Long story short:

5 years ago shortly after puting a set on my truck, I helped my father put a set on his 99. He uses his truck a lot on mountain roads towing a horse trailer and some highway hauling hay on a gooseneck. The truck gets worked but not abused.

When doing something else he took the front shocks off and noticed they were very easy to compress and were very slow to rebound. So he bought a new set figuring he would send old ones to Bilstein in the boxes the new ones come in.

The new shocks arrived and he installed them. One of the back shocks wouldn't extend on its own at all. The other rear shock was not as bad as the front two. The new ones were of course a lot better than the old ones but didn't seem as stout as when the old ones were new.

He called Bilstein and mailed the shocks to them (he paid the shipping).

Bilstein gets the shocks and tells him they are in Spec

He says he thought the one might be marginal but no way are the other three ok. They said they are in spec and they will send them back. He told them to keep the shocks and he won't be buying another set when the new ones wear out.

I know I probably need a new set. They won't be Bilsteins.....

 

Rancho......

 

Rancho.....

Have you ever tried a Warranty claim with them?

 

I haven't had the need to.

 

I'm not impressed with the Bilsteins on my F250 either. I put a set of Monroe Reflex shocks on my F350 and they were great.

 

I have Bilsteins on my Lightning, my Excursion, and my F250. Because of the shoddy, obvious attempt at dodging a warrantee claim, you can be sure Bilsteins will not be my first choice for replacement when I need new ones.

A few years back (almost 6 years now), I had some great conversations with Shane at the West Coast offices of Bilstein. He helped me spec out shocks for Excursions that have had the V code, B code spring upgrade.

It's sad to see their customer service has fallen so badly. Lifetime warrantee....sure.

Stewart

 

I bought a set of slightly used KYB MonoMax from ebay and they have been on my truck for about 5-6 years and no problems. I WAS considering Bilsteins next go-round.

 

I have two sets of Bilsteins (all four corners), one on my F250 and another on my Excursion. I was close to purchasing from KYB when I got the last set, but decided to stick with the B's. In fact, I even remember talking with the guys at Shock Warehouse when I got these B's, and their words to me were that THEY knew more about the specification and fit-compatibility of the B's than the guys at Bilstein!

I HATE hearing about yet one more historically good company sliding down the slippery slope of mediocrity and declining customer service. I'm keeping my eyes on this issue and will certainly be leaning towards something different next go around.

 

They told him more than once that they felt he wasn't feeling good about their news and he agreed he wasn't happy at all. He even called them back the next day to explain his bad feeling about the whole thing and said he was calling back to give them a chance to make it right. They declined. He told them he felt they had a good product but their Customer Service was poor.

 

Which office did he call, the one on the East coast or the West Coast?

Stewart

 

Bilstien supervision needs to se this thread. Maybe the suits don't know whats going on with the store.

 

I called my Dad today to tell him I had posted his experience on a very large Diesel Forum. A correction to my original post is the shock that wouldn't extend on its own was a front shock.

Stew, I will ask him and let you know.

On Edit: I feel bad because I recommended the Bilsteins to him back then and recently to a friend for his 05 leaker. And I assured my Dad that I felt Bilstein was a well known reputable company that would warranty his shocks......

 

damn i just posted yesterday how disappointed i was with them as i installed them on my truck 6 months ago my originals were still good no leaks and held pressure at 12 years old . now one frt has a bad leak!! im still looking for my reciept!

 

I just put bilsteins on 3 weeks ago, along with one of their steering stabilizers.
Had this thread been started before I purchased them, I definitely would not have purchased them. Makes you wonder how much business they will lose because of this issue.
My shocks that were replaced were original too, they were just rusting. Sure hope I have no problems with the high dollar bilsteins

 

Let's hope that's the case.

I agree that top brass at Bilstien need to know about not only their customer's Customer Service dissatisfaction, but the existence of this thread as well.

As long as this goes unresolved, they're off my personal "approved vendor" list.

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