Honest response from Bavarian Motorwerks - what do you think?
 

Here's a response received today regarding false advertising of aluminum cluster gauge rings - You can see my question below the response from Bavarian Motorwerks. Let me know what you think - is he being honest - any experience with these plastic gauge rings? I went with Bavarian since most people around here were happy with them - and they probably got the aluminum rings.

From Bavarian Motorwerks:

Hello there,

We did changed our listing but I guess who did the change only changed
the title instead of the description. We've been selling aluminum made
gauge rings for a long time up until 6 months back. For the last 6
months, we invested an ABS mold to make the rings in ABS plastic
instead of aluminum instead. The big reason is ABS plastic is more
elastic instead of having memory feature like aluminum. A lot of our
customer in the past reported to us that because of aluminum made
rings have memory feature. When they snap in to the place, they have
to squeeze the rings a bit and due to the memory feature of aluminum,
the circle cannot be reform to original perfect circle. So, we decided
to invest ABS mold to make these rings(which cost about $20K USD in
tooling and mold).

If you're disappointed about the product quality and want to return
them, we will accept it. But if you're purely returning them because
they're made plastic. I think it's not a wise decision. Because our
experience made us learn that our ABS version rings actually got
installed easier than aluminum one.

Let us know if you want to return, we will email you the shipping
label that you can print out for returning address.

Wayne @ Bavarian Motorwerks

I wrote:
> I received my order today. I was very disappointed to open the box to find
> cheap plastic gauge rings. According to your product description, I should
> have received aluminum gauge rings. Below is copied from your ebay offer:
>
> A set of brand new E39 M5 style chrome gauge cluster rings. Our cluster
> rings are made of high quality aluminum! Not cheap plastic!
> http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/BMW-E39-M5-CHROME-GAUGE-CLUSTER-RING-FOR-E39-E38-E53-X5_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ33675QQihZ022QQitemZ 350026502613QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW
>
> So, I find myself confused as to why I received cheap plastic gauge rings
> when your offer clearly indicates that the gauge rings are aluminum. Please
> inform as to what you will do to remedy this mistake.

OT...I don't think the Bav responder was an English major.

If the rings look good, go on well, it's a tossup.
GL,mD

:iagree: Yep - his grammar ain't the best.

The rings don't look bad - they just seem cheap since they are plastic. Personally, I think Bavarian Motorwerks should let me keep the rings for free due to their false advertising. That will be my counter response.

Besides the "false advertising" issue, it really comes down to "how do they look in the dash?" Mine are plastic, and look great.

I don't think they tried to deceive you, I think they made an honest mistake and didn't update their auction.

They offered you a refund and to send you a shipping label.

If your not happy, then send them back.

:iagree: so how do they look?

They don't look bad. I haven't tried to install them yet. I'm sure they'll look good installed. I'll probably just keep them.

I just installed a set that I purchased for them and all tho they are plastic, they do install easy and they look good.

Cool - can you post some pics?

I can but not right now because it is pouring out right now, but they look basically like every other picture that has been posted.