Complaint Review: Vance & Hines

I purchased and had new Vance & Hines exhaust pipes installed on my Harley softail last year. After a few weeks I noticed what appeared to be water spots on my pipes so I didn't think much of it. A few more weeks go by and to my horror I realize the water spots were in fact places were the paint had flaked off and they were starting to rust.

I go to the V&H website to lookup their warrant and discovered much to my horror that V&H warranty explicitly exclude the finish and rusting.

The Warranty (notice they part where they don't warranty the finish or rusting) < All of our exhaust systems are warranted against defects in material and/or workmanship for a period of 90 days. This does not cover finishes such as plating, or painted surfaces with discoloration or rust. This warranty shall be limited to the repair or replacement of the system, which may be proven defective under normal use. We will not warranty any system that has been abused, misused, improperly installed, or modified. >

I contact them anyway and they agree to replace the pipes. Though they did accuse me of not taking care of my bike. The Support supervisor even went so far as to re-invent physics and tell me my my pipes rusted because they got dirty and are made of mild steel. We all know why metal rusts. If metal is protected with paint they don't rust. If the paint falls off, metal rusts.

The replacement pipes lasted exactly 13 days before the painted started to flake off. Now after a month the replacement pipes have started to rust. I contacted Vance and Hines again and was told it would be resolved and that I would receive another set of replacement pipes.

Well, after the promise of another set of pipes that would fix all of my troubles the customer support supervisor Eddie Tejeras started emailing me with excuses of why the replacement pipes that hadn't even been sent yet would fail and it was still my fault that the pipes only lasted 13 days (yes days)

At this point I had, had enough and ordered new pipes from someone else.

If you enjoy your bike and want to buy quality pipes, don't buy them from Vance & Hines.

Here are links to my first set of Vance & Hines pipes after 6 months.

http://i1228.photobucket.com/albums/ee446/smithrob248/VanceAndHinesSixMonths1.jpg

http://i1228.photobucket.com/albums/ee446/smithrob248/VanceAndHinesSixMonths2.jpg

http://i1228.photobucket.com/albums/ee446/smithrob248/VanceAndHinesSixMonths3.jpg

Here are links to my second set of Vance & Hines Pipes after 13 days (yes days)

http://i1228.photobucket.com/albums/ee446/smithrob248/VanceAndHines13Days2.jpg

http://i1228.photobucket.com/albums/ee446/smithrob248/VanceAndHines13Days1.jpg@vanceandhines.com>