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I hate to resort to this public setting, but am truly at wit's end with 9Eleven Headlights. Every step of my customer journey has been awful, not least of which has been the fundamentally faulty product i have on my hands, and the entire lack of after-sales support from the "company" / Lee, the owner.
I have a very modified C2 964. I was eager to improve the light quality & output as part of the project. Specifically, i wanted to make sure other cars could more easily see me on the road. This led to purchasing a set of Rennline LED headlights, as well as a set of 9Eleven's "Bloomer" LED taillights.
The purchase process is a funny one as it's a bit like playing the lottery. You call their number and hope they answer, or you send them an email, or you send them a message on Instagram. I did all three and after a few weeks got a response to the tune of "Hey! We are making 40 kits and have a few that aren't spoken for. They are ~$4k and the lead time is going to be 6-8 weeks. Cash up front."
From that point, all my questions were promptly answered and i enthusiastically sent payment. This is where the trouble began.
After the first 6 weeks, I reached out to get a status update. I didn't receive any response to my calls and after 8 weeks, i was finally told they were delayed. After 10 weeks i was told they were shipped and tracking would follow. After another few weeks i was told "they weren't shipped". Throughout, the inconsistency in messaging and response was exhausting and frustrating.
Finally, months after payment was made, they arrived at E-Motion Engineering, where my car was under the knife.
Upon getting the car back from E-Motion, I noticed thin spider-web cracks in the finish of the plastic. The product fit & finish was also very poor. Upon washing the car ahead of Luft, all three lenses turned into fishbowls. Yikes!! Not exactly what I was expecting.
So began another few weeks of trying to get Lee on the phone. At this point, I also noticed their instagram was filled with angry messages from other pending customers who had sent payment, but not received product or communication. Further, every few days, 9Eleven is teasing the latest and greatest "next" product they want to introduce. This was especially frustrating as they clearly had more business than they could already support.
Lee finally returned my call and promptly sent a new set of lights. These seemed to be manufactured better, and did not have the cracking in the finish.
Unfortunately my enthusiasm was short lived as almost immediately, I was pulled over by the local police who let me know that they couldn't see my taillights very easily. Then, random strangers would roll their windows down and tell me to turn my lights on, etc..... Even in the daylight, my buddies could hardly see my brake lights or indicators. I checked the voltage and all was well on the vehicle side - clearly the light output was simply not high enough.
To make matters worse, this set of lights also began taking in water and suffering serious condensation issues.
This has been going on for the last 8 months and Unfortunately, Lee has decided that this is not his problem. The one time he did respond, we agreed on a time to speak and he blew off the meeting telling me "I thought we were working on EST not PST....." which was a bizarre excuse as we are both located in CA.
I am now left with a very expensive & faulty/unsafe taillight, and a "company" that refuses any & all communication. I try to call a few times a week to no avail. I even let them know that i was going to share this on RL, in the hopes they would at least pickup the phone and have a conversation!
Any suggestions on what the next steps should be? I plan to report 9Eleven to the Better Business Bureau, as well as to the DOT as I have to assume this product hasn't met any regulations for light output etc. From there, is small claims court the best move?
Would be great if they would just answer the phone and resolve this.....Seems a relatively easy situation has become far more laborious for both sides.
A few photos as well showing the initial cracking on the finish i received, as well as some of the condensation. Difficult to photograph but can confirm plenty of water makes it into the assembly.
I got bad vibes from their tease-tease-tease instagram approach, but this is pretty shocking.
The pictures you're sharing look like a beta product from someones' workbench, not something from an established company that is generating hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars in revenue.
I have their Headlights on my RWB. Love them and the output is great. I was not aware that they were making tail lights as well. Sorry to hear about your troubles with them. I bought my lights from them and dealt directly with Lee and it was a pleasant experience. I hope you get this sorted soon.
a vendor shall NEVER ask fill pmt upfront. I am an ex banker.
they need working capital
I am not their LOC
this is a big red flag
I hope you get it rectified quickly
I have their headlights and they seem very high end and built to the highest standard. These, just don't. I will just buy new OEM tail lights every 10 years I guess.
Those tails look terrible. I wish I had the ***** like some to charge so much to deliver such crap.... Not even the crazing, matte, bad finish, the black surround looks like this is a prototype, not a finished product. You could prob salvage them by sanding and re-clearing with 2k polish and get them to look nice, but that won't help the dim LED output.
Thank you for the comments. Definitely a frustrating situation. At the very least, after sending him this thread, Lee has finally reached out (with plenty of excuses) with the intent to build a brighter, higher quality set "for my car".
I want to also clarify that my original set had the cracking, where the follow-up set did not. Seems he figured out how to properly cure the clearcoat, but agree that this probably isnt the most premium way to produce these regardless.
My current set still suffers from water ingress, condensation, and of course, very poor light output. I told him that if i did not have clear details and deadlines by the end of day today, i would be looking into small-claims court. I also gave him the option of just giving the money back. My hunch is, he doesn't want to do that....
And also, to those mentioning it seems like these are being built on a work-bench as an after-school project..... that is EXACTLY what this is. It's amazing what an instagram and website can do to make you look like something you're not. I think the reality is these taillights are a more complex product than the headlights, and the first owners were simply delivered a prototype that looks good in photos and nothing else.....
Having taken apart tail lights and then decided to just buy new ones rather than try and get the new lenses to look good, I would believe they're more complicated than the headlights.
The main component of the headlight is the projector, and that's an off-the-shelf item.
04-05-2024, 01:52 PM
Buyer Beware: 9Eleven Headlights
