I repeat, SMS is full of shit. (archive)

The complete automotive resource for buyers, sellers, and owners like you.

One: Zeemax provided an awful kit as you claim, fine. Then why did David push it like it was the best thing on the planet? Doesn't he look at the product he sells? Why was mine so horrible in fit and material, in thickness and in length, in holes and marks? Why does it CRACK so easily? Even if it was Zeemax's fault, why did he tout it as this wonderful solidly built thing? Please, my silly body kit for my stupid Mitsubishi was 3 times thicker and tougher.

TWO: The other option, SMS is full of crap. I beleive this one from first hand experience. Funny how during this whole thing David would say "its ridiculous they think we're knocking off Zeemax kits... we don't even MAKE body kits, we distribute them". One month later, coincidentally, he's in the body kit business again... not only that, but in one month he was able to miraculously create molds for an 850 with a little different design? Hell, if it only takes a month, we should do it ourselves. Point is, he's been making kits for a while now. He didn't convert from zeemax distributor to manufacturer coincidentally when I complained about my kit and all this came out.

David misquoted me and took things out of context when I contested my bill with him with my credit card company, highlighting my original post here about how "I was happy with the kit". That was the first day I got it, after spending over 2K to get it to fit. I was happy with the look of the finished quality, which meant I was happy with the month long work the body shop did to modify the kit and make it work. After that, it started to show its true quality, and he knows this because of my complaints. Just in his trying to present to the credit card company that I had said I was happy with the kit at all (given my countless phone calls with him complaining) gave me a glimpse of how he manipulates things. He knows I wasn't happy, yet between him and my credit card company he acts like I was very happy with my kit in his correspondence.

PLEASE... this guy is such a con... did you see his disclaimer with the kit? I haven't seen waivers and refund limits like that on a new CAR, let alone a kit... of course, he presented this to the CC company as well. Great, if its modified or touched at all, no returns. And yet he insists the only way to install it correctly IS to fit it and sand it, etc.

10 miles away... good luck. Maybe your proximity will give you a break. He offered to re-do my front end, but I've pretty much had enough of these "distributors" of junk.

Fact is, no matter how you look at it Steve, SMS did one of two things: He either pushed a kit he knew to be shitty (made by Zeemax), or he made a shitty kit and sold it as the best. In either case, he lied to me. He wrote off my initial concerns as stuff "the body shop deals with"... things that make the kit unreturnable, of course. He ironically entered the 850 kit building business after claiming he didn't have the facilities to do so, right after this whole thing came out.

He moves pretty fast. I'm not done with him yet. I have 7 different cracks on my kit now... in places that have NOTHING TO DO with contacting the ground. The stock kit I have hanging in my garage is thicker and of better material than this clone fiberglass quick crap mold.

My first indication, and I should have returned it then, was the box it arrived in... someone else's name on it, crossed out, like a return. He said they just wrote the wrong address, etc. Then upon opening it, marks, thin, uneven, HOLES... it looked like hell compared to kits I have seen since out of the box.

So, this wasn't some box drop shipped from Zeemax that he didn't get to see... it had been opened, repacked... even was missing the instructions he had to send later. He had seen my kit, and insisted it was a great, great kit for the car, even when I called him, gaxing at it in its unpacked glory filled with concern while talking to him. Whether Zeemax was to blame, or SMS, he sold me this in good faith no matter how you look at it.

I would never sell something like this to any of my customers and expect them to be thrilled. I'd make sure they didn't have my address.

And he has the calming and suave voice of a true salesman... He is a modern day "confidence man" if you ask me.

Had he discovered these kits were crap and offered a refund, despite the modifications, I would have considered that an honorable gesture and contemplated his "new kit". But all he offered was a re-do of the problematic areas... which have grown to pretty much the entire car, of course. Yes, it still looks good. But get Steve Castle close to it and he'd shake his head.

Questions, comments, or problems, please visit the Roadfly help desk.