I'll preface this by saying I have bought from Vengeance twice before (VRX4 cam + supporting mods, and then shortly after a Melling oil pump) and had a great experience both times. Lot's of help, and fast/good service with an excellent product at my door step within a week.

I hate the fact that I have to resort to this and I hope things get cleared up and taken care of.

About 6 weeks ago when Vengeance was running the sale on the FAST 102 it couldn't have been more perfect as I was beginning to buy parts for my new motor build: a 416 LS3; because my 02 SS had premature bearing failure due to an oil issue when I was on track. Mike B. helped me tremendously in helping me get my order together and I ended up with a ported/smoothed/painted FAST 102 for L92 heads, a NW 96mm TB, and an LS3 block (order placed 6/16).

The next day I was trying to get a hold of Mike or Ron to talk fuel rails; I called and left messages but didn't hear anything so I emailed Mike..a couple days later Mike got back to me via email, again he was helpful and apologized for lack of response as they've been very busy. That's fine, I fully understand shops can get busy and run out of time in the day to get to everything...

A couple more weeks later after the shop building my motor (site sponsor-- CMS) hadn't received anything yet I started calling Vengeance and leaving messages with no response and emailing Mike with no response (6/30). After a week of getting nothing back nor a returned call I emailed Mike again on 7/7. Over half way through the day I hadn't heard anything back so I emailed Ron directly (7/7). Ron replied part way through the day on 7/8 and took ownership of the fault. At this point (about 3 weeks ago now), I had no info on any shipping and I trusted Vengeance and just figured it'll show anytime (soon). Ron informed me in the email that Mike couldn't actually get ship times on the block only he could and that Mike was waiting for a response from him, he was going to get that to me "when it was available". He also informed me my intake was finished being ported and had gone to paint (got it: 3 weeks to port an intake).

So I allow ~2 weeks to go by with no word and I email Ron again asking about the blocks status because I hadn't heard back from him on that (7/19); he responded he will he will "check today". Having heard nothing back, I emailed Ron again on 7/22 and have gotten nothing back email wise since.

Last week I began calling and leaving messages with whoever answered the phone (be it a person or the recorder) with messages for Ron to get back to me. It was to the point that by Wednesday the guy knew who I was and I got the same 2 answers: I'll have Ron get back to you, or I'll get back to you tomorrow. This went on ALL 5 working days last week, and I called again today and left the message again.

I was told last week even that my intake is "probably in paint now", which I responded Ron told me it was in paint over 3 weeks ago..

I was told the same today, in which I responded the same.



Ron, Mike, whoever can take care of this: Please find out when my LS3 block will be delivered to CMS along with my P/S/P FAST 102 and NW 96 (which you told me can ship now or go with the intake, a TB is useless w/out the intake so I said ship them together). I feel that 6.5 weeks is more than enough time to acquire an LS3 block from your GM distributor and way more than enough time to port, smooth, and paint an intake.

Best Regards,
Chris Ronson

 

bump..

 

Got a call from Ron: things seem to be cleared up; I should have the block by the end of the week, and hopefully the intake at the end of next week from his new painter.

 

Chris,

Great talking to you on the phone. I would have posted here as well, but I just saw this thread for the first time this AM... Again, I apologize for the delay. Your block did not arrive Friday, but is expected the first part of next week.

All of our intakes are now in the hands of our painter and he will have them to me by the end of the week..

Also, please remember I have extended you a credit on your account toward your next purchase for the inconvenience we have caused you.

 

I finally made it down to the shop building my motor this last weekend (7 hours away from me) because my Corvette needed some tuning TLC and I was able to look at my intake manifold. Let's just say I'm highly disappointed in the quality put into this; so much for 'smoothed' and painted.




The whole intake looks like that. No pictures as they wouldn't show up with my iphone clear enough, but the porting wasn't that great either. When the shop gets my heads back from WCCH they are going to look at them together and decide if the porting needs to be gone into more or not.

 

Chris,

Im sorry to hear you are not happy with the intake manifold. I would be happy to send you a call tag to send it back and I will have the paint shop strip/paint the intake again. The areas you posted pics of are extremely difficult to "smooth" but should look better than what you received. We did have an issue with one other silver intake that was painted the same time yours was and they were happy to correct it.

EDIT: I just had a conversation with the painter and he informed me the 3 intakes I sent to him were not painted in a booth yet as they were just moving into their new facility and had not yet passed inspection to be able to use the paint booth. He assures me the intake will look as it should if you could send it back.

 

 

and what's the turn around time frame to do this?

 

Not including shipping time.... 3 business days

 

i'll call tomorrow