CTRUSA on Ebay - bad customer experience

[DAAN.]

Negative experience with the ctrusa's LED taillight product / customer service - no warranty honored.

ctrusa is an EBAY power seller. http://motors.shop.ebay.com/ctrusa/m.html They 'specialize' in LED taillights, projector headlights.




Several months later : LEDs do not light up.

[sndtgr08]

Dont mean to sidetrack your thread. I was just wondering if anyone knew how hard it would be to open them up and replace them with my own LEDS? I have the smoked led tails and I have no problems yet(1.5 years?) But if something happens like his I would love to see some info on a DYI on them =) So much cheaper to buy $20 worth of LEDs and watch a movie while I solder then have to work another saterday for another $220. Hell I may even mess with the colors. Maybe go from red in the center to an orange or something on the out side rows.....so many posibilitys.....

In the usa its only red/yellow/orange out the back right(except licence plate lights)?

[DAAN.]

No worries, you are not sidetracking at all

Opening up the CTR USA taillights would be easy, but what would be the point when the CTR USA taillights are a bad product to start with ?

[Mr.HacKeR]

So any idea how to tell if the product is related to the seller or not? (if under another name)
What if it was a coincidence that the tailights you got were bad?

[DJ_B_Easy]

Honestly, those tail lights are the same exact LED tail you would buy from any other eBay seller or even places like Auto Anything under the brand name Anzo or Eagle Eyes. I see that you are pointing out the seller wouldnt honor a warranty, which blows, but I think you got a Rogue crap set of lights.

I import from China for a living. What these resellers and factories do is steal the molds from the OEM piece,then subcontract the work out to whatever factory has the cheapest labor at the time. There could be 1 million of these things out there that work just fine, and then a batch that was sold around 6 months ago that has the issue you have, and its completely random. eBay sellers almost NEVER have warranties because they are selling at the lowest margin possible to make a profit. Anzo will honor a warranty being a "USA" known brand, but at the full retail price of $500 or so, you've already paid for two sets and they still get their profit even if they send you a replacement set.

It looks like they have the LEDs wired in banks of two rows. You might just have a loose connection on that particular bank. Since you are assuming a total loss it seems, it might be worth it to crack that sumabitch open and try to fix it.

EDIT: Wow that was a really long post and it didnt need to be...

EDIT EDIT: Faster than Bart FTW.

[sndtgr08]

what would be the point when the CTR USA taillights are a bad product to start with ?

Only a few of the LEDs died right? Not a whole light? No cracks or weird sun fading? Only LED's? What if you still had your stock tail lights...and a bulb blew after 6 months. Would you go to Nissan and demand a new bulb? Or would you go to autozone and buy a new bulb?

As far as I can tell the rest of the light is fine, and your happy except a few LED died and they did not replace it or even offer to fix it. I can understand that. Customer sevice is very important.

I personaly like the design(smoked) and would go out of my way to fix it or make it better, before i put stock ones back in or buy new ones.

I am saving this thread. I want to see what you end up doing and how it turns out. (Hoping you DIY so I can jack your ideas )

edit

EDIT: Wow that was a really long post and it didnt need to be...

damn bro you must have hit send right before me LOL if I didt type so much and so slow and edit I may have beat you to the punch lol

[DJ_B_Easy]

edit

EDIT: Wow that was a really long post and it didnt need to be...

damn bro you must have hit send right before me LOL if I didt type so much and edit I may have beat you to the punch lol

EDIT EDIT: Faster than Bart FTW.

[DAAN.]

This is meant to assist people.

Be aware when making a purchase, as CTRUSA (seller) will not replace / fix potentially defective product, leading to a (possible) loss of USD 246 + shipping.
CTRUSA is available to scam future clients at http://motors.shop.ebay.com/ctrusa/m.html




In regards to your post "sndtgr08" : this taillight needs to be taken apart / find faulty LEDs / fix.
I will not pursue that avenue - will sell it for $100 as defective on ebay to a happy purchaser who is inclined to fix it.