EDIT-- See my reply below. I'm leaving the original post, because I stand by my original frustration with TPS and the process; however, after dealing with Susan Lewis for several more months after this post was made, I have come to understand that the problem wasn't entirely within TPS's control; however, I still feel they bear a degree of responsibility.

My general opinion is that if a product is listed on a website, the person listing it bears responsibility for the availability of that product. If it's listed as "in stock" that means it should be in their hands, ready to ship. If it's not, they should be able to provide a reasonable estimate as to when it will be in their control. That's a MAJOR problem with drop-ship type businesses. So here's the original post:
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So back on January 4th I emailed TPS Motorsports asking about the lead time on a set of front and rear L5 fenders. I was looking for their standard 3/4 front, 2" rear flare, so I wasn't asking for anything special or unique. I promptly received a reply that said "two weeks". After getting that two week quote I promptly placed my order and paid in full.

After THREE weeks I called them on Jan 28th. I spoke with Mike on the phone and was AGAIN told "two weeks", presumably now from that date.

I called again on Feb 16th, and spoke with Mike again. He told me to email him to remind him to check. I did, but didn't receive a reply. I followed up with that email on Feb 21st. Mike finally replied and said it "should ship this week, or worst next".

On March 6th I called L5 directly and spoke with Susan. She found my order, and told me that TPS didn't even submit the order to them until Feb 9th, over a MONTH after I placed (and paid for) my initial order. She told me that the fenders would likely ship within the next week or so.

I finally got them today, March 19th.

The product is quite nice, but my issue is with the dishonesty of TPS. If I had known I was going into a nearly three month ordeal, that would have been a completely different story. The fact that they repeatedly lied to me, and didn't even submit my order until lying to me twice is absolutely unacceptable.

If you're looking for a set of widebody fenders, the L5 fenders are excellent, and I can strongly recommend them; however, I suggest you contact them directly to order, and don't go through TPS. Do not order anything from L5. Susan Lewis is a truly awful human being. I'm not sure if she's grossly incompetent, or intentionally trying to scam people, but either way they don't deserve your business.

 

I’m currently going through an issue with TPS, communication has now stopped, both via email and not returning a phone call. I’ll update when I hear something, but my gut is telling me I made a mistake.

 

The reality is Susan Lewis, the owner of L5/ Lewis 5, is a patherlogical liar. Do a search on Lewis 5/ L5 and you will find tons of posts she has lied about shipping dates and availability. We only gave you the information they gave us. We dealt with massive lives for over 4 years and couldn't take any more so we dropped them as a supplier. Good product but by far the worst supplier we have ever had... constant lies about shipping times.. always wrong shipments.. over 50% of the orders had issues... WORST supplier of all time

How can we help you and what was your issue?

 

I added a note to my original post. You're right, Susan Lewis is awful. I spent another several MONTHS chasing down the splash guards that were included in my original order. They didn't get to me until the end of July, and one of them was damaged. At that point, I gave up and took what I could get.

As for the quality of the product, that's debatable. It took a LOT of bodywork to get them to fit properly and still are only "good enough". I understand they're aftermarket parts, but they're far from the "nearly bolt on" quality that they somehow gained a reputation for. The splash guards were unusable because they were so far off. Now I have the legitimate concern about what to do if one of these fenders get damaged. I'll never go back to L5, so if the fender is damaged beyond repair, I either have to go back to OEM, or find some other solution.

With regards to my criticism of your business, I stand by it for the reasons I stated in my edit to the original post. While the situation was somewhat beyond your control, I still feel like you were more interested in telling me enough to get me to leave you alone and not get mad vs the truth. Had you pointed the finger squarely at L5 and been more up-front with the issues there I might not have gotten so frustrated with you.

Furthermore, I contacted you back in May in an unrelated matter looking for some SKF race hubs. You gave me the same "two week" estimate. Another vendor who frankly I trust more told me "July". They're the ones who got my business, because I trusted them to be honest with me.

Honesty goes a LONG way. Telling a lie might make a customer briefly happy in the short term, but they're going to be far more upset in the long run when they realize they've been lied to. Being honest will garner far more long-term goodwill.

 

Unfortunately, I can only relay what my suppliers are telling me such as SKF... We waited over 6 months to get a shipment of SKF hubs... supply chain issues were a major issue for some suppliers. We never lied to our customers.. we just relayed what was being told to us.

BTW, the L5 issue wasn't "Somewhat" beyond our control.. it was 100% out of our control.. they wouldn't even answer our phone calls even though we were their ONLY reseller and purchased over $200,000 of product.. Susan Lewis is the worst... NOW SHE IS A LIAR