05/26/2016
In response to recent events that are swirling on social media we are going to present our side.
First, anybody who has dealt with PayPal knows that PayPal always sides with the consumer. It's why people use PayPal, they know they will get their money back regardless of what they did because businesses always loose when it comes to disputes. We won our dispute in five minutes and the representative we spoke to had our money refunded while we were on the phone while usually PayPal takes a week to resolve these things. How did this happen so quickly? If you recall back we had a quality issue that had us recalling a few tops, our response to that was to take pictures of every aspect of every top that leaves so if there is an issue on a top we can look back at the area affected and see what it looked like. We showed what we shipped to PayPal and had our money back in literal minutes, dispute closed. So the missing bolts and separating window seals, etc. shown are to not be what shipped, especially since our tops are serial numbered and the top in question was fine.
The quality of our tops. On the website it is clearly explained that the race top will have minor aesthetic blemishes and wont have the aesthetic accents a factory top has. This top was never marketed as an oem replacement but as a light weight top that cleans up the air for track use. The purpose was to get a well functioning part to people who couldn't afford something that made a difference in their track times. We wanted to contribute to the young race community because we love to race. Early on I was told I wasn't charging enough but in order to cater to the young race community some trade offs needed to be made, we chose aesthetics and details. I was told it was better to sell 50 perfect tops to well off people than 150 decent tops to students and the like. That's appearing to be true. The tops aren't perfect, we felt the website conveyed that but we will own if there was a misunderstanding as to what was being received. We apologize for the misconception.
The current event. As of late in order to prevent installation problems, I send an email two days before the top arrives to inform the purchaser that the installation of the top takes some technical skill. Written instructions can be interpreted in different ways, oral instructions cannot and in an effort to give excellent customer service I give my personal number for them to contact me on installation. I explain I am offering my personal number because damaging the nutserts in the top are not only difficult to replace but could be a safety hazard so if there is damage done to the nutserts and they didn't call me before hand they will void any warranty on our part. The person involved responded they would give me a call at 1:00 pm the following day for help. At 5:00 am and 6:00 am I received the call from the person involved. As I didn't have their number saved I didn't know who it was and wouldn't answer anyway. About three hours later I received a text stating the top wouldn't fit and that nothing was lining up. I asked who it was then told them to stop what they were doing and I would call them back in an hour to help install as I was in a meeting. Over the course of the hour I received about 30 texts and pictures of cross threaded bolts and trying to use the wrong bracket on the wrong mounting area and over and over I told him to stop and wait for me. By the time the meeting was over every nutsert in the top was damaged. I told him that I was voiding his warranty based off his response to my email stating your warranty could be voided without installation instruction. That's when he asked for a refund. I told him I wouldn't refund on a top I begged him to leave alone until I could help him. He informed me he was going to burn us on social media if I didn't refund his money. Then pictures of unsealed windows, missing bolts, etc were posted. The pictures that were posted don't represent what was shipped, PayPal agreed and released this person's money back to us.
In closing, it's difficult to not be a little jaded over the response to the pictures posted by somebody who was trying to blackmail us. We will continue to make new innovative parts for Miatas, low cost products for young or beginning racers and look forward to doing business with you.
