9 months ago I purchased a set of LED Head Lights from Olympus for my JK; one month ago one of the LED chips burnt out. I attempted to contact Olympus regarding the issue, and most of these attempts were ignored. When I was finally acknowledged a few days later I was asked for the order number, which I provided immediately and repeatedly for the next few days. I did not hear anything back until, after a week from my initial attempt, I became annoyed and expressed my dissatisfaction with how I've been being ignored. Not once (or ever) did I call names or curse, but I was very firm in my grievance.
This was received very poorly by Olympus, how dare I become annoyed with being ignored. I accused them of bad customer service, and in return I was lectured and dismissed by the customer service rep, but they were still willing to overlook my atrocities and continue to bless me with their service and the "limited lifetime" warranty will take care of it.
But here was the catch, although their "limited lifetime" warranty is not clearly stated in any place that I could find, apparently I had to send my headlights in for repair first, before they will send me a replacement. This by the way was going to take place over 30 days. This wasn't going to fly, these are headlights and I kind of need them to drive around legally after all. Nevermind the fact that I have to move my winch and take apart my entire front end to get to the lights, being JK owners y'all know what I’m talking about. The customer service rep smugly said if I don't like it I can take my business elsewhere.
I took my issue up with the owner. I was accused of bashing his employee, but because he had previously issued an amendment to the warranty because of the nature of headlights, he would send me a set of the headlights as a replacement without sending the bad one in first. The customer service rep was "new" and didn't know about this amendment. A week went by and I heard nothing from Olympus, and received no replacement. In this time I had sent several emails that went ignored, so again, I expressed my dissatisfaction.
All of a sudden, the amendment for headlights became a special exemption just to get me to shut up and stop “being rude.” The replacements were supposedly sent (even though they never asked for an address) and they can't find the shipment nor figure out why I don't have them yet. It's now a full month since these lights broke, and remember they were only 8 months old at the time of failure. I still haven't received the replacements, so I told Olympus thanks but no thanks. They've lost me as a customer.
Now, you can lambaste me for buying cheap lights to begin with, and I probably deserve it. But Olympus goes to great lengths with smoke and mirrors to cover up the fact that these are truly just mail order Chinese lights, I thought I was buying a good product from an small American company. During this exchange I called into question the source of their lighting products. Olympus claims to own a facility in China where their lights are built to their specifications. I found examples of lights absolutely identical in appearance to Olympus' lights at several different retailers, when I asked about their source all of them denied affiliation with Olympus and stated they received their products from wholesalers in China. I asked Olympus to account for identical lights on the market and was told that they did not have to prove anything to me. Having a wholesaler customize lights for you is far different from owning your own facility. I may tell the waiter that I want my steak medium-well, but that doesn’t mean I own the restaurant. I'm 99% sure that these guys are full of it, and have never even set foot in China. If their claims are true, more power to them, but why not offer proof when you are using these claims to separate your business from other importers of Chinese made lights?
Olympus needs to learn how to respond to customers with complaints in a timely manner, instead of ignoring them or lecturing them. They need to be more clear on the terms of their warranty, and post it in a place that is easy to find. They need to work on their shipping issues, instead of losing shipments (which seems common for them). And in my opinion, the burden of proof is on them about their claims to owning manufacturing facilities in China, as well as what exactly makes their Chinese lights different than other Chinese lights, since that is what they are advertising.
This was received very poorly by Olympus, how dare I become annoyed with being ignored. I accused them of bad customer service, and in return I was lectured and dismissed by the customer service rep, but they were still willing to overlook my atrocities and continue to bless me with their service and the "limited lifetime" warranty will take care of it.
But here was the catch, although their "limited lifetime" warranty is not clearly stated in any place that I could find, apparently I had to send my headlights in for repair first, before they will send me a replacement. This by the way was going to take place over 30 days. This wasn't going to fly, these are headlights and I kind of need them to drive around legally after all. Nevermind the fact that I have to move my winch and take apart my entire front end to get to the lights, being JK owners y'all know what I’m talking about. The customer service rep smugly said if I don't like it I can take my business elsewhere.
I took my issue up with the owner. I was accused of bashing his employee, but because he had previously issued an amendment to the warranty because of the nature of headlights, he would send me a set of the headlights as a replacement without sending the bad one in first. The customer service rep was "new" and didn't know about this amendment. A week went by and I heard nothing from Olympus, and received no replacement. In this time I had sent several emails that went ignored, so again, I expressed my dissatisfaction.
All of a sudden, the amendment for headlights became a special exemption just to get me to shut up and stop “being rude.” The replacements were supposedly sent (even though they never asked for an address) and they can't find the shipment nor figure out why I don't have them yet. It's now a full month since these lights broke, and remember they were only 8 months old at the time of failure. I still haven't received the replacements, so I told Olympus thanks but no thanks. They've lost me as a customer.
Now, you can lambaste me for buying cheap lights to begin with, and I probably deserve it. But Olympus goes to great lengths with smoke and mirrors to cover up the fact that these are truly just mail order Chinese lights, I thought I was buying a good product from an small American company. During this exchange I called into question the source of their lighting products. Olympus claims to own a facility in China where their lights are built to their specifications. I found examples of lights absolutely identical in appearance to Olympus' lights at several different retailers, when I asked about their source all of them denied affiliation with Olympus and stated they received their products from wholesalers in China. I asked Olympus to account for identical lights on the market and was told that they did not have to prove anything to me. Having a wholesaler customize lights for you is far different from owning your own facility. I may tell the waiter that I want my steak medium-well, but that doesn’t mean I own the restaurant. I'm 99% sure that these guys are full of it, and have never even set foot in China. If their claims are true, more power to them, but why not offer proof when you are using these claims to separate your business from other importers of Chinese made lights?
Olympus needs to learn how to respond to customers with complaints in a timely manner, instead of ignoring them or lecturing them. They need to be more clear on the terms of their warranty, and post it in a place that is easy to find. They need to work on their shipping issues, instead of losing shipments (which seems common for them). And in my opinion, the burden of proof is on them about their claims to owning manufacturing facilities in China, as well as what exactly makes their Chinese lights different than other Chinese lights, since that is what they are advertising.