Thanks Spax!!!!

[Yorkshire mike]

I bought a set of 40mm loweribg spring for my vito in January, delay after delay they finally arrived 6 weeks later, and they don't fit!
The discriptions days 09/10, so I called to check they would fit my 09 plate vito, and they said yes.
I contacted them and they basically said tough ****!
So I now have a set of useless lowering springs and a van that looks like a scared cat!!
Brilliant!

 

[John]

What great customer service - did you buy them from Spax directly or a third party (if so you should name the third party)...

Refund from credit card?

 

[boxbrownie]

If they don't fit and they were supposed to they are not fit* for purpose, no arguments.

Trader has to refund.

*no pun intended

 

[sparkydude]

I had issues with them before when i ordered mine, i knew plenty of peopl had them fitted to theirs so emailed them to ask which one was suitable for my 2008 van as they had an 03 on and a 2010 on version listed
below is what they responded to my initial enquiry :-

Good Morning Nick

Thank you for your email.

Unfortunately we do not list for this year of van. Only from 2010 onwards.

Have you tried contacting someone like Demon Tweeks. They deal with a range
of manufacturers who maybe able to help.


I replied to them below and had no response


Well thats interesting, after further investigation on another site
they list 2 different lowering springs made by SPAX for a mercedes
w639 chassis.

The part numbers they give are S023050 for a van 08/03>

and a S023085 for a van 09/10>

suerley one of these would be right for my van ??

Please can you advise as i know of other people who have them fitted to
their vans and sing there praises, so must be one to fit my 2008 vito




In the end i spoke to the lads at spring-loaded.co.uk and they told me the 2003 onwards were the right ones for my van , ordered and were cheaper than spax direct aswell, took less than a week to arrive and fitted with no issues at all .

Heres the link to what i purchased for my 2008

http://www.spring-loaded.co.uk/search.php?pg=1&stext=w639&sprice=&stype=&scat=&sman=5

Very poor service from such a big company , their products are excellent, their customer service absolute rubbish.


Hope you get it sorted mate

Nick

 

[sherco450]

lm surprised . l ordered mine through the distributer in Sydney ,he then ordered the springs from UK . then UK sent to Sydney , then Sydney gave them to a road parcel service and drove to Melbourne 900km away to my door. 3 weeks total.

 

[Yorkshire mike]

Yes I bought direct, they said they were special order that's why there was such a delay.
Thanks for the link regards the other springs, to be honest I'm tempted to buy another make out of principle.
A company selling me the wrong product is fine, mistakes happen, but not willing to help me afterwards is just damn rude!
I wanted to go with spax as from what I've read they seam to be closer to 50mm than the 40mm stated (wanting to go as low as possible).

 

[zenman63]

Why don't they fit, what is the difference, any pictures?

I guess there for the later face lift vito.

 

[Yorkshire mike]

The top of the new spring is around 15/20mm too wide

 

[Flying start]

Yorkshire mike
So the springs that didn't fit where they for the facelift vito??

Looking to lower mine would you still have them by any chance?

 

[Yorkshire mike]

I believe there were for the face lift yes. I finally hit a refund from spax. Fitting correct ones Wednesday night.

 

[phil24/7]

Spax have just been incredibly poor with me too.

Bought a set of springs from spring loaded (cheaper than going direct), when they arrived (direct from SPAX) the powder coating on 3 of the springs was damaged. Spring loaded passed my details along with some pictures on to SPAX and Kevin Byrne called after a few days to speak top me.

Spring loaded said spring manufacturers sometimes don't package the springs well enough and Kevin tried to tell me they are all wrapped. I informed him mine came in plastic bags (fronts in 1 and the rears in another) and he agreed with me that it wasn't acceptable. He said that it would be a lot of hassle to get the springs back, repair them (surely faulty items should be replaced), then send them back out so he said he would talk to his engineers to find out what a suitable repair coating would be and call me back in a day or 2 to inform me and sort a partial refund.

A week went by with nothing. I then had to chase him 3 or 4 times to speak to him and he still had no update. More too-ing and fro-ing with his assistant and she said she could offer me a meagre £20 and I still had not details of a suitable repair. I said I would settle for £40 and she came back with a no...so they have been returned.

Be warned, they will now have my springs and one other set in stock and both have damaged powder coating, and from the way they dealt with me, I doubt they will be repaired, just sent out to the next unsuspecting customer.

I will never buy SPAX again but will instead shell out the extra 30 or 40 quid and get some H&R springs instead.

It seems customer service still isn't their strong point!

 

[Giantvanman]

Spax have just been incredibly poor with me too.

Bought a set of springs from spring loaded

Your beef is with spring loaded who you purchased from. The fact the item came direct from the manufacturer is irrelevant; your contract is with the supplier, not the manufacturer. SL is passing the buck and they are the ones to get your money returned from……have a look at distance selling regulations on a Google search.

 

[phil24/7]

Spring loaded have refunded me and they have been goo as gold. It was the way in which SPAX have dealt with the whole situation that has irked me.

Spring loaded also told me that SPAX suspension give them the most problems of all their suppliers!

My post was just a simple warning to others to consider which manufacturer they chose when purchasing suspension.

 

[Giantvanman]

H&R springs are pretty good.

http://www.europerformance.co.uk/pa...r=mercedes_639&manufacturer=hr&sub_category=1

 

[phil24/7]

Not a bad price either. I will probably be buying a set of these once the refund has cleared. Can get them quite cheap from Euro car part as I am a big trade customer of theirs but I have also found some from tuning companies in Germany that I could get delivered for around £180!

 

[Spax]

Hi,

I am Kevin Byrne, Commercial Director at Spax. Let me clarify a few points regarding this post:-

Firstly Phil did get a complete refund-yes it took a little time but he got ALL his money back.
Secondly, we were happy to replace them , from the very first call,but suggested it was hassle for him, not us, hence another suggested solution.
Thirdly, from memory, I believe we did suggest touch up paint from Halfords as the solution, and I was informed (obviously wrongly), that £20 was appropriate.
Fourthly, as pointed out above, your commercial relationship is with Spring Loaded, not with Spax-we have a customer service team that is small as it is dealing mainly with trade customers-both myself and our Engineer were in Essen at a trade show that week, hence it being dealt with by a colleague, which may have slowed things up a little.
Fifthly, we are principally a manufacturer of dampers and suspension kits , and springs are imported, so we do our best to regulate quality, and have been reviewing this with our supplier
Sixthly, and I concede this point to Phil, the packaging on some of the larger spring sets should be better and we have now changed this so it comes into 2 boxes with more padding
Seventhly, the kits have been returned to our springs manufacturer for a refund, so they are not sitting on our shelves for another customer
Part of my background, funnily enough was running a large customer service team for Mercedes so I have a great affection and admiration for the marque, especially as they flew me out to Seville for 3 days to learn about the new C Class-so my apologies to you that this has not worked out-with limited resources and a small team primarily orientated towards trade customers, we do our best-I am sorry this has not been a good experience from you.

 

[phil24/7]

Thank you for sticking your head above the parapet but let me further clarify your points.

1. Yes I did but I should not have had to wait anywhere near as long to get things sorted with you.
2. From the first call you made it clear you would REPAIR them. Replacement was not mentioned until I spoke with your colleague, this is when they went to check the other springs in stock and found them to be damaged as well.
3. WE briefly touched upon the idea of using a touch-up paint. YOU said you would contact your engineers to make sure that would be suitable and get back to me. You never did either of these things. £20 was an insult when you conside the amount of time I spent contacting you, the amount a touch-up paint would have cost and the fact the springs would not have been in 1st class condition afterwards, add that the the cost of a courier to return the damaged springs and to send me out any new springs and I think the £40 I asked for was very generous to be honest.
4. My relationship was with spring Loaded and they were excellent throughout. They got in contact with you due to the damage and SPAX requested the pictures of the damage. From there you contacted me cutting them out of the loop.
5. Surely springs are part of suspension kits? Even though you are actually a reseller of the springs, they should still get to my door in the condion they leave the factory.
6. The packaging was basically non existent on the springs, any padding would have been better than what they came with and how the manufacturer thinks they will get from the factory to the consumer without being damaged is beyond me and this is something you should have pick up on quite easily with simple quality control, even shaking the box would reveal the lack of packaging!
7. I'm glad to hear this.

You say you ran a customer service team but the way you dealt with me (no call backs, passing me off to your colleague who had neither the power nor the knowledge to sort it out without constantly checking with someone else and not trying to make the customer (me) happy) makes me think you were never front line!

Sorry for derailing the thread!

 

[phil24/7]

Spax take note!:







Cheers H&R

I bought these from here: duw-tuner.de - H&R Federn 29226-1 Mercedes W639

They were ordered in direct from H&R and were delivered to D&W before being sent on to me. They were received in under a week and came very well packaged.

They are quick at replying to emails and as I am a tax paying business they took their VAT off before invoicing me. Worked out at £160 delivered so cant complain about that!

Regards
Phil

 

[Conquistador]

Poor with everyone by the looks of things!

I need help to contact SPAX - A8 Parts Forum

 

[oldguy57]

Very sad to hear of this - Spax have been around for a very long time and decades ago I use to buy all my suspension gear from them. They were probably the most helpful knowledgable company you could ever have dealt with. Oh for the good old days!