Wheel Vintiques / JEGS Rant

[mr.precision]

I had heard some horror stories about Wheel Vintiques before, but elected to order 4 wheels from JEGS back in August 2018 for my 1967 C10.
JEGS shipped 3 of the wheels in short order, and claimed a back-order on the remaining wheel to be delivered in September. I purchased new tires in anticipation of the 4th wheel delivery.
Then JEGS advised me the order would arrive in November....then December.....on and on until the most recent stating it would now be May 2019.
Needless to say, I won't be ordering anything from JEGS or Wheel Vintiques again.
The remaining wheel is a 15" x 7" - 6 on 5-1/2" bolt pattern "bare 62 series smoothie". If anyone knows there whereabouts of one of these wheels, I would be greatly obliged.
What follows is the most recent correspondence between JEGS and I. JEGS and I have been exchanging emails since October of 2018.
_______________________________________________________
Lisa Trago (JEGS Performance)

Feb 11, 9:40 PM EST
Mike,
We have contacted Wheel Vintiques but they only provide estimated ship dates. We are unable to pin them down on an exact date. They have stated they expect the part to ship in approximately four weeks and we have no way to get them to ship something they do not have available. I apologize for the inconvenience.

Lisa Trago
JEGS Customer Service

We are dedicated to providing our customers with the very best in selection,
value, same day shipping and lifetime support. Thank you for choosing JEGS!


Feb 11, 7:26 PM EST
Thank you, Melanie.
Can you get some kind of commitment from the supplier? I would think an organization as big as JEGS has a little muscle to address this problem. I bought these wheels in August, 2018. Jegs delivered 3 of the 4 ordered. I have been waiting on the 4th wheel since August. 6 months is tool long and now you are saying middle of March which is getting close to 8 months. Can you kick this complaint up a notch or two?

Thank you and kind regards

[special-K]

Sorry about your luck with Wheel Vintiques. Good luck finding a better business to buy their products than Jeg's. Jeg's doesn't make the wheels. They have no control over this. Seems they have been good about letting you know what they know. I'd bet that size is not a big seller. Most go with their 8" steelies to gain a noticeable difference over stock 6". Since you already have three wheels you're stuck needing to buy one more from somebody... once Wheel Vintiques comes through. If I were you I wouldn't burn that bridge. You have given no reason for me to find fault in Jeg's. You realize the 6-lugs are a recent addition to Wheel Vintiques' offerings, right. I think they sold you the last they had and Wheel Vintiques is jerking everyone around by putting off the next run.

Just supposing here, but in the special parts world it isn't the same as replacement parts for late-models. Back in '77 I waited 6 months for my bought and paid for 37/14.50 Armstrongs from Dick Cepek. They were advertised pre-production and I got one of their first sets once they existed. I guarantee you I was the first guy on the East Coast to have 37" rubber since these were the first off road tires to come out over 36". I have waited long periods for many hot new parts for my Harleys over the years. But when I got them I was the first kid on the block

[tmontg01]

I know you went through Jegs for the purchase, but I'd almost just give Wheel Vintiques a call to see if they could do something about it. I think 8 months is just ridiculous waiting on one wheel.

[weq92f]

I agree with the above, give the manufacturer a chance to fix this. Let them know Jegs is making your experience a bad one.

2 years ago I had the same thing happen, same company, different product. They were very happy to take my funds but couldn't help me at all with getting the product to my project ( set of 400 dollar headers ) once. Haven't ordered anything from them since!

-klb

[ManNamedJed]

Similar frustration with Jegs - I'm looking for one American Racing AR969 for my suburban so I can have a matching spare. Jegs has them listed on ebay with '10 available'. 3 days after I place my order it is cancelled and they say the wheels are discontinued.

How can you advertise '10 available' for an item you don't stock and can't even get? Lame.

[mr.precision]

Got another note from JEGS today.... now they are saying May 2019.
Sure..... I know that JEGS is just a retailer for Wheel Vintiques. My concern is that they listed them as available before this episode started. I believe that a company the size of JEGS should have some ability to advise WV is a strong fashion that they are not satisfied with their supplier. Maybe that's just dreamin'.
The purpose of this post was simply to let others know about "in stock" claims by retailers and to search for an additional wheel. No bridges will be burned.

[4carbcorvair]

Have you personally tried to contact Wheel Vintiques to find out whats going on?

['70_402]

I had the same problem with Jegs... ended up ordering the same exact wheels from summit and shipped within a week.

[special-K]

Well, maybe Jeg's is the bad guy here. I don't know. I've always been happy, and maybe just lucky. I sure was when it was time to get my 16 x 8 8-luggers. They most certainly were on backorder when I bought them and I knew that full well in advance. I felt they did a very smart business move but putting the $125 wheels on sale for $90. They became available when they said they would and I got a $500 set for $360 with no agony.

I feel your pain and frustration. Been there/done that on many things. Those tires I spoke of took so long I had to tell them when they came in to not send them to MD because I was moving to CO... and gave that address. Then, me and the gal I was going out to be with broke up so I took my buddy up on coming down to FL for the winter, then head to CO in the Spring. Changed shipping address again. It was Spring by the time they became available, so I had them ship to MD because I was heading back up before heading west and I needed good tires for the trip. Head spinning yet? I had just turned 22 when I ordered then and I was only a couple months from my 23rd birthday when I finally got them.

[HO455]

My experience with the aftermarket wheel industry says that the supplier is most likely the culprit. It is common practice in the industry to come out with a new wheel style and not start manufacturing them unless a certain amount of prepaid orders are received. The same applies to existing runs of wheels. If a certain size doesn't sell well enough they wont do another production run. This doesn't mean that they will stop advertising them as available just in case some vehicle hits the show/magazine circuit and the demand suddenly explodes and people are prepaying for the wheels.
My advice is to see if you can return them and get them in another size or locate the missing one somewhere else. The only other option would be to step up and pay their minimum amount for a production run and sell them yourself. Which unless your Jay Leno probably isn't an option.
Jegs is good about returns so unless they refuse to refund the money I wouldn't blame them
Good luck.

[54blackhornet]

I would have passed when told I was only getting three wheels ? Send them back for a refund, lots of other wheels out there.

[ho70]

first-send them back and buy something else from someone else.
second-You bought them from Jegs so it is their problem, they took your money. They should of notified you upfront if all four wheels you paid for couldn't arrive at the same time and let you decide if you wanted them or not. Shame on them.

[Dieselwrencher]

I almost placed an order through Jeggs for some wheels last week. Same thing. Their site said they had 10 of each size available. I called to verify and nope, they had 0 available but 10 on order. There were still in a container floating across the ocean. I didn't order from them. In their defense, I've had this happen before and it always has been the supplier being low on stock. Not so much the distributor. It still is a pain in the butt and sucks though.

[special-K]

^^^ There's a good point within this post for all ordering. If you do an order totally online this type of thing is not uncommon... the gap between what shows on the website and reality. Usually if you call to order or just to verify you'll get the reality.

[toolboxchev]

If a company cannot get all 4 at the same time there is a issue, whether is wheels or other parts.

Why would I stock 3 of a part when you need 4 for a complete set?

I personally like manufacturing batch numbers and dates to be sequential. That means they are as close as possible to be entirely identical. i.e. all made by the same person, exact same steel.

its how i roll

[Ironangel]

I've got Wheels Vintiques chrome smoothies on both my trucks. My daily driver has 16x8 all around and the hot rod has 15x6's front and 15x10's rear, I wanted 5" wheels but Wheels Vintiques indicated it would be weeks possibly months before they made 5" runs of those wheels. A 15x7" wheel is not as common as they were years ago which lends to the production wait time. Six years ago 16" General 275/70's were readily available, last summer I couldn't find a set anywhere, so I went with 265/70's realizing the 16" wheels and tires were going to way side. I think I would send the three back opting for four 7" wheels from another manufacturer. US Wheel has the 15x7's on ebay for a good price https://www.ebay.com/itm/US-Wheel-52...-/142152999374 I see that Summit has Wheels Vintiques 62 Series in 15x7...Maybe give them a call? Kinda have to play all the angles and make some calls. I had to make a truck show in week realizing the "Chevelle" headers that came with the BB I had just dropped in wasn't going to work. I called Summit, Jegs, Hedman, nobody could get them to me in time. I ran the Hedman part number on Amazon and low and behold they had them for $30 less than Summit & Jegs and since I have Amazon Prime they were delivered in 24 hours! I learned a valuable lesson @ $159 delivered... Good luck

[rsavage]

I have bought two sets of Wheel Vintiques series 62 wheels in the last year Summit. I had to wait on both but not the number of months you have. It didn't matter on the 15 X 8's for the Blazer as it was still in body/paint. However, I wanted the wheels for the Corvette as they had to be painted and I had brand new tires I wanted to get on it before driving weather expired. A few times the delivery date got moved forward and after 3 weeks, I was not happy. Summit continued to blame it on Wheel Vintiques. I called Wheel Vintiques and asked them how many of the wheels I needed they had in stock - they said 40! I asked when they were going to ship them to Summit and I was told that they can't (per Summit) ship until there is either a full pallet or two (can't recall if 1 or 2 pallets had to be ordered before they could ship). So I was being lied to by Summit. I called them and demanded that they drop ship them to me immediately from Wheel Vintiques which they did. Still took 4 or 5 days from the west coast, but I might still be waiting if I hadn't called. I suggest you call Wheel Vintiques yourself. Maybe you are in the same boat with Jegs?

[special-K]

Yeah, I looked into dealing Tri-Plus parts a while back and you'd be amazed at the price break given commercial accounts on palleted freight. As much as you can fit as high as can be (sensibly) stacked was a flat rate of $69. Jeg's and Summit offer free freight, right? This is what makes that possible.

Jeg's wouldn't be stocking only three wheels. I'm sure they purchase in multiples of four. Most sales are 2 or 4, with an occasional single replacement or an order including spare. I'm certain the 3 received were the last of a full pallet order.

[mr.precision]

Here's the original order confirmation.
I will contact WV and see what they have to say.
Ready to Ship Items
Qty Item
1 939-62-570604 *15X7 O.E. 6X5.5 BARE 4.0
This item is expected to ship 08/10/2018.
1 939-62-570604 *15X7 O.E. 6X5.5 BARE 4.0
This item is expected to ship 08/10/2018.



BackOrdered Items
Qty. Item
2 939-62-5806044 15X8 O.E. 6X5.5 BARE 4.25
This item is expected to ship 09/04/2018.
If you have any questions about this order, please reply to JEGS Customer Care or contact us at :
Jegs High Performance
101 Jegs Place
Delaware, OH 43015
USA
Telephone: 1-800-345-4545

Note the backorder items were the 15 x 8 and they were shipped as described.
Here's the '67 back from paint. Still putting the trim back on and can drive it on existing wheels. Will paint all 4 wheels when the last one shows up.

[palallin]

Paint the stock wheels (white) and call it good!

[rsavage]

Originally Posted by palallin

Paint the steelies (white) and call it good!

The series 62 wheels are steelies.

[special-K]

I think I know how you feel. Much like a belt buckle you can't undo and a stuck zipper on a hot date! You want it done done just as you want it the first time out, after all your efforts. And someone making money off of you is holding you back.

[bill3rail]

Thanks for the information, I was looking for a set of Wheel Vintiques for my beast.
Maybe Not!

[special-K]

Have you spoken with Wheel Vintiques, yet? Any news?

[AussieinNC]

https://www.wheelvintiques.com

800.959.2100 why not just call them direct...

Just checked both back space wheel stock for your wheels directly on Wheel Vintiques site...(link above)...

They show both in stock with prices of $87 for 4.25" backspace and $64 for 4" backspace units...

plus shipping....

I have ordered direct from WV on numerous occasions...have never had an issue....maybe just been lucky....

JEGS is usually ok with deliveries...but again, they are at the mercy of their suppliers.