TRD fox suspension arrived from Sparks Parts...well, most of it anyway

Ordered the whole set. Figured why not, it’ll work with stock UCAs and 285/75s on my stock wheels. As far as off-road capability is concerned, I’m a fairly experienced driver, and I’ve seen what a stock Pro can do off-road (with stock Michelins, no less).

Well, the kit arrived last Friday missing one of the rear shocks. That’s ok; they apologized, and it’s on its way. People make mistakes.

But also, for some reason, they sent the front coilovers withOUT the individual boxes they’re supposed to come in. And they’re pretty scuffed up. Chunks of the red paint are missing on the coils as you can see in the pic. I can’t for the life of me figure out why they would take them out of the box to ship them loose together in a larger box. Frustrating to say the least.

I was going to install today, but I’m still waiting on that other rear shock.

 

yeah, that's a disappointment.

Did sparks sell those as a kit, or did you order the parts individually? I no longer see the kit as available on their site.

 

Just saying .. maybe they sold you takeoffs. Wouldn't have original boxes for those.

 

That would annoy me, so much so that I might return them or ask for a new set in-box.

 

Fact is they will get dinged up during install and normal driving anyway.........BUT they should acknowledge that was a grab a$$ move and give you some sort of discount or voucher for future purchase. If they sold you takeoff's that is probably par for the course but you should have known that is what you were getting.

 

I ordered the parts individually. Nothing was mentioned about take-offs. And they don’t look to have been previously installed. Just banged up from shipping loose.

Yeah this is pretty lame. Everyone else beware when ordering from them.

 

I thought of that as well, but those threads look virgin to me. And no signs of thread lock etc.

 

Ya, this strikes me as highly irregular and rather suspicious. Mine (from a different dealer) arrived each item in a plastic bag inside a separate box and the four boxes in one shipping box. Ordered as a kit, one part number.

 

Even then, I would think that each part would've been in it's individual box...

 

That sucks. Considering there are only two back shocks Id be pretty upset. Not like it was a bolt or small part missing then the scuffs on top of it.

 

Not like its a $50 shock going on a 97 ranger

 

Toyota discontinued the kit. So you have to order individual parts now.

These were each in a plastic bag. No idea why they took them out of the boxes.

 

Cheaper to ship in 1 box.

Quick check for local costs yields:

1x 50lb box = $73
2x 25lb box = $87

Or

1x 25lb box =$43
2x 12.5lb box = $60

 

The one rear shock they sent with my order was still in its own box. The front coilovers should have been, too.

Of course it’s more expensive to ship multiple items, but it’s still easy and cheaper to put smaller individually boxed items into one box and actually protect the expensive parts your customer bought.

 

You asked a question, had a general comment/thought....I simply stated an opinion and provided facts.

Obviously what they did was wrong and improper. Take it up with them. I'm sure they will be able to help in some fashion.

 

Have you called them an asked them about it? If so, what did they say?

 

Hopefully you never hit a mud puddle and get things dirty.

 

Sorry if you took my comment as frustration at you. I’m frustrated with Sparks. Apparently everyone else who received this kit or pieced it together like I did got all their parts individually boxed in one larger box. Your comment and facts about shipping weight and one vs two boxes, while not unappreciated, seems irrelevant to this situation. The boxes I’m talking about are the product boxes from Toyota that protect each piece while they’re all being shipped together in a single larger box. It had nothing to do with dividing up the shipment, even though they did forget to send me one of the rear shocks and had to send it separately on their dime.

My most charitable guess is that the guy preparing my order found a box to use that was just a hair too small for my order to fit, so he removed the coilovers from their individual boxes to make it work.

 

I spent 5 days going back and forth with them about the rear shock they forgot to send. Their communication was slow to say the least. It seemed kind of like they didn’t believe me.

So, I didn’t even bother with the scuffed coilovers. It’s a bit of missing paint; I’m not going to send them back on my dime and wait for them to potentially mess up another shipment. I’m going to install these; just figured everyone should know.

 

Lol. Ok dude

 

What mine look like just driving up my drive way (1/2 mile gravel road in the PNW)... depending on the price you paid for them with shipping, I’d probably just install them and forget about it.

 

As expensive as this suspension is I would be beyond pissed!

 

I ordered my Pro grill and hood bulge from Sparks. (I am guessing) to save money on shipping, they put the hood bulge in the box with the grill with no extra packing material. I was really expecting everything to be scratched but I got lucky.

It sucks that your new Pro shocks were not packed correctly.

Last time I had an issue with an order, Sparks did not have a phone number posted and the only way to reach them was to text. I finally got so frustrated that I called the dealership and had them transfer me to parts. Then I FINALLY was able to talk with an actual person. If you are not able reach anyone, try calling the dealership.

 

I too ordered this set last week from Sparks through the free parts shipping link for that was posted here. The order went through and a confirmation email was received however, after a few days the order status was now cancelled. I reached out to them and received a text the following day that the credit card company initiated the cancellation. The card company says there were no issues and the preauthorization was on for several more days.

Sparks did email me a quote later for the parts separately but it is a lot more now than the original order for the set P/N, I was hoping that they would match the original order price. If the set P/N is no longer available it should not have been able to be processed on their site. I have ordered painted parts from them in the past without issues, this was just frustrating as I was anticipating delivery and would have never known they cancelled the order unless I followed up on it.

 

I had the same issue arise on an order for my TRD wheels. I had bought from them before, and turns out I had used paypal, but with the wheels, I used my CC and it was declined, so I made a new order and used paypal again and it worked just fine. Maybe they have issues occasionally running CCs? Thats annoying though.

 

I'm admittedly old school on this, but if you didn't bring it up to them and seek resolution, then I'm not sure you should be throwing it on the WWW. People make mistakes, employees cut corners that supervisors don't know about. Not giving a manager the opportunity to make it right is not cool IMO.

It's a lot of money to spend, and ultimately you have to be happy with what you got.

 

I understand and respect that perspective. But much as I went through with them just to get them to finish sending my order (back and forth over 5 days, having to tell the entire story twice and send all the pics they requested twice as if I’m just making it all up), I’m just not interested in opening this can of worms.

And, as many have pointed out already, these are going to get scuffed anyway. But if someone is considering piecing this kit together with Sparks, it might be nice for that person to be able to say, “hey, would you mind keeping everything in its own packaging when you box it up for shipping? I saw how another guy’s order arrived, and I would appreciate you not doing that to me.”

 

man, seems like take offs. or the shipping folks got into the boxes...

 

FWIW, I've had the shippers demolish a few boxes and try to re-box as well.

 

I think when you spend thousands of dollars on something, it's okay to expect it to arrive without paint chips.

Regardless of how it is to be used.