Here's a warning for my NAM friends regarding a vendor of Mini fare. I wanted to replace my lug bolts with lug studs and nuts. I contacted the vendor named above via PM on this forum. They responded that they sold a kit for the Clubman that would work with my new F56. I ordered them and they arrived in short order. When I went to install them I tried a test of one wheel. I installed the studs finger tight then carefully mounted the wheel and again installed the supplied (extra cost) lug nuts with no more torque than my fingers could muster. A photo of the results is shown below. Ugly! The studs stuck way out of the wheel. Definitely not the look I was after. I contacted the vendor who then told me that these are designed to be used with wheel spacers. Funny - nothing on the website said they were designed to be used with wheel spacers. Nothing in our initial communications said they were designed to be used with wheel spacers and that they would stick out like Frankenstein bolts if not so utilized.

Well, to shorten this sad tale said vendor has taken the parts back and after accusing me of damaging one of the studs (with my horrendous finger torque) charged me a 20% restocking fee! I hope this fellow spends that 20% wisely because he'll never get another penny from me. And I warn you folks out there to be cautious with the Way this guy works. If I had blundered into this on my own, I'd admit my mistake, suck it up and take the hit. But to have this guy recommend that this was the ticket I was looking for then take it out of my hide, when he was wrong doesn't settle well with me.

Caveat Emptor!

 

So wait a minute here...

You bought a product, used it, returned it, and are surprised about a 20% re-stocking fee?

Give me a break.

FYI, from their website:

 

The life of an early adopter....
Second on you bought it...tried it...returned it in used condition...so the seller must sell it at a discount. You bought it hopeing it would work...
It did not...
You have added to the knowledge base with these cars...
Both here and to the seller...but there IS a price to being first.

 

The seller should stand behind their words.

And those conditions are a mark.

 

Just curious, why change from lug bolts to studs if using stock configuration?

 

Gonna side with the OP here...yes we're recommended and then didn't work. Not the OP''S fault and the vendor made a mistake and should suck it up and admit to it. Charging a restock fee is retarded since it would not have been purchased at all except for the recommendation.

 

This seems to be a personal preference, those studs fit fine but you choose to not like the length cosmetically. That is not a mistake of the vendor.. IMO

 

Seems like WMW's studs DO work on your F56. They just don't look like you expected. That's not WMW's fault. I think they did you a favor agreeing to take used parts back for only a 20% restock fee.

 

Many racing rules specify that you need same amount, or greater, of thread engagement than your stud diameter. If you are running M14 stud then you need to have at least 14mm stud poking out pass the wheel lug seat for engagement. Most if not all stud conversion will build extra length to compensate different wheels as they all machined differently. The point is if they stick out then you're good, and if they sit inside the nut then the tech inspectors must open and measure the nuts to confirm thread engagement.

The 20% restocking sucks but WMW is not Walmart where you can return stuff just because, i think 20% is fair.

my $0.02

 

12mm spacers will fix that issue AND make the stance of your car look MUCH better!

 

Way has been a supporter and a good friend of Mini owners for many years, far more than you have owned one. He has done much of my work and has answered any question I've ever had even when he knew I wasn't buying the part from him. I have FAR more experience with him than you as do many people on NAM. I'm sorry, Papawhiskey, you are going to lose this stupid fight and lose respect here based on the weight of evidence in Way's favor. You decide to buy a Mini and then decide to attack one of the bedrocks of our support based on one slight misunderstanding? Zillon, Zippy and Trex are absolutely right! You got what you asked for. Seriously?

 

+1

 

Agree with Way supporters posting above.

 

I'm not fighting anything here, just putting out what I thought was a piece of data others should know about. I'm glad to hear that you and many others here have had good history with this vendor. Since, as you say, I have little experience here my report is based only on the experience I did have.

I hand mounted one wheel which was never torques down and never touched the ground. By your logic I must also get clipped $$'s for the R56 dash cover I was sent for my F56. I did place it on the dash to see that it was wrong!

 

Hold on everyone, even though we have a long time vendor on the site that we all appreciate, there was no way for PapaWhiskey to know that the lugs would stick out two inches from his wheel like hub cap spikes on an 18 wheeler.

You can't fault someone for buying a product for their car and then blaming them because it didn't work because they buy a new model or they're an early adopter. They didn't engineer the car or design the product ordered for the car that was identified as a proper fit. How is this the customer's fault?

I would say that is possible that neither the vendor nor the customer knew this would not work as intended. I believe the restocking fee was inappropriate given that the vendor said it would work by referencing another vehicle besides the F56. (indicating that they assumed it would work on an F56).

One question should decide the correct response. . ."what is the right thing to do?"

 

Uh, that's how they're supposed to look, it has nothing to do with F56 vs R56. They always look that way. It is hardly Way's fault that the purchaser was uninformed.

If they didn't actually fit, that would be one thing, but they did. The product itself was fine.

 

I'll also be siding with the OP here. Yes they fit, but they looked like crap and that is not the OPs fault. It would have been a better business decision to simply return the OPs money to keep a customer and this thread from happening. I do like Way and but sometimes I question his business decisions. Seems to be more and more people coming here to complain lately.

Bottom line is that the product was not to spec and Way should have done the right thing by returning the customers money even if there were some scuffs on the product. That is how you get people to come back to buy bigger items.

 

"All Indians walk in single file. I know, because the one that I saw, did."

 

Agree 100%.

 

I also agree^^^ just because WAY is a great vendor doesn't mean we can't criticize when necessary, in fact because he is a great vendor, we should.

 

Christ I'm glad I don't own a business. Way takes a return, against his own policy, on a product that was not defective in any way and he still gets lambasted for charging a measly restocking fee.

 

+1👍

 

Probably good that you don't then. It isn't always about rules and policies, it is about customer service and every situation is and should be treated differently. Sometimes going the extra mile for a customer can really pay off as they will come back for other products and hopefully spend more. On top of that, word of mouth is the best and cheapest advertising around. In cases like this, Way stated (at least this side of the story) that they would fit. He probably didn't know they would stick out like that but if he did, he should have informed the customer (maybe he did or didn't). Either way, the customer wasn't happy and the smart thing would have been to try and make the customer happy. The customer probably would have spent far more later if Way had actually just eaten the cost. Instead, some other place will be getting his money.

What is measly to you may not be to others and please don't get me started on the legitimacy of "restocking fees". A set of lugs had to be real difficult to take over to a shelf and put back on it.

Does that mean that every customer is a saint? Nope... I also work in bike sales and can tell you that I have had my fair share of customers that I have decided not to do business with. However, I will do my best for them until I get pushed into that corner. I just don't think that this went that far.

Example? Well, I had a lady come in and return a rather nice Bern helmet because it was made of PVC and her doctor told her that children shouldn't be around PVC as it was bad for them. I didn't have the heart to tell her that her entire house was likely covered in PVC and that her water drain pipes were as well, I just accepted the return which was against our policy and took back a helmet that we couldn't resell or send back. We ate the cost. Three days later she came in and bought two more bikes for her and her husband. Sure I lost the cost of the helmet, but we made it back up.

 

And on the flip side, I don't see how this transaction deserves his business being slammed on an internet forum. He took the product back even though it fit as it was intended and the OP still went online and bashed the company and called for others to not do business with him.

From the way I see it, Way was doing him a favor by taking it back in the first place. Who gives a **** if he charges 20% as a restocking fee? That's what happens when you return something that isn't defective.

 

He is entitled to his opinion just as you are to yours. There are actually several ways to look at this from a business standpoint. One, he can act like you and totally shut down telling the customer to pound sand and eventually that will drive him out of business, or he can learn from it and realize that there is a chance grow from this exchange.

The product didn't fit correctly and looked horrible. A full refund should happen if Way said it would fit correctly.

Clearly you like Way and have had good service with him. My interactions with him have been mixed to be honest. Sure, he is a decent vendor, but he is far from perfect in my opinion. Just to be fair, you have to do a whole lot for me to think you are great.

Don't like getting slammed on the Internet? Best disconnect your cable so you never see it because it will happen.