Complaint Review: Ricks Plating - Garden Grove California

First let me say that “Rick” of Ricks Plating is very good at what he does…not plating mind you but finding every conceivable reason or excuse to place liability for defective product on the consumer and not him or his business.  He is a crook, a scammer, a phony and makes threats to customers when they challenge his business practices.  My experience with Rick involves eBay and is as follows:  Early this year I purchased set of chrome lower fork legs for my 2003 Harley Ultra Classic. 

I sent a set of lower fork leg take-offs (like brand new) as exchange and received chrome replacements at a cost of $159 plus $22 shipping.  I gave them a quick look over and, until winter weather turn more like spring, put them away until I could get the bike into the local Harley shop to have them installed.  That took place this weekend, Saturday March 7^th.  Yesterday, March 11^th I get a call from the Harley shop telling me there are issue’s with the chrome lower fork legs. 

For beginners, they tell me the  chrome plating exhibits signs of blistering (a common complaint thread when you search “Ricks Plating Garden Grove Ca” on the internet) and second, the inner wall of the lower fork legs have been compromised due to the plating process.  The inner wall of a standard fork from Harley Davidson has a mirror smooth finish to allow the fork tube bushings to slide up and down smoothly as the bike travels the highways.  Fork oil is installed as a means to minimize friction between the smooth inner wall and the nylon fork bushings. 

Ricks plating, during its pre-chrome plating process, does not protect this smooth inner fork wall from being exposed to the pre-plating process of copper and/or nickel plating prior to the final chrome plating.   They only seal off the inner wall area when they do the final chrome plating.  As a result, the inner walls of the lower fork legs get plated and retain a sandy/gritty feel.  This sandy/gritty residue will have the effect of compromising the nylon bushing during use and result in fork oil leakage.  Once that begins to happen, you are left with constantly replacing the bushings or replacing the lower fork legs. 

I contacted with Rick, explained the problem and asked him to call the local Harley shop I do business with and he absolutely blew them off.  He was indifferent as to the capabilities of certified Harley technicians and apparently gave them some bogus ideas on how to correct the problem.  He suspects the Harley shop is using this as an excuse to have me purchase a new set of lower legs from them which is just another case of placing blame anywhere but where it really belongs…Ricks Plating. 

Ricks business has a 1 year warranty against blistering and I have asked to return the product, not for replacement since his plating practices will ensure I receive replacements with the same inner wall plating problem, but for a refund to my paypal account of $159 for the purchase price and $22 shipping charge.  He has refused to respond to any email requests to date.  I am not alone in my experiences with Ricks plating.  The following are but a few of his scams:

Nov 28, 2014 - “Purchased a set of wheels and polished rotors.  Had brake pulsing and found out the rotors had different thickness at different places.   Asked to send him back and he said there is no warranty if I installed them.

I told him I had like a 100 miles on them then gave me some BS about having to pay shipping there and back. That would be more than I paid for the rotors. He is a scam artist, Told me it was the way I installed them.  I have changed many rotors over the years and never had an issue except with his product.  Stay away unless you want to get scammed.”

Sep 13, 2014 – “Just wanted to let everyone know my experience with Ricks Plating Garden Grove, CA. [email protected] I did a motorcycle wheel exchange with him for chrome wheels. This spring I saw the chrome on the rear wheel was blistering. I send Rick Pic's and asked him to warranty the wheel since he says his warranty is good for 2 years and I have not had the wheels that long. 

He wrote me back with a bunch of BS about wheel care and if I wanted to ship it to him at my expense he would look at it and determine if he could warranty it. I asked he send me another already chromed wheel and debit my credit card until he received my wheel. He said he would not do that. I guess he expects me to set my bike on blocks while the wheel is off?

I found a loaner wheel last week so I sent Rick an E-mail and asked if he would still warranty the wheel. No reply after a week and a second E-mail so I called him. He said if I paid all shipping (both ways I'm in Ohio) he would most likely re-chrome it, but said he needed my original purchase info. I told him when I purchased the wheels and he should have it in his records and he told me he did not have time to look it up. What a bunch of BS.

Rick sells on Ebay, but uses his personal Yahoo E-mail account for his business so he does not get bad reviews on E-bay in my opinion. I did a search looking for reviews and found plenty. Sounds like rip off after rip off.”

Jun 20, 2013 – “I purchased some chrome rocker boxes and a cam cover from Ricks plating off ebay.  I sent the core parts back for the refund as advertised, as well some fender strut covers to be re-chromed.  They acknowledged in an email in early March they had received the parts and then reversed their position and claimed they never received the parts. Then they further stated they only received some of the parts.

I sent them over a half a dozen emails and they refused to respond or reply to those or repeated phone calls. Just went silent and refused to communicate.  I had to go buy new fender strut covers as well as eat the costs of a transmission door, cam cover, rocker boxes and fender strut covers.

Now, over 3 months later, they finally claim they had the parts all along but unless I pay them for the chroming of the strut covers (which I obviously didn’t need since I had to buy new ones) they will refused to return and parts and stated that I “will not hear from them again.”  This outfit is not ethical and making threats (in writing) that they are not going to return my property. Beware of doing business with this company.”

This business needs to be put out of business.  Its only purpose is to rob people of their hard earned or, in my case, retirement money and place blame on faulty, defective product everywhere except where it originates, his business practices.  You only need to use the internet and do a search on “Ricks Plating Garden Grove” and you will find plenty.  All I want is my money back for the price of the product and the shipping charges.  I will return the faulty product I received so Rick can most likely return it to his inventory and fraudulently rip-off some other unsuspecting consumer.