I want to say a couple of things before I share my experience with Diamond Wheels... I apologize if this is a little long, but I trust that you won't read it if you aren't interested.
I really love land speed racing, I really enjoy working with great people, getting help, helping others, and great companies who want to help us all go fast and keep us all safe! The comraderie of this group of people is amazing and this website and forums are the greatest example of co-op-etition I have ever experienced.
That said, I feel responsible to share my experience with Diamond Wheels and their owner Bill. I will say up front that this has nothing to do with the quality of his wheels, as their wheels appear to be just fine. I am posting this to share with you my experience with their (lack of) customer service. I will also say up front that I am not an expert nor have I ever claimed to be, in fact lets just assume that I am the dumbest clod of dirt that ever tried to build a race car....... would you treat even your dumbest customer this way? I'm not telling you not to buy his wheels, you decide.
So - I needed some rear wheels for drag radials at Maxton, so I call them up. Perfectly nice gentleman answers the phone, I tell him right up front that I am not a wheel expert but I need to get some wheels. We go over what we are doing, what our setup is, and what we are looking for. I take some measurements on my car, call him back, we go over the options, and he ships me some wheels. Pretty simple.
Until I go to Maxton and get a little wheel hop going off the launch, the wheel came completely off the car and I crashed (leaving on a 200mph pass, no less). I called Bill and told him what had happened and he immediately says "yah, I bet you mounted the wheels on a hub that wasn't 7" in diameter, I have seen it a hundred times!" Huh? So I pull the wheels off and check the back of the wheel and sure enough, there is a ring on the wheel a half inch outside the outer diameter of my disc brake hub. So, I call him back and tell him that it sure would have been nice to know that his wheels only work on hubs that are at least 7" when he was selling them to me. To which his reply is "hahaha.... well I guess you are getting a lesson from the school of hard knocks, too bad it cost you so much money!" I didn't say much about his smart a$$ comment, and was really just hoping the guy would build me some wheels that would work and at least give me a discount. Nope, he quotes me the list price.
So, I called the guy back a couple of days later and told him that I was pretty upset that he didn't even offer to help me out on the price to get the right wheels.... and doubly upset that he thought it was funny. I don't know about you... but I take going 200+ mph in a car very seriously! From here, he just gets madder and madder - here are some things he said during our conversation:
Yah, I knew exactly what was wrong as soon as you told me! (re-stating the first clue that there is a trend here, in case I didn’t catch on the first time)
I talk to 500 people a month, do you think I remember what the f**k we talked about? (later in the conversation - he conveniently quoted things from our past conversations)
I’m sure you would like your money back, but you’re not getting a f**king thing from me (I guess we’ll see about that)
I asked him specifically and directly - so, do you not feel that you have ANY responsibility to ensure that your customers get the right products when they call you?
No, I don’t have any responsibility to make sure you get the right wheel – you’re problem is you are cheap – you wanted a cheap wheel and I sold you a cheap wheel – It’s your problem if its not the right wheel (is $100 per wheel cheap?)
I am tired of people calling me and saying it’s my fault their wheels broke (second clue that there might be a trend here?)
It’s not my f**king problem you don’t know what you are doing – My dad taught me “if you don’t know what you are doing, you will learn by your wallet” (then he called me an idiot, and confirmed it when I stopped him and asked him if he just called me an idiot)
This pisses me off and I’m a real jerk when it comes to stuff like this (true statement, he is a jerk!)
I am tired of people f**king saying they are going to sue me (third clue about a possible trend here?)
I asked him again to clarify for me that he feels he has no responsibility whatsoever to help his customers get the right wheels from him?
No, It’s not my responsibility to make sure you get the right wheel, you bought a $69 f**king wheel, what do you want me to do engineer your whole f**king car for you? (which is it $69 or $100, because you charged me $100)
Well, at this point I had heard about enough so I told him I felt sorry for him for being such a miserable and angry person, and got off the call.....
Most interesting thing of all is that I called another wheel manufacturer to get some new wheels and told them the problems I had from a "supposed reputable wheel manufacturer".... I never metnioned his name or the name of the company, but they knew instantly who I was talking about... sad.
Again, I'm not here to tell you what to do... just inform.
Kix
