Sparks Parts Delays

Has anyone had trouble out of sparks parts lately? I placed an order in late June for a pillar grab handle with the understanding that it would be shipped in august which I was ok with. Well September first comes around and I emailed them just asking about the status of the order. Then I’m told middle of September. Alright then, whatever. Well now here we are October 20th and they’ve kind of went MIA and the order status on their site still says In Progress with no ETA. How long should I wait before I ask for a refund? Do we have a rep from Sparks on the forum? Thanks in advance folks!

 

No rep here that I know of.

I've seen a few threads lately about delays from them

 

Call or text their number. Don't go by the order status page. The sensors that I ordered 2 years ago still say pending.

 

I was looking for one back in September and they were showing backordered on their webpage, still are. A little persitance on ebay and I found one. Seems the gray is harder to find then the tan.

Also consider Toyota hasn't built a Tundra with this part for almost 10 years. May not be a priority for them to stock it.

 

Not to defend or trash Sparks, but the world stoppage is still having a big effect on goods and transportation.
It's kinda like the 8-month wait to get my cats replaced with OEM parts.
When I dropped the truck off in November, they said 6 to 8 weeks.
Then after 2 months, they said the end of the month, for 6 more months.
In actuality, they had no idea when the parts were coming in from day one.

The dealerships, including Sparks, should be more honest about this when they give you projected delivery dates.
I just ordered my antenna and bezel last month from them and had them in less than a week.
Not big in-demand parts I'd guess.

@belairbrian also makes a great point, since they omitted this part in the Gen 2.5 I'd think there has been a run on them from people like us.
I doubt it is a priority for Toyota to get them made and in stock.

I think we all had better luck with @Roman and TOCS, but that was back before the pandemic.
I was lucky to get mine years ago, even before sparks made a 'kit' to do it.
I bought mine for aesthetic reasons but found myself using it to get in and out more than I thought I would.

 

They still made it for the Sequoia up until a few months ago.

 

I stand corrected.
Wonder if that is the reason they suddenly dried up. If they didn't need them for production and the Tundra crowd buying the spares I could see that happening. Maybe they will keep making them for Sequoia spares. Looks like the guy I got mine from saw the value.He's sold over 60. Still has one left.

 

I ordered TRD PRO Led headlights and color matched door handles on Oct 9, they shipped on Oct 11, and were delivered to CA on 10/18. My order was flagged as potential fraud, but after sending a picture of the name and address on my billing statement and a screenshot showing the pending authorization the order was good to go.

 

They hit my order for this too.

I told them to cancel and ill just reorder with paypal so they can deal with the fraud idea. I am not wasting my time sending pictures of my account statements to a salesman to give him my money.

 

Its because they dont have an actual ETA, its more of a tentative release date. When that date comes around, is when they find out if its still on b/o, part supply issue or even how many pieces are being released. Its pretty common still, more with GM and Ford.

 

I’ve been tracking that grab handle for a long time. Definitely not Sparks’s fault.

Global back order on that grab handle. Last I checked, over 500 orders were queued up.

A dealer helped me locate another Yota Dealer with 1 in stock (a customer order that was canceled and the parts dept was left with it in inventory). Got lucky. Paid a crap ton for it, plus shipping but I consider myself lucky. Self proclaimed “last one” of the great 2022 back order.

 

I got lucky and picked up one on ebay that has a few flaws that I can live with. 89$