Worst experience ever with a product (PIAA)

[djstan]

Hey guys,

I thought I'd share a letter I wrought to customer service, I doubt heavily that anything will be done, so this is more of a warning.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello,

I once bought cheap $75 HID Colored bulbs, they burnt out on me after about a year. I thought to myself fair enough, theyre knock offs and I should be lucky they survived that long.

6 months later I decided I wanted a higher quality upgrade this time around. This time I would buy those PIAAs I wanted from the beginning. So I purchased 4 bulbs, 2 for my fog lights and 2 for my headlamps. I spent what I thought was a ridiculous amount of money on . bulbs. BUT, they were PIAAs! They were the best, I wouldnt have to worry about them. I bragged about having them.

6 months after they were installed, one headlamp burnt out, I thought to myself, well, I was just unlucky that time. I went back to the retailer and they exchanged it without a hassle. The only thing I thought was odd was that they said the warranty was still one total year from the original purchase. Well its now a few more months later, and lo and behold the high quality, best of the best light bulbs I spent my hard earned cash on have failed again.

So now I think Ive made a bad decision. It wasnt a fluke that the other bulb now failed. Which will fail next? The fogs? Another headlamp? Oh wait, it doesnt matter, its over a year since Ive purchased them so Im out of luck anyway.

I thought I could trust PIAA, sadly I was mistaken.

If the workmanship can be explained, please go ahead. If this is par for performance, well then, excuse me for my ignorance in choosing your highly respected brand.

An extremely disappointed x-customer,
Navin Sekhon

 

[APEXistud]

Sad to hear you had a bad experience. I just recently had a bulb burn out this previous week and I just made a simple phone call to PIAA customer service. Boom, 3 days later I received my new bulb. This is the 3rd replacement bulb I've had sent to me in the past 14 months.

 

[mooS mooS]

you wouldn't happen to have touched the bulbs with your bare hands, would you ? even an itsy bitsy " . " that little bit of contact with bare flesh will leave oils on your bulb that will significantly shorten their life span

 

[LinuxRacr]

PIAA's kinda suck!

The funny thing is that about 3 weeks ago, both my PIAA bulbs burnt out AT THE SAME TIME!! I was rolling around during the Monday meets here in DFW (Plano) with no low beams! Mine were in for less than a year, so rather than getting PIAA's again, I went to AutoZone, and got some $15 Sylvaina regular bulbs, and a couple of weeks later I bought the Dual-Beam Catz 4500K HID kit. **** paying $80+ for PIAA's every 6 months when I can have a system that will outlast the car, and has better light output from REAL HID's and not "Fake ID's!"

 

[sttl013]

I worked for a retailer that carried PIAA's. We dropped them after only one year because of all the problems - bulbs, leaking housings, and yes, they would always exchange them without any grief, but still having the hassle of sending out about 5 sets of lights a month for replacment became enough for us.

Sylvania Silverstars seem to be fine so far, although the Protege5 got top ratings on stock bulbs from some magazine article test - like 400yds to a reflector on low beams or some s*** - I don't remember the details o the article.