I've seen soooo many horror stories and seen so much shotty work in the NE alone it really makes ya sick the amount of money people spend for **** and poor CS.

This is where being able to do my own work really helps out I guess.

But being at the mercy of parts and services you can't perform really does suck sometimes.

 

A lot of them remind me of a car lot really nice and willing to do anything untill they get your money then they crap on you.....this is recent and past experiences.

 

sounds like u need to find yourself a good shop, yea ive been on both sides of the counter as a service advisor and as a customer, and nothing to me is more frustrating then no return phone calls no updates, and longer then expected deadlines, see my car when it was built sat at the tuning shop for about 5-6 months, primarily because i was waiting on my clutch warranty with ACT to get sorted out. But even though the shop did good work, there lack of extra bays combined with a big amount of clientele, made even the smaller workloads day long process. So I do feel for you on that however, when your dealin with a company thats gonna install parts for you before you sign, get a timeframe, now be smart look in the bay if theres a lot of cars parked plan for at least a few days.. When someones rushed on having work done, sometimes, issues can happen. When I do my mods on my car I do it big, but I give the shop at least a few days with the car to do it right.
Moral of the story: become good customers with reputable shops, then your ish gets done on time, and right the first time.

 

Thanks for those who do understand. For those who don't understand let me break it down for you.

It's probably not smart for me to start calling out part manufacturers when they've yet to deliver my stuff. It's just not going to be good for the buyer of my car. When said buyer gets the car he won't have any of the waiting issues I've had. My problem is not with the product, but with the empty promises. In my industry if I told a customer that I was going to have his product finished in 2 years and I waited 1 year and 364 days to tell him it would be another 2 years my company would be black listed, the customer would have his millions of dollars back, and we'd lose a lot of business.

It does not work this way in the car industry (and this is the only industry that I've consistently been treated like **** though I spend thousands of dollars; I'm sure there are other industries but I've yet to experience them), in the car industry you pay, you wait, you decide you'd rather go elsewhere, and they tell you to GTFO but we're keeping your cash. To those who say do it yourself, well I've provided a picture of where the car is being put together below. I thought doing it this way this time around would save me time and get me back on the road quicker but alas like all of the gruntwork machinist, something got messed up. I usually do not have time to put cars together, but I figured I could do this on weekends. I also wanted to make a few important to me meets and thought that turning this stuff in 2 months earlier would yield enough time. There's also sentimental stuff behind this as this is my last year in MD and I wanted to do some things for the LAST time. I've stressed these points and was given the "we'll have it done by then, no problem." Only to find out later that "XXX company has a lot of race teams to take care of." I'm like oh yeah? So they eff'd up and now I have to wait because their race teams placed orders when my pistons returned to them. Again I'm missing a lot of car things that I wanted to do (mainly meets and charities), that I can no longer do and will not have the time to do when I move.

Headgames delayed my head 2 years ago, DTM screwed me over service wise, and IAG while really really nice guys didn't set my suspension up correctly. The only shop that has hit any deadline has been UCS performance (Greg) and that's because he works solo and his *** off (his *** has been on the floor before).

My problem is not with one shop though its with MANY shops and part manufacturers, for all of you thinking on a micro scale I'm talking about a macro scale, the entire shabang, the accumulation, the whole nine-gotdamn-yards. I'm tired of it. Car deliver dates I can deal with, seeing money sit I cannot; driving a loaner for a month or two I can deal with, not having a loaner and getting a bunch of people pointing fingers at each other instead of taking the time to get me my stuff I cannot deal with. We're all different and this game has lead me to believe that it won't get any better, unless your car is being shipped to AMS or AWDmotorsports, but even then you run the risk at being at the mercy of the "specialist."

P.S. I'm not knocking the product being machined, I am knocking the commitment to delivery and sudden last minute changes that push things out to double the time quoted. Oh and I whole-heartedly agree that it always comes out to be $500-$2000 (in my case) more. At least stealerships are within the $600 range when it comes to "mishaps."

 

Its all about the money these days. They get the money and then they do what they want how ever slow or how ever many tries it takes.
Not like it once was

 

Ive been in the high performance modification game for a decade now, coming from the domestic world, and its no different anywhere you go. Ive sent stuff out for machining that i was quoted 2 weeks and it ended up taking a year. Ive been outright lied to, had my money stolen, and even been cursed out by a shady shop owner who was stealing from me and i confronted him about it. This industry just seems to have a higher ratio of unethical / dishonest people.

 

Time to start beating people like Vin Diesel.

 

If i thought it would accomplish something i would have thrown down right there... but i believe in karma and i know they will get theirs.

 

http://stmtune.wordpress.com/2011/04...-horrible-job/

this pretty much sums up what you're saying...

 

Going back to marketing class. Businesses are in business for ONE reason, and that is to make money. Sorry to hear about your expericances.

 

You can't make money without customers. The industry is losing a customer who mods thousands at a time, or used to. Customer service is part of the business model, can't make money without return customers.

 

Eventually the shops that are crooks will hopefully go out of business as they run out of people to screw.

 

I've learned in life years ago not to have faith in ANYONE, because not if but when they try and screw you over I won't be surprised. I do everything myself basically except tuning and am very picky with who I let put the life of my expensive engine on the line with, although I will be starting to tune myself soon. I know some people had bad things with DG in NY but my tune is dead on and very safe. But basically you got to find the one that's not in it for money (way easier said than done heh) but as a car/diesel truck tech myself people need to understand if you want it done RIGHT you will not always make the deadline because of doing it the way it should be done and you can't always be ready for what might happen when parts break or stuff doesn't go right like MULTIPLE times with my car (only cuz Im a perfectionist) and luckily I can get parts next day but there's a difference from that and shops giving out empty promises to shut em up and make em happy for the time being. Sorry to hear about your problems tho

 

This is rough given that there are a few crooked shops, which have been withheld from us, that are ruining it for others that do a great job. Thanks for you story, and thanks for playing

 

I feel similar to the OP BUT, i have put soo much time and money in mine i cant turn back now! That would be a huge personal loss in itself.....

Personally i have started a "hit list" kinda like you see on the gangsta movies. LOL I'm saving it for when i go insane.......