FCP Euro Lifetime Replacement Guarantee Update

[cobra]

While not as good it's still better than what any other company offers?

[CrookedCommie]

Lifetime of what? Your lifetime? FCP's lifetime? The lifetime of the car? Or the lifetime of the policy, which they can alter at any time.

[ChapterM3]

LOL The company in question was the one to advertise LIFETIME WARRANTY - this is not about the 2nd, 3rd or 10th replacement, it's in regards to the term LIFETIME - LIFE.....TIME - this is not about anything other than a business putting into practice what it advertised. That's it.

[Maxima SE]

Wow the number of spoiled American children on this forum is unbelievable… you all should have been born into a poor family in a poor country somewhere so you can get a taste of real struggle and unfairness in life.

Unbelievable what people are saying in here.. “but, but…what happens when I want to replace a part for the sixth time for free and I have to pay shipping too?” Lol

The “spoiled” children I know don’t care about things like lifetime warranty. They’re generally bad with their money and don’t know how to save a buck. On the other hand kids who aren’t spoiled and know how hard it is to make a buck do care about how their money is being spent. We are mad because we chose to pay extra up front for near a decade in hopes of needing to warranty an item and now the rules have changed. If you read the thread you will see that most of us haven’t even used the lifetime warranty much, let alone six times for the same item which upsets us even more. had we known what we know now, many of us wouldn’t have bought from FCP to make them who they are now.

for your record, some of us are foreign born, in third world countries, came from nothing and aren’t doing too bad for ourselves.

[bigjae46]

Not surprised at all, won't change much for me. I occasionally use FCP when my local guy doesn't have what I need or if it's a high dollar item like E9X M3 throttle actuators. After trying to get the oil back into the bottles and spilling that sh!t everywhere in my garage and then boxing that crap up...I'd rather just buy it. lol. I distinctly remember also trying to put Redline 75w-140 back into the bottle...that tiny bottle opening!

I'm still awestruck that there is any complaint about this? What other place allows you to use oil and return? Except for maybe Walmart because they are...Walmart.

FCP Euro, unlike ECS Tuning has never been late for the couple orders I have placed. I'm always waiting on ECS Tuning. Like now, overnighted a power steering pulley Fri night (oops)...ECS still has not shipped yet. I overnighted the damned thing!!!

[CrookedCommie]

If you've been buying parts with the expectation to warranty them forever, I have more bridges to sell you.

[elbert]

Wow the number of spoiled American children on this forum is unbelievable… you all should have been born into a poor family in a poor country somewhere so you can get a taste of real struggle and unfairness in life.

Unbelievable what people are saying in here.. “but, but…what happens when I want to replace a part for the sixth time for free and I have to pay shipping too?” Lol

America is turning into a bunch of snowflakes.

I’ve been buying parts from them since 2014, and my dumbass has yet to warranty a single thing oof.

Ha same here.

[SQ13]

I’ve been buying parts from them since 2014, and my dumbass has yet to warranty a single thing oof.

[oceansize]

Wow the number of spoiled American children on this forum is unbelievable… you all should have been born into a poor family in a poor country somewhere so you can get a taste of real struggle and unfairness in life.

Unbelievable what people are saying in here.. “but, but…what happens when I want to replace a part for the sixth time for free and I have to pay shipping too?” Lol

Oh boy...lol. Way to go heinzboehmer

[PetrolM3]

Wow the number of spoiled American children on this forum is unbelievable… you all should have been born into a poor family in a poor country somewhere so you can get a taste of real struggle and unfairness in life.

Unbelievable what people are saying in here.. “but, but…what happens when I want to replace a part for the sixth time for free and I have to pay shipping too?” Lol

[heinzboehmer]

Shops get a different wholesale price, but there is NO warranty on maintenance items and everything else is 2yrs. I have not had to warranty anything I purchased on my wholesale acct.

I do have a personal account that I buy consumables on like track brake pads and window regulators (lol).

I would bet its individuals abusing more than shops, but I also think part of this problem is self inflicted. When I inquired about the minimum thickness of the brake pads to return them they said there wasn't a "spec" and that I could warranty them at anytime for any reason. I run them until I don't think I can get another weekend out of them and then return, but I can absolutely see how people would junk them with plenty of life left.

Goes to show how much I know about how shops work lol. Makes sense that they would have wholesale accounts without the warranty.

You're probably right. I bet there's a good chunk of people who have thrown thousands of dollars in parts at their car in hopes of fixing a problem, just because FCP makes it free.

[Maxima SE]

lol uncle ECS and his bastard child turner can go to hell too. Honestly there are plenty of other sites that sell OE stuff for cheap, like eeuroparts and plenty of online vendors that sell genuine BMW stuff for way cheaper. Bottom line here is that anything purchased before 11/1/2022 should be grandfathered in and replaced under warranty without store credits or having to pay the difference when being replaced. That was the store policy AT THE TIME OF PURCHASE when you bought the item THEN. If you knew what you know NOW, you may not have bought the item THEN. If they want to play dirty they're going to get sued big time in my opinion. I'm sure a lot of their customers are lawyers

[ChapterM3]

I've read this whole thread, read the FCP statement and the conclusion I've come to is this:

FCP as a business has decided that instead of taking the bullet of inflation and honor their lifetime warranty, they've put it on the consumer to take the hit. They've also totally changed their lifetime warranty and I have no idea what will happen when I go to replace my alternator for a third time in 2026 (speculation for the argument) - will I get credit? will I have to pay double what I paid for it in 2019? I have no idea because now the lifetime warranty seems to not be so lifetime-y. Please someone correct me here if I have understood all of this wrong, I'm happy to be wrong and understand this differently.

This is what I understood and the story that played out in my head when I read Scott Drozd's post on FCP's site: This to me sounds like an uncle making a deal with his nephew, and teaching him about the value of a dollar and shady business deals "if it's too good to be true, it probably is." I don't know why I thought of it this way but just go with it -

Uncle FCP is pissed he made the lifetime warranty, got taken advantage of by some, and most importantly did not anticipate so many people using the warranty - so now he has to do something or his financial projections for the future years are not good.

So years ago, Uncle FCP comes to us and says "hey, kid, I know you love your car, so I got a deal for you: why not buy from me, Uncle FCP, and no matter what I'll honor the money that you spent with me so that for the LIFETIME of the part, I'll honor that money and replace the part you bought from me no matter what. You'll never have to spend a dime again on that part. Guaranteed for LIFE. The only thing is, you'll have to spend a bit more with me for that same part, but it will be guaranteed for life. How about that for competitive pricing? Who has a lifetime warranty?"

So we go figure out the math at home with our excel sheets and notepads debating between him, and the other uncle, uncle ECS, and where we should put our money. Would we be buying parts that would wear out and then we would need to spend more cash to replace them? or would we send them back to Uncle FCP and get the part again, for free, because we initially spent more money for the part with him knowing that he would honor the LIFETIME warranty? Hmmmm. Tough debate. In the end, we all end up going with uncle FCP because he said LIFETIME and we understood lifetime as in, LIFE---TIME. We all love our cars and figured, shit, well if I'll buy a starter, alternator, control arms and bushings, and all these other really expensive parts from him, then I'll be actually doing myself a service - I spend this money ONCE and then I have that part for, that's right, the LIFETIME of the car. So we buy parts, we tell EVERYONE about how great our uncle FCP is because who wouldn't, and we never talk to uncle ECS again. That's what uncle FCP wanted anyway as he always wanted to be the favorite uncle.

Now years later, our favorite uncle is pissed because we actually are coming back with parts to be replaced - we're utilizing the agreement and now uncle is starting to feel the heat: he never anticipated this many of us coming back to get the parts replaced. Now he's also in deep water as the world changed: a pandemic, inflation: the economy changed massively since he first told us about this LIFETIME offer. So here he comes with a nice statement for us to eat - "Ok so I know what I said years ago, that was my test to you. You passed, but you also must learn a lesson. As they say in business, if the deal is too good to be true, it probably is. That's why some of my nephews will claim they were so smart and knew this all along, so they will still continue to buy from me! I predicted this before in case this happened, it's called the worst case scenario that I have to change the warranty, all of you have told everyone you know about me so by the time you realize it, I'll have a multimillion-dollar parts business. It was genius actually. So all of this is ultimately the lesson I was trying to teach you, and what to avoid when the deal is too good, but you fell for it so now you have to learn your lesson. I'm changing the rules and adjusting the contract that we had so instead of cash, you credit, with me! But you love me so it's ok. And if there is a change in the price of the part you bought, you pay the difference! I must say that if the part does go down in price, which it never will, you'll get that money back, in credit! But don't worry I'm here for your questions, just email this support person I set up. Thanks for telling everyone you know though, now I'm a multimillionaire with a race team, no one talks about uncle ECS anymore and I am the king of the castle. Thank you for learning your lesson. Go uncle FCP."

So now uncle implements what he says from November 22' onwards, and we have to pay the difference now on the economy and ALSO he can't give us cash anymore. We now get CREDIT for our CASH to spend with HIM, further pushing the narrative that he still wants and will be the favorite uncle because we spent our cash with him, and he'll give us credit to spend with him and no one else. Pretty good lock-in tactic if you ask me. Who knows when he'll change the agreement again.

Maybe I'm WAY off here but this is how it just played out in my mind - this seems shady ASF and I'm seriously going back to my excel sheets and notepads to debate about where the hell I'm going to buy my rear brake kit and oil sensor now. The questions start all over again now as they did years ago, "Ok, so if I spend $37 more for the sensor, I get the sensor and then when it goes out again in, I don't know maybe 3 years worst case, I can get credit with uncle FCP, but then, what if the part is 4x more expensive? Maybe I should go back to uncle ECS and see what his prices are, oh but then I don't get the semi-credit warranty, wait, what if I buy from this retailer that has it for $189 instead of $276 like uncle FCP? I wonder if that would make sense"

Honestly I'm so sick of this narrative in my head as I knew this was too good to be true from the get-go, it had to be, there's no way a company has found a magic business model to LIFETIME everything from oil to control arms to cupholders. Just can't be.

Ok I'm done. If this post sucks, ignore it, but I felt the need to get this out as I'm frustrated and don't know where to buy parts for fear of, well, feeling somehow taken advantage of.

[Maxima SE]

This exactly. I've also spent 10s of thousands on BMW parts over the last decade and a lot through FCP (not solely but a good amount) that now the whole "lifetime replacement" program should be considered false advertising.

I don't really want store credit and I get the stance here from a business perspective, but the fact I have to leave a revolving lump sum in their system to take advantage of a program I overpaid for items to not have to pay for the replacements later is kinda bs.

Yeah I agree. I regret buying my Z4M front rotors from them last week @ $255 a piece when I could have gotten them cheaper for $190. That is $130 more up front. I sure do not want $500 in store credit if I ever end up using lifetime warranty on them.

I think they are going to lose a lot of business.

[thegenius46m]

That's how I understand it. My stance is that it should be indefinite. I spent extra with FCPeuro (since 2014) purely so that I could replace these parts in the future for no (or little) money spent (after refund).

The gap between FCPeuro now and ECS and other sellers is smaller, but it was a pretty big premium that I was spending back in 2014-2019. There were plenty of times where the price difference was sop great, I really had to contemplate the odds of needing a replacement sometime in the future.

This exactly. I've also spent 10s of thousands on BMW parts over the last decade and a lot through FCP (not solely but a good amount) that now the whole "lifetime replacement" program should be considered false advertising.

I don't really want store credit and I get the stance here from a business perspective, but the fact I have to leave a revolving lump sum in their system to take advantage of a program I overpaid for items to not have to pay for the replacements later is kinda bs.