blinglights fog light

I purchased from priusshop and installed them at the local shop. They look pretty nice but one of the fog light become foggy after the first rain. I guess housing is not properly sealed.

I contacted customer service of both prius shop and blinglight to exchange the light. Nichole from Prius shop replied to me saying she is waiting for the answer from Blinglights and in the mean time I called the customer service of the Blinglight. According to the blinglight rep, they could send me the replacement lamp once they got contacted from prius shop since I did not purchased lamps directly from them.

It projects pretty good light and I like the blue rim which matches blue Toyota emblem on the hood. Installation is not that straightforward though and installer at "201 Motoring" in NJ did execellent job. They also installed my Azentek smartmirror which works as rear view mirror as well as GPS and rear view camera screen. If you live in NJ or NY, you should try them. They are very professional and honest and above all very reasonal when they charge you. I regret I did not know them when I did my window tinting. It seems like they do better job at better price ($125 for Prius, I heard it from owner, Frankie).

I will update how prius shop custormer service handles this matter.

Jin

 

Danny, thanks. All Nichole needs to do is asking Andrew at Blinglights to send me the replacement lamp. Since this involves another visit to the shop, I need to pay some amount to the installer again. Andrew even told me he might be able to reimburse some amount to compensate this but at this moment getting replacement lamp is more important to me.

Scott, you need to cut out the current fog blank to put the fog light.

Moner, I will take some pictures of them and load them here probably sometime tomorrow along with smartmirror shots.

Thanks!

 

Ok, I am posting some quick shots taken from iPhone. You have to understand picture quality since they were not taken under ideal condition.

I am still waiting for any response from Prius Shop. All they need to do is one telephone call to Blinglights asking them to send me a replacement lamp and I am disappointed now... If I purchased the lights from them directly, problem should be resolved now.
I like this forum and I thought why not buying from here and support this forum... I think Prius shop has serious problem with their customer service. Hope my problem resolves soon and I will update you.

By the way, here is my modification after I get II couple of months ago. Since I got this one through C4C, I did not have a choice. Parkway Toyota at Englewood cliffs had only 3 availabe in Black, Blue and Siver color when I purchased this one and I chose color. Katzkin leather seat, wheelskin lether wheel cover, window tinting, HID headlight, Blinglight fog light, Azentek Smartmirror which functions GPS, rear view cam, and bluetooth, LED interior lights are my additions so far. One more thing I will do in near future is installing clearbra to fenders, bumper and hood.

Happy motoring,

Jin

 

As I stated earlier, I let professional installer do the job so I do not know specifics about imstallation even though I did oberve when they installed the fog lights. They cut out the original blank to mount the light and also installed the relay switch so light will go out after the vehicle powers off. If you just install the kit as is, the light will stay on if you forget to turn if off before you get out of the vehicle. It took just extra 10 minutes for them when I asked them to do it for me.

Regarding to the smartmirror, I do enjoy it since I do not need to put window mount gps and take it out and hide it somewhere everytime. Also I like the feature of rear view cam since it is kind of hard to figure out what is happening at the back of the vehicle due to the shape of it. I do not use bluetooth fuction though since my dealer already installed bluetooth interface when I picked up the car and I prefer using that one since I could hear voice from car speakers.
MSRP for the smartmirror is $799 (without rearview camera) but I was lucky to get a new one at ebay for $400 and it even came with rear view camera.

My other vehicle is 2009 MB C300 sport and I admit it does give me the pleasure of driving but I highly appreciate green technology of Prius at the same time. Do you guys think Bilstein shock might work for Prius to get firmer ride plus less rolling???
Considering I paid only 20500 with all the taxes and fees after C4C deal (I had to give up my 14 year old Land Rover for this one), it has been the deal of the century so far and I do enjoy my Prius!

Best wishes,

Jin

 

You can find more information about smartmirror here.

http://blog.sounddomain.com/gadget/2008/09/azentek-smart-m.html

SmartMirror - Navigation With A View - Escort Inc.

The mirror looks just like an oem mirror outside and it is just slightly bigger than the regular mirror. I do not find any problem cosmetically but my only complain is its built-in speaker which is not strong enough to me. Without any background radio or music, I could hear voice instructions without any problem but it is virtually impossible with just modest background sound. I hope they install stronger speaker to the next generation one.

I can't complain though considering what I paid for the item. It provides gps and rear view camera solution to me rather amazingly.

Happy motoring,

Jin

 

Update: replacement lamp order

I am getting really mad at the moment. I just talked to Andrew at the Blinglight (1-800-761-0235, ext: 7384) and according to him, he was not asked by Prius shop to send me the replacement lamp! He does not have any order from them and he confirmed that he could send out the replacement lamp to me without order from original purchase place which is prius shop.

If I purchased the lamp directly from Blinglight, the problem should be resolved long time ago. I regret so much that I placed an order through prius shop who provides this kind of customer service.

At this point, it seems to me both Prius shop and Blighllights are throwing a ball to the other court and I am totally unhappy with this situation.

 

Danny, it is time for you to step up and solve the situation. I have send several emails to Prius Shop without any reply.

What I want now is the confirmation number that Blinglighs will send me the replacement lamp not simply a message saying that "we've been passing along the information to BlingLights to make sure the issue is rectified".

Your help and immediate attention to this matter will be greatly appreciated.

Jin

 

I finally got an email from Prius shop and what do you think of this?

=====================================

We apologize for the trouble and confusion! We assure you that we have been in constant contact with BlingLights and they are aware of your conversation with Andrew. It was our impression from your emails that you were offered a replacement light, which usually occurs in the event that you had received a faulty part from the supplier. However, the team at BlingLights has let us know that they believe the foggy light is due to improper installation, rather than a faulty part. By turning the lamp right side up, the vent will be able to release the humidity and you will no longer have problems with the light. We and BlingLights would suggest removing the housing and re-installing it right side up.

BlingLights does not believe that replacement parts are necessary for your problem, and it is not policy to provide free replacement parts for improper installation, but in the event that you would still prefer to purchase and try replacement parts, the discounted pricing is $30. We would be happy to order those enclosure parts for you should you still wish. Payment can be sent to [email protected] via the Send Money option in PayPal. Once payment is received, the order will be placed.

We hope this helps! Please let us know if you have any additional questions.

Thanks,
Nichole

======================================
And this was my reply to P.S.

Nichole,

The lights were installed at the professional shop (201 Motoring in NJ), not by me.

I already addressed this problem with the owner of the shop and the installer as well whom I trust from my past experience and we believe it is faulty part. The right side is perfectly fine and why we have a problem at the left side only? They did exactly same thing to both lights.

When I first talked to Andrew at Blinglights, he offered replacement lamp right away and only problem is it should be ordered from Prius Shop which is the original place the order was placed. He even told me that they could even reimburse some amount for possible charges from my installer when I bring the replacement lamp to switch it.

It is apparent to me that they are now changing their word and I do not happy what I heard from you.

If you are in my position, what would you feel now? Do you want to place an another order to the company who does not stand their own products?
It is not a matter of $30, but I simply do not believe something is quite wrong here!

I will report this at Prius Chat and see what other people think.

Best,

 

Sorry guys, obviously I was so upset. I meant to say "I can't believe this! Something is quite wrong here!"

regarding to the smartmirror, the one at eBay looks like an imitation. First of all, it did not present proper company name and model number. When I looked at the actual image of the mirrior, it looks like a cheap copy. My advice to you, don't buy it!

Yes, I do like my smartmirror from Azentek. It does what it is supposed to do. Be careful when you order from China...

 

Sorry, forgot to tell you the installation cost for the smartmirror. If you go to the escort website (I put the link in one of earlier post in this thread), you can find the installer for them. Find one in your area and just call them up. That was what I did even though I did not get my mirror from them.
If you just bring it to any shop, they will ask your arm and legs, for sure. Escort and installer have an pre-agreement of $49 charges for the installation. If you add rear view cam, the total cost will be little bit more but it is well worth the money if you are not tech savvy guy like some people in this forum. I am not in their league and was comportable to spend $125 which 201 Motoring in NJ asked for mirror plus rear view cam, of course bluetooth setup in the mirror as well. I think the charge was quite reasonable considering the work involved. They had to run the wire from rear view cam to all the way to the mirror without any trails.

If you have a problelm reading papers without your glasses, this gps might be a tricky considering its size, but it is perfectly fine to me and it has been working well so far. With Katzkin leather seat, this has been the best money spent so far to my prius.

Regarding to customer service, Edward at sigmaauto has shown me what the custmer service should be. I inquired their leather steering wheel and the time I got all the infromation from him (he had to contact his partner in Japan to confirm some issues) was only 48 hours and he had sent me emails how things are going during those hours. Blinglights and Prius Shop should learn from him! I just placed an order of rain gurad to Edward after reading some posts in this forum. Yes, it is expensive for the rain guard, but I trust user experience in this forum and most of all, the company I am dealing with.

Unless I see some dramatic changes in their customer service, I will never buy things from either Prius shop nor Blinglights. Blinglights, for sure, they pointed fingers to the customer for their faulty product. For all the hassles I had to go through without any solution, it was the worst experinece and hope everybody else in this forum does not follow my mistake!

Jin