Exercise

Hi guys,
Just wanted to give a heads up about a certain fabrication shop in the Orange/Anaheim area if you guys were yelping around for one like I did. I am in the process of designing a DIY splitter and needed a bracket made because I didn't have the right tools/skills to do so. I know there are great guys who make quality splitters (shoutout to Wasp Composites) and this is probably the route I will take in the future. But for now I just wanted a small project to keep me busy and figured making a splitter is a good choice. Anyways, I completely got f@#ked by these guys and their shit product and customer service. Heres a copy-paste of the review I posted to their yelp and facebook page:



"I came to Creative Fabworks to make some chassis mounted brackets for a front splitter for my Honda S2000. The examples of their work on Instagram looked great. They were very responsive when I requested a quote. They were easy to talk to in person when I gave them details on how I'd like my own brackets to be made. Initially very great to work with, but little did I know...

I'm not at all knowledgeable in fab work so when I got the brackets back the welds looked good to my eye. (Side note: It was basically just two L-brackets. Why do you even need to weld anything? I mean, the bottom bracket was already bent into an L, but the top needed to be welded into an L? Come on... just bend that too) Everything seemed satisfactory. Well, one month later I was testing out my splitter at speed and I heard a snap. Turns out, the bracket snapped right off at the welding location. This quality of workmanship is extremely shoddy, dangerous, and downright unacceptable. My splitter was now dragging under my car, kicking who knows how many rocks up onto my well taken care of paint. I now have quite a few rock chips on my hood and around the front fender/bumper join area. I am very lucky it caught onto the radiator support and stayed there. Who knows what more damage could have occurred if I had ran over the bracket or it caught onto a hose, etc.

I politely messaged them on Facebook, where I first contacted them, for a refund. I did not ask for compensation for my damaged paint - just for compensation on the 80 dollars I spent on the brackets. Lo and behold, the quick and responsive messages I got before I payed them were no more. Facebook indicated that they had indeed read my message, but this time I guess they don't even bother to reply once they hand you a shoddy product and take your money. Now I know the guy that runs the facebook page isn't one of the fabricators, and thats fine, but a simple "Sorry the product was garbage, let me contact the fabricator and we will take care of you" or something would go a long way. Nope. No reply at all.

Bottom line - do not go here for fabrication work. Your money is better spent somewhere else."



I have 18 units this quarter and I work part time so finding the time to come to the shop in person is a little hard. I will definitely try and go this Saturday, though.


EDIT: They replied to me after two days. Heres what they said:

"Sorry to hear about the bracket failure. Bottom line is there is no refund. We provided brackets from your design to your materials you wanted and spec out. We only charged you I believe 80 bucks for 2hours of labor and materials. Typically 1 hour of labor here starts at 85dollars. From the looks of the pictures it looks like the material just wasn't up to the task of the down forces caused by splitter. If we did the design, fabrication, or if it was a production piece we would without a doubt refund or fix the problem."


Really? What are your guys' thoughts?
It doesnt matter if it was my design or not. The bottom line is the weld was garbage and if they designed it with the same quality of weld it would have still failed. And REALLY? Two hours of labor to... bend a bar?



TL;DR Bad customer service, shit weld, don't go here.

Gunshow

It's an unfortunate accident, and the good thing is that there wasn't too much damage, and a better thing that you or nobody else was injured.

Moving onto the whole matter now... They technically are in the right, since they're claiming to go off your designs, and you accepted the brackets upon pickup, and they looked good enough to the best of your knowledge. I don't know how many brackets you had holding the splitter (I assume only a pair?), and what else it was bolted up to, but if it's 2, that doesn't seem sufficient at all.

Onto where they should work with you is that as fabricators, they should've found a flaw with your design or requests, since that's their area of expertise. I can't comment on price, since I don't know what their business charges for material or labor, but if it's just a pair, then I personally think that's too much. If I've ever made any brackets, I have always bent where I could, before I would think about welding.

If I was in their position, I would probably have to say the same thing they did, but probably offered to re-weld that broken piece at no charge. The biggest thing in their favor is that you designed and inspected these before you installed. You left feeling satisfied, and had this incident had not occurred, you'd still be content. Hopefully they do offer some assistance to you in repairing the piece that broke, but as far as a refund, I don't feel that's going to happen. Good luck with everything.

sweetdill

this thread is useless without pics.

Gunshow

-=Zeqs=-

The reason for the delay in response, could have very well been them thinking of what they legally need to do, and what they morally should do.

Shitty situation for all parties involved.

99SH

What makes you believe the weld failed from a workmanship standpoint vs inadequate design?

I don't see the shop doing any wrong here, unless proven otherwise.