Interior Carbon Fibre bits

[glendog74]

Finally, after ordering from CA Automotive back in July, the missing piece of my CF dash strip set arrived last week...

I found them very easy to fit and the quality of product and weave is great. I did have to file down the centre strip to fit around the stereo but this could be because i've now got an Alpine head unit there instead of the BMW piece of dog doo! :-D

Overall very happy with the bits, but CA Automotive really need to look at their customer service - which i found to be very poor indeed for someone having spent nearly £1000 - when you could ever get hold of them that is... :banghead:

http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/4055/dsc02568ve7.jpg
http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/9457/dsc02573mt5.jpg
http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/7522/dsc02575oe3.jpg
http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/7702/dsc02582zt7.jpg

and the other bits that i had already fitted...

http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/7088/dsc02577si6.jpg
http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/9198/dsc02413lc6.jpg
http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/757/dsc02412ew7.jpg

[Mark CSL]

Looking good there glendog74

I have found Roy verry good they may have just not had the part you orderd but all is good in the end.

I love my 3 dash parts and the window switches i think it should have come
with these parts from BMW
:banghead:

[a_Y]

looks great!

[glendog74]

Looking good there glendog74

I have found Roy verry good they may have just not had the part you orderd but all is good in the end.

I love my 3 dash parts and the window switches i think it should have come
with these parts from BMW
:banghead:

CA sent me a part that was clearly damaged 6 weeks after ordering. I sent it straight back and have only last week recieved the replacement - some 18 weeks after ordering...!

Don't get me wrong, Roy seems a nice bloke but customer care isn't their strong point. It was always me having to ring up and chase the order every month rather than them advising me of a delay as should be the case. They didn't even offer to pay the postage on the return i sent - minor issue i know, but like i say, lacking customer care and not how things should be! :moan:

Anyway all sorted now, but they've lost a customer for the future...

[Andyk]

Thats a long old wait Glendog......worth it though looking at the pics. I do love the dash inserts.

Agree with you Mark BMW should have fitted these as standard.

[bryce]

Looks very nice, quite expensive though! No wonder you were getting peaved off with the wait.

Really like that head unit too, what model is it? Have you upgraded the speakers?

[glendog74]

Really like that head unit too, what model is it? Have you upgraded the speakers?

It's on the head unit - iDA-X300 :wink:

I have a set of Rainbow 'IQ Line' speakers ready to replace the rear shelf pair just as rs32 has done in a separate thread. Gonna see what that's like before commiting to the trickier front set! :whistle:

[E46ACS]

I've had similar problems with CA. I spent over £3k and still waited months for parts to arrive, and even then it was faulty parts, and then wrong parts....... Oh don't get me started!!! :moan: :moan: :moan:

I have the Rainbow speakers in mine, same as Richard (RS32), and they are a spot on upgrade over the tatt BMW put in their.

[Rags]

WOW, that looks good but a lot of ££££

[E46ACS]

Sorry glendog74, forgot to say looks nice mate. Have often considered this myself.

[Andyk]

I was thinking of the panel inserts but you are beginning to put me off using CA......Not great from what you have both said..Although Mark seems to have had good service from them.

[glendog74]

Sorry glendog74, forgot to say looks nice mate. Have often considered this myself.

Cheers mate :beer: Had i known about the issues with CA beforehand, i would have sourced the parts elsewhere. It wasn't until after i'd ordered that i read of other people's problems on the 'other' forum too... :smt011

[DazBlackCSL]

That pants to hear , especially after spending that much £££ doesnt take that much effort to keep you informed

[Andyk]

Plus as they advertise on here you would think they would want to make an effort to give good service.

[englebert]

Their adverts make me cringe, that their boss is a DJ or something. Website is terrible too!

Undecided on the CF bits, especially for £1k. Personally i think carbon should be used for genuine weight saving measures, the CSL has enough 'pretty bits' already IMO.

[Rags]

CA what do you have to say?

[Andyk]

Their adverts make me cringe, that their boss is a DJ or something. Website is terrible too!



The DJ chap was the guy who's wife sold his Lotus Esprit for £1 on ebay because of a comment in made to some model he was interviewing on his show. He was a KERRANG radio DJ...He is now the chap who presents Fifth Gear with the chap with the beard.

[E46ACS]

Yeah, I think he does some PA for them for CA Aotumotive. He ain't the boss!!!! :hahaha:

[Andyk]

The Esprit thing was classic....Didn't his wife list the Esprit on Ebay for 'buy it now £1' but it had to be picked up before the end of the day....Mr DJ came home to find his Esprit sold....If she did that beacuse of some comments he made to the model what the hell would she have done if he had slept with her....maybe :smt021 or :smt070

[CA AUTOMOTIVE UK]

Thanks for the feedback, good or bad is always useful. We would like to reply seeing as a member has suggested we do so...

Yes, in Glendog's ( and some past customers') case we dropped the ball no doubt about it, and offer our apologies once again. Glendog was a very patient and courteous customer too. The first set of dash trims had an unnoticed broken peg mounting hole on the reverse side of one of the pieces, and it took us too long to replace this piece. There is no excuse....We will re-double our efforts in these regards.

At the huge risk of sounding overly defensive we would mention in general that :

1.Many CA items are custom made to order, so often are at the mercy of the factory/supplier as to production / delivery times and delays can happen we simply cannot control. Whilst we hold stock of many popular items, we simply cannot hold stock of every single permutation of every item for every model.

2. We are surprised and humbled at the comment about poor customer service ( as opposed to delays in delivering parts etc) we normally pride ourselves in this area ;we are usually immediately contactable by phone or e mail; if we are already on the phone then we reply back to any message soon as possible. If there are no updates from the manufacturer available then we cannot update a customer. Again we will try harder on such matters.

3.Our ratio of customer complaints to volume of orders filled is very low, as perhaps indicated by the genuine e mails displayed on our website's testimonial page, number of cars featured in the press and so on.

4.We make mistakes at times same as anyone, but do our very best to put issues right as fast and courteously as possible. We also humbly remind members that there are at least two sides to any story / situation you may read or hear of :-)

On the subject of Tim Shaw, he is a fellow director of CA Automotive, not the owner or "boss", but a useful member of the team considering his ties with the motoring press and TV :-)

Thanks Ca Sales Team

[GT TWO]

Hello Roy,

Long time.

If you do me a good deal on a set of AP's I will put your rebate up on your 0871 number :smt002

Regards

Lee

[CA AUTOMOTIVE UK]

Hi Lee, long time indeed. Congrats on your trade up...:-)

I am afraid we don't offer AP, can I interest you in Stoptech ? A better proposition in our experience... although not as good value lately since the dollar dropped so far :-(

Exactly what vehicle model and spec please just in case ?

[GT TWO]

Hi Lee, long time indeed. Congrats on your trade up...:-)

I am afraid we don't offer AP, can I interest you in Stoptech ? A better proposition in our experience... although not as good value lately since the dollar dropped so far :-(

Exactly what vehicle model and spec please just in case ?

Thanks!

Yes the pound/dollar conversion is in the toilet.

I will be looking for a front 6 pot kit for the CSL and I was hoping for AP or Alcon.

I will drop you a mail.

Cheers

Lee

[Andyk]

Thanks for the reply Roy to the feed back....you didn't have to post back but you did. This shows you care...

[E46ACS]

Hi Lee, long time indeed. Congrats on your trade up...:-)

I am afraid we don't offer AP, can I interest you in Stoptech ? A better proposition in our experience... although not as good value lately since the dollar dropped so far :-(

Exactly what vehicle model and spec please just in case ?

I can vouch for the Stoptech BBK, as that is what I have on my car, 4-pot front & rear, and is a really good piece of kit. Supreme stopping power, and a full days (hard) driving round Croft, no fade at all.

I got mine from Roy, and as Roy will confirm, it did take months to arrive, and then I had two sets of front carriers so they couldn't fit the rears, and then one of the rear discs was faulty and had to be replaced!!!!

Just very frustrating when you are locked in the process!!! :banghead:

But we got there in the end!!!! Roy did assure me I was a "special" case, and that doesn't usually happen! And in fairness, I ordered from Roy on the back of many other positive feedback from other customers, so maybe I was just a "special" case! :119:

[CA AUTOMOTIVE UK]

Here is a price example for Stoptech for comparison:

355 mm slotted discs, St40 calipers
Front £2161 less 10% forum discount = £1944.90 inc vat
Rear £2088 less 10% = £1879.20

Ap are very good no doubt, but try a car fitted with Stoptech first before you decide.Our demo M3 s/charged car is available for this purpose if you want, as well as demoing any other performance parts fitted to it generally.

[dave1]

just to add my 2p,s worth i rang you around 10 times over the course of a fortnight no joy gave up

[CA AUTOMOTIVE UK]

E46 ACS...now we remember who you (Tim yes ? ) :-)

thank you for such a balanced reply post, and for corroborating the comments of other satisfied customers,we appreciate it.

agreed 100%, you had an absolute nightmare in terms of delays and wrong parts. This was at the time that Stoptech were moving premises and our usual contact over there Erik had also left to work for another company; his replacement Eugene does a fine job, but had a steep learning curve to contend with at the time.

during this time we were pulling our own hair out due to delays on Stoptech deliveries, slow replies etc , you were not the only customer to suffer unfortunately.

we would love to lay all the blame at Stoptech's door, but ultimately we must take responsibility regardless. Happily these issues at Stoptech have been mostly resolved since then.

whilst not undermining the customers who have had issues, let's say for argument sake CA have received dissatisfied posts from 5 members on two forums recently, (concerning single sales that span a period of 2.5 years between them by the way! ) then we humbly suggest this actually shows a good level of satisfaction considering at least 2750 other seperate customer orders were administered within that same period. Let's further say the figure of 5 customers were tripled to 20 to account for non forum-vocal customers, we are still talking about a satisfaction rate of well under 1 % not too bad surely, however you crunch the numbers :-)

thanks for reading

[CA AUTOMOTIVE UK]

just to add my 2p,s worth i rang you around 10 times over the course of a fortnight no joy gave up

thank you for posting.

Ten times in 2 weeks ??? Please dont take this the wrong way, but we cannot see how this could have happened, if you left messages we would have replied to you. We also reply to each and every e mail we receive, whether we can fill the enquiry or not. Either way we apologise if we let you down...
thanks

[E46ACS]

E46 ACS...now we remember who you (Tim yes ? ) :-)

How could you forget me!!!!!! :smt022

[glendog74]

Nice exercise in face saving (and sales saving) going on here...or am i just being cynical?! :smt012

[CA AUTOMOTIVE UK]

Glendog... Hi, we have aplogised again and admitted our mistake, explained the background of the sirtuation, what more can we say ? It would appear whatever we do say you will now be crital of anyway, despite the high quality of the parts in the end. Sorry you feel so let down.

Normally these kind of orders are manufactred and delivered within 3 - 6 weeks, not always as I explained previously, but mostly.

Tim.. did not forget Tim the person, it was the username we could not match up :-) far as I recall we did compensate you somewhat for the hassle you endured, hope this went some way to smoothing things over in the end :-)

thanks

[neil]

i think this is resolved, topic closed by me.

carbon bits look great!