race911

Where are these now manufactured? An old-school "mother ship" in (what was) Western Germany, or someplace else in the former Eastern Bloc/poor Eurozone with a nifty new facility that may have a few QC issues?

Slow Guy

I wouldn't be so quick to blame Amazon yet, they may very well be selling them expecting the parts to be warranted by the mfgr. Since the PSS10's haven't been out that long they may not have had a issue before now to discover they're not warranted.

It's not like the internet audio retailers that have been selling speakers ect. for quite some time, long enough to have been told by the mfgrs. they won't warranty their product sold by them.

I have to believe Amazon will make this right. I would however insist that Amazon verify w/ Bilstein that Bilstein will honor the warranty before accepting any replacement products from Amazon.

Sorry to hear you're going through this, I wish you the best getting it resolved.

Kika

In the case of over-tempered bolts, it may not even be a QA issue at Bilstein necessarily, but whereever they get their bolts from. I don't think they would re-temper the bolts after integration with the shock, so my suspicion is they at least got a bad bolt, or possible a batch of bad bolts.

I don't know how they are tempered, but I would guess they do a lot at the same time, maybe this one was too close to the heat source?

1pcarnut

Well, ultimately it's their product and name on it, so if they don't do right by people, in the end it won't be the seller, "Authorized" or not, that people remember.

Stealth 993

I think a lot of people are missing the fact that from Amazon, there have a lot of problems with the shocks. Maybe these were known defective shocks from the supplier, & they are offloading them cheap through Amazon, with out them knowing.

A ton of people have PSS10's on their cars, they all seam to work 100%, but this batch from Amazon is almost all broken.

geolab

this is most probably the supplier to amazon

http://v12autoparts.com/index.php?ma...58&language=en

Reddy Kilowatt

That's why I said 'if'. I've had nothing but positive experiences with Amazon.

Canyon56

fwiw, I've had mine on for over a year now. And they look fine on inspection yesterday.

Perhaps a current batch gone bad or a mishandled batch by a vendor, or whatever. btw, just because they came in an intact box doesn't mean a vendor didn't mishandle them. It was mentioned by the Bilstein rep that the boxes can be opened easily (sliding off the plastic wraps, etc..)

One thing we know is that the price was super low and the profit margin kept getting cut from Bilstein to the distributor to the vendor and to the final vendor (Amazon.) Everybody's getting their $$ share. I tend to get wary when I see low prices and a product ends up going through a chain of multiple vendors. Like those gray market photo supply vendors in Brooklyn.

Either we're all getting ripped off by too high a margin from the usual direct supply vendors or the margins are being trimmed so low through multiple vendors that we end up getting suspicious product.

race911

RIPPED OFF?!?!?! Are you _______ kidding? You're looking at under 10% markup on most of these performance hard parts. What's good enough?

Ever wonder why some of the most established repair shops never touch things that really fall outside of the realm of as-factory-delivered?

Now that I have time again, and shop space, I've had a few requests to do projects. I'm passing. The cost/benefit just isn't there to wander outside of some routine maintenance and stock-spec repairs.

PNogC2S

I think you are correct, this appears to be the most important distinction... is this problem isolated to only PSS10's purchased from Amazon?
If so, I feel a lot more comfortable that Bilstein's QC is OK and someone is offloading sub-standard product on the internet. If some from authorized dealers have been defective, then it's another story.
Can anyone chime in that has had this type of problem with PSS10's NOT purchased from Amazon?
My apologies in advance if I missed such a situation, but I didn't notice any when I read these posts.

Canyon56

I think you misunderstood. That's my point: that kind of markup means that where is the profit coming from when the product passes so many hands? It was tongue-in-cheek: either we're paying too much or the margin is so reduced that the product becomes suspect. There's no other way around it. If I paid around 10-15% on PSS-10s with little margin for my shop, then how can they be so reduced anywhere else? Of course, we aren't be ripped off at those low margins, but something's happening to be able to reduce the price dramatically and still make some profit. Like gray market goods....

race911

That's why I initially asked the question a couple of days ago about these units being "seconds" that someone got their hands on. Believe me, if I'm pitched out-of-state Coke for my (former) vending business in order to avoid a 5 cent/can CRV, there's someone, somewhere who is trying to make a buck on ANYTHING.

Again, to the point of margins in the automotive aftermarket (especially Porsche). There isn't any. Next to zero. I'll check on what the current cost of a PSS-10 kit is from the Bay Area warehouses and report back. Which is why I have a short fuse, and get irritated with the typical "I want a good deal............" attitude. When I was in my 20's and owned shop #1, I bought into the sympathy stories. Pushing 50 now, I tell people what's what and if you're purely price shopping, best of luck.

larpy

Everyone has good points. Here is what I learned: In the future I am buying products from those I trust. Although price will be a factor it will not be the sole deciding factor. I beleive in supporting the "little guys" and I regret saving a buck and going with my decision to buy from Amazon. Guy like FD Motorsports are always willing to help and I now regret not putting what ever profit there is from the PSS10s in their pocket.

Canyon56

I feel that a few extra bucks is worth it in the end. You have a face to work with and you support a small business. There's somebody there to back up the product/job etc.. I'd rather pay some of the intial price as a cost for service, peace of mind, etc..

A friend of mine always goes the least expensive route. He's obsessed with finding the lowest price, like it's a conquest of sorts. His house is full of problems because he's always going the cheap route. He hasn't figured out that all the time and trouble of returning cheap goods and dealing with shoddy workmanship is costing him a lot more in the long run. Plus major headaches. Not worth it, imho.

larpy

Well said