Spot Buffs Kit - WARNING!!

Mikeyc

Mikeyc

TheDetailingHandBook.com
So, I recently purchased a Spot Buffs kit from Autogeek. Basically, it's a kit of 4" pads with a velcro backing plate and two adapters. One adapter is so that you can use the backing plate with a drill and the other is to use the plate with a PC. I thought the kit would be great for hard to reach areas and for doing paint correction as the smaller pad facilitates that.



The first time I used the kit I used the drill adapter. I wasn't terribly impressed with the results, but I felt it was because my cordless drill wasn't powerful enough. So, the next time I used it I decided to try the PC adapter. I had some light scratches on my hood that I wanted to buff out. This was the result:

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What happened was as soon as the speed was turned to 5 the adapter
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spun out of the backing plate and went right into the hood. I had to have the whole hood re-painted to the tune of just over $500.



I wrote Autogeek an email describing the problem. Because they are an AWESOME vendor they forwarded my email to Lake Country who manufacture the kit.



Lake Country on the other hand was not awesome. After sending them some pictures and having some email correspondence with one of their representatives they decided they would not be doing anything for me. Their reason being that the design of their kit should prevent this from happening. Well designs are all well and good, but reality is another matter. Because of this I will NEVER EVER buy another Lake Country product. Their product failed when I used it and damaged my car. However, they are not willing to stand behind it. I will however continue to shop with Autogeek, because they handled this situation as it should have been handled.
 
It's hard to see in the picture, but the hood was also dented. Also, I've tried to find touch up paint in the past to match my car and after purchasing several brands have been unsuccessful to this point.
 
Mikeyc said:
It's hard to see in the picture, but the hood was also dented. Also, I've tried to find touch up paint in the past to match my car and after purchasing several brands have been unsuccessful to this point.
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For future referance, a body shop can custom match paint to your vehicle to ensure a proper match.
 
That sucks! Did your kit come with a lock washer? mine came with a black one that goes between the backing plate and the adapter. When mine is all tightened up I need 2 wrenches to undo it.
 
HomicidalSloth said:
For future referance, a body shop can custom match paint to your vehicle to ensure a proper match.
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Yeah, I've asked the body shop to save me some paint for future touch ups after they're done.

zippymbr said:
That sucks! Did your kit come with a lock washer? mine came with a black one that goes between the backing plate and the adapter. When mine is all tightened up I need 2 wrenches to undo it.
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Yes, my set came with black lock washers. I needed a wrench to remove the adapter from the PC, but the end that goes into the backing plate seems to spin freely. The lock washer flew off during the incident and I haven't seen it since. I've been experimenting with repeating the problem (not on an actual car) and have had no problem doing it. Each time the end screwed into the PC is super tight and each time the backing plate spins off. I can only imagine that it's due to some manufacturing variance as I'm sure many, many people own this kit and use it without problem.
 
Mikeyc said:
However, they are not willing to stand behind it. I will however continue to shop with Autogeek, because they handled this situation as it should have been handled.
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Shouldn't Autogeek stand behind the products that they sell??

If your going to sell/market a product to the general public and talk about how good it is you should at least stand behind the product. Autogeek should have done somthing. Not just say oh here is the email of the manufacturer. That's just passing the buck and not really caring about you or what happened. not too AWESOME to me.



Say you buy a PC from them and it breaks. You going to ask Autogeek for a new one or go right to Porter Cable? Obviously you go to whoever you BOUGHT it from.



I would shop with someone who stood behind what they sell.
 
machboy said:
Shouldn't Autogeek stand behind the products that they sell??

If your going to sell/market a product to the general public and talk about how good it is you should at least stand behind the product. Autogeek should have done somthing. Not just say oh here is the email of the manufacturer. That's just passing the buck and not really caring about you or what happened. not too AWESOME to me.

Say you buy a PC from them and it breaks. You going to ask Autogeek for a new one or go right to Porter Cable? Obviously you go to whoever you BOUGHT it from.

I would shop with someone who stood behind what they sell.
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Actually most manufacturers would rather you go directly to them for warranty claims than to where you bought it from. But with this instance maybe AG should at least of giving you a refund or something.
 
Danase said:
Actually most manufacturers would rather you go directly to them for warranty claims than to where you bought it from. But with this instance maybe AG should at least of giving you a refund or something.
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If anything this post has me thinking i'll be buying from somewhere else now though.
 
Danase said:
Actually most manufacturers would rather you go directly to them for warranty claims than to where you bought it from. But with this instance maybe AG should at least of giving you a refund or something.
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:werd: IMO this is the responsability of the manufacturer and not AG.
 
Mikeyc said:
:werd: IMO this is the responsability of the manufacturer and not AG.
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So Autogeek can sell whatever they want and it doesn't matter it damages your car?

Its obvious LC doesn't give a rat's ***. But i'd be getting my money back from AutoGeek at the very very least.
 
Wow..I am sorry to see that. I have seen LC's response over on Detail City. I feel Autogeek shouldn't be blamed for this. They are just the distributor for Lake Country. I have purchased numerous items from Autogeek and they have always stood behind what they sell.



I hope you can get this resolved diplomatically.
 
I think it would be good CS for Autogeek to refund the money but even if not, most significantly, is how LC has chosen to handle this matter. They absolutely should show something resembling responsibility since it does seem their product was flawed. Hopefully they will change their course of action upon seeing these public posts. Otherwise, unfortunately, perhaps contacting an authority such as the BBB wouldn't be out of the question.



I wish you the best with the final outcome.
 
machboy said:
So Autogeek can sell whatever they want and it doesn't matter it damages your car?

Its obvious LC doesn't give a rat's ***. But i'd be getting my money back from AutoGeek at the very very least.
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Not quite what I'm saying. I would say that they need to sell products which they feel are reliable. I'm not convinced that this isn't a 1 in a 100 kind of thing. It might be just a fluke that I got a bad part.
 
Anyone curious to see what Lake Country had to say about this issue (and of course my thoughts on their comments). You can check out this thread. They spotted a thread I started on another website.
 
Same thing happened to me as well, but luckily I caught it it time before

everything came apart. I still use the spot buff pads (they're great

with the Polishin' Pal), but I don't plan to use that small backing plate with

the adapter again.
 
usdm said:
Same thing happened to me as well, but luckily I caught it it time before

everything came apart. I still use the spot buff pads (they're great

with the Polishin' Pal), but I don't plan to use that small backing plate with

the adapter again.
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Thanks for sharing your experiences with the Spot Buffs kit USDM. In some respects it's comforting to know I'm not the only one with this problem. Unfortunately, when my Spot Buffs adapter and plate came apart it happened in a matter of seconds and without warning. So, I wasn't able to prevent the adapter from digging into the plate.
 
Im more curious as to what the adapter is for and what the pad design is like.............

My take:

You were AG's customer, AG should have taken a little more responsibility for you and stepped up a little higher.......As for CS, AG could have stepped up a little higher.....
 
Oh my goodness I just had this happen to me about 2 weeks ago thankfully I caught mine before It caused any damage seeing that I was doing a $150K classic 1958 vett show car, I would have just killed over. I thought maybe It was my fault that maybe I neglected to tighten the thing down good which I thought I did. Thanks for posting this issue I will now avoid this product like the plague, with the type of cars I do I can't afford to take that kind of a risk, not with any car.
 
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