Monday, June 29, 2015

"Like sands through the hourglass..."

Today's lesson is in lug nuts and customer service.

The photo shows the gap between the wheel and the lug nut that's supposed to hold it snug to the hub.

This is where the lesson began.

Type 3 VW wheels are, by definition, in requirement of 'ball seat' lug nuts/bolts.

There are two options when buying this brake kit:  12mm stud and 14mm stud.  I chose the 12mm studs - and that, as I've learned today, turned out to be quite a mistake.  M12x1.5, ball seat lug nuts with a width of 24mm (to properly seat on the wheel) don't fucking exist.  However, had I chosen 14mm studs, the equivalent lug nut is super easy to find.

This is but one example of why I avoid games of 'chance' and 'luck' as a means of keeping money in my pocket and sanity in hand.  I don't play lotto numbers, buy scratch tickets or enter raffles of any kind.  I had 50/50 odds and lost...but I digress.

After spending the better part of the day trying to find the correct lug nuts, I gave up and bought conical seat to ball seat adapters for the existing lug nuts.

The customer service lesson isn't for me although if the company who manufactured the brake kit knew jack shit about customer service, I would have solved the problem a week ago.  Rule #1:  Provide clear installation instructions with clear, not blurry, photos.  Rule #2:  If a customer contacts you via email seeking information - get their name correct when you reply.  Rule #3: Provide useful information when you reply.  You know, suggestions that will actually solve the problem - not just enough information to send the customer on an educational scavenger hunt.

Instead, they chose to provide just enough information to piss me off and make me figure out how to solve the problem myself.  And that took some learning that I wasn't prepared to take on...although I now know more about lug nuts than I hope to ever use.  I could go on Jeopardy! and school the shit out of Ken Jennings if "Lug Nuts" was a theme for a show.

Hindsight: I should have returned the front end to stock and put drum brakes back on the car.

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