2014+ T4R Tri-LED Projector / Sequential Headlights

[Heavy_GD]

His sig explains it all

When in trouble - obfuscate

for the slow kids:

ob·fus·cate
/ˈäbfəˌskāt/

render obscure, unclear, or unintelligible.
"the spelling changes will deform some familiar words and obfuscate their etymological origins"
synonyms: obscure, confuse, make obscure/unclear, blur, muddle, jumble, complicate, garble, muddy, cloud, befog; muddy the waters
"the debate all too often obfuscates the issue"
bewilder (someone).
"it is more likely to obfuscate people than enlighten them"

 

[TRDORP4Runner]

Anyone know which specific codes aren't (supposedly) meeting the requirements?

 

[brtnstrns]

I have no idea what happened but it seems like two people had a less than ideal experience, one of which was potentially on their own bank's side of things rather than XenonDepot.

The other person sounds like they were part of some kind of communication break down between two separate parties and then acted like an ass towards the company before calmly figuring out what the issue was and coming to an agreeable solution. From experience, being calm and polite tends to do wonders for working out ideal solutions to problems like this.


To reiterate my own experience since we've got one person who has had a hard-on for XD and their legality since he was apparently a fetus and another person who probably isn't giving the full story on why their transaction didn't go exactly as they hoped: I ordered the headlights off XenonDepot's website and [MENTION=144375]dot_tom[/MENTION]'s discount code worked exactly as advertised.

I emailed XD a few times in regards to my confusion on the transaction showing up as "The Retrofit Source" and asking if I was able to get my order in for the initial run of 50 units and every time they responded within 12-24 hours. As far as I'm concerned, there are not any customer service issues and I'd put a lot of money on people just not knowing how to properly approach miscommunications and instead of using critical thinking skills, just acting like an ass because they didn't get their way immediately - not exactly an uncommon trend within car communities.

Anyway, once these show up and I install them, I'll give my honest opinion about them whether they're complete garbage or if they're the greatest thing ever conceived since the 1964 1/2 Mustang released.

But as far as customer service, I've had zero issues.


Also, I love seeing the lawyer guy incessantly berating XenonDepot about the legality of these. Do you go to all the other car forums and accost the exhaust manufacturers that sell exhaust systems without catalytic converters or people that install racing wheels and turn off airbag systems or install aftermarket turbochargers on their cars in California or the countless other illegal shit people do to their cars? Good lord. There's literally zero legal headlight options outside of the OEM halogen lights with OEM halogen bulbs.

There's literally hundreds of people in this forum running incredibly dangerous HID setups, maybe you can spend some time tracking all of them down as well and meeting them in the courtroom; you seem to have enough time on your hands, after all.

I can't imagine how thirsty you must be for right-to-repair laws to go into effect.

 

[halflife78]

I, and the Federal government beg to disagree. There are specific requirements that need to be met under FMVSS 108 and they ALL need to be met in order to be compliant. You cannot pick and choose what part of the reg you want to be in compliance with and say "we meet a tiny portion of the reg so we're good".

That would be tantamount to going to the doctor with a broken finger and a hangnail. The doc fixes your hangnail and send you away.

I'd be happy to put you in touch with the lawyers at NHTSA and they'll clear it up for you. If you like we can take this offline. PM me if you like.

Let us all know when you whistleblow to the NHSTA on these. You sound exactly like the type of person that ends up sending 15 letters to the ATF for clarification and ends up getting everything banned for everyone else.

People like [MENTION=390705]cb1111[/MENTION] are what drive sponsors away from forums also.

 

[mrblah]

I have no idea what happened but it seems like two people had a less than ideal experience, one of which was potentially on their own bank's side of things rather than XenonDepot.

The other person sounds like they were part of some kind of communication break down between two separate parties and then acted like an ass towards the company before calmly figuring out what the issue was and coming to an agreeable solution. From experience, being calm and polite tends to do wonders for working out ideal solutions to problems like this.


To reiterate my own experience since we've got one person who has had a hard-on for XD and their legality since he was apparently a fetus and another person who probably isn't giving the full story on why their transaction didn't go exactly as they hoped: I ordered the headlights off XenonDepot's website and [MENTION=144375]dot_tom[/MENTION]'s discount code worked exactly as advertised.

I emailed XD a few times in regards to my confusion on the transaction showing up as "The Retrofit Source" and asking if I was able to get my order in for the initial run of 50 units and every time they responded within 12-24 hours. As far as I'm concerned, there are not any customer service issues and I'd put a lot of money on people just not knowing how to properly approach miscommunications and instead of using critical thinking skills, just acting like an ass because they didn't get their way immediately - not exactly an uncommon trend within car communities.

Anyway, once these show up and I install them, I'll give my honest opinion about them whether they're complete garbage or if they're the greatest thing ever conceived since the 1964 1/2 Mustang released.

But as far as customer service, I've had zero issues.


Also, I love seeing the lawyer guy incessantly berating XenonDepot about the legality of these. Do you go to all the other car forums and accost the exhaust manufacturers that sell exhaust systems without catalytic converters or people that install racing wheels and turn off airbag systems or install aftermarket turbochargers on their cars in California or the countless other illegal shit people do to their cars? Good lord.

To my defense:

Communication was always excellent with xenon depot, just nothing was actually happening.

So after I put them on blast, they were more forthcoming and this is what they told me (cliff notes):

Apparently, the customer service rep who is helping you, doesn't do refunds himself if its a double bill/glitch/payment processing etc, and he forwards your request to another department (finance department), and then that guy has to get permission from another guy who wants to make sure it wasn't a glitch due to their payment software (the IT department)...blahblahblahblah.....

To compound all of that, their was the discount fiasco, that delayed my refund even further because they were investigating why the discount code didn't work in the first place (the processing department and marketing team), and that I had also tried using multiple codes to see which one worked also didn't help matters, because their payment system captured them all.

After all that, the bank decided to drag their feet in issuing the refund because since I was paying in cash, the bank required me to authorize the initial purchase, and then I made a mistake by putting the wrong CVV code in (but corrected it) and xenon depot payment processor captured both the wrong cvv code and the correct cvv code, so xenon depot had to follow up with my bank as well (back to the finance department), probably because my bank thought it was purchase fraudulent because of the double bill. So i blame my bank for most of the delay at this point.

In the end, I agreed that this was a shitty situation for them and for myself, so I took down my post to give them the benefit of the doubt, because they seem to be genuinely working on my issue (although they didn't tell me until I put them on blast).

they made my situation whole. They are okay in my book, and I would be happy to do business with them again....(although they may not like me too much at this point).

 

[brtnstrns]

To my defense:

Communication was always excellent with xenon depot, just nothing was actually happening.

So after I put them on blast, they were more forthcoming and this is what they told me (cliff notes):

Apparently, the customer service rep who is helping you, doesn't do refunds himself if its a double bill/glitch/payment processing etc, and he forwards your request to another department (finance department), and then that guy has to get permission from another guy who wants to make sure it wasn't a glitch due to their payment software (the IT department)...blahblahblahblah.....

To compound all of that, their was the discount fiasco, that delayed my refund even further because they were investigating why the discount code didn't work in the first place (the processing department), and blahblahblah.

After all that, the bank can also drag their feet in issuing the refund because since I was paying in cash, the bank required me to authorize the purchase, and then I made a mistake by putting the wrong CVV code in (but corrected it) and xenon depot payment processor captured both the wrong cvv code and the correct cvv code, so xenon depot had to follow up with my bank as well (back to the finance department), probably because my bank thought it was fishy that I authorized a cash payment from the bank, but the vendor is now trying to refund the same amount....who knows.

In the end, I agreed that this was a shitty situation for them and for myself, so I took down my post to give them the benefit of the doubt, because they seem to be genuinely working on my issue (although they didn't tell me until I put them on blast).

they made my situation whole. They are okay in my book, and I would be happy to do business with them again....(although they may not like me too much at this point).

Sorry, I wasn't meaning to harp on your scenario, just pointing out that yours in particular wasn't really such a huge deal as to use as evidence for XenonDepot being some terrible company like the narrative the CB111 guy is trying to create. You were never ridiculous about it like the other guy who said "they pretty much told me to piss off when I asked about honoring the discount. Definitely a garbage way to handle it."

I'm assuming that's not quite the most accurate portrayal of how his situation panned out. One single customer service rep being ignorant to certain specific discounts or whatever doesn't mean the company at large is garbage.

 

[mrblah]

Sorry, I wasn't meaning to harp on your scenario, just pointing out that yours in particular wasn't really such a huge deal as to use as evidence for XenonDepot being some terrible company like the narrative the CB111 guy is trying to create. You were never ridiculous about it like the other guy who said "they pretty much told me to piss off when I asked about honoring the discount. Definitely a garbage way to handle it."

I'm assuming that's not quite the most accurate portrayal of how his situation panned out. One single customer service rep being ignorant to certain specific discounts or whatever doesn't mean the company at large is garbage.

Naw, you're good.
I chalk it up to, I had a uniquely shitty situation... Xenon depot is good in my book.

 

[BigCountryT4R]

Damn, did XenonDepot piss in your cereal or something? Yikes.

This guy just started running his mouth in other threads too like the vin sticker under the hood its illegal to remove/move it to the correct car.....lol. In that case swapping hoods is illegal on cars, or junk yard cars. OK.

 

[Dr. Monkeypants]

You were never ridiculous about it like the other guy who said "they pretty much told me to piss off when I asked about honoring the discount. Definitely a garbage way to handle it."

I'm assuming that's not quite the most accurate portrayal of how his situation panned out. One single customer service rep being ignorant to certain specific discounts or whatever doesn't mean the company at large is garbage.

Seeing as how you're not privy to the entire chain of communication, calling my response ridiculous is, well, ridiculous. My initial inquires were ignored over a few emails. Then when it finally was addressed their response was a lie. Not a "let me look into that" or even a "there might be some confusion..." That's not how customer service is done. And I didn't call the company at large garbage. Suggesting that I did is intellectually dishonest, at best.

I've been in Tom's shoes before, promoting a company I like just for some product (or sometimes not even that) and it really sucks to have them contradict what you've been telling people with their blessing and on their behalf. So yeah, that's frustrating.

In XD's defense, they sent out a mea culpa this morning honoring the discount. Kudos to them for that. I know they're not just two guys in a basement, but this kind of communication/customer service breakdown is amateur hour stuff.

Regardless, they seem to have done right by the customers that were given codes and I suspect this will all blow over fairly quickly if the lights are as high quality as we're all hoping.

 

[brtnstrns]

In XD's defense, they sent out a mea culpa this morning honoring the discount. Kudos to them for that. I know they're not just two guys in a basement, but this kind of communication/customer service breakdown is amateur hour stuff.

Regardless, they seem to have done right by the customers that were given codes and I suspect this will all blow over fairly quickly if the lights are as high quality as we're all hoping.

That's good they ended up applying it to you.

I'm sure someone will say it's only because of social media pressure but really I'm sure it's because they know there was a breakdown somewhere along the chain and wanted to make it right. They're not going to want to sabotage their own brand over $110.

 

[cb1111]

This guy just started running his mouth in other threads too like the vin sticker under the hood its illegal to remove/move it to the correct car.....lol. In that case swapping hoods is illegal on cars, or junk yard cars. OK.

I'm glad I have some followers. If you weren't so dead set on making me look bad (you can't) then you'd realize that swapping the sticker is illegal. Swapping the whole hood is fine.

The markings are to identify OE parts for THAT particular vehicle and anti-theft - that doesn't stop you from swapping parts but it will identify that swapped part as not being original to that car.

 

[dot_tom]

That's good they ended up applying it to you.

I'm sure someone will say it's only because of social media pressure but really I'm sure it's because they know there was a breakdown somewhere along the chain and wanted to make it right. They're not going to want to sabotage their own brand over $110.

I agree with this. They are good guys and seem to be resolving issues. Great to hear.

 

[uh0h50]

This guy just started running his mouth in other threads too like the vin sticker under the hood its illegal to remove/move it to the correct car.....lol. In that case swapping hoods is illegal on cars, or junk yard cars. OK.

Thankfully the add to ignore list works. :lmao:

 

[Ferd_4R]

Bought mine, no issues, shipped and will be here on Tuesday. Shit happens all the time everyday oh well. Hoping to get some time to install it on the 19th, also installing the Morimoto amber fogs that have been sitting in my closet for about a year! [emoji2359]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[ForRun]

Got em, just gonna drive now. Got them adjusted to where old ones were, will line them proper this weekend. Here's Morimoto fogs and headlights. Blanked out the plates so I don't get arrested with my illegal lights

 

[BigCountryT4R]

I'm glad I have some followers. If you weren't so dead set on making me look bad (you can't) then you'd realize that swapping the sticker is illegal. Swapping the whole hood is fine.

The markings are to identify OE parts for THAT particular vehicle and anti-theft - that doesn't stop you from swapping parts but it will identify that swapped part as not being original to that car.

You were asked to provide proof of that. I have never heard of any such thing.

 

[ForRun]

So here's my whole 30 minutes evaluation. Aimed inside the garage with old lights did not work. Turned around and had to raise them quite Abit as they way low on the street. Jury is still out on light output. They have not been properly aimed so cannot currently offer valid comparison. Intial thought is the hid have bit more light but the Morimotos are brighter without blinding oncoming cars. The HID when aimed proper always left a tinge yellow haze right in front the hood off to the driver side, could have been parking lights, that's gone with the LEDs.
The hid and the Morimoto fogs was always off Abit. The fogs with the Morimoto headlights is flipping awesome without being aimed. No one flashed me in all of 20 some minute drive, got out, walked up the street looking back and glare was not bad, even with fogs
Headlights and Morimoto fogs for the win!

 

[ForRun]

Heres a shot last night with the XD 5k hid kit and tonight with the Morimotos. It looks like hid may have more light than LEDs. The hid were 100% properly aimed and although no one flashed me I think Chicago people are immune to asshats with bright lights. I rode in the gf's car while she drove the runner (cringe) and the HIDs were indeed a nuisance to oncoming cars. The morimotos do not appear to do that and will check over the weekend. Both pics are without the Morimoto fogs, they fill in very nice up close to the hood! after driving some more the Morimotos are very good lighting that doesn't blind people.

 

[dot_tom]

Pictures against garage.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Heavy_GD]

I appreciate you guys sticking with this thread.

Also for the ambulance chaser.