Review of Promax Alloy Adjustable Quill Stem, 105mm / 5° to 55°, 25.4mm, Black

Promax Alloy Adjustable Quill Stem, 105mm / 5° to 55°, 25.4mm, Black
By: Promax Average Rating: 1.0 Total Reviews: 1
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Stem is decent, but BEWARE!

On: 2006-11-22

For the stem itself I would have given four stars. But this purchase from Performance Downhill was not a good experience. I usually only write positive reviews, but not this time.

I ordered this stem a month back for my road bike and expected to use the adjustable feature. I preferred silver finish as shown in the picture, but because I could not find other similarly priced adjustable stems, I ordered this anyway.

Shipping is fast (although the actual shipping cost is ~$5 instead of $10 charged), and the stem looked decent for the price. However, upon mounting it to my bike and starting to adjust it, the screw wore out. The problem is that it was simply too tight upon arrival. I have a set of Allen wrenches that always gets the job done with repair/adjustment of my bike, but not this time. Now I cannot even remove the screw from the stem for replacement unless I buy a screw extractor which costs as much as the stem.

I contacted Performance Downhill the next morning and was told they needed to contact to factory for solution, and no news since then. I havent been able to use it properly. After waiting for two weeks I finally contacted the seller again yesterday asking if he could send me a replacement screw and Ill try to manage the rest of this mess, and was told that I should have used a metric allen wrench instead of an English one. This is absurd since there was NO warning on the package or whatever stating the existance of this issue. Also metric/English are only different ways of measring the size and have no difference in actual use. While I might only suspect that they did contacted the factory, I would appreciate it if they told me about it once they got this info from the factory (if at all) instead of putting me on hold for so long. What makes the experience even worse is the aggression and rudeness of the seller in communication. All this, however, is somewhat expected, given that Performance Downhill does not even have the courtsey to post a correct picture of the item its selling, nor to charge the actual shipping cost instead of twice as much (a stem weighing five pounds!?).

The worst shopping experience and customer service Ive ever had. BEWARE.

UPDATE: I just found Niagara Cycle Works also sells this same item on Amazon for $16.98+ $5.50 shipping. Im not trying to advertise for anyone; at least they have the correct photo and reasonable shipping charge.

Stem is decent, but BEWARE!

On: 2006-11-21

For the stem itself I would have given four stars. But this purchase from Performance Downhill was not a good experience. I usually only write positive reviews, but not this time.

I ordered this stem a month back for my road bike and expected to use the adjustable feature. I preferred silver finish as shown in the picture, but because I could not find other similarly priced adjustable stems, I ordered this anyway.

Shipping is fast (although the actual shipping cost is ~$5 instead of $10 charged), and the stem looked decent for the price. However, upon mounting it to my bike and starting to adjust it, the screw wore out. The problem is that it was simply too tight upon arrival. I have a set of Allen wrenches that always gets the job done with repair/adjustment of my bike, but not this time. Now I cannot even remove the screw from the stem for replacement unless I buy a screw extractor which costs as much as the stem.

I contacted Performance Downhill the next morning and was told they needed to contact to factory for solution, and no news since then. I havent been able to use it properly. After waiting for two weeks I finally contacted the seller again yesterday asking if he could send me a replacement screw and Ill try to manage the rest of this mess, and was told that I should have used a metric allen wrench instead of an English one. This is absurd since there was NO warning on the package or whatever stating the existance of this issue. Also metric/English are only different ways of measring the size and have no difference in actual use. While I might only suspect that they did contacted the factory, I would appreciate it if they told me about it once they got this info from the factory (if at all) instead of putting me on hold for so long. What makes the experience even worse is the aggression and rudeness of the seller in communication. All this, however, is somewhat expected, given that Performance Downhill does not even have the courtsey to post a correct picture of the item its selling, nor to charge the actual shipping cost instead of twice as much (a stem weighing five pounds!?).

The worst shopping experience and customer service Ive ever had. BEWARE.

UPDATE: I just found Niagara Cycle Works also sells this same item on Amazon for $16.98+ $5.50 shipping. Im not trying to advertise for anyone; at least they have the correct photo and reasonable shipping charge.