lol!

Thanks kcobean. I thought that was u.

 

I think that as long as the product is bought new in the box from a real company, be it down the street or the the net, the manufacturer should warrant it for manufacturing defects and provide the customer support for the product to an extent. If you buy something out of the back of some guy's truck on the weekend, then that's a whole other story.

Hell, I bought my wheels directly from the manufacturer and still got bent over, so it really depends how well a company wants to stand behind their product in the end.

 

You are contradicting yourself to an extent. Why is Joesdiscountbrakekits.com any different than Joe going out on the street and selling them out of the back of his truck. The point is that neither of them is inside the manufacturers approved distribution channel, which means that the manufacturer can no longer be held responsible for the products being in-tact and free from damage that may manifest itself down the road as a materials defect.

Every manufacturer certainly has to protect their own reputation, and if they choose not to do it (as may be the case with your wheel), that's their own fault, but one of the ways they DO protect their reputation is to ensure that only reputable re-sellers sell their products. JRitt never accused HopUp of being "unreputable", they just simply haven't gone through that "certification" process with StopTech yet, that's all. I personally don't think it's unreasonable to expect them to do so.