First off, sorry to talk about the unexciting world of ordering and waiting folks, but $400 is a chunk of change, and I believe that these guys are not delivering decent service.

Three weeks ago my girlfriend placed an order with these guys - Darren and company via their webpage:

Darren Lane
www.intensepower.com
480.926.8797

A week later she received a form letter email apologizing for a backorder situation - ``everything is ready, but no bushings`` . The letter stated that the TVS kit woulda/shoulda/coulda be mailed by the end of the following week (Dec. 22). There was an initial tracking # included with the buy confirmation email back on Dec. 10 . Since it was clear that the goods weren`t coming by X-mas, she gave me the tracking #`s. I watched, waited. No order by the end of that week.

Another week has passed and...``no order status``.

1. She emailed Darren back on Monday of this week...no reply.

2. The credit card was apparently charged right away - 3 weeks ago.

3. I can`t get Darren or anyone via this forum`s pm`ing system, nor with a phone call to them at the number listed above. Their phone mailbox is ``full`` - just like their pm box on this forum.

So, I`m not interested in waiting 5,6,7, eleventy ?? weeks for this kit to come. Plenty of vendors out there should be willing to take $400 and give you a bit of service too.

Has anyone seen an ``Intense Motorsports`` caravan of vehicles boarding a ship lately (with my dough)?
Does anyone have any ideas? Smoke - signal techniques? Cancelled credit card order perhaps? Alternate vendors? Looks a bit gangrenous to me.

Thanks!

 

ttt

 

same **** happening to me.

They were "in stock" when i ordered and then i was told hotchkis was waiting on bushings. Dec 11

I called Hotchkis and they said they were waiting on swaybars to complete the TVS set and that i could expect an early january delivery even though my card was charged right away.

On 12/20 i got this email from Darren:

"I also spoke with Hotchkis regarding your order specifically, today, and was assured that your order will be filled and shipped, complete, by Friday. Thanks for your patience!"

A few emails and 9 days later, and I still don't have any parts, tracking numbers, or returned emails.

Did anyone that ordered get their stuff?

 

I know for a fact that the sways are on backorder. Hotchkis doesn't even have any to send anyone. They don't expect to get any until mid Jan.

 

Intense is on winter break, I messaged Darren a few days ago about my order but he hasn't got back to me. I think they will be gone until January. Let me find his pm...

I remember him saying he will be gone till Jan, but here's part of the pm he sent me:

Jason,

No problemo! I'll be checking and replying to PM's and orders over the holiday break, but my replies may be laggy.. Happy holidays dooooooood!

Darrren.

 

It`s the weekend so I`m wondering what I`ll find on Mon. or Tues. if I cancel my credit card order from Dec. 9. Has anyone ever done this? Time frame allowed for a cancellation? Amount of time/effort needed to do it?

I`m thinking I`ll give ANYONE at Intense another day or two to make good on this , by, you know, r e s p o n d i n g to q`s.

As for the CC. company - If it`s just a 5 min. call - great! One more phone call will be nothing after all the wasted time/effort on Intense and their `customer service`.

If Intense makes good, well then I let the good people of this Z forum know of it. No grudges, but no more games!

 

yeah, i was surprised that I was told my set would ship on the 22nd because of this but i was hopeful.

oh well, happy holidays! tvs equipped or not.

 

^I don't think they're trying to rip you off in any way. Things get back ordered...people wait MONTHS for their Volks. Same thing with Hotchkis, since they have that $50 rebate going on, I bet they have tons of orders. Unless you can't live without them, I'd suggest waiting. Intense has the best deal on the set right now, that may be another reason. Like i said before, they're probably not at the office, so they're not answering your emails. Good luck though, I would just wait

 

What kind of company charges you for an order when its backordered? That is pretty weak if you ask me. Yeah stuff gets backordered but you shouldn't have been billed on it until it came in and they had it to ship to you. On a special order item this would be one thing but come on, we're talking about sway bars... I would be heated!

 

It`s still Fri. here. Same day of the `rant` at the top.

Anyone have the ketchup? I`ve got some words to eat...

The TVS kit came late this afternoon. Looks good.

I don`t know why I never had a working tracking number. I also was not lucky enough to get Darren and company on the phone. (Clean those voicemail boxes guys).

Darren and company are upstanding, and just as important: PROMPT! I was wrong. . Not the first time, probably not the last...

Or, was it, ``the squeaky wheel gets the grease?`` <kidding>

Thank you Intense M.


Jack

 

It's not only weak, it's may be illegal since it sounds like it will be more than 30 days:

"The Mail or Telephone Order Merchandise Rule

This rule covers merchandise you order by mail, telephone, computer and fax. It requires merchants to have a reasonable basis for claiming they can ship an order within a certain time.

Ship Dates

By law, a merchant should ship your order within the time stated in its ads or over the phone. If the merchant doesn't promise a time, you can expect it to ship your order within 30 days.
The shipment "clock" begins when the merchant receives a "properly completed order." That includes your name, address and payment (check, money order or authorization to charge an existing credit account - whether the account is debited at that time or not).
If the merchant doesn't promise a shipping time and you are applying for credit to pay for your purchase, the merchant has an additional 20 days (50 days total) to establish the account and ship the merchandise.
Delays
If the merchant is unable to ship within the promised time, it must notify you by mail, telephone, or email, give a revised shipping date and give you the chance to cancel for a full refund or accept the new shipping date. The merchant also must give you some way to exercise the cancellation option for free, for example, by supplying a prepaid reply card or staffing a toll-free telephone number.

If you ignore the option notice, and the delay is 30 days or less, it's assumed that you accept the delay and are willing to wait for the merchandise.
If you do not respond - and the delay is more than 30 days - the order must be canceled by the 30th day of the delay period and a full refund issued promptly.
If the merchant can't meet the revised shipping date, it must notify you again by mail, email or telephone and give you a new shipping date or cancel your order and give you a refund.

The order will be canceled and a refund issued promptly unless you indicate by the revised shipping date that you are willing to wait.
If you do not respond at all to the second notice, it's assumed that you are not willing to wait, and a full refund must be issued promptly. "

Source: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/credit/billed.htm

 

well glad to hear you got your parts and all is good.

However it always disturbs me when a company bills you straight off and then tells you something is "out of stock"... Not the kind of place I want to do business with.

 

The entire Intense employees are out on vacation? I'm still waiting for an order...

 

My promised ship date was not met once again.

First they're available, then they're not. Hotchkis is better than f$ckin Houdinni!

New estimated ship date: end of Jan

is that whack or what?

 

Hello,

To the OP (teacher) and everyone else that purchased this part and had unexpected delays, etc, I would like to thank you for your patience. Since mid-November we received ~30 orders for Stage 1 TVS Kit's 350z (80413-1).

After Hotchkis announced it's $50 rebate late November, we received ~10 orders Immediately. That 100% depleted our stock. We then started drop shipping them straight from Hotchkis because the orders were coming in so fast. At one point, in early November we received ~8 more orders online within a couple of days. I emailed Mark, the Sales Manger at Hotchkis to inquire if he had enough in stock to fill all orders. His reply was "yes". I processed all of the payments and sent the drop ship PO's.

It wasn't until a week later that customers started inquiring about their order. At that time I learned that Hotchkis indeed had the products, but was waiting on bushings. I've never had to ask about bushings because when I inquire about availability, it's part number specific (80413-1); believe me when I tell you that I was p1ssed off about this, voicing my displeasure loud and clear with Mark.

At that time, I determined which orders were outstanding, and which had been shipped. The new ETA that was provided to me (from Mark, Sales Manger at Hotchkis) was the same ETA that I relayed to our customers with outstanding orders. Now, everyone that knows me on this forum knows that I don't sugarcoat anything. Nothing. If you ask me my opinion, I'll tell you it. If you ask me what I think about this or that, I'll tell you, even if it goes against what you think. I don't bull$hit. Period. There was nothing malice about my provided ETA, or "illegal" as someone was alluding to. (BTW, the OP's order came in on 12/9 and was received by the OP on 12/29).

As I just stated, the OP received his/her product on 12/29. As stated still on our home page we were closed from 12/25-1/2 (or 12/22 Friday-1/2 being that we're closed on weekends anyway): www.intensepower.com "HOLIDAY HOURS: CLOSED DECEMBER 25TH THROUGH JAN 1ST. ALL ORDERS PLACED ONLINE WILL BE SHIPPED AFTER JAN. 2ND". Yes, all of our voice mail boxes got filled, as they do every day pretty much. No, we didn't check our email, and no, we didn't reply to PM's. When we are on vacation, we're on vacation.

The OP's product was sent on Friday, 12/22 (the day we closed for the holiday break), and we had no way of knowing that there were emails, phone calls, Pm's, etc after that, because we were on vacation.. Again, given the enormous amount of orders for this product in a small time frame, in addition to having to drop ship some, the bushing issue, and the holiday break, the unfortunate outcome of the OP was that his/her product was shipped 1 week later than the ETA that was relayed to me by Hotchkis.

Outcome:

At this time, every person that ordered (except 1) up until 12/22 has received his/her 80413-1. We received another 12 orders while we were closed. The product again is on back order and we were advised "this product will be ready to be shipped the week of January 22". Every person that ordered during the break has now been called or emailed to advise this. It's not our policy to charge customers for products that are back order. Rather, we determine ETA from the manufacturer (sometimes they're incorrect.... but we don't falsify or sugarcoat anything) then call and/or email the customer BEFORE ever charging. If the customer does not call us or reply to our email in 7 days, we cancel the order, and call/email the customer to let him/her know. In the OP situation, we were advised by Hotchkis that they could fill the order, so we processed the payment. It wasn't until a week later that we found out that Hotchkis couldn't fill the order. The OP was then notified via email.

That's it! If after you read this your verdict is "Intense has crappy customer service" or "Intense is cheating, lying, malice scoundrels" then that's on you. I beg to differ. Thanks for reading..

Darren.

 

Nice Darren..........you don't have 92 good itrader ratings for nothing. And that's just on this site.

You may eventually have more good ratings than posts. lol

I can attest for the GREAT customer service Darren and Intense provide.......