It’s sad that there are so many posts on this forum about poor service from the few remaining vendors in our small community. I purchased a custom Spirit R steering wheel from Garage Alpha more than a year ago (February 2022) and still haven’t received it. I was originally told it would take 6 weeks. At first they were responsive to my messages so, knowing that supply chain issues were rampant, I stupidly waited and didn’t request a refund or file a claim with PayPal or my credit card company. Garage Alpha hasn’t responded to my messages (on Instagram and email) since July 2022. PayPal denied my claim a few months back because I stupidly waited too long to file.

I saw in the Garage Alpha vendor forum that a few others are having similar issues. Looks like I may be out $750 at this point, which sucks. Wanted to post this so that others don’t waste their time and money.

 

Sorry to hear about that.

Funnily enough, this also happened to me. I placed an order for their floormats at the beginning of January and were informed in the confirmation email that the order would take about 3 weeks to fulfil the order. I waited until the second week of February and decided to send them an email to check up on the progress of the order. Well, I did not get any reply from them so I decided to send them a couple of emails over the course of the next 2 weeks, and yet still no reply. I think it was last week that I decided to lodge a complaint with Paypal to get a refund for the order. Surprisingly, they had contacted me via Paypal to let me know that the floormats were ready along with the tracking number. The floormats arrived yesterday and I must say, they are lovely.

It's a shame that I had to resort to contacting Paypal just to get a reply from them. If only they could improve on their communication channel.

Seeing your post made me sign up just so I could post a comment on this thread. Haha.

 

Sorry to hear this has happened. Keep trying to call and email. I have had very good interactions with Garage Alpha in the past. Hopefully they will either get you the steering wheel or refund your money. Please keep us updated.

 

Damn, they make/made some nice stuff. Likewise I hope they make it good one way or another.

 

Sad to hear this. Should probably go in GoodGuy/BadGuy section.

 

Anyone local to Matt that knows him and could verify he's OK? Seems out of character to just vaporize.

Not that this isn't a typical RX7 vendor story, ala M2/Japan2LA/CWR/JKL/PFS et al, but there are usually a few steps in between kicking *** and not existing.

 

@GoodfellaFD3S , do you know the GA guys?

 

Those guys sold me a titanium key, but failed to tell me it would take over 3 months to send it. I complained about it here and got shut down so hard.

The ended up posting my wife's personal info here, and completely turning it around on me trying to make me the bad guy...the bad guy for paying up front and believing their little "3 weeks out" sales pitch. Members here were calling ME a rip off and **** for wanting my money back. I was so pissed, not about the lame key, but by the way they treat their customers. NEVER AGAIN will they get a penny from me.

Like I said 3 months later the key showed up, but by then I was so pissed I just tossed it in a drawer somewhere.

 

I have to agree with this. I’ve bought stuff from them on multiple occasions and Matt has bent over backwards to help make it as seamless as possible. They did mistakenly send me a set of rhd mats with my order once and the lhd were not in stock. It took a month but they showed up without issue. Responses via email were touchy from him during this stage but I believe it to be not on purpose. Rather a lack of information to pass on. It’s easy to get overwhelmed, and stuff slip through the cracks. I wouldn’t hesitate to order from them.

~ GW


PS } I had pleasantly forgotten japan2la.

 

I ordered a set of loud and dead pedals from them on Feb 10, and got a message on Feb 17 saying they are out of stock on one of them and asking if i wanted to wait for both, get one now, or cancel. I said i would wait for both.

I will give it a couple more weeks to see if there is an update and then determine what to do.

 

Sounds odd from my interactions as my tan floor mats were off color and they sent a new batch after they had gotten the dyes from the manufacturer dialed in better. Bought a few other things as well so hopefully Matt’s okay and the deal straightens itself out soon.

 

they have a vendor account on this forum.

If I was out $750 since summer last year and without response then I’d be bending a Super Moderators ear backwards on it, but it’s your decision whether to be proactively seeking proper recourse or not.

good luck …
.

 

That is sad to hear! I have purchased several times in the past from them without any issues. I haven't done so recently and like it was said previously, there are limited vendors making stuff for our cars and I really like the quality and items that they sell. I was planning on purchasing more from them but I am now concerned with the feedback here. I hope they work things out in the near future. Keep us apprised of your situations.

 

Thought I'd bring this thread back with some good news for the guys who are still waiting for their parts....... I sent Matt and GA a 'core' RE-A wheel quite some time ago for a complete rework and to have the scratched up center hub refinished. AFAIK he's the only person/company offering the service of center refinishing.

Although the process took time (a lot of time) I feel that the results were worth the wait. The wheel arrived unannounced with some much-appreciated swag (schwag?) in the box. Seems their motto is pretty appropriate, I've always known Matt to be a standup guy who will make right in the end. On to the pics

 

I received recent parts like Ti nuts and Ti Strutbar from GA quickly. Do not hesitate to purchase from them. I’ve ordered in the past their luxe floor mats, Ti catback, 99 spec passenger foot rest, fuel tank baffle and many other items.

 

Those are some engine bay goals!!!

 

Glad to hear you guys got your products. In my case, I placed my order 16 months ago and haven’t received it. Numerous Instagram DMs and emails have gone unanswered. That is totally unacceptable.

 

Thanks for the recent posts with good feedback. I bought new floormats from Garage Alpha recently, they emailed me quickly with a response to the 'order notes' that I had added via the website. My order was placed June 28, UPS tracking number was created June 30, and it arrived July 7. The floormats themselves are very nice, a good replacement for the originals that have been slowly falling apart.

Obviously it's not OK if you are still waiting on your steering wheel that was paid more than a year ago, but hopefully they have a 'steering wheel guy' who will eventually get caught up on the backlog. I would ping them at their original email if you haven't tried that lately. If they can't give an ETA, I would want to know how many custom steering wheel orders were queued ahead of mine.