So I usually don't bash manufacturers and their representatives, but in this case, I have to give a mild cautionary note to the rest of you out there about HRE.

1. My Turbo has HRE wheels, beautiful things. Unfortunately pieces of 3 of the 3 piece wheels have been bent over time on California roads (some by me, some by earlier owners).

2. I spent $4K on getting new pieces put on and having the wheels fixed by HRE in LA. SCarGo, who does all the work on my 2 US Porsches, did the tire removal/mounting/balancing/shipping.

3. I got the wheels back a few weeks later, and noticed a 5psi drop over two days in one tire.

4. No biggie, I dropped off the car to SCarGo to check out the issue, and they said the silicon needed to be replaced as there was a leak from the HRE repair, an easy fix and only an hour labor and mounting/balancing. I didn't want to wait a week (or more) and decided to have SCarGo do the easy fix.

5. They called HRE to get a reimbursement on the $150, they were denied.

6. I called HRE, and explained that I just spend $4K with them to repair wheels, that there was a slow leak, etc., and that on principle I didn't think I should have to pay the $150. It's not about the money. They refused and blamed SCarGo's installation of the tire as the fault.

Summary: This is a case of he said / she said. However, I've never had issues with tire installation at SCarGo in the past, they do all of my work and I've never had an issue. I trust SCarGo more than I do HRE. If I ran HRE, I would have sent over the $150 immediately, even if I didn't think it were my fault. That's customer service.

Needless to say, no more money for HRE.

 

One word.... FIKSE

 

Write HRE but keep escalating it higher than customer service until you get satisfaction. Keep tabs of names and those you spoke too and what they said.

 

I know someone who goes well out of his way to go go to scargo to mount tires as they apparently do an amazing job without scratching nice wheels...so i doubht it was ScarGo who is at fault here... my .02 cents.

 

Not the first time I hear this, not going to be the last. Remember, CCW makes good wheels.

 

interesting that I find this! I am the fella who goes out of my way for tire mounting..

I actually have a bent wheel that I intend to send to HRE for repair.

hopefully they treat me well for the anticipated $500 it costs to repair one wheel!

mike

 

We don’t mean to bump an old thread but we’d like to share our side of the story…

While we felt (and still do feel) terrible about this situation, we could not reimburse S Car Go the $150 because we would be accepting fault for something we did not do and bypassing the existing warranty clause. Had the OP instructed S Car Go to ship the wheel back to us, we would have fixed the issue in one day and shipped it back overnight – all of this would have been covered under warranty and the OP would have paid nothing (Our Sales Team communicated this to the OP after he called us requesting a reimbursement).

All of our wheels (both new and repair orders) are tested and inspected for quality control, twice. Specific to this matter, never once (ever) has a 3-piece wheel left our facility leaking air from the silicone sealant.

The OP should have never allowed S Car Go to fix anything as the wheel was still under warranty. Unfortunately, this is also not the first bad experience we’ve had with this shop.

On a side note, we do not know where this $4,000 repair figure is coming from…

 

Thank you for your input HRE.

 

I was wondering about the $4K...I got 4 brand new HREs for $5K...LOL

 

HRE wheels, I can see your part of the story, but SCarGo sells your wheels, and for the price one pays for your wheels, there is something called customer satisfaction. Second point, the owner paid you for the initial repair whether it was $4K or not. I have to ask you seriously on a three piece wheel that was properly setup correctly, mounting and balancing is not going to cause the silicone seal to leak. You say your quality control calls for checking the wheel 2x, is it possible that it was just overlooked? So my point is if you were an organization who practiced putting the customer first, this would not have been an issue, but based on your comment you don't want to admit its your fault. bad business position. Personally I don't think anyone would have blamed anyone if you did the right thing! I have to ask you is it worth $150 for you to take such a negative stance? Wonder if corporate headquarters would agree with you on that?

 

I have to agree with their argument. If you want warranty work done, it must be sent to the factory. There are exceptions. For example, when GM or Ford or any other car manufacturer has had a defect in one of their vehicles after people have already experienced failure but have it repaired at a repair facility that is not one of their dealers, they will reimburse either part or all of the repair cost. This is rare but it is done.

It's hard for HRE to determine what happened when they weren't given the opportunity to inspect the "defect" and must rely on a third party service shop. They were merely given a bill to pay up $150 and no option to inspect. I likely would have provided the same answer they did if I were in their shoes.

I must sympathize with the owner of the wheels who just spent $4K on repairing the wheels. I think it would have been wiser to just buy new wheels for the slight differrence and get the warranty that goes with them. But again, if one of the new wheels was leaking, HRE or any other wheel manufacturer would ask the wheel be shipped back to them for repair or replacement.

The simple fact here is that owner of the wheels didn't want to wait a week for the process to unfold and hence paid the penalty of $150 for speed of service and now has regrets for the expense. I sympathize with you but I disagree with your conclusion of HRE's service support.

 

Don't ya just hate it when you hit send accidently?!?!

But seriously, did the OP call HRE after the flat occurred? They should have been in the loop before a repair of the repair was initiated.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Melb-Mike

I have to agree with their argument. If you want warranty work done, it must be sent to the factory. There are exceptions. For example, when GM or Ford or any other car manufacturer has had a defect in one of their vehicles after people have already experienced failure but have it repaired at a repair facility that is not one of their dealers, they will reimburse either part or all of the repair cost. This is rare but it is done.

It's hard for HRE to determine what happened when they weren't given the opportunity to inspect the "defect" and must rely on a third party service shop. They were merely given a bill to pay up $150 and no option to inspect. I likely would have provided the same answer they did if I were in their shoes.

I must sympathize with the owner of the wheels who just spent $4K on repairing the wheels. I think it would have been wiser to just buy new wheels for the slight differrence and get the warranty that goes with them. But again, if one of the new wheels was leaking, HRE or any other wheel manufacturer would ask the wheel be shipped back to them for repair or replacement.

The simple fact here is that owner of the wheels didn't want to wait a week for the process to unfold and hence paid the penalty of $150 for speed of service and now has regrets for the expense. I sympathize with you but I disagree with your conclusion of HRE's service support.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sanyata

Don't ya just hate it when you hit send accidently?!?!

But seriously, did the OP call HRE after the flat occurred? They should have been in the loop before a repair of the repair was initiated.

We can't just let this slide without at least voicing our side of this story but this is exactly our point. We're all for helping the customer out and in many cases, such as this, had we concluded this had been our fault, following a proper evaluation and inspection at our facility, we would have absolutely refunded his out-of-pocket expenses. In fact, even if we determined it was caused by a dealer we would have most likely handled this for free simply out of courtesy.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kevinmacd

HRE wheels, I can see your part of the story, but SCarGo sells your wheels...

Incorrect. S CAR GO is not an HRE dealer and they should not have our logo on their website...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kevinmacd

...and for the price one pays for your wheels, there is something called customer satisfaction.

We agree with you and customer satisfaction is something we pride ourselves on. However, accepting liability for the actions of others (a third party) and not given an opportunity to inspect defects (supposedly committed by us), is another. As we mentioned, we have always sided with the customer, and in this case, had the faulty wheel been sent back to us we would taken care of the issue immediately. It is simply impossible for any company to accept an invoice for work they were not consulted on prior to the work and given the opportunity to address themselves. What if the invoice had been for $15K? Would it be so clear that HRE should just have paid it without ever being notified there was an issue… again one we would have probably fixed for free had we been given the opportunity? Honestly we are upset that the end customer got an invoice for this $150. It is pretty shameful, but to expect HRE to step in and pay it isn’t workable given how it was handled.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kevinmacd

I have to ask you seriously on a three piece wheel that was properly setup correctly, mounting and balancing is not going to cause the silicone seal to leak. You say your quality control calls for checking the wheel 2x, is it possible that it was just overlooked?

For a set of $5k-$10k wheels, you are not going to be receiving a wheel with a puncture in the silicone sealant. Period. In the past 10+ years we can’t think of a single instance where the seal was leaking from our factory and not punctured by the dealer during tire installation.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kevinmacd

So my point is if you were an organization who practiced putting the customer first, this would not have been an issue, but based on your comment you don't want to admit its your fault. bad business position.

How is this fair? Even if it was our issue, S CAR GO was wrong in first, "fixing our mistake" without consulting us first (no dealer/distributor in the world is authorized to repair HRE wheels) and secondly, charging the customer for a fault they claimed to be committed by us. We sympathize with the customer but he should have never agreed to allowing a third party to repair his wheel, especially after just receiving it from our facility, fully inspected and repaired.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kevinmacd

Personally I don't think anyone would have blamed anyone if you did the right thing! I have to ask you is it worth $150 for you to take such a negative stance? Wonder if corporate headquarters would agree with you on that?

Kevin, it is not about the money. And we are not taking a negative stance. We are defending our quality, brand and what it stands for. Again, for the amount that we charge for a set of wheels, you are not going to be receiving anything less than perfect (and certainly nothing defective). And even if, somehow, that were the case, we would have happily remedied the issue. But we never got the chance to do such a thing. A unauthorized HRE dealer spoke on our behalf, even without consulting us first, and now we have to cover their repair costs? On what premise? We do not even know their repair procedures and as such, we are certainly not going to stand behind any sorts of repairs they do. Ask others for their customer service experience with HRE. We’re not perfect by any means but when we make a mistake, we stand behind fixing it… in fact you’ll find many out there that have seen us step up and take responsibility for things even when it wasn’t our fault.

 

The longer you argue, you more you lose the war. If I just spent $4k with you on a repair, I wouldn't be real happy about having to ship the wheel back to you anyway. You made your point, might be best to just chalk this up as one dissatisfied customer.

Or you can bump the thread in another 6 months and help us remember again.

 

I don't have a dog in this fight, but I will relate my experience with HRE. In 2007 I bought my GT3 with 3000 miles on it with HRE's already on it. After owning the car for a 4 years, one of my lug nuts works loose at VIR (my fault for not torqueing them before every run group) and my back wheel shakes and shimmys on the lugs. I pitted immediately.

When I inspected the wheel, I saw a tiny crack around one of the lug holes, presumably from the shaking of wheel. I call HRE and tell them exactly the scenario, including the fact I was at VIR and I think it was my fault for not torqueing the lug nuts. They tell me to send back ALL 4 wheels, at MY expense....because they wanted to check the quality of their metal on all of my wheels. It was part of their quality control.

So, I put my car up on jacks and pay the bill to ship them all 4 wheels. About a week later I get a phone call from a very courteous person from HRE named Vince. He told me that they didn't feel like their wheels should have cracked, even under the circumstance I described. They felt it was a failure in their metal.

SO....even though I was not the original purchaser of these wheels, they told me to pick out ANY set of wheels they make, in ANY finish, and they would make them, and ship them to me at NO COST whatsoever.

This is a true unsolicited story that occurred only 2 years ago. Prior to this, I had purchased HRE's for an NSX, as well as a 996 Turbo. Going forward, I will only purchase HRE's.


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