I’m hesitant to post this, because I don’t like leaving bad reviews, but since I looked for reviews like this before I made my purchase and didn’t find any, I want other potential buyers to know what they’re getting into. You may see this on other BMW forums as well, not because I’m looking to spam anybody, but because I want to get the info out there. About two months ago (Feb 9, 2012) I purchased a pair of e30 sport seats on eBay from member Steven Sperling (“zoomzoomzoom-ing”) to replace the “comfort” seats in my 325iX. You’ve probably seen his listings if you’ve searched for e30 seats; they’re the ones describing his seats as “re-manufactured to BMW specifications” and “beautiful”. I’ve attached a screen grab of the completed listing so you can see his exact phrasing. I paid $700 with shipping, which is significantly more than a used pair off the forums, on the this assurance of quality. I received the seats on Feb 21, since he apparently builds the seats to order and I’d added in heating elements. When I received them, they were not packaged particularly well; they were simply encased in plastic trash bags and wedged in a big box. Upon taking them out it was immediately apparent that the right side of the driver’s seat was tilted farther back than the left; the entire backrest was kilted sideways as though a heavy person had slammed into it repeatedly. I sent an email and photo to Steven, who insisted that it had been tested thoroughly and must have been damaged in shipping. Although they were packaged poorly, I don’t see how that particular fault could have happened, but whatever. He filed a claim with FedEx, and I shipped the seat back to him on Feb 23rd for replacement. The seat arrived back at his shop on March 1, and it took until March 12th for him to ship a replacement. I received the second seat March 16th and installed it the following day. Unfortunately, although the backrest on this seat was straight, it had a number of other faults. The most glaring of these was that there is a significant amount of play in the recline mechanism; the backrest shifts back and forth 2”, which is immediately apparent to both my wife and myself when driving. In addition, the interior mechanism covers are rusty and covered in flaking white paint, the front thigh bolster is loose due to a broken clip, and the seat pistons – which the ad specifically states are replaced – were old and dirty. Video showing seat play: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=WclHiRP6zTw I sent another email back to Steven on March 18th, politely explaining all this along with photo and HD video documentation. Due to a family emergency on his end he didn’t respond to me until March 27th, when his entire response was “I trust my guys judgment in that they replaced the seat with one that is in good working order. The pistons were only replaced if there was a reason to do so. The seat was tested and was found to be fully functional before shipping. The seats are 20 + years old.” This post is already longer than I meant it to be, so I’ll wrap it up. I sent one more polite email back telling him that I was disappointed in his response dismissing my concerns, which were both documented and politely presented. The defects I’d noted were functional, not minor cosmetics, and were in violation of his listing. After this he just brushed me off. Unfortunately 45 days had passed by this point, and neither eBay nor PayPal will even consider a buyer protection case after that deadline. My fault for not initiating one sooner, but I thought I could work this out with the seller. TL;DR: The seats zoomzoomzoom-ing sells are not remanufactured. They are new covers over old frames that do not appear to be checked or refurbished. Two of the three seats I received had significant mechanical defects, and he is not willing to work with me to get a proper set of good-condition seats. I am happy to provide additional information if anyone’s interested. Listing screenshot; note description of "remanufactured" in Item Specifics:
thats sucks, but thanks for the warning. if you are a member of e30tech or r3vlimited, it might help there too.
DAAAAANNNNNG! Sorry this happened to you. Hopefully your warning will help others who may be thinking of purchasing anything from this vendor, thereby turning the bad experience into something positive.
How was the actual quality of the reupholstering? I really need seats for my e30 and I can fix some of the mechanical problems myself. Maybe you just got unlucky?
