Olympus Offroad = Cheap Chinese Lights w/ Bad customer service

Joebot13

New member
9 months ago I purchased a set of LED Head Lights from Olympus for my JK; one month ago one of the LED chips burnt out. I attempted to contact Olympus regarding the issue, and most of these attempts were ignored. When I was finally acknowledged a few days later I was asked for the order number, which I provided immediately and repeatedly for the next few days. I did not hear anything back until, after a week from my initial attempt, I became annoyed and expressed my dissatisfaction with how I've been being ignored. Not once (or ever) did I call names or curse, but I was very firm in my grievance.

This was received very poorly by Olympus, how dare I become annoyed with being ignored. I accused them of bad customer service, and in return I was lectured and dismissed by the customer service rep, but they were still willing to overlook my atrocities and continue to bless me with their service and the "limited lifetime" warranty will take care of it.

But here was the catch, although their "limited lifetime" warranty is not clearly stated in any place that I could find, apparently I had to send my headlights in for repair first, before they will send me a replacement. This by the way was going to take place over 30 days. This wasn't going to fly, these are headlights and I kind of need them to drive around legally after all. Nevermind the fact that I have to move my winch and take apart my entire front end to get to the lights, being JK owners y'all know what I’m talking about. The customer service rep smugly said if I don't like it I can take my business elsewhere.

I took my issue up with the owner. I was accused of bashing his employee, but because he had previously issued an amendment to the warranty because of the nature of headlights, he would send me a set of the headlights as a replacement without sending the bad one in first. The customer service rep was "new" and didn't know about this amendment. A week went by and I heard nothing from Olympus, and received no replacement. In this time I had sent several emails that went ignored, so again, I expressed my dissatisfaction.

All of a sudden, the amendment for headlights became a special exemption just to get me to shut up and stop “being rude.” The replacements were supposedly sent (even though they never asked for an address) and they can't find the shipment nor figure out why I don't have them yet. It's now a full month since these lights broke, and remember they were only 8 months old at the time of failure. I still haven't received the replacements, so I told Olympus thanks but no thanks. They've lost me as a customer.

Now, you can lambaste me for buying cheap lights to begin with, and I probably deserve it. But Olympus goes to great lengths with smoke and mirrors to cover up the fact that these are truly just mail order Chinese lights, I thought I was buying a good product from an small American company. During this exchange I called into question the source of their lighting products. Olympus claims to own a facility in China where their lights are built to their specifications. I found examples of lights absolutely identical in appearance to Olympus' lights at several different retailers, when I asked about their source all of them denied affiliation with Olympus and stated they received their products from wholesalers in China. I asked Olympus to account for identical lights on the market and was told that they did not have to prove anything to me. Having a wholesaler customize lights for you is far different from owning your own facility. I may tell the waiter that I want my steak medium-well, but that doesn’t mean I own the restaurant. I'm 99% sure that these guys are full of it, and have never even set foot in China. If their claims are true, more power to them, but why not offer proof when you are using these claims to separate your business from other importers of Chinese made lights?

Olympus needs to learn how to respond to customers with complaints in a timely manner, instead of ignoring them or lecturing them. They need to be more clear on the terms of their warranty, and post it in a place that is easy to find. They need to work on their shipping issues, instead of losing shipments (which seems common for them). And in my opinion, the burden of proof is on them about their claims to owning manufacturing facilities in China, as well as what exactly makes their Chinese lights different than other Chinese lights, since that is what they are advertising.
 

Joebot13

New member
For now I went back to stock, those lights weren't worth the hassle. Sure they were brighter than the halogens but they had the same spread as stock lights since they reuse the stock housings. The little fan was noisy and the "plug and play" harness wouldn't snap into place so I had to change out the harnesses. Eventually I'll get the real deal.
 

Peak

New member
Wow sorry about that man. I don't understand how they can lecture you, a paying customer, about a problem caused by them. I have considered buying from them before but I will cross them off my list. Thanks for the heads up!
 

Joebot13

New member
It's true that you get what you pay for, I guess. Should have known that a $100 LED headlight wouldn't last, but that limited lifetime warranty suckered me in.

This is completely my fault for not doing the research before I bought from them. In the emails the rep claimed that Olympus Offroad is a subsidiary of Olympus International. Olympus Offroad is an LLC out of Colorado, so it would make since it's "parent" company is registered in Colorado too; nope. Olympus International is a non-existent company in the eyes of Colorado. It's through "Olympus International" that they supposedly own the facility in China, and it has been claimed that the owner makes frequent trips to China to their facilities. One said claim was when I spoke to the owner back in September of last year when I was trying to get proof that the lights were DOT compliant (never got that proof BTW). He said that he was going to check out their facilities and will be out of the country. He did go out of country, but it was a business trip for the company he worked for at the time, and it wasn't to China. Yup, the owner has a day job. It's all publically available information, if you know where to look for it, so it's my fault for not doing the research. What's not publically available is the proof that they own said facilities or that they have even been to China. When I asked for that I was told that they have nothing to prove to me. I could be COMPLETELY wrong about them, and might be making a jackass out of myself. But something isn't sitting right with me about this company.

What I know for fact is the lights I bought from them, were not made by them. It's made by a Chinese company called LED SYSTEM, says so right on the box the lights came in. Do a search for "LED SYSTEM" "LED HEADLIGHT" "REPLACEMENT BULB" on the google, and up pops several wholesalers selling these lights. These things are all over Amazon and Alibaba. Olympus still maintained that these are built to their specifications, yet they seemed really surprised when I sent them a picture of one of the ballasts that was completely sealed over in resin claiming that this wasn't typical of their products. They said their warranty states they have to try to repair first, then replace. I sent them the picture to show them repair was impossible with the circuit board completely covered in resin. For what it's worth, the CREE chip is actually the part that went bad, but that's not the point.

So again, maybe I misunderstood and their facility only assembles their lightbars and they source things like the headlights from wholesalers. I suggested that they provide pictures to show what exactly makes their lightbars different than the countless others out there that you can buy from Amazon. They have nothing to prove to me though. I would really like to see the inside of one of their lights compared to an Amazon light. My suspicions are they are exactly the same. The scary thing is that they sell synthetic winch lines and recovery ropes under the same pretenses.

I don't know, I could be wrong about them. This by the way is the same tone I took with them when I was going back and forth with them. This is my rudeness, I was questioning them on their products and practices. I've read lots of great reviews about them, that they are great when trying to sell you something. Just don't ask to look behind the curtain.
 
Last edited:

longarmwj

New member
Sounds like a real stellar company right there. That’s why when I get any lighting component for my Jeep (or any component for that matter), I go with a quality well documented product.

All the lights on my Jeep are either TruckLite, GoRecon, JW Speaker, or SuperBrightLED. The only exception is my rock lights. Those were off amazon but they were so cheap that it was a no brained (and to their credit i haven’t had a single problem out of them)


Sent from my iPhone using WAYALIFE mobile app
 

medic2283

Member
9 months ago I purchased a set of LED Head Lights from Olympus for my JK; one month ago one of the LED chips burnt out. I attempted to contact Olympus regarding the issue, and most of these attempts were ignored. When I was finally acknowledged a few days later I was asked for the order number, which I provided immediately and repeatedly for the next few days. I did not hear anything back until, after a week from my initial attempt, I became annoyed and expressed my dissatisfaction with how I've been being ignored. Not once (or ever) did I call names or curse, but I was very firm in my grievance.

This was received very poorly by Olympus, how dare I become annoyed with being ignored. I accused them of bad customer service, and in return I was lectured and dismissed by the customer service rep, but they were still willing to overlook my atrocities and continue to bless me with their service and the "limited lifetime" warranty will take care of it.

But here was the catch, although their "limited lifetime" warranty is not clearly stated in any place that I could find, apparently I had to send my headlights in for repair first, before they will send me a replacement. This by the way was going to take place over 30 days. This wasn't going to fly, these are headlights and I kind of need them to drive around legally after all. Nevermind the fact that I have to move my winch and take apart my entire front end to get to the lights, being JK owners y'all know what I’m talking about. The customer service rep smugly said if I don't like it I can take my business elsewhere.

I took my issue up with the owner. I was accused of bashing his employee, but because he had previously issued an amendment to the warranty because of the nature of headlights, he would send me a set of the headlights as a replacement without sending the bad one in first. The customer service rep was "new" and didn't know about this amendment. A week went by and I heard nothing from Olympus, and received no replacement. In this time I had sent several emails that went ignored, so again, I expressed my dissatisfaction.

All of a sudden, the amendment for headlights became a special exemption just to get me to shut up and stop “being rude.” The replacements were supposedly sent (even though they never asked for an address) and they can't find the shipment nor figure out why I don't have them yet. It's now a full month since these lights broke, and remember they were only 8 months old at the time of failure. I still haven't received the replacements, so I told Olympus thanks but no thanks. They've lost me as a customer.

Now, you can lambaste me for buying cheap lights to begin with, and I probably deserve it. But Olympus goes to great lengths with smoke and mirrors to cover up the fact that these are truly just mail order Chinese lights, I thought I was buying a good product from an small American company. During this exchange I called into question the source of their lighting products. Olympus claims to own a facility in China where their lights are built to their specifications. I found examples of lights absolutely identical in appearance to Olympus' lights at several different retailers, when I asked about their source all of them denied affiliation with Olympus and stated they received their products from wholesalers in China. I asked Olympus to account for identical lights on the market and was told that they did not have to prove anything to me. Having a wholesaler customize lights for you is far different from owning your own facility. I may tell the waiter that I want my steak medium-well, but that doesn’t mean I own the restaurant. I'm 99% sure that these guys are full of it, and have never even set foot in China. If their claims are true, more power to them, but why not offer proof when you are using these claims to separate your business from other importers of Chinese made lights?

Olympus needs to learn how to respond to customers with complaints in a timely manner, instead of ignoring them or lecturing them. They need to be more clear on the terms of their warranty, and post it in a place that is easy to find. They need to work on their shipping issues, instead of losing shipments (which seems common for them). And in my opinion, the burden of proof is on them about their claims to owning manufacturing facilities in China, as well as what exactly makes their Chinese lights different than other Chinese lights, since that is what they are advertising.

File a report with the BBB


Sent from my iPhone using WAYALIFE mobile app
 
Top Bottom