Before anybody even responds... I know this thread is useless without pics, so as soon as the sun comes out I'll shoot some pics and get them up.

I'm sure some of you have seen my multitude of posts on here about my dealings with 360 Forged over the last few months, so for all interested and for all who might look at them in the future I figured I would make a final post about my experiences with them. Better have a few minutes because this might take a while…

It really is a tale of 2 companies. There is the "old" 360 Forged, and the new "System Forged". I ordered my wheels on 2 December, 2008. 19/20 Mesh 8 with a brushed face and a chrome lip with a set Nitto tires. I was told by Jon at that point that it would be 4-6 weeks. I chose a 3 part payment at that point. Deposit immediately > Half of the remaining in 3 weeks > Balance when complete. I talked with Jon on the phone about once a week just to get an update. After about the third week, my parts were “in” and all that needed to be done was to clear the center, mount the tires and ship. Week 5 passed with the same status, and the remaining balance was taken from my credit card by 360 without any notification that it was being done or that the wheels were complete. That was the point that things really went to hell. By now I realized that Jon’s answer of the parts being “in” and “3 weeks” were something that I was going to have to hear for the next 5 months. Basically, that is his way of getting somebody to shut up and not call for a little while. He promised this same “3 weeks” more times than I can count. At one point he actually said that mine were done and that they were just waiting to ship out all of the Corvette Forum guys’ wheels at the same time so there would be a flood of positive posts. Of course he backpedaled pretty quickly when I reminded him that I had been waiting for 3-4 months at this point and didn’t give a crap about their reputation on the forum. All I wanted were the wheels and tires that I had already paid thousands of dollars for. It all of a sudden became “3 weeks” again. At this point I started posting my concerns here on the forum with the groups of posts that always degraded to name calling and eventually got deleted. I talked to Jon and finally asked for a refund and to just forget it all together. Months had passed and I was out a few thousand dollars with no end in sight. He danced around for a few minutes, and then was conveniently “in a meeting” for the entire next week.
Enter Jordan, perhaps the only person on Earth more incapable of telling the truth than Jon. I got a million excuses and slimy used car tactics to try to get me from getting my money back. Including one that said my wheels were going to be “shipped by Friday.” I was in the process of filing the claim through my cc company when Andy Wheeler (Flatout on the forum) contacted me. He gave me some info as to what was going on at 360 and that Alain was coming back from Modular Concepts since he had a financial interest in the hideous debacle that 360 Forged had become and he was going to resolve all of the issues. I started talking with Ryan at 360 who was supposedly a “new guy” whose purpose in life it was to deal with the people with long overdue outstanding orders. Come to find out, my centers were still at the machinist after all of this time. Skip ahead a few weeks… and then this happens. Jon and Jordan at their finest

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-z...60-wheels.html

I packed them back up and shipped them back to Miami (on Alain’s money). He told me at that point that it would be “about 5 weeks” until they could machine a new set, build, paint, etc. and get them shipped out to me. Again, I was way past fed up and tried to get my money back with no luck, so I crossed my fingers and hoped that Alain would come through. By now I had learned and simply refused to talk to anybody except Alain himself. I was usually able to get him on the phone within a few hours so it wasn’t too bad. He was always straight forward with me and gave me good updates on what was going on with them. After the screw up with them not fitting and the P.O.S. tires that they sent Alain worked pretty hard to make things “right”. I ended up getting the tinted clear on the centers, expedited machining, Michelin PS2 tires, and expedited shipping for the same original cost. The only real negative I can think of at this point is that here on the forum it is actually Jon that is posting, even though he is signing it as Alain. I’m guessing that he didn’t know I was talking with Alain and at one point even sent me a PM (signed as Alain) telling me not to bash Jon on here and that he was a good guy, blah, blah, blah. That is an entirely new level of used car salesman crap. It almost seems like a few people at 360 are actually trying their best to run the company (and Alain) into the ground. On that note, beware if you are on here talking to “Alain” that it is most likely NOT him, but actually Jon. Alain has told me himself that he is hardly ever on the forums.
OK, now to the good part. My wheels finally shipped and showed up at my door yesterday. First and foremost, they actually fit this time!!! Apparently, the first set was actually C6Z faces, in C5 barrels/lips. Interesting.

FINAL REVIEW--- The machining on the faces is still not the best I have seen, but it’s not too bad. It looks like the machinist is cutting them as fast as possible and sacrificing some quality in the process. The pilots are visible on a few different cuts, although the tinted clear hides them pretty well. The overall build quality is good, and the tinted clear finish only has one small spot that I can find on one of the rears where it was applied too thin and the silver shows through differently than the rest of the wheel. The spot is relatively small and in a place that it’s not too easily noticeable. I took them out on a short drive before the weather turned to crap and didn’t notice any of the vibrations that others had complained about. (I have not had them past about 55mph yet). I was expecting a gray/silver tint and in reality it is more of a gold/bronze color, but I think it ended up looking pretty good. It’s difficult to try to pick colors and designs like this with only pics on other makes of cars to go by. As far as I know these are still the only set built by 360 for a C5, although Modular has a few out there.
I will not now (or ever) apologize for any negative posts that I have made in the past as I still feel that at the time they were warranted. However, I talked to Alain yesterday and told him personally that I was amazed that I am actually relatively satisfied after all of the crap that I dealt with from the “old” 360. At this point, it seems like Alain has done the impossible job of picking up the pieces and actually making the company into something decent. Hopefully he can keep it up and help the rest of those tht are still waiting on either money or wheels.


Pics to follow...

 

I'm glad to hear you finally got a set of wheels that were somewhat exceptable. IMHO, for the prices they are charging the wheels should be perfect. But, I do understand your situation. Also anxious to see the pics.

 

....SHOULD BE PERFECT!!

 

As promised, here are a couple of quick pics... yea, I drove it in the rain today so the car (and the wheels) are a little dirty. Not to mention the setting and lighting is horrible. I'll get some good ones once mother nature allows.

 

Damn that is nice!!!

 

Those look really good on your car!!!

 

 

Thanks for the compliments guys... I'd love to lower it just a little bit more, but I already bash the front constantly on the roads out here so that's probably not a great idea.

 

Very nice...

 

I should probably clarify... they really are a high quality wheel with the one tiny imperfection in the clear coat. The machining is as good as about any other wheel that I have seen. I could see the same marks in places on my CCWs as well. Difference with the CCWs is that it was all polished out where as these were just brushed and cleared so the flaws in machining stay visible. With my background I am probably way more critical about that part of it than about anybody else would be. Alain already asked me how big a deal it was and sounded like he would take care of it had it been something I was really concerned about.

 

I like those!

 

I like, very nice.

 

Very sweet.

 

glad you finally received what you ordered soooo long ago!

 

WOW - coolness

 

Looks killer!

 

THANK GOD YOU FINALLY GOT THEM!

Man me and you have talked a few times and I felt for you the whole step of the way, but I know Alian extremely well and have dealt with him for a long time and I knew if anyone could straighten out that mess it would be him and his work ethic.

Sorry I couldn't have helped to get them to you sooner but I am glad you finally received them and seem to be happy.

Andy Wheeler

 

Need more pics.

-Alex

 

That is what this forum is all about... Friends helping friends...Andy It took a long long time but looks like it turned out OK in the end!!

 

Beautiful set of wheels, but man, what an ordeal you had to go through. You are much more patient than I would have been.