A while ago, my XTEC ballast stopped working. I called apex up, and they told me to send them the ballast and they'll send me a new one (even though I didn't even get the ballast from them, I got the HID kit from umnitza). They didn't even ask me any questions. So what I did, I sent them the ballast, and once they got my ballast and tested it, they set out to have a new one sent out. However, they sent it the first time, and it got returned. For reasons we still do not know. Not a problem. They sent it out again, and low and behold, it got returned back to Jim again. Also, remember this is shipping to Canada, so each time it costs quite a bit.

So what did I do? I called them up determined to get my ballast this time. What did they do? I talked to Nate on the phone and he got it sent to me UPS with tracking this time! And it came today and I have installed it.

The only thing that I'm a little unhappy about is the fact that I had bought 5000k bulbs from umnitza to use with my xtec kit (before the split between xtec and umnitza), and the bulbs turned out to be the 4500K. I guess I'll have better visibility in the rain, but it's not what I ordered. This doesn't have to do with apexcone and their great service though, more with umnitza, and never getting my order right.

Thanks again apexcone!

we strive to please our customers. Thanks.

My interaction has been less than positive. I'll say that Jim and his staff seem like very nice people, but I have no idea what is going on in there shop.

For the past month, I have been trying to get a replacement ballast for my Xtec HIDs. I paypal'd the money on the 17 of May. After I paid, I called to see how long it would take and I got the "2-3 days." Ok, well, after a couple weeks, I call and for some reason my package (which had H1 bulbs that I was returning because of color differences) was returned and I'm told my package (with bulbs AND ballast) will ship out the next day. Ok, another week goes by and once again, package was returned. I make sure they have the correct address and everything and now we fast forward to last week. I call on the 17th of June asking what the deal is.

Jim and his staff have now been working with me trying to locate this package. They cannot locate the package and the tracking number gives me a "the label has been printed/paid for and is awaiting shipment" kind of message. That same day, my package comes in. I'm extremely happy because I can fix my headlight and stop driving with only one headlight at night. To my surprise, there is no ballast in the box, just my bulbs.

I call again and now I have to explain, again, that I paid for the ballast in advance so I never shipped my old ballast. Now, I'm being asked to "describe the ballast"....are you kidding me? Ok, the new ballast (or pair) will be shipped to you (2-3 days delivery time) and this was on Monday. Well, yesterday rolls around and no ballast. I call and ask for a tracking number and asked Jim to call me back when they locate it....no phone call follows.

So to sum it up, I've been driving with one headlight for the past month, paid in advance a month ago for a ballast I have still yet to receive, and I spent a lot of my time and money (cell phone minutes long distance) just trying to be as helpful and courteous as possible. I'm so frustrated...all I want is a new ballast and a prompt refund when I return the bulbs and old ballast.....again, am I asking too much?

Tell jim that you going to deport him to France. I bet you, he'll get your ballast overnight. :D BTW, he's in China. Call and speak to his wife, she running the business right now.

Good luck on your ballast issue..

BTW, he's in China.
Nope, he got back Monday.

Like I said, Jim seems really eager to help and is helping me, but I just don't understand where the problem is? I want to be as understanding as possible, but at this point, my patience has all but disappeared.

Hey! I don't know what the problem is either.

Beats the heck out of me where it went. But I think you have another one on the way. This is Alex, right?

The reason we want to know what yours looks like is that the ballasts have changed in design over the years and they all have a slightly different output level. We want to match the ballast we send you to the one that you have in the car.

While this does not directly matter to the situation at hand, unlike a lot of vendors, with me personally, I can help you much better on the phone than over email.

Everyone, please call or stop by. I will get to the root of what you need much quicker with interaction. I may still ask you to send me an email at the end of the conformation to make sure we track things correctly but some questions really so need to be gone over person to person.

And Nate is a warehouse guy. Karen is an administrative person. For better or worse, we are a importer/wholesaler. You are alwas best served by dealing directly with your retailer on sales support. They have much more technical expertise and can get me on the phone, even in China or Taiwan.

I am in no way shirking my responsibility to support the product. But we are not set up to do individual customer support. We do make it possible for your retailer to give you screaming deals on product. Remember when HIDs cost 450-500 dollars for an average kit?

Do not let your retailer pass the buck, he made money on your sale, make him support you. There is no retailer or distributor who cannot get warranty (lifetime) support from me for Xtec products. It doesn't matter who they are or their current status as a vendor now. Same support, no questions asked.

Still loving my inV1si-mirror after 4 years, so I'd have to agree with the thread title!

Jim this IS Alex. I did not know that you guys are the wholesaler. From now on, if I have any more issues, I'll be sure to make the retailer handle the issues with you and not me.

Thanks again

Alex, I'm just sorry we had so much trouble with making this happen for you. Several retailers have taken to just taking their profit and passing customers on to us directly. Generally, when I am in the country it is not a problem. But my staff is not trained to deal efficiently with customers calling up that are not aware of the issues that need answering. And they don't have access to the PayPal account so they deal with what they see coming in the door. You ship in bulbs, you get bulbs back. Getting the support through essentially two methods, product returns and a separate PayPal transaction is confusing to them and sometimes me. That's why when things start to go wrong, email is generally the wrong way to deal with things, at least with me. Too long, no "conversation" in real time.

Retailers tend to cut through this because they ought to understand your purchase much better than me, the wholesaler. While I have sero problems with dealing with you directly from my standpoint, the nature of the organization sometimes means you will have a problem with me.

Add to that the fact that PayPal seems to have a problem sending emails to notify me of transactions (see Preppy's problems with me) and things can go pretty bad if we aren't talking on the phone.

If anyone needs to discuss things with us, please pick up the phone, as you finally did, and call. 760-798-1863.

Jim this IS Alex. I did not know that you guys are the wholesaler. From now on, if I have any more issues, I'll be sure to make the retailer handle the issues with you and not me.

Thanks again

Jim......anyword on whats goin on with my order from two months ago? :)

Jim......anyword on whats goin on with my order from two months ago? :)
Yes. As mentioned above, I do not do very much retail or upgrade sales AT ALL. Therefore, checking PayPal is not something I do on a regular basis, because there is regularly not much to check. I didn't know you ordered anything. Then you started sending emails and I turned them over to Karen and the other girls who I think got confused and when into vapor lock because they spend most of their time on issues that don't usually affect the customer. If I'm happening to be heading out the door for a trip, these things can get dropped.

Please call and check up on me tomorrow if you don't get an email from me by 10am Pacific time. I will drop everything and ship the stuff myself if it comes to it.

Jim

Will do Jim, thanks :)

YAY! you're back!!

Once again, thanks man.

Okay, so here's my story: I've been with Jim through thick and thin (haha, I'm a goof :stickoutt). All the way from when DDE's first came out to when he began to get crafty with CCFL. I went from DDE GenII to GenV and now finally to DDE CCFL (the ones that look OEM with the silver backing, not sure what they're called). I got them last week but didn't get around to installing them till today. Excellent. I put the first set in my headlight and proceeded to test them before tidying everything up in the ZKW.....uh oh, one of them's not working. So I panic (like most of us would), but then proceeded to email the guys at Apexcone......so to quickly wrap up this story, two emails later, I get an automated shipping notice and invoice from Apexcone telling me that a replacement halo will be shipped.

Now that is awesome customer service. I am glad I have stuck with Jim and Apexcone. Haven't been dissappointed since day one, and I don't see it changing anytime soon. Thanks guys!

[/brown-nosing] ;)

Jim, I responded in another email, but I'm still waiting for my refund for the bulbs and the ballast I sent back. If possible, I'd like one of the H1 HID kits you're selling for $175 instead of the refund....

Jim, I responded in another email, but I'm still waiting for my refund for the bulbs and the ballast I sent back. If possible, I'd like one of the H1 HID kits you're selling for $175 instead of the refund....

Can you call me at 760-798-1863?

I don't know of any open refunds waiting. But I was at a couple of trade shows and maybe the employees didn't tell me to process a refund. I need to talk to you in person because I can't correlate screen names to actual names that might be on boxes in the warehouse.

Give me a call and I'll make sure this gets taken care of right now.

Just wanted to throw my experience into this thread. First off, I should say that I'm extremely pleased with Apexcone's customer service. Excellent guys and excellent products.

I ordered the DJ Auto headlights, Apexcone HIDs, DDE, and stoneguard from Jim's group buy. Got an excellent deal, and the items were at my door 5 business days after I ordered. I needed clarification on the install and Jim was more than happy to help. He broke it down into simple terms to make sure it was done properly. Everything works and looks amazing.

Thanks again Jim/Apexcone!

ANOTHER GREAT Apexcone Dealing here!

I bought some ballasts from Jim to do HID fogs, and he didn't rape me on shipping to Canada, and it got here in a little more than a week! Awesome!!!

You'll be hearing from me soon for the new generation DDE for sure.

We all love Jim. :cool He was a cool boss too. ;)

I'll chime in to give a thumbs up to Apexcone & Jim, also.
I got my DJAutos with DDEs preinstalled for a great price, and the shipping was super quick. The headlights are a big improvement, and the Titanium DDEs light up great, even during a sunny day.
I had also order headlight laminate, but it didn't come with my order. I contacted Jim via p.m. and I was completely surprised at how quick I had them at my door.
It is great when a vendor doesn't sit on your money, getting around to shipping your stuff on their 'Shipping day'.
I'll do business with them again, and have no problem recommending them.

well Jim seems to be a nice guy.
I don't mean to dog him but I ordered lights+HID form him last week (8/20) and before I ordered he said I'd have my lights in 5 days. It's now 8 days and as far as know, my order hasn't even been shipped. I've talked to him via email several times and each time he says that my order will have a tracking number that day, but I never hear anything back.

I'm willing to give him a few more days, but what worries me is: 1) the lack of communication.(If you're out of stock, you don't have time, or whatever just let me know, I'll understand). and 2) what if I have problems with my lights and I need a replacement quick? will I have to drive around for weeks without a headlight until I get a replacement?(that would be totally unacceptable to me)

Like I said I went with Apexcone because of all the positive feedback that I've read on here. I'm willing to work with him and be patient, but $600 is a lot of money and I'm having second thoughts about the company I picked.

well Jim seems to be a nice guy.
I don't mean to dog him but I ordered lights+HID form him last week (8/20) and before I ordered he said I'd have my lights in 5 days. It's now 8 days and as far as know, my order hasn't even been shipped. I've talked to him via email several times and each time he says that my order will have a tracking number that day, but I never hear anything back.

I'm willing to give him a few more days, but what worries me is: 1) the lack of communication.(If you're out of stock, you don't have time, or whatever just let me know, I'll understand). and 2) what if I have problems with my lights and I need a replacement quick? will I have to drive around for weeks without a headlight until I get a replacement?(that would be totally unacceptable to me)

Like I said I went with Apexcone because of all the positive feedback that I've read on here. I'm willing to work with him and be patient, but $600 is a lot of money and I'm having second thoughts about the company I picked.

I believe Jim's out of the country right now. Usually he's over there for anywhere from 9 to 14 days. If he's where I think he is, he's got no access to the internet. Try calling apexcone 760-798-1863. If he's processed the order (and he should have), they should have a log of all shipments.

I doubt if he's out of stock given how he's set up his shipping. It's possible it's held up in customs, which unfortunately, he's got no control over. Jim's not going to walk off with the money. You will get you lights. I can't count the number of times that Jim has handed something to someone and said pay me later just the get them up and running even when he didn't sell the original product.

I believe Jim's out of the country right now. Usually he's over there for anywhere from 9 to 14 days. If he's where I think he is, he's got no access to the internet. Try calling apexcone 760-798-1863. If he's processed the order (and he should have), they should have a log of all shipments.

I doubt if he's out of stock given how he's set up his shipping. It's possible it's held up in customs, which unfortunately, he's got no control over. Jim's not going to walk off with the money. You will get you lights. I can't count the number of times that Jim has handed something to someone and said pay me later just the get them up and running even when he didn't sell the original product.

Well I called Apexcone today. They said my HID kit are out of stock and no one but Jim would know when it's going to be in. The lady told me to send Jim an email and ask when he's going to get some in. I asked her if he had access to email and she said yes. Anyway still haven't heard anything back. I have a feeling I won't be getting my lights anytime soon.

Hello. I am in Shnghai and I believe that the HIDs will be in stock tomorrow. They shipped on Monday so they should arrive on Monday with the time differential.

I am also bringing a significant number back with me too. We had an out of stock situation on 5000K HIDs. It should be resolved at any time. All I can say is, I'm sorry. We've had a significant jump in business this month and got caught with what people wanted last month instead of this month.

So, please bear with us. We only ship exactly what you order with no substitutions unless you ask. We hope that the sale price you received which resulted in some really massive savings will make the wait worthwhile.

And we do stock all replacement parts. We just have a little snag here on this particular bulb color since we sold just under 100 sets of 5000K alone this month compared to the typical 20 sets. Usually we sell a TON of 6000K. For whatever reason, people have been on a tear for 5000K and we can't get them fast enough.

We also have a new, not neccessarily better process in place with the warehouse expansion and a new front office girl. We're all a bit out of our normal pattern on tracking backorders.

It doesn't help that I am overseas. Normally this isn't an issue as I used to carry the accounting system with me on my laptop. We've converted to a multi-user, server based system and I did not have time to get VPN set up before leaving. If you email me with your phone number, I should be able to make things work out better. Right at the moment, I have internet access, can get email but cannot SEND. So please provide a contact number if you need for me to contact you through labor day. I'll call you back, even from China.

Jim

Jim,
I'm glad I read this, I've been waiting on those 5000k bulbs for a while now and was starting to wonder whats up. If you want, pm me a response to my email.
jer35gohabs@gmail.com is my email so you know who is talking to you.
Jared

If you email me with your phone number, I should be able to make things work out better.

Email and PM sent.