PTNR

iTrader: (2)

In my 2000 maxima, i have the Xtec 5000K H3C kit that i got from Umnitza back in November of 2004. just recently, i noticed one of the bulbs has lost its blue hue and is now brighter than the other one so they don't match anymore.

Anyone experience similar problems? Possible reasons for the problem?

I contacted Matt Grintsaig and he said he would show his supplier the pics i included in my email to him. He asked me which kit i had, Xtec or Prolumens and i of course replied Xtec.

He then replied to me in an email that he "no longer supports Xtec" and that i should contact "AU-Lite.com.tw directly and speak to Esther", to have her send me a new shipment.

i sent an email to au.lite@msa.hinet.net and am awaiting a reply. i don't really know who "Esther" is or if i'll get any help from her but i feel like i should get better customer service from Matt.

What do you guys think of this situation?????

I'm not making any judgements here since i don't know what will happen but i want to see what others think. thanks.

jeepik

iTrader: (2)

sounds like a bad bulb

E55AMG2

iTrader: (4)

This actually happened to my HID's, the right headlamp burst. I ended up having to replace both headlamps alltogether. To fix it, you will need a new bulb/ballast.

PTNR

iTrader: (2)

did you have the Xtec and why did you have to replace both bulbs?

PTNR

iTrader: (2)

well, this is also what the rep for Xtec in San Diego, CA told me in an email. i am waiting for him to call me back so we can talk about it. Luckily the email i sent after finding the info ON MY OWN got to the right place. No thanks to Matt.

Here is the email so everyone knows the story as it unfolds........


Hi Pete,

Umnitza is no longer an Xtec retailer. I'm sorry he didn't take the
opportunity to personally hand you off to Apexcone for the resolution of
your problem. Apexcone is the US and Canadian distributor for Xtec
products. Esther is the sales contact at the factory and cannot assist you
directly. But she was kind enough to forward us your email.

It sounds like you probably have a defective bulb and we'd be happy to help
you resolve your problem.

We can either have you ship your defective bulb back to us for exchange or
if you wish to place a deposit on a new bulb, we can send one out to you in
advance and refund your deposit on receipt of the defective bulb. It is
your choice.

Please contact us tomorrow so we can get your information and we will take
care of this problem and any future HID concerns directly. Our contact
information is 760-798-1863 or you can email us at sales@apexcone.com.

Again, my apologies that you have had to hunt around for help and were given
the incorrect contact information to begin with.

Jim

-----Original Message-----
From: Esther Tseng [mailto:au.lite@msa.hinet.net]
Sent: Wednesday, August 17, 2005 5:23 PM
To: jsp98m3@apexcone.com; sales@apexcone.com
Cc: 'Apexcone Doreen'
Subject: FW: HID Lighting

Jim,

What's the story?

Esther

-----Original Message-----
From: Peter Nowik
Sent: Thursday, August 18, 2005 2:11 AM
To: au.lite@msa.hinet.net
Subject: HID Lighting

hi, my name is Pete and i was asked by Matt Grintsaig from Umnitza to
speak
to Esther to ask for a new light kit shipment due to a problem i have
with
my Xtec Hid fog lamp kit.

one light has become very bright and lost its blue hue. now the two
lights
do not match. he originally said he would show the pictures i took of
the
problem to his supplier but when i told him i had the Xtec he directed
me to
you.

i have this kit: Description : H3C 5000K, regular bulbs.

please let me know how i should procede to resolve this issue. thank
you.

E55AMG2

iTrader: (4)

No, OEM....and because they were on the same circuit the one ballast failing put electrical strain on the other, causing it to fail shortly after.

PTNR

iTrader: (2)

i spoke to someone from Apexcone today and we will try to determine if in fact it is the bulb. if it is, they will swap out both bulbs, (to make sure they match in color) and i should be all set. Except of course for the time and effort it's going to take to get back in there and swap them.

Luckily, the people at Apexcone were great and are very willing to stand by their product and lifetime guarantee.

Does anyone know if there might be a chance that the ballast is sending some weird voltage to the bulb to cause this problem?

Has anyone come across this issue and found the ballast to be at fault?

thanks for any help in advance.

jeepik

iTrader: (2)

to eliminate the ballast issue

switch the bulbs from one side to the other and turn them on

if the same bulb is still messed up then you know its not the ballast

PTNR

iTrader: (2)

thanks. i know i can do this but i wanted first to see if anyone had similar issues before i started taking anything apart.

ZIPPIN

iTrader: (32)

XTEC fuqing sucks. Bottom line. I have the same issue. The right bulb flickers until it is warmed-up. Good thing you got a response. I have called twice and am yet to receeive a return call. I will try the email route..

PTNR

iTrader: (2)

your issue is different. from what i discussed with the guy at Apexcone, a flickering bulb usually means a bad ballast. did you call Apexcone or Umnitza?

ZIPPIN

iTrader: (32)

yes i did. i e-mailed matt, who said to contact XTEC directly.. in the end matt took care of the problem.

Park2670

I have the same problem but i have the helios kit. My drivers side is a different color and will flicker almost constantly. I have emailed the seller but he just says to swap sides and thats all i got. Hope you have better luck with your problems

PTNR

iTrader: (2)

what exactly did Matt do to "take care of the problem"?

PTNR

iTrader: (2)

you mean he asked you to swap sides to figure out whether it is the bulb or the ballast but he did not offer a replacement for either part? maybe he wants to know what part is defective first before offering to replace something. who is the seller?

Park2670

yea that is exactly what the goal was. I actually just finished swapping the ballasts and found the drivers side still flickering and a different color. I will be sending PM to the seller now and will update you on the situation when it comes to me

PTNR

iTrader: (2)

ok, so i guess it really is the bulb.

One thing Jim at Apexcone said was that sometimes the chemicals inside the bulb will stick to the sides of the glass under specific circumstances. this in turn would cause the bulb to change color and sometimes even flicker.

i hope you get it straightened out.

you never said who the seller is......

i am getting a new bulb sent out by Apexcone this week to replace my defective one.

Park2670

The seller is named "maximabest" and he replied to my PM today. He asked to connect the ballast straight to the battery to rule out wiring, and then to tell him the results

PTNR

iTrader: (2)

well at least you know what it is now so he can send you a replacement part.

keep us informed of how the customer service is so others know what to expect if buying from him. he seems to be doing a great business from what i read in the group deals.

Ammi

iTrader: (26)

I bought 4 sets of Helios and no problem yet. I guess these problems are rare

PTNR

iTrader: (2)

yes, most likely they are rare but how long have you used your Helios? i had my lights for 9 months before something happened.

Also, if nothing goes wrong then the customer service is never tested. it's when things go wrong that you want to make sure that sellers stand behind the products they carry.

SixxOne

iTrader: (2)

You get what you pay for. Boy I am glad I went with philips and OEM ballast. 100+ hours on the bulbs and they are changing color now, and work perfectly.

Park2670

Ive only had mine for about 4 months now. But I did notice the flickering after about a month and asked, but never looked into fixing it until now

Ammi

iTrader: (26)

2 sets have been used day and night for about 3 months now

big_bogus

So what is the consenus for a good HID foglight kit? I would like to convert so they match the Headlights. Where is the best place to buy?

PTNR

iTrader: (2)

good question. what is the consensus on the one to buy now?

jeepik

iTrader: (2)

prolumen from umnitza

PTNR

iTrader: (2)

what about Helios from maximabest?

Park2670

Well so far Maximabest has been very helpful in diagnosing my problem. Also shipping was very quick. My only wonder right now is that like i said he was very quick in the diag, just now ive got no replies when i said it must be a bulb.... what are my replacement options? At the moment im still thinking me must be busy. I will tell you in this thread what the replies are if any

umnitza

iTrader: (20)

Notice how there are no problems with ProLumen.

We cannot help you with Xtec, the failure rate is high, and they have sworn to help anyone that has these problems.

We happily replace products and are always available, but if you have an Xtec problem, we cannot help you.

We will always stand by a product that we are the sole distributor on. Beyond that, we have no way to support you on a product that is not ours.

PTNR

iTrader: (2)

i understand that you no longer sell the x-tec product, but back when you did sell it you marketed it as a good product that you would stand behind.

prolumen might not have problems at this time (these are your words, because i can't confirm or deny this), but it took 9 months before something went wrong with mine.

you must take some of the responsibility due to the fact that you decided at one point that this x-tec product would be worthy of your endorsement. you sold it as a worthwhile product and now we come to find out that it really has a bad track record.

the same thing can happen with any product, even the stuff you sell now. you can sell it until the next best thing comes along and then decide to switch to the next best thing again.

my point was to find out who else had problems and how they were handled.

umnitza

iTrader: (20)

We had a lot of people with problems, we refer them to the original MFG.

PTNR

iTrader: (2)

back when you marketed it......... "it was a good product".

not true. it was those units bought at the time you marketed it as a good product that failed. As you say, you had a lot of people with problems. that means that you were selling and marketing products that were flawed for whatever reason.

i'm not saying you knew they were flawed but i am saying that you sold a product that you have some responsibility in researching for your customers so they get a solid product. Unless of course you just took x-tec at their word that they had a good product and sold it as is.

whatever the case may be, i never read anywhere that you stopped selling x-tec due to problems and then warned those who bought the product to beware even though you had the knowledge that there were many problems. this info could have been shared for all to benefit.

i agree, of course that your only recourse at this time is to point people to the manufacturer and let them handle the problems with their products. you should however give the correct info and not have people search to find the right contact in order to get help.

the following is a snipet of an email i received after searching for the manufacturers contact info based on the link you originally gave me. the whole message is posted at the beginning of this thread for those who wish to read it.


(Our contact information is 760-798-1863 or you can email us at sales@apexcone.com.

Again, my apologies that you have had to hunt around for help and were given
the incorrect contact information to begin with.

Jim)

umnitza

iTrader: (20)

And it's the usual martyr email or "I'm such a good customer service person and everyone that isn't "me" or at least is Umnitza is really really bad. Boohoo hoo.

Jim has a long history of doing this to competitors. Playing benevolent dictator, claiming to have fired his "retailers" - only a narcisstic dolt would say that. A retailer is selling your product, when you and he no longer do business together, there's no firing, it's done. Over. Gone. Moving on

Now, as for Xtec products, have you received your ballast yet? I doubt it. Good luck. Since none of our customers have problems with ProLumen, they have no reason to sample our "service" 8 months later, but if they do, they'll find that not only will they get a replacement part immediately, they will get one that is NEWER and BETTER than the one it replaces. Kind of like getting a new car when your car is perfectly fine but blew its radiator.

PTNR

iTrader: (2)

i understand that there is obviously bad blood between you and xtec for whatever reasons that no one can possibly know except you and them.

After it was taken over and the product was no longer a good one as you say, you still sold units with the idea that the problems would be fixed. it was at this point that you knew about problems others were having but still continued to sell units.

no one knew about the problems besides you and xtec. when you sold a unit, i'm sure you didn't tell the buyer about potential problems which you knew full well were there but you had hoped would be fixed by xtec.

maybe you were taken by xtec and false claims that they made to you but in turn, you customers were also taken. you did the right thing when you stopped selling them, if this was actually the case, but that doesn't absolve you of some resposibility which in my estimation you keep trying to avoid.

you certainly are not under any obligation to tell anyone the inner workings of your business dealings but i only suggested that an open discussion at the time would have prevented others from buying. of course, you would have had to eat those units not already sold.

incidentally, the contact info you gave me was not as you stated here...."sales@xtecusa.com is all I have. I also had 866 XtecUSA. "
but instead was www.au-lite.com.tw as you listed previously. the contact info i gave is the correct info and your 866 number is the same as the 760 number i had posted.

you never gave me the info you just listed above. i had to have an email forwarded, by luck, to the right people before i got the reply from apexcone.

i'm not blaming either side because i don't know nor will anyone know what the real story is. there are two sides and they of course don't match each other. i'm stuck in the middle as are others and would have liked it if i had been helped along a little better, that's all.

umnitza

iTrader: (20)

Your attitude is overall the correct one to take and I would generally agree with it.

Specific points I don't agree with however.

www.au-lite.com.tw is the taiwanese company that makes these and exports them directly to the US for resale. Today, that's going to "apexcone", tomorrow, who knows.

Yes, betrayal will lead to a lot of bad blood, and subsequently, EACH side will provide their version of the story leading to more bad blood and constant finger pointing to the point where the customer refuses to buy from either.

We hope that doesn't happen here, but it's happening everywhere else, Jim is doing his part, and we're doing ours as a defense strategy.

Our exit strategy was such that we had very few in stock at the time of break-up. So it wasn't out of desire to hide inventory, we have nothing to hide.

I think you need to look at it from this side:

We acted nobly. Rather than yelling fire in a crowded theatre, we decided to quiety walk away and only when asked, we tell our side of it.

I don't want to rehash this. I'd prefer to focus on the positive qualities of ProLumen and how it's reliably the best kit on the market. Better than Helios (but from the same exact factory) and better than any of the others.

ZIPPIN

iTrader: (32)

I agree with PTNR, and understand Umnitza's position on this as well. My only concern is: What happens if Umnitza gets into the same situation with Prolumen? If I am in the market for a product and the seller is guaranteeing it 100%, then I want to know that they will pull through if the product is defective. In this case it seems that Umnitza endorsed XTEC, until the problems started. Then they asked that customers who were having problems, to deal with XTEC directly.

I don't want to start a war. I know Matt goes above and beyond to help us. But before I make another purchase through Umnitza, I would like to know their plan of correction for similar situations.

umnitza

iTrader: (20)

You want to know why it won't happen with ProLumen?

1) We are exclusive
2) We were not exclusive with Xtec.
3) A large reason for why we left was quality and faith - those two issues aren't any longer issues.
4) We're working directly with Prolumen at SEMA, something they asked us to do

PTNR

iTrader: (2)

while i fully understand that www.au-lite.com.tw is the manufacturer, it concerns me that you did know that Jim from apexcone was the one i really needed to speak to in order to get a replacement. au-lite isn't the one who deals with specific consumers but rather it would be the distributor, who at the time of my inquiry was apexcone.

my point was to question why you would have withheld some contact info that you already stated you had in your possession, when it would have helped me get this thing taken care of a little more easily. i have found your replies in the past, both on-line and on the phone to be very short, leaving me to have to fish for info. further, some questions or points of discussion in emails sent to you are answered and others seem to be ignored even if asked multiple times. i never seemed to get a full perspective of the situation. this could be due to the nature of email communication itself, but i can only relate my personal experience.

as to the question of the nobility of your exit strategy as you described, i can't see how sharing info at the time you knew there were problems would have hurt any consumers (ie; the crowded firehouse analogy). The only person that this behind-the-scenes manipulation would have hurt was you if you happened to have unsold product laying around. i don't know if this was the case, but certainly by telling people you had problems with the product would not have hurt anyone else. conversely, it would have cast doubt about the product and caused people to ask more questions in order to make a more informed decision about what they were spending their hard earned money on. some might have asked for a refund. since the info was withheld, no one knew and therefore, people continued to buy a product that was known to be less than up to snuff.

Like me, others are now forced to deal with having to replace parts and take the time to do it themselves or some would even have to pay someone to do it for them if they they had it installed in the first place.

the new product you sell may very well be the best and most reliable thing out there, or it may not. your customers may get to experience the best customer service from you, or they may not.

the important part of this discussion is to bring to light was has happened in the recent past and answer some questions about why it happened and the way it happened. this will allow everyone to make up their own minds in the end.

umnitza

iTrader: (20)

This is completely off base. You were given mfg info. If there is anyone that can help you best it's the MFG.

How can they help you? They may choose to replace it themselves, or they may choose to send you to someone that does replace it for you - a rep, a dealer, a distributor.

You were given SOURCE information. You don't NEED any other information, because they would direct you anywhere you needed to be.

Read what you wrote "AT THE TIME OF MY INQUIRY"...what if it was 1 year later? We have no way of knowing whether that company has continued to be a distributor or not.
You getting MFG info let's you get the best information up front.