ELUSIVE

In March of 2011 I bought a pair of LED tail lights for my 997.1 from Ray at RotTec Carbon through a group buy. Ray’s presence on the forums and communication was why I chose to do business with them. Over the course of the next few years I also bought the front LED lights, some interior bulbs, and replacement HID bulbs for my 997 all from RotTec.

A few weeks ago, I noticed that some of the LED lights were out on my right rear side. I contacted RotTec on August 8th to see if there was anything that they could do to help me. After a high number of email attempts over the past 2 weeks to get some help they finally got back to me today and told me that I am out of my 1 year warranty and that the best thing that could do for me was to sell me one light at full retail plus shipping ($425 + $35) for $460. Ouch!

I personally think this is very poor customer service and expected better from them. Did I expect them to give me a new light for free…? Absolutely not, but I’m sure the life expectancy of these lights should be more than 2.5 years. Given that I expected them to at least cut me a deal on a replacement light and perhaps want my broken one back to see what went wrong. After a few emails back and forth they stood strong that buying one light at full retail was their only option.

I have posted numerous times on these forums that RotTec has been good on customer service and a quality product. I can now officially say that I was in error. The product did not last and they did not stand behind their product or their customers when push came to shove.

I told them I would get a new pair from somewhere else and that’s what I intend to do. For those considering RotTec I would think again.

I’m now on the look for a new set of LED Tail lights. Anyone have any suggestions or good experiences? Perhaps I'll try the depos this time.



Cheers!

user 72902

Sorry to here those high priced lights had such a short service life. Is there any way to check the quality of the light regardless of who sells it? At a minimum Rot Tec should have given a replacement to you wholesale unless they knew those lights were junk. Good luck

USMC_DS1

Perhaps try out the LED lights from FVD... http://www.fvd.us/us/en/Porsche-0/99...pc._05-08.html
I don't have them but I've experienced nothing but excellent customer service with FVD on over $10K of their quality products on my car.

Edgy01

Sadly, several manufacturers jumped on the LED craze and pumped out bunches of these things and commanded top dollar. As with all things electronic, there is an infant mortality period that should generally reveal the problem within the warranty period of one year--but we're all learning about the LEDs, even Porsche is. For example, I know of similar mortality issues with Mercedes Benz lighting. Unfortunately, 'better' isn't always the best. While LED lights essentially eliminate the need to buy another incandescent lightbulb again for your car, we were all suggested that the LED was the next generation in lighting for automobiles. Sadly, RotTec has some of the worst warranty support of any company. I have been going through months and months of delays to get a front light assembly replaced under warranty, and their initial answer always is, "sorry, it's beyond the one year warranty." (Fortunately, I documented my initial contact with problems within weeks of installing them so I had them on that). Ultimately, they made good with a no-charge replacement--but it took a good 18 months of hounding them.

ELUSIVE

Thanks for the link USMC_DS1. I may try those out.
Glad to hear that you got your lights replaced Dan. Their warranty support sure does seem to suck!

Perk10

Recently I ordered a set of LED front fog/turn signal lights.

I had called RotTec multiple times and also sent emails to which I got no response. I caved and decided to go with an eBay vendor "Xtreme Motorcars". I had an EXTREMELY good experience. Customer service on point and sold me the set for $375 including tax AND priority shipping.

The owners name is Jeff and I am sure he can help you. He orders his lights from the EXACT same manufacturer as RotTec.

His email is JezzSB@aol.com .

Please tell him John Perkins sent you (myself) and I know he will take good care of you. I posted a thread about my experience on 6speed and about 4 members have bought from him since and all rave about his awesome service and products.

Link here : http://www.6speedonline.com/forums/9...ease-read.html

Hope this helps!!

John

ELUSIVE

Thanks Perk10.
Does he sell the rear LEDs too or just the fronts?

ELUSIVE

I ordered a set of lights from FVD.
I'll let everyone know how they work and be sure to take pics.

USMC_DS1

Awesome... let us know how they work out.

alexb76

I got Dectane lights (same as FVD), and they've been great so far, and look much more OEM than RotTec and were cheaper too.

Having said that, if it's truly out of warranty, it's out of warranty, so you cannot expect much more than a replacement. Maybe some goodwill discount, but any manufacturer would refuse to honor things out of warranty... so that's not too surprising (different than Dan's experience).

kdurg

I have front and rear LEDs from FVD and they have performed flawlessly.

ELUSIVE

I agree completely, but paying FULL retail plus shipping seemed wrong.

ELUSIVE

Any pics of the rear installed? Would love to see them!

alexb76

Just search for Dectane, you will find many pics of the rear. IMO much better look vs. RotTec, and almost no one can tell it's not 997.2!

ELUSIVE

I think they look better too.
The only thing I haven't liked about the Dectanes is the C pattern of braking instead of lighting up the whole thing: