18 replies to this topic

[blue blood]

Now i know that a lot of people have used the company force racing and that they are a very reputable company. They do sell some good items and the quality is generally there especially in terms of their CAD work.

However i did have a very bad experience with them. As posted on their website on the rear suspension setup page is rear swing arms which are stipulated to have 'standard pin mounts'. We are lead to assume that therefore The geometrics are to be the same as a standard rear arm. However this was not the case and they did not fit my mini at all (regardless of whether it is a minus or not as a minus fits standard mini suspension just fine and i have worked on several minus shells). Coupled with this there was also a part that was not welded fully and the coilover attachment places were completely different!

So in short i could not use them as a standard item. I contacted Carl Austin who works with them and just asked for a simple refund as it is not a custom made part (it is made to order though) this in turn means by law due to there being a problem i could return said item within a reasonable time with it not being used. However he refused and said that it was completely my fault (good customer service). To begin with he said that if i wanted it rectified i would have to pay but when i threatened with legal action it mysteriously would cost me nothing!

After a lot of emails back and forth i decided i wanted to just do this legally however i did the foolish thing of paying him via a paypal present which means it wasn't an official transaction (and it just meant he could dodge having to pay paypal or declare it as income for tax). Also on top of this if you want to make a claim you need the address of the company, which he would not provide me with! (which again is very immature and shows the poor customer service).

I have since sold the rear arms to someone who maybe able to get some use out of them but i have taken a big hit from them.

To summarise the moral is to always pay a person as business on expensive items and even though they have a large reputation some business' will not always act professionally. Also although they may have a lot of good publicity and there products may seem the best you may be the one given the short straw and suffer!

I hope this shows people on the mini forum that it doesn't matter about reputation as mistakes can happen, but it shows whether they are a good company on how a mistake is rectified!

Regards to all who read this,

Blue

[retroracer1275]

first bad review ive seen

not good!

have you fitted standard arms on now?

[blue blood]

first bad review ive seen

not good!

have you fitted standard arms on now?

Yeah like a said although they have got a good reputation even the best aren't necessarily right. I haven't fitted arms at the moment as i am a little short of money and tied up but i do have the specialist component arms in mind as i know for a fact they retain all the mini rear arms geometry and at half the price ( i should have run with these in the first place but oh well).

[supermini]

Wouldn't it make sense to fit some standard arms first to check they fit before writing this post?

[blue blood]

Wouldn't it make sense to fit some standard arms first to check they fit before writing this post?

I have already fit standard arms on another minus i have worked on in the past and if the arms were the same they would have fit.
Regards Blue

[wolfie]

Thats not what supermini suggested, he asked if you had fitted standard arms first just because standard arms were once fitted to a minus by you does not mean that a set will fit the shell you have currently does it?

i had a set of wheels from force that when turned up were the wrong size, when i looked at the details of the order it was clear that i had specified the wheels with the wrong measurements so totally MY fault, Force took the wheels back corrected MY mistake then packed them off with a courier back to me at there expense as in Carl's words "its got to be right", there is no mini supplier not one on this planet that would have treated me like that considering it was my dumbass mistake so i dont believe you for one second when you say that rectifying the problem was made difficult for you.

Edited by wolfie, 21 November 2011 - 09:00 PM.

[blue blood]

Well I haven't seen this topic for a while. Thanks for the response wolfie I like being called a liar but I guess the proof is in the pudding so here is a picture of Carls beam with standard arms on my shell with no modifications :





I still have the email correspondence from him saying he would charge me to rectify his problems and all the obscene immature completely poor businessman correspondence trying to get an address!

If it were MY fault like how you cocked up I would hold my hands up but as it wasn't and cost me an arm and a leg in the first place you would have thought it would have been sorted properly if the man had some decorum about him!

Regards Blue

Edited by blue blood, 13 February 2012 - 10:20 PM.

[Sam Walters]

A minus may take standard mini components, however these arms are designed to fit within the contraints of a steel bodied mini.

Did you trial fit them on a steel mini?

[blue blood]

Yes and yes. Besides the minus has the exact same constraints as a mini steel shell it is merely the body work thats different. It was just completely frustrating how he was saying it was me being an idiot and that my minus is radically different!

Regards Blue

[Sam Walters]

Yes and yes. Besides the minus has the exact same constraints as a mini steel shell it is merely the body work thats different. It was just completely frustrating how he was saying it was me being an idiot and that my minus is radically different!

Regards Blue

How did they fit on a standard mini?

[Carlzilla]

This man can make you tubular radius arms etc.
Clive's work: http://backstreetrodz.blogspot.com/
He's only based in Brockmoor so he isn't far from you.
He's able to make Vauxhall subframes and driveshafts, Rear beams, Spaceframes etc. And he is a very nice bloke.
[email protected]

[blue blood]

Yes and yes. Besides the minus has the exact same constraints as a mini steel shell it is merely the body work thats different. It was just completely frustrating how he was saying it was me being an idiot and that my minus is radically different!

Regards Blue

How did they fit on a standard mini?

Just as bad!!!

Ha

[Sam Walters]

Im baffled really. Given they would be made in a jig. But i guess every so often someone makes a mistake ey blue.

I suspect they were designed for minis that have modified turrets. But even still.

Whats your plan now. the cnc`ed arms from sc.

Honestly id get the steel tube out!

[Tupers]

I hate to sound rude but I think you're wrong here.

The only thing that Force say on their site is that the style of arms you bought uses a standard radius arm pin. There's nothing there about them being made as a replacement for the standard arm and as such you got what you paid for. Their alleged responses to you are by no means polite or business like but they're not entirely in the wrong.


I'd also say that if you compare the two pictures bellow (stock arm from Mini Spare and Forces arm) the area you would mount the coil over to looks to be at least 30MM further out than it would be with stock arms. How can you expect a coil over to mount in the same area on the body if the mount is further out on the arm?

[blue blood]

Yes the actual description on their website was made after he made mine there were no pictures to compare with! I have in emails requesting for the exact same specifications as a standard arm (incase I needed to sell them) which he said they would be. He said this was not the first set he had made to take standard mountings (including suspension standard mountings) but I think I was actually the guinea pig.

Being very disappointed in his fabrication work in terms of the rear arms and a little bit for the rear beam (mostly the welding side but I DO KNOW HOW HARD IT IS TO WORK IN Ti but if you can't do it to a high standard and charge high standard prices don't do it at all )I actually really like his tie bars and the look of some of his wheels. Its just a shame the business side let it down for me. The moral of the story is always pay via paypals business option and do not send as a gift on such big orders.

Regards Blue