Defective products and QA oversights happen, as anyone in a manufacturing capacity would agree, and the purpose of this thread was to point out the perceived response from the manufacturer when a quality issue was brought to their attention based on the information I was given at the time. My opinion of AG Wheels has changed for the better after my personal dealings with them today, and I look forward to receiving my replacement set of wheels.
I recently bought a set of Avant Garde M510 19x9.5 +40 wheels with satin silver/machined finish from Need4Speed Motorsports, a vendor on this forum. The transaction went pretty well - the price was good, the wheels shipped out 1.5 days after payment was sent, and I received my new set of wheels 4 business days later.
Excited to have my shiny, new bright silver wheels I unboxed one and carried it out to the car to get an idea of how it was going to look, and noticed this:
Here it is again with the contrast adjusted slightly and the affected area circled:
The dark/light/dark/light/dark etc. area shown is actually a series of alternating high and low spots (bumps) in the face of the wheel. My first thought was that it was unevenness in the paint, since I found the quality of the satin silver paint in other areas of the wheel to be uneven and porous in appearance (notably so in the corners where the spokes meet the rim). So I set this wheel aside and unboxed the next one only to find that it had the same exact issue in the same exact location. At that point I was convinced that the lumpy contour was a defect of the casting itself, and not the coating. I decided to unbox a third wheel and surely enough it exhibited the same defect in the same exact location. The 3 wheels I inspected had stickers stating 'QC Passed' on them. I did not bother opening the fourth wheel.
I sent the two versions of the above photo to the vendor immediately along with written description of what I had found, citing that this was clearly a manufacturing defect affecting the entire set, and requesting that they provide return shipping labels so that I may return them at no additional cost for full refund of my purchase price. My sales rep mentioned that he would have to forward this to Avant Garde as a warranty claim, to which I agreed, and then we would wait for their disposition.
A week went by and I did not hear anything back from the vendor so I followed up. Paraphrasing, he still had no disposition from Avant Garde. Another week went by and still no resolution, but out of curiosity I took one of the wheels out of its packaging again to give it another once-over and found the following:
The first two photos show pinholes (porosity) in the cast aluminum material of the outer barrel (the surface that ends up inside the tire). The last photo shows a cosmetic defect in the surface of one of the spokes, which did not come off by rubbing a damp finger over it (i.e. was not dirt or grease). So I sent another email to the vendor reiterating my position that these wheels are clearly defective and, although a 'budget' cast wheel, not even worthy of the price tag they bear.
He sent the additional photos and my comments to Avant Garde and we waited a few more days. And here is the interesting part: Avant Garde refused to pay for return shipping of these wheels despite the clear evidence I provided of the various defects. To my knowledge they did not ask for clearer pictures or any further evidence, they just flat out denied to own up to the fact that they delivered a defective product to the Vendor, who then passed that product on to me.
So the purpose of this post is two-fold: first, I want to share my experience with Avant Garde with anyone in the market for new wheels so that they may take this into consideration while shopping, and secondly to COMMEND Need4Speed Motorsports for ultimately stepping up and providing me with return labels, on their dime, to return the defective wheels to them. They are currently in transit and I will be receiving a full refund for my purchase price once the wheels are received at Need4Speed's shop early next week.
Side note: I did read the warranty page on Avant Garde's website (after I found these defects, of course) and it clearly states that they will not pay for return shipping for ANY warranty claim.....and frankly, that is a bullshit position. To paraphrase Tommy Boy, "...'cuz they know all they sold you was a guaranteed piece of shit!"
So now I'm torn on the issue. I really like the aesthetic of that wheel for the B8 body. I wish I would have received an acceptable quality set of these wheels. I'm tempted to order another set with my fingers crossed tightly that the set I received originally was a fluke. Then the worst-case scenario part of me says that Avant Garde will take no quality control action and just put this same defective set back into inventory and sell them to the next unfortunate sonofabitch that places an order thru one of the many vendors here, and if I decide to buy these wheels then what guarantee do I have that they're not sold right back to me?
[deleted]
Originally Posted by Mops
, but it took way more work to get the dirt & dust off the imperfect surfaces. 
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