Pristine not so pristine anymore

[martyjmcfly 0]

Hey all,

 

I’ve just had a mare of a time with our good old favourite, well recommended and trusted Pristine Wheels.

 

I took a set of standard VR Speedlines to my local Pristine agent tyre company with total confidence that I’d love them when they returned. This would be second set of speedline i'd taken to them (i've got 2 sets :) ) I get all my tyres done there as they take car not to mark the wheels. The wheels themselves were in good solid condition, no kerbing or damage, just flaking lacquer so no magic repairs needed.

 

When returned on inspection the 1st box contained the usual spanking condition finish to the wheels as you would expect but the 2nd box was different.

The top wheel had a small splinter of wood (1mm x 1.5mm) in the top coat of lacquer, the second wheel had marks from where bubbles had formed and burst in the lacquer about 2mm x 2mm. Both where on the visible side and on the main large spokes of the wheels so why was there a quality control check sticker on the wheel. The one eyed company dog must have checked them. Not what I expected. Paying all that money and the company's name is Pristine - I couldn't live with them. Couple of months and there'd be flaking on those problem areas. The time of collecting the wheels and returning the wheels was 1 day, still in the box (the full set are still without tyres).

 

I returned the two problem wheels expecting it to be sorted with many apologies but what I got was a demand for £15 extra per wheel to sort the wheels!!!!!!!WTF

 

Now they had my wheels so what do I do? I managed to haggle it down to £15 for both by explaining it was their shoddy workmanship that was the problem. Why have i got to pay more just to sort crap work. The repaired wheels have a thicker coat of lacquer to the good ones. The small lettering on the wheels is no longer clear. Who knows these ones may now last longer :) So I’ve paid nearly £400 to get some wheels refurbished and been smacked in the face with the worst returns policy I have ever come across. The finish on the inner part of all 4 wheels and inner rim is no way as good as the previous set of wheels i had done 2 years ago. Its like they painted on corrosion, not fully rubbed down. They have simply gone down hill.

 

So all I can say is I WILL NEVER USE PRISTINE WHEELS EVER AGAIN

[Mave 0]

I personally think you're being a bit harsh on them.

 

You say you've had wheels done from them before and were pleased, as many other people have. It only takes 1 workman to mess up a job, not the whole company.

 

But them asking for extra money is ludicrous.

[dr_mat 0]

I'd be writing to Pristine head office myself, forget the local agent, they were probably trying to cover their own postage costs.

Write to head office, explain the situation, explain you're still not happy with their work, and particularly that you're not happy at having been made to pay to rectify shoddy workmanship in the first place, and that you would like them to do something about it.

 

Useful info:

 

http://www.pristinealloywheels.co.uk/

 

Pristine Alloy Wheel Refurbishers Limited

Newport Road

Woburn Sands

Milton Keynes

MK17 8UD

 

Managing Director's name is David James, apparently. Send the letter "FAO David James, MD".

[tonedef 9]

I sent my Speedlines to Pristine through an agent in Doncaster early this year and well well impressed with the results. However when I got them back I took them to my mates tyre place for fitting only to find that he was also an agent for Pristine but had recently stopped sending wheels to them as too many had come back as you describe. He didn't say anything about paying for returns but he was looking for a new place to send refurbs to.

[dr_mat 0]

he was also an agent for Pristine but had recently stopped sending wheels to them as too many had come back as you describe.

 

Perhaps they have been overtaken by their success. They're probably struggling to maintain the standards when they have so much business.

[martyjmcfly 0]

Mave - Its not just one guy in a workshop not cleaning his spray gun. When something is returned it should be sorted, they were unhelpful to me, they charged extra to sort it - they are mental!

 

Forget the tyre company, they get money from fitting new tyres to refurbed wheels, the extra cost demand to sort was from Pritsine themselves. The returned wheels have a different job number to original. I spoke to Pristine myself to try and sort it out but they were really unhelpful - the women dealing with the issue is off today lark.

 

Guys, I would not be posting this thread up if I had been shafted by my tyre company. Pristine organise collection and delivery with their courier company, they pay for collection and delivery. Pristine are to fault on this one.

 

Don

[BILLCOR 1]

Nearly £400 :shock:

For that amount of cash the wheels should be faultless

I got my Borbets done at BJV Engineering, £214 and that was for a Black Chrome finish which costs extra, the finish is superb

[Supercharged 2]

A mate of mine sent his BBS's back 3 times before he was happy with the work, they weren't even split rims...

 

I think Pristine needs to have a serious look at there quality control procedures as i certainly wouldn't use them.

[tonedef 9]

Nearly £400 :shock:

For that amount of cash the wheels should be faultless

I got my Borbets done at BJV Engineering, £214 and that was for a Black Chrome finish which costs extra, the finish is superb

My speedlines were just over £200 at Pristine and one of them needed a repair

[Phil K 0]

haven't heard good things about them by a few people now tbh... doubt I'd use them anyway :?

[dinkus 10]

Another vote for BJV here - I just had a set of Compos done by them and they look like new...

[martyjmcfly 0]

Letter to the big man being posted tomorrow unless the posties are still on strike fingers crossed :)

[Supercharged 2]

Letter to the big man being posted tomorrow unless the posties are still on strike fingers crossed

 

Send it recorded, that way you have a good chance it will be him that opens it.

[martyjmcfly 0]

Result - some of my wonger and discount on my next set of wheels.

 

Cheers guys except you won't be getting another set of wheels from me.

 

I got a phone call and had a wierd conversation (not with the MD) in which i explained the problems and they replied with stuff like - thats wierd as our spray booths aren't made of wood type of crap. I replied with if you were charging me x per wheel to put right then you must have seen something brown to put right :) killed him dead

 

I asked them is it standard practice to charge customers further to put quality problems right when returned and the guys response was - it depends what is wrong with the wheel. He couldn't explain what he mean't by that.

 

So there you go folks

[yeti 0]

another vote for bjv here, it might be in the middle of nowhere but they come in significantly cheaper than pristine on the splits i had completely rebuilt there and the finish was superb, heard good things from a lot of people about them and with living 10 miles from pristine and when i was working in the car world i experianced some not 'particularly good service!'