokico, not me.

Do you all think this is right? I seem to not think so. I guess I would never buy anything from Ebay, due to this is the second problem that I have had returning a defective product. Heres my email, that I just replied back to.

To whom it may concern,
I am so surprised that the news that I heard from contacting Tokico about some replacement struts/shocks. After 2 phone calls to Tokico and you, I am surprised that I dont have better options than the 2 offered. I dont seem its fair that I have to take the struts off and send them back to you. Then you turn around and send them to your authorized dealer for warranty inspection. This would require abouot a month of downtime. I am a mechanic and know when a strut is bad. I can physically press them down with my hands, that means they are blown. Second option is to buy new ones and I have to pay for shipping both ways. How can this be fair to the customer, if you are representing the Tokico brand product. You are the seller, regardless where you get them from. It seems that you ought to request the shipping expenses from Tokico, and NOT the customer. In the end, it would be not an unreasonable request for you to pay for shipping for at least one way on both of the new shocks and I will pay for the 2 bad ones back. I will even pay for the 2 new struts upfront by checkcard, and then you can credit the money back, once received the 2 bad ones. I dont believe this is an unreasonable request. You can email me back or call me directly at 205-***-****. Thanks for your time and have a happy holiday season.

 

Just fyi, shocks can be easily compressed by hand even when new if you go slow enough. Of course compressing a shock/strut assembly with the coil spring on it is not going to happen by hand. With that said, if the car bounces like you said, it still sounds like they are shot. Good luck man. I'm pulling for you since I just bought some blues off ebay too.

 

Still no reply back from suspensionmax.

 

any update? I'm looking to dealing with tokico soon and was wondering what to expect. I purchased my directly from a Honda dealer, but not sure how the warranty will work.

 

I'd like to hear an update also, I would have assumed the the company would handle the warranty not the vendor. I would contact tokico and say the company you bought the shocks from is no longer in business and what steps do you need to take for a warranty replacement.

 

Warranty claims usually go through the retailer, not the manufacturer. Then the retailer squares up with the manufacturer. That is why it is important to buy from a reputable retailer. Many manufacturers will not honor the warranty at all unless you buy through an "authorized retailer" Lame I know, but that's how it is.

 

I've had the opposite experience with the few warranties I've had to claim with other companies. I had a Timken wheel bearing go bad and the vendor pointed me to Timken who handled the whole thing. I've always had vendors wash their hands once the sale is done or maybe a 30 day period after that they point me to the manufacturer.

It looks like tokico wants the vendors to handle everything which is a hassle.

 

Well i just checked with the Honda dealer that i purchased the Tokico's from and they told me they no longer carry Tokico so they wouldn't be able to handle any warranty claims since they no longer have a distributor account for the company. They told me to contact Tokico. A few more phone calls, and i'll let you guys know what happens.

 

Hopefully you get some satisfaction, but I've not had much luck ever getting Tokico to honor their warranty.

 

I ended having to handle it with suspensionmax through ebay. It seemed to be a huge hassle. They wanted me to send my struts back to them then they send it to Tokico warranty department. Car had sit until they warrantied it or not. It was just too much hassle to deal with.

 

After reading this, I know I won't be buying any Tokico Shocks. Why would they put the responsibility of their warranty on their retailers?

 

^+1 i will rethink my choice, that's messed up.

 

anyone had this issue with KYB?