!! Beware of ordering from ABS Motorsport

[aresh]

I bought a 2 piece flipfront from ABS Motorsports, along with brace bars, hinge kit and dzus fasteners. This ended up being one of my worst experiences of internet ordering.

Firstly I have to say that they ship quite fast and communicate well enough when you haven't yet paid.

Beware of ordering from ABS Motorsports following reasons:

1. Fibreglass front end was probably taken out of its mould when it was still soft. This meant that my front end was twisted both ways and had to be bent to get it to seat anywhere near a normal front end would fit

2. The flipfront is full 1.5cm shorter measuring from the front than the original front end (measured 3 minis in the process, from front mounting holes, headlight holes and grille mounting width).

3. Gel coating was already chipped upon receiving and has very low heat resistance (2cm from exhaust it will wave and bubble)

4. Brace bar subframe connection plates were welded 180 degress wrong, meaning that I had to cut these off and re-weld myself on opposite direction.

5. For some reason the hinge kit is unusable, just doesnt fit between the subframe and flipfront.

6. I emailed ABS Motorsport about the problems and they haven't even bothered to comment.

I don't know if ABS Motorsports has always lacked any kind of quality control but at this point I strongly advise not to buy Anything from these guys.

[Birdman]

I bought a 2 piece flipfront from ABS Motorsports, along with brace bars, hinge kit and dzus fasteners. This ended up being one of my worst experiences of internet ordering.

Firstly I have to say that they ship quite fast and communicate well enough when you haven't yet paid.

Beware of ordering from ABS Motorsports following reasons:

1. Fibreglass front end was probably taken out of its mould when it was still soft. This meant that my front end was twisted both ways and had to be bent to get it to seat anywhere near a normal front end would fit

2. The flipfront is full 1.5cm shorter measuring from the front than the original front end (measured 3 minis in the process, from front mounting holes, headlight holes and grille mounting width).

3. Gel coating was already chipped upon receiving and has very low heat resistance (2cm from exhaust it will wave and bubble)

4. Brace bar subframe connection plates were welded 180 degress wrong, meaning that I had to cut these off and re-weld myself on opposite direction.

5. For some reason the hinge kit is unusable, just doesnt fit between the subframe and flipfront.

6. I emailed ABS Motorsport about the problems and they haven't even bothered to comment.

I don't know if ABS Motorsports has always lacked any kind of quality control but at this point I strongly advise not to buy Anything from these guys.

I think you ought to try to re-contact them to discuss your issues with their product BEFORE posting up this stuff. They are a well respected firm and loads of people on here use them for their FG and Composite parts. Have you tried calling them? Maybe your e-mail has gone into a spam folder or something. If you have a grievance then you must sort it out with them rather than slander their business and products. Best regards

[benh]

Suprised about your comments! ABS have a very very good rep on here, i think they would be very dissapointed to see this thread. Im sure They will be in touch with you soon.

[ardonfast]

yes see both sides ,post some good pictures of the falts,words wont do it, i persanaly want to see the hard evidence of qwalaty controll?? not intrested in scratches that could have been caused by the shiping, but poor casting that is in the front?? i have a intrest in this at the moment,but words alone is not enuff for me.thanks??

[Hayling mini]

I think you ought to try to re-contact them to discuss your issues with their product BEFORE posting up this stuff. They are a well respected firm and loads of people on here use them for their FG and Composite parts. Have you tried calling them? Maybe your e-mail has gone into a spam folder or something. If you have a grievance then you must sort it out with them rather than slander their business and products. Best regards

I agree, I have bought god knows how much stuff from ABS over the years & I have never had a problem. They are a fantastic company to deal with.

Regards

Jerry

[sirkieran_1986]

snap . never had a proplem with abs . get a good discount , quick post , ect . u all ways have to do a bit of cutting and filing to get a good fit from any where u get f g are c f ect

[aresh]

I live in Estonia, and my spoken english is not as good as my written so calling them is not my preferable choice.

I have written them on their official address all above in non offensive manner. Gave them full month to answer and said that all I can do afterwards is to warn others.

How can pictures prove anything now? I've re-welded brace bars, and basically cut the and bent the flip front in every fucking way to get it to fit. I dont even want to count the hours I've spent trying to fit this piece of shit. There is no way I can take any conclusive picture.

They know I cant prove it and chose to ignore me, thus my only option is try to warn people that this can happen with ABS Motorsports. Seems that especially if you arent close enough to reach them personally.

I have nothing to gain from warning people, I know full well their reputation as I did my research prior ordering and you can take this warning as you wish.

In case the e-mail did go to junk I just wrote another on other ABS Motorsports email I found on the internet.

Ares

[miniwade]

abs have been awesome when i used them, reply quickly to emails and questions plus you get a good discount.
most importantly my fibreglass front end fit very well apart from a couple of little issues that are expected when fitting fibreglass parts.
you need to speak with him again and im sure he will sort any valid issues or problems you have.
pm him on here im sure you will get a quick response

[GingerMonkey]

I must add that I have had a single piece flip front from them a few years ago. Ordered through another company but the parts were from ABS. Had major issues with the front. All twisted as with the OP and couldn't get the bonnet and the a-panels to meet to the car no matter how hard I tried or chopped. Also found that if I tried to fit the grille and lights they touched each other as if the front was scrunched up. Had a very disgruntled boss of the other company calling me up and in short telling me I don't have the skills to fit a fiberglass front. Strange this seeing as I work with multi million pound aircraft on a daily basis. Never spoke to ABS as I was dealing with this other company who also said if he found out I was "slagging" his company off on the forums he would get his solicitors on me. Great customer service there. I must say though that I had never said anything on the forums and simply put up that there "may" be a problem with the mould or something and they might want to hold off buying for a week or so till I get an answer to the problems.

In the end I made a picture to show the difference between the one I had before and this one. I suppose I was lucky in that respect as it did help me explain things a lot better. Sent that off and also sent the front back and after a few months I got a full refund.

Slagging companies off on forums is not ideal. We know that we want to help each other on here but be careful. All I know is I never want to deal with either company again from the very bad attitude I got over the phone from the other un-named company.

Contact them as best you can and I'm sure in the end all will get sorted.

[pengy666]

Never had issues with ABS before and nor have I ever heard anyone else have issues.

Think yours is a one off and you should have given them opportunity to correct issues before posting stuff like this.

[DarrenW]

Aresh,

I am part of the Admin team on the forum.

Can you please PM ABS on here about your concerns, if you have no reply please let me know.

I think it is only fair to the supplier, that you try everyway to sort out the problem before posting on forums. Cutting up the front end/modifying it, so you have no proof is not correct either, as it then becomes just your word, as you must appreciate.


Please can no one else post on this thread, unless it is very relevant, until the problem has been finalised between ABS and Aresh. Any other non relevant posts will be deleted, we dont want a slagging match to start.

I agree with what Gingermonkey says. I have always said you can tell a good or bad company by how it reacts to when things go wrong but not necessarily when they go well.

Many thanks

Darren

[l_jonez]

I had issues with a front I had off them, contacted them and supplied pictures and I had a new one shipped to me within a few days.

So I'd go along with contact them first

[gadget555]

Whats wrong with freedom of speech !!!! The man has a problem with a product that he's bought from a supplier in another country, from what i can see he's tried to contact them as good as he can and got no reply several times . I know people and companys are busy but how long does it take to send a quick email to say we've seen your letter we will get back to you soon , as for not replying at all what will it leave the man to think ! they take my hard earned money send me something that dosn't fit then will not reply to my questions . So he put's a post on a forum that he knows people will read and get reply's to and hopefully he will get a reply from said company and his issues will get sorted.

[MattG]

All i know is that [email protected] is a very nice guy and has been in and our of hospital for the last 3-4 weeks ... i have passed this email thread onto him .. and am sure he will be in touch with you as soon as he can.

But as others have said , you should really have taken photos etc before changing /cutting .. that way any supplier has the chance of taking it back /re-funds etc ..

Matt

[wilp99]

everything ive ever bought from them has been great. fast shipping, great customer service, and good quality work.

its a known fact on here that flip fronts are a pain in the butt to fit correctly.

i will be buying from again even after this post.