Ghozt

Sharing my experience in hopes to get a public opinion from you guys but to also help folks who may be considering Ferrada wheels for their Lexus.

I purchased a set of Ferrada FR4 for my 2016 IS300 F almost 2 years ago. Really loved the look of the wheels with this car, and honestly, the price point was attractive. I live in New Jersey, so the wheels see about 5 months of "summer" use and then they go into the basement for storage. So, they've seen a total of ~10k miles of time on the road in total, to date. Upon pulling the wheels off this fall I noticed one of the wheels was missing a rather large chunk of the inner barrel and had a crack running through it. The victim of what was obviously a nasty pothole, I've seen my fair share of wheels bend or crack...I'm 37 years old and I've been modifying cars since I was 17, currently own the Lexus and a heavily modified E46 M3 (Member Ghozt on M3Forum since 2007). The crack was just dumb luck, but I also noticed 3 of the wheels had paint peeling in spots where the outer lip met up with the inner barrel. On one of the wheels, I could peel paint off endlessly with my fingernail. This, was not good.

Fast forward to about a week ago. The wheels were in the basement so I figured once the weather is turning and they are due to go on the car, I would then deal with replacing the broken wheel and approach a buddy of mine who does paint about the peeling. I showed him the worst wheel, we discuss things like using chemicals to clean (I do NOT use anything other than soap or water to wash my vehicles), and he reaches the conclusion that it's a poor paint job with improper treatment to seal the paint. It is likely moisture had gotten between the 2 areas and had caused the paint to bubble and chip. A little disappointed but it is what it is and I would see what Ferrada says when I approach them about the cracked wheel.

I bought my wheels from Ferrada directly. There is zero price difference ordering from them vs. a third party, so why not. I contacted the individual who I placed my order with and mentioned the cracked wheel and sent the same pic as below. I was told that the damage is due to a pot-hole and it would not be covered under their 2 year warranty...Fine, no sweat. I proceed to mention the paint chipping issue and was told "the manufacturer has a 1 year warranty on paint issues." How convenient, my wheels are more than 1 year old. However, my contact proceeded to ask me for pictures and said he would reach out to the manufacturer to see if anything could be done. A day later I am told the manufacturer will not do anything because it is outside warranty but the guy at Ferrada seemed to be wanting to help and said he would push back that the wheels were all showing paint chipping which is odd. Something starts to tell me they've been dealing with this prior :hmm:

Now here's where things get somewhat infuriating...enough to where I felt I had to share my experience...

I receive an email this morning saying, and this is a copy/paste:

So I immediately push back about this "offer" I'm given. Instead of replacing the wheels I have, in the color I want, you will replace 2 wheels (via $1k credit) in a different style and/or color. The only thing I see from this "offer" is some type of acknowledgment that there is an issue, yet the offer doesn't help me in ANY capacity. So I respond with the options they've left me.

I can:
A) Take them up on their "offer" and buy an entirely different set of wheels, spending $1150 PLUS the cost to then paint the wheels to black.
Total Cost somewhere in the ballpark of $15-1600.

I ordered black on black. If I wanted black with chrome lip, that's what I would have ordered.

B) Purchase a new wheel to replace the cracked wheel ($475 plus shipping) and then pay to have the other wheels repainted
Total Cost somewhere in the ballpark of $950-1050.

Honestly, I reached out to Ferrada to see if they'd throw me a bone on a replacement wheel given the issues I'm having with the paint. Instead, I get the most ***-backwards offering I could imagine. I feel like they think I'm dumb. Their offer requires me to spend more money and buy more wheels from Ferrada. It benefits no one other than Ferrada. When I expressed my extreme displeasure in how they would rectify this situation, I was told that Ferrada is "being ridiculously nice and generous." It's hard not to laugh, honestly.

For comparative purposes, I run Forgestar wheels on my M3. I purchased the wheels in 2013. In 2017/18, I had a wheel crack from a pothole. I reached out to Forgestar and they acknowledged the wheel was damaged from a pothole, and that it was outside of warranty coverage, but they offered to replace my wheel at cost. They built me a brand new, custom wheel, and didn't charge me a penny over their cost.

I'm just disappointed. In these situations, a $100 off a wheel would have gone a long way. Instead, I'm here writing the above and never wanting to put the wheels back on the car ever again. Customer service is a tremendous part of any business. I deal with business owners for a living and provide a service as a product. My clients happiness is everything to me. I don't feel that Ferrada was out to make me happy in this situation, and instead positioned themselves to make an additional sale.

TOPENDMS

WORK Wheels next time

Blaque Diamond Wheels

Sorry to hear about your experience. It's never okay to treat a customer that way. A warranty is set in place to assist a customer when there is an issue, not to throw it in their face and say "too late!" Unacceptable.

Sasnuke

Personally i think a lot of these aftermarket wheels have a lot of thought put into the design and manufacturing process, but drop the ball when it comes to the finish...when it involves paint. (unless you are spending thousands of dollars per rim)
It obvious from the pic where you see the full "FERRADA" name the peeling is due to poor prep/paint. You're not going to get that from any chemical cleaner. Of course it's easy for me to say that sitting here, cause I'm not trying to avoid a warranty claim.
I don't expect a rim finish to last forever, but i think the expectation would be at least two summers without this kind of degradation.

If they really were concerned with product quality, they should have offered for you to ship the 4 wheels back to them (at your cost), and pay for 1 new rim, and the shipping to send 4 new rims back to you.
That way you would be out of pocket for round trip shipping for 4 wheels and 1 new wheel.
They could then investigate what caused the paint peeling so it doesn't happen going forward, and see if the crack could have been avoided with a better rim design...or was it just a pothole, and there was nothing that could have been done to avoid it cracking.
They could have refinished the 3 wheels, and made a new one for a complete set, and even resell it new, or at a discounted price.

Ghozt

Exactly! Does anyone else other than me feel that the offer they made me was insulting? There's a clear cut acknowledgment of an issue, yet zero offering of a solution that would actually benefit me in any capacity! BTW, I asked why the manufacturer was willing to replace my wheels with anything other than what I actually had. That question has remained unanswered.

I suppose you get what you pay for. Cheap wheels...cheap paint...poor customer service.

Lesson learned

Ghozt

Now noticing complaints racking up over the last 2 years for the exact same issue doing a simple internet search. Even 1 on the BBB which mimics what I said above.

Again, a fair warning. You truly get what you pay for... The "generous offer" still blows my mind. The solution to a problem is to convince a customer to buy more wheels, pad revenue and income stats even if at a smaller margin...rather than do the right thing and replace the same wheels they actually have! Unreal

BrettKA7

What the hell? The cracked wheel is obviously road hazard but the peeling paint would never happen on an OEM wheel from wheel cleaner and it shouldn’t on an aftermarket wheel either.

The “offer” they gave you is more insulting than just “sorry, you’re out of warranty and we are unable to accommodate your request”. Awful, awful customer service and I’ll remember this for the future.

beezmarkee

Made in China?

Sasnuke

Taiwan.

For whatever reason there seems to be more than one wheel manufacturer that is based in the US (for design), but the manufacturing is actually done in Taiwan.
I'm sure cost is a driving force behind this...which makes you wonder why rims are so expensive, but the quality seems hit or miss.
Of course if they never recover the flawed rims, how can they address quality control with the manufacturer.

Ghozt

Just as a follow-up. I asked if I could receive a slight discount on a replacement wheel. I was told the offer I received, to replace my wheels with different wheels, was their offer.

I'll be spreading my disappointment to other areas of the internet in hopes that folks don't run in to the situation I and others are dealing with. Ferrada is a joke

DaveGS4

iTrader: (2)

One guess is they discovered a problem with the wheel or that specific finish and that's why they aren't offering as part of the deal.

Have you tried to spec (as if you were going to buy) the same wheels new to see if they're still offered?

Ghozt

The same wheels, brand new, are 100% still available.

They offer the black with a chrome lip as well and offered me that "deal" to move to a different finish including this one. The paint is not chipping at the lip so I bet they are experiencing this across other finishes as well. It's a cheaply painted and crafted wheel, hands down. I realize that now given the way the paint is flaking.

Their offer prevents them from taking a loss of any magnitude whatsoever. It tells me they are having issues with others as well. If they replace my wheels, they will have to replace others. This is their solution to avoid a complete burial. Like I said, it's a joke... Anyone with half a brain experiencing what I am isn't going to buy MORE Ferrada wheels in a different color or style!

Whtprvsrt8

I have a set of ferrada f1. Bought them last February ​put them on the car beginning on may. Never used anything but soap and water. ​Had them ceramic coated from ferrada. ​. ​Paint is flaking off on the chrome lip that they press on in huge pieces. They said it was because Im running 305'son a 10.5 inch rim and the tire is to big for the rim, and will not warranty the rims. Under closer inspection the fronts are peeling the same and those are running 275's on a9inch wide rim . I knew they were just looking for an excuse to not warranty the rims and after I noticed the front I k on there full of ****. Bottom line ferradas are junk and the owner of the company is an *** hole. I'm stuck with rims that I've had on the car for a summer and owned less than a year at time of seeing defects. 2500 hundred for rims that are as useless as a paper weight.. ill never buy ferradas again and I hope people see this and go elsewhere for rims.. I purchased them through element wheels and the sent me a Check to cover the cost of repainting cause ferrada wouldn't stand by there product. Cudos to element wheels fir being a stand up company. .