e-bay wheel sellers

[motuman]

Since yesterdays post exposed potential problems with the merchant "Highline Wheels" I thought it might be useful to start a thread dedicated to our experiences with e-bay sellers.

Some of the bigger players include Lakeshore Wheel & Tire, The Wheel Exchange, and O.E. Wheel Distrubutors.

Anyone have experiences to share about these or other wheel merchants, and their products?

[Eric Clark]

Lakeshore Wheel & Tire use to be called aaa rims and at AAArims.com. I heard good things about them when they were AAA rims but know nothing about them under the new name.

AAA rims name change (http://www.lakeshorewheelandtire.com/aaarims.shtml)

[uberhahn]

I was an unfortunate sucker within the last week. I was bidding on a set of E34 M5 wheels. I was not the high bidder and the auction ended. A few days later, I got an e-bay email stating that it was a "second-chance" offer. it provided all ebay links and looked very e-bay official. As it turned out, the individual (Daniel Meltierre ) somehow copied every facet of the second-chance offer from Ebay, down to the email address. Unfortunately, the address, and the second chance offer were fake.

well, hindsight is 20/20. First, do as Ebay says, and never pay with Western Union. Second, beware.

I am in the process of filing a claim with the FBI for internet fraud. The E-bay response was not helpful. I suppose I could look at it from the positive side and say that I could have lost more money. Now, it's just a very expensive lesson. It saddens me, though, as I like Ebay. Too bad it takes only a few A$$holes that make me mistrust everyone.

-uberhahn

[632 Regal]

I used Beekers with no problems...sortof... forgot lugs, then the hubcentrics but they sent them right out when I called.
Ebay is starting to get spooky with the scammers. Definetly read all feedack and anything that looks bad avoid, do you have the link to the guy that sent the second chance offer? I mean did he have any feedback? I was reading all through the feedback on the wheels site mentioned yesterday, quite amusing.

[632 Regal]

heres a letter forwarded to me from a friend:

Hi, The gas today is 95.2cents a liter. It takes all most five to a
gallon. They say one dollar in the next week so it will be five dollars a
gallon. I will check to see what master card covers if that happens
again. My son called and they have to do some work on this ebay motor
home. He was upset when he found out they had not even looked at it. The
fellow said they drove it 150 miles on a road test and every thing was
working great. The add said it had and new oil filter and change. My son
looked and there was an old filter and it had never been done. The fellow
said the generator run great and it won't start. The carpets were shampooed
and were just dirty. The alternator doesn't charge. My son took it for a
test drive and it missed so bad they took it back to fix it. These guys on
ebay lie terrible. They totally lied about everything. My son said if they
screw him around anymore he will tell them to keep it and just fly back. He
is not a happy camper right now. Auto outlet of AZ is the dealer. They only
sell on ebay. If he comes home without it I wil have spent a lot of money
for nothing. I will know later today. I hope it gets fixed. The plane fares
were 1200.00 and hotels for 2 days, meals for three they left here Sunday.
I also had to pay a guy 300 to go with him to drive back. It will be a good
lesson about ebay. I thought the guys on there were ok. Wake up dumb
Canadian!!!!!! Well better go and wait for him to call with the good or bad
news. Bye for now and have a good day.

[Chip]

Won some wheels from Highline Wheels. They seem fine, the wheels, and had no problem dealing with the merchant. But they still haven't left any feedback and it's been months.
I use the wheels for the track only, so I'm not that worried about the wheels not standing up to normal road wear.


Since yesterdays post exposed potential problems with the merchant "Highline Wheels" I thought it might be useful to start a thread dedicated to our experiences with e-bay sellers.

Some of the bigger players include Lakeshore Wheel & Tire, The Wheel Exchange, and O.E. Wheel Distrubutors.

Anyone have experiences to share about these or other wheel merchants, and their products?

[pundit]

Since yesterdays post exposed potential problems with the merchant "Highline Wheels" I thought it might be useful to start a thread dedicated to our experiences with e-bay sellers.

Some of the bigger players include Lakeshore Wheel & Tire, The Wheel Exchange, and O.E. Wheel Distrubutors.

Anyone have experiences to share about these or other wheel merchants, and their products?
The problem is once people learn how to use a system to scam others they will, and the problem will grow. Take email spam for example, take phishing etc. If you think the scams are bad now then you ain't seen nothing yet.
The internet has opened up a whole new way to rip people off anonimously and many of the crooks don't really believe they are acting criminally because they didn't use a gun or knife. In fact I'm sure most of them think that if their victims are stupid enough to fall for their scams then they are idiots and deserve it. Sad, but true. :(

The bottom line is trust no-one without good reason!

[scott540]

Got my wheel and tire package from Wheel Exchange. Easy to work with. However, didn't buy off ebay. I called directly and it ended up being cheaper

[PhilipJCaputo]

I think a lot of buying problems occur from low sellers..... check comments... and if all seems well, you're probably going to be in the clear.

[Asharus]

I just bought a set of M pars w/ tires from OE, I'll let you know how it works out when I receive them.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1,1&item=7965301567&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWN%3AIT

[motuman]

I'm was looking at the same wheels. I'll be very interested to see what you think.

[Asharus]

I asked in the roadfly message boards if anyone dealt w/ that seller b4, and 1 guy replied stating that he was happy with it, and he even posted 2 pics.

[632 Regal]

seller has pretty good ratings.

[darron525]

I have to agree with Jeff, I have been using ebay for about 3yrs now and have not been ripped off or had any bad dealings, but the key is the feedback
and knowing what you are buying.
A couple things that I do is check the feedback and how they reply to it. I do not bid from guys with neg feedback but its interesting to me that the responses are always terrible from bad sellers.Also I agree with the guys on this board that if you have a credit card, you should pay with it because if you get screwed, or get mis-informed then you can always dispute the charge and paypal will get on it when your cc company won't pay them.
Sellers who say wheels fit but do not list the offset of the wheel are ones you prabably want to avoid. If they can't do something as simple as list the specs of the product then your money should be spent elsewhere.

when I was looking for wheels, I cut it down to two options. There was a guy selling some oem m-pars and I was looking at the aftermarket ones. Now the guy did not have the specs for the m-pars and I emailed him to ask the center bore,and he did not know for sure. He said it was about 74mm. Now this made me have to decide If I wanted to deal with the hubcentric rings or just go aftermarket. Later that day I checked the auction on the m-pars and the guy had done his homework. He went and looked at the part #'s and edited his auction with the front & rear part #'s,width's and the centerbore(72.56). The ended up being oem e38 m-pars. That was all I needed to know and I won the auction.

sorry about the long rant, but I hope this helps someone in their decision making.


darron

[motuman]

The reputation of the seller is certainly key, but the other info I was hoping to get here is the some feedback on the quality of their product. In my research of m-parallel replicas, for example, I have found that they could be made in China, Tawain, Italy or elsewhere. There is a long-standing tradition on the message boards anti-replica sentiment (perpetuated no doubt, by wheels that are out of round/hard to balance), but finding out which manufacturer is involved is difficult due to all of the re-branding. Adding to the fun, I have also been quoted weight specs ranging from 23 to 29 lbs, for an 18 x 8 wheel of the same design

One custom wheel manufacturer I spoke with (who didn't sell m-parallel's) said that he had done a great deal of research in selecting a plant and found quality control at the Italian plants lacking. (The opposite of what some would expect?). FWIW he also found the Tawainese plants to be superior to the Chinese manfufacturers he considered.

With the price of a used set of OEM m-parallel's (complete with curb rash) selling on ebay for double a set of new replica's, the replicas remain an attractive alternative for some. The replicas also have the option of coming in 20mm offset (vs. 13mm for OEM fronts) and your choice of staggered or 18"X 8" all around.

Any feedback is appreciated.

[charlie]

darron, what di you pay for them and what kind of shape were they in?


I have to agree with Jeff, I have been using ebay for about 3yrs now and have not been ripped off or had any bad dealings, but the key is the feedback
and knowing what you are buying.
A couple things that I do is check the feedback and how they reply to it. I do not bid from guys with neg feedback but its interesting to me that the responses are always terrible from bad sellers.Also I agree with the guys on this board that if you have a credit card, you should pay with it because if you get screwed, or get mis-informed then you can always dispute the charge and paypal will get on it when your cc company won't pay them.
Sellers who say wheels fit but do not list the offset of the wheel are ones you prabably want to avoid. If they can't do something as simple as list the specs of the product then your money should be spent elsewhere.

when I was looking for wheels, I cut it down to two options. There was a guy selling some oem m-pars and I was looking at the aftermarket ones. Now the guy did not have the specs for the m-pars and I emailed him to ask the center bore,and he did not know for sure. He said it was about 74mm. Now this made me have to decide If I wanted to deal with the hubcentric rings or just go aftermarket. Later that day I checked the auction on the m-pars and the guy had done his homework. He went and looked at the part #'s and edited his auction with the front & rear part #'s,width's and the centerbore(72.56). The ended up being oem e38 m-pars. That was all I needed to know and I won the auction.

sorry about the long rant, but I hope this helps someone in their decision making.


darron

[pmlmotorsports]

Hmmmmmmm, I wonder why I can't sell M-Parallel replicas with the same tires mounted, balanced, and delivered for $1100? I guess people just like paying more than they have to. No offense to anyone who has made such purchases, I just needed to let it be known.
NOBODY WILL OFFER A BETTER DEAL ON RIMS AND TIRES. If I can get'em, you can have them at the absolute lowest cost. I do this for BMW owners primarily and it helps to be a member of Bimmer.info as I really don't advertise since this is not my main market. I usually sell to distributors and retailers. Hope to hear from you guys with the itch to buy some rims.


I just bought a set of M pars w/ tires from OE, I'll let you know how it works out when I receive them.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1,1&item=7965301567&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWN%3AIT

[Asharus]

Excellent wheels! Unfortunately, they sent the wrong hub diameter (they sent the one for the E39s) so I had to use the centering rings from my old wheels. No vibration problems, runs perfectly. The fit and finish is excellent!

[darron525]

darron, what di you pay for them and what kind of shape were they in?

$980.00 with the usual curb rash.