Complaint Review: LA Wheel - Sylmar CA

February 19, 2020

If you are reading this review, this means that no one from LA Wheels has responded to my email that was sent to Steve Lopez on 2/12/2020, regarding defective wheels.  Please do not let these people fool you into purchasing PVD wheels from them.  I purchased a set of Four “Winterchrome” Wheels, and as of now, two of my wheels are showing defects within a year and a half.

This is my experience with LA Wheels:  I sent them four OEM Lexus wheels that were flawless and had no curb rash even though my car was 4 years old. And in return I have received 4 PVD wheels.  I purchased wheels the end of June 2018 and was told they would be shipped out in 3 weeks (this was a lie and they were shipped out almost 2 months later).

I finally received the wheels the end of August 2018. I asked what the holdup was and was told by Steve that one of the wheels was not accepting the finish (this should have been a Red Flag).  Now I am thinking that this is probably the wheel that is now missing 3 inches of chrome. It’s now February 2020 and one rear wheel is flaking and a 2 inch by 3 inch is gone in between two spokes and that area is now black. Also, the finish around the lug nuts has flaked off and rust is underneath.  The second rear wheel is bubbling and you can tell that the finish is going to start flaking soon.

My car is only hand-washed, and the cleaning instructions were followed, which was not to apply cleaning chemicals to the wheels, so they are washed only with a mild detergent and water.  Also, there has not been any snow this winter or last winter, so this has nothing to do with salt getting on the wheels. In the late 90’s I purchased wheels locally with this same exact finish and they went through 10 winters without bubbling or peeling.

I’m not sure what happened with these wheels, but I am an unsatisfied Customer and this company has not even bothered to contact me back. 

Yes, LA Wheels state they offer a “5-year Warranty”, however they make it very inconvenient for customers to claim.

Upon reviewing the 5-year Warranty information on the website. LA Wheels, basically wants you to send them the defective wheel to repair, instead of sending out a replacement wheel to the customer.  Once you ship them the wheel, you will receive it back in about 4 weeks. Not only that, once they receive the defective wheel there is no guaranty that they will agree that what happened with the finish is their fault.  So, then you will need to pay for them to repair the wheel.

First of all, LA Wheels cannot be trusted to send the wheel back in the timeframe of four weeks and I am basing this off of how long it took for them to send me the wheels when I first purchased  (I was told wheels would arrive in 3 weeks and I finally received them 2 months later). 

Second of all, I would need to drive my Lexus with a donut for 4 or more weeks.... I don’t think so.  A donut supposed to be a temporary wheel that you should not drive on for more than a day or two. 

 Thirdly, I would be asked, why are you driving around with three Chrome wheels and a donut? Then my response would be "because LA Wheels does not stand behind their workmanship and doesn't TRUST or VALUE their customers enough to just send out a replacement wheel when there is a legitimate claim."

There are better companies you can purchase PVD Wheels from, and they probably do not offer a 5-year warranty like LA Wheels, but what good is a 5-year Warranty if it’s useless anyway.

This review will stay posted until my situation is resolved.