Group Buy: Aftermarket Bixenon Headlights (WinPower Lamps)

[veew]

Installation stuff from Becautoparts (Post 38: Review of Ed's MK7 Headlight replicas - Page 2 - GOLFMK7 - VW GTI MKVII Forum / VW Golf R Forum / VW Golf MKVII Forum).

Links below for installation PDF:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/6m5ejpt0zjthi3t/AABTRc981NjpgXKTje8OKBVia

Someone ordered, fitted V2 GTi headlights from Winpower and posted up the results (Post 49: Xenon Lights + LED DRL retrofit - Page 3 - GOLFMK7 - VW GTI MKVII Forum / VW Golf R Forum / VW Golf MKVII Forum), looks sweet!





Point, unfortunately the cornering light won't work out of the box. The person who bought the headlights had this to say: "The guy that installed them for me said there was no wiring going to them at all, but they could be wired in. Just would take some time and know how."

[Jazrod]

Anybody interested in possibly buying my lights in the GB? Tomorrow I might be getting a GTI that is already fitted with them. If I don't go ahead with it I will be keeping my WinPower lights for my Highline. Just want EOI at the moment (will be good if you missed out on this GB)

[pyromaniaca]

Hey mate, just an EOI for those lights - how much are you asking for them (+delivery to Victoria)? PM me please

[Jazrod]

Anybody interested in possibly buying my lights in the GB? Tomorrow I might be getting a GTI that is already fitted with them. If I don't go ahead with it I will be keeping my WinPower lights for my Highline. Just want EOI at the moment (will be good if you missed out on this GB)

Alright, guys. Taking delivery of my new GTI tomorrow

Who wants to buy my WinPower lights? V2 with 5000k xenons. $710AUD pickup in Sydney or extra for posted!

[veew]

Hi guys,

Unfortunately Couchmotorist and I have been informed that the priority of our headlights enforced on them resulted in quality control issues.

Mark: I just came back from our production department and having a meeting, they blamed me a lot, because i push the workers to do make the goods, they could not make them carefully, so made a lot of trouble. we have made 100sets headlight, most of them has problem, some of them has dust inside, some of them wring not goods. the big problem is the projector len has scratch. see attachment.
So after the meeting, they decided all 100set headlight back to the production line and redo again. our company policy is that, if not pass the QC, could not sell out.
i was guilty with that, i should not push them too much. I made big trouble to the production line and waste a lot of time.
So the order will still delay. we hope we could ship out by next Monday. SORRY!



I think my reply is very clear.

Hi Mark,

I must say I continue to be disappointed with how this transaction is progressing.
Please remember that the main reason we are in this position is because you did not check with the production team late last month that they had enough material to produce the RHD headlights.
If you had checked with them, you would have informed us that there was no need to rush the group buy. We would have happily waited until sufficient material was available before placing an order. So far we met your requests by obtaining at least 10 orders by the end of last month.

Unfortunately we paid you exactly 2 weeks ago (actually it was 3 weeks) expecting to have received the headlights by early next week atthe latest. At this rate, we really are not sure when we will receive the headlights. Your reassurances have done little to actually reassure us.
What I don't understand is how the projector lens scratch was not noticed before it was fitted (it is pretty obvious)?It is strange that the defect is only seen once the headlight has been fully assembled.
We do appreciate that you do quality checks and will not ship out headlights unless they are absolutely perfect, we do expect our headlights to be 100% perfect just like those received by the Brazilian buyers.

With these constant delays, it puts us in a difficult situation with the Paypal coverage period which covers us until early September. This coverage issue affects those who ordered with EMS as they would be likely to receive their headlights well past early September even if the headlights are shipped early next week (which I have my doubts).

As I mentioned before, if there is any chance the headlights do not come by early September, then the GB members are well within their consumer rights to open up a Paypal dispute (to ensure they have consumer protection with Paypal). This is clearly outlined in section 7.5: https://www.paypal.com/sg/webapps/mp...reement-full#7

I would suggest that your company upgrades their shipping to DHL as an act of good will, otherwise you are highly likely to have a few Paypal disputes open until the headlights have been received and inspected to be in good order. I will be contacting Paypal and providing them with our email communications so they have a full understanding of our situation. I will inform you of their advice and options.

Once I hear from you and Paypal, I will inform the rest of the group buy members of the progress thus far. In the meantime, I would suggest that you and the production team continues to produce the headlights as carefully and efficiently as you can. It is better to measure twice or three times and only cut once.
Couchmotorist, I and all the group buy members both want this group buy to be successful, we hope that you and your company will facilitate this.

Kind regards,

I'm in the process of contacting Paypal with our options but their website has it outlined very well. I've posted up the Paypal Dispute process in post #6: http://www.vwwatercooled.com/forums/...ml#post1069640. You can refer to the finer details of Paypal Buyer protection in Post #5.

Regardless of the ongoing delays, I still think that these delays will be forgotten once we receive the headlights in good working order. There continue to be many happy owners who post up photos of their WPlamp headlights, I have yet to see a bad WPlamps' Mk7 headlight posted online.

I will be relying on Paypal Buyer protection to ensure I either receive the headlights (in satisfactory condition) or I will be getting my money back. After waiting this long, I'm not going to push for the headlights to be sent out ASAP as I just want them to make them to the high standard the Brazilians received. I will continue to push for those who ordered via EMS to have their shipping upgraded for free to DHL.

I would like all group buy participants to work out the exact date 45 days after they made their Paypal payment. Clearly mark this in your calendar to remind yourselves to open up a Paypal dispute prior to this date, UNLESS your headlights have been received and checked to be in good working order.
Considering I paid first on the 20th of July, I will be ensuring I open up a Paypal dispute on the 41st day (August 30th) and will post on the forum to remind others to do the same. If you do not open up a Paypal dispute within 45 days, you will not be protected and therefore may lose your money.

I understand many of you are absolutely f*cking pissed at how this group buy has progressed, don't worry I am as well. Rather than contact and abuse Mark further of his incompetence, it would be best to rely on Paypal to cover our transaction. This thread will be a very informative source for many potential future WPlamp customers, how Mark and his company deals with our GB will determine their future successes.

If any of the GB participants are particularly interested in receiving email transcripts between Couchmotorist, myself and Mark, please PM me your email address and I will send you what I have. All the important details are highlighted to allow you to follow the important details and dates more easily. These PDF'd email transcripts will be sent to Paypal in the meantime so they can clearly understand that Mark has clearly been at fault for the issues we're experiencing.

[veew]

Alright, guys. Taking delivery of my new GTI tomorrow

Who wants to buy my WinPower lights? V2 with 5000k xenons. $710AUD pickup in Sydney or extra for posted!

Jazrod, if someone is keen to buy your headlights from them, I'm sure we can change the delivery address so they do not need to pay additional shipping. I'm sure this change in address can be made before the headlights have been produced and boxed up.

[01_GOLF]

That's disappointing, but as you said I'd prefer to wait an extra week or two and receive the lights in good nick. I kinda feel sorry for Mark as he's being hit on both sides now. I'll open my dispute the same day as you do veew, at the rate we're going these lights are going to be great Christmas presents to ourselves

[mui_michael]

I will ask PayPal for my refund on 17/08/14 0:01 as they have promised to send the headlights either yesterday or today plus a few more times before...

[veew]

Oh and guys, if you are looking at pulling out and looking at other potential companies, do you mind looking into if they produce for RHD?

So far I haven't had a reply from 32degrees about whether they do or don't but so far there are no buyers who have bought from them and documented their experience. I know other companies who advertise on Alibaba don't do RHD lights. I'm not sure of Becautoparts but they mainly supply the North American market so it is unlikely to do low volume stuff for RHD but I haven't asked them specifically. Maybe you could chase this up Michael?

I'm going to hang in on WPlamps until I have my headlights or Paypal resolution (ie. refund). For the others who, rightfully, choose to open a Paypal dispute earlier, it would be good to know who else we can order from if everything falls through. But as Couchmotorist mentioned earlier, and from my original research, WPlamps were the only company who were happy to do a small production run specifically for RHD headlights.

...at the rate we're going these lights are going to be great Christmas presents to ourselves

Mate, lets hope we're pleasantly surprised soon.

[Jazrod]

Yeah that's a good idea. I've had two blokes enquire but neither have the funds at this time ... if I pull out do I get my money back?

If anyone is still interested before they're shipped it's $710, as I paid all of the shipping already.

Proof of GTI purchase lol

[veew]

You can't pull out via Paypal unless you didn't receive the item or the item was not as described. If you have someone willing to take your spot, we'll just change the delivery address but any claims will still need to go through your Paypal account unfortunately. Contact Mark to find out what your options are but don't act on it unless you run it by me. The Paypal protection criteria is quite specific and I wouldn't want anyone being caught short due to misinformation from WPlamps.

[point]

I'd rather wait than receive sub standard headlights - it's not as if the headlights we currently have don't work. A free upgrade in shipping would be great though haha! I'll open up a dispute on the same day as you Veew but from all I've researched - the WP lights seem to be the most tried and tested non-OEM xenons.

out of interest, anyone know how hard and expensive an OEM Xenon retrofit is?

[mui_michael]

$2600 for the pair 5G1941753A & 5G1941754A is the part numbers, this is the VW factory part that you can just go in to buy but they(dealership) WILL NOT de-code it for you as VW Germany is really anal about it apparently.

[veew]

The installation of full OEM with washers and self-levelling is probably not worth it, will easily run you past 3k in parts and will take a fair amount of time (and money) to install. There are a few Mk6 installation guides which detail this, I would expect it to be very similar for Mk7 Golfs.

This is what you'd be looking at:
Bi-Xenon Headlight LED DTRL - VW Golf 7-39902
Adapter Bi-Xenon headlights VW Golf 7-39892_M
Control unit highline - VW Golf 7-39907_M
Coding interface Xenon Headlights Golf 7 - Bi-Xenon-40084_M
Auto-Leveling Headlights complete set - Retrofit - VW Golf 7 - Bi-Xenon-39934_M

[veew]

Headlights apparently ready to ship today. I assume you'll keep your order today Michael Mui? Anyone keen to buy Jazrod's headlights? If so pay him ASAP so we can change the shipping address. Otherwise if he gets it there will be the associated P&H costs.