DDM Tuning customer dis-service
I'm still pretty new here, but thought I'd pass along a summary of my first order of goodies for my new ZHP. I apologize for the length, but I need to vent!
I ordered upgrade lights (front corners, sides, LED tails, bulbs), some replacement roundels, black kidneys, and a windshield cowl back at the end of June. I ordered everything online and got to the lights and bulbs on the site after down-selecting to E46 using the "shop by car" function. After hearing nothing for several days after the order, I logged in to check status and saw that there were some back-orders. I called to get more info, they didn't know when the back-ordered lights would be available, and that the cowl piece (OEM) would be coming from Germany. They then hit me up for additional shipping charges for the cowl piece, yet wouldn't ship the order until it was complete.
Another week went by, so I called again since the website order status never got updated, and I was told they were having trouble with the cowl piece and their go-between with BMW.
Over the next couple weeks, I tried emailing with no replies, and called several times and spent more than an hour total on hold over 3 or 4 tries. I was always told "I'm sorry" and "I'll get back to you" or it "will ship today." After 4 weeks and a couple of days, the goodies finally arrived last week. I never got any offers of shipping upgrades, or a coupon code on a future order or anything for the delays and lack of service by not keeping me updated.
I installed what I could this week and discovered that I had the wrong signal bulbs, despite following the link from the corner lights I ordered to the bulb page and previously down-selecting to the E46. I erroneously assumed that they would present me with the proper choice, but that is not the case. I also ran into trouble with the LED tails due to the service bulletin fix with the ground wires... that was unknown to me until researching the problem after finding a "loose" ground wire in my factory harness that attached to the interior portion of the OEM taillight. I was able to easily fix it once I read about that issue, but their lights came with no directions, and their website has no installation guide or mention of the service bulletin.
The last couple days have been extremely frustrating trying to get them on the phone and yesterday I was on the phone for 45 minutes, with about 43 minutes of total hold time. I was asked for pictures of the bulbs and extra ground wire through their service ticket system instead of "normal" email. Their website is broken and there is no way to log into the support section as it results in a fatal error on two different browsers. You can't reach them by email directly, and you can't get them on the phone without an eternity on hold. One of the bosses finally called me back after I got angry with the sales girl (the only one that would answer quickly) and he told me I was responsible for ordering the wrong bulbs and they wouldn't cover the exchange shipping, despite the fact their web site led me to the bulb. He never apologized for taking 4 weeks to fulfill an order, and didn't seem to care that he would lose a customer over an $8 bulb set on a $300+ order, so I felt compelled to share their attitude.
Moral of the story... it is probably wise to pull the actual bulbs in your car before ordering any replacements, and don't expect any goodwill or prompt communication from DDM. The rest of the parts are so-so in quality, hopefully they hold up. The level of finish and overall "feel" of the parts compared to OEM is quite a contrast. I'm sure that is due to the Chinese origin and price point, but maybe I was expecting a little better... (there are some high quality parts made over there now)
