Warning: 4WheelOnline

rtmccormick · #1 (**permalink**) 03-31-2008, 02:49 PM

thought i'd use this as a place for me to vent my anger/warn others of the website.

i've always checked around on 4wheelonline.com as a place to find decent prices on offroad stuff and thought of them as at least relatively reputable until i placed this order for my wheels last week.. bear in mind that i'm not a big spender for auto stuff usually so this $1500 wheel/tire/lift thing is a big purchase for me, and added to that i'm ancy as hell about ordering online because i'm uber impatient. when i spend my money, i want my product now, not 3 weeks from now. i spent the money, i want the thing in my hands.

i ordered the 5100s from shockwarehouse.com for $181 shipped, got them 3 days later. i ordered a rear block and diff drop from wheelers, they came today. i liked the procomp 1079s better than the 1069s from wheelers, and they said they had a 2 week lead time to get me the 1079s, so i decided to go with 4wheelonline for them as they appeared to have them available to ship, or so i thought.

after hearing nothing for 3 full business days after my order(which is a long time to me after i just dropped $500 of my hard earned money), i finally emailed them to get tracking information. i got a tracking number that i input into ups's website which came up with the other 3 numbers for the wheels.
problem #1: the wheels are addressed to a small town inside of my city, about 5 miles from my house. my address doesn't even exist there. UPS said i had to contact 4wheelonline to get them to do a package intercept because it was for a fee billed to their account, so i couldn't do it.

problem #2: 3 of the wheels are in transit with an eta(at who knows where) tomorrow. the 4th says "billing information received", as though they printed the shipping slip and didn't send anything out.

upon calling there, i waited on hold for 45 minutes to talk to a bonehead who answered the phone saying "Hello?". i told him i ordered some wheels and here was a my order number, at which point he interrupted me and told me to give him my name. so i did that, at which point he said "wheels take 10-14 days is there anything else i can help you with?" i told him "actually i got the tracking info today, there were a couple issues i have about the shipping though". i explained myself and he said "well looks like 3 have shipped and one hasn't". no **** sherlock. he couldn't tell me why, or if a mistake had been made, or when my 4th wheel would even ship. i asked if he could investigate it and give me a call back, he said "as soon as information is forwarded to us it will be sent to your email address on file". then hung up.

so it appears these morons just take orders for product, take your money, then forward it to their suppliers to drop ship it and consider it out of sight/out of mind to them, with no care as to if/when it'll ever arrive. the real reason i ordered was because they advertised as having it in stock with fast shipping from their "many warehouses", which seems to have been a bad decision.

has anyone else ever had this problem with these people?

i'll update as soon as i find anything else out. i just have this odd feeling i'm going to be disputing some charges.

Battleax · #2 (**permalink**) 03-31-2008, 03:29 PM

They said 10 - 14 days, you are freaking out at only three days. You've got some long and miserable days ahead

Ricker-1 · #3 (**permalink**) 03-31-2008, 03:57 PM

I believe he said he ordered them because their website said they had them in stock and ready to ship and a line about fast shipping from many warehouses.

sr5mike · #4 (**permalink**) 03-31-2008, 04:18 PM

well sad to say that all online ordering is not perfect. Thats the chance you take for shopping for a discount. There is no beating the customer service the mom and pop retailers provide.

goose8651 · #5 (**permalink**) 03-31-2008, 04:51 PM

Well, what you could do is if you ordered it by credit card, you could be ok. Since they shipped it to the wrong destination, you can call your credit card agency and tell them you have been billed for something you did not receive. The company should do everything else for you by contacting the business. if all goes well they will credit your account back. i have done it a few times with products that were incorrect or if I had to do a bunch of digging around to find out where the product is. Hopefully you used your credit card. Also, have they charged you for all four wheels and other parts. If they have not sent the items yet, they should not have charged you for them.

tundraboy27909 · #6 (**permalink**) 03-31-2008, 06:21 PM

Call your credit card company (and hope for the best). I had a similiar experience with some tires I ordered online (not from 4wheelonline). Somehow FEDEX shipped them to the wrong address (their fault). I talked to several boneheads at FEDEX and several foreigners at my credit card company. It took almost two months to get the situation straight. I hope you have better luck.

tinik · #7 (**permalink**) 03-31-2008, 10:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by goose8651

Well, what you could do is if you ordered it by credit card, you could be ok. Since they shipped it to the wrong destination, you can call your credit card agency and tell them you have been billed for something you did not receive. The company should do everything else for you by contacting the business. if all goes well they will credit your account back. i have done it a few times with products that were incorrect or if I had to do a bunch of digging around to find out where the product is. Hopefully you used your credit card. Also, have they charged you for all four wheels and other parts. If they have not sent the items yet, they should not have charged you for them.

+1 ^^^^^

rtmccormick · #8 (**permalink**) 04-01-2008, 01:07 AM

i was charged for all 4 wheels while only 3 of them shipped.

i checked all the mom and pops around here and none of them could get a hold of them for 2 weeks or more. my quibble is that i gave them my business because of the pure fact that i could get them quickly; it said "in stock and ready to ship from one of our 29 warehouses!" not "in stock and you'll get them by the end of april!" or "in stock and we'll bill you for 4 and send 3 to the wrong address, then tell you to pound sand when you call our customer service department!"

Blackened · #9 (**permalink**) 04-01-2008, 09:19 PM

I ordered my wheels from them and got the same run around. It ended up one of my wheels was up north and two were in florida and one was in dallas now thats screwed up.. So they shipped all to dallas and from there shipped them to me in houston. Took about 10 days. I cant complain they were buy two get two free.