Our experience with Snow Methanol
07-23-2015, 06:04 PM
#1
Our experience with Snow Methanol First off, I'd like to say that I never have made a post about any company we've purchased from, on in this case a company we're dealers for. I run a business just like Snow, and I know how stressful and aggravating it can be to deal with a problem customer. Sometimes a customer may have just cause for complaints, and its up to the company to swallow their pride and maybe loose a dollar or two in the process.
Over the years we've installed a few Meth systems, and our first outlet for a meth system happened to be Snow Performance. On those systems, we've seen problems with a faulty controller, leaky nozzles on multiple cars, and meth pump failures on a few as well.
I believe that Snow warrantied the faulty controller for us that one time, but as for the pumps and nozzles we were on our own and paid our dealer price I suppose. Its a bit hard for a customer to swallow that they purchased a meth system and then 10 months later they have a leaky nozzle that could have potentially caused damage to their engine, or worse it could have caused a fire. On two cars we have specifically found leaking meth nozzles while being re-tuned on our dyno months after the initial installation.
Fast forward to a week or two ago. One of the same problem cars needs another meth pump. We're talking about a 2013 model Grand Sport Corvette that has less than 5,500 miles on it. It has spent more time at our shop that it has with the customer for constant upgrades and installs. In that amount of time, we had already replaced the meth pump once at our cost....not as a warranty.
With yet another pump faulty, we ordered and paid for a new pump yet again from Snow..... The pumps are literally rusted up at the bearing which can be seen on the motor side of the assembly....under the metal cover that encloses the motor. There is no seal, no o-ring, or gasket of any kind to keep moisture, rain water, or whatever out of the assembly. The pumps simply lock up and do not work until replaced.
When we got the new pump, we pulled it from the packaging and with our battery box we hooked up our power probe to test it before installation. With the ground supply of the probe hooked up, no ground feed was shown on the hot wire. We applied power to the hot wire and the pump did not run.
With our already known issues with Snow kits, we switched over to Alky Control based on much positive feedback a year or two ago. We actually had one of their systems here for another customers install, and with a quick call to Alky we determined that their pump would work fine with the Snow controller. We installed it after bench testing successfully and it worked just fine. I might add that the Alky pump has a large rubber covering of sorts to protect the motor and internals from moisture.
Not thinking anything about it, I asked one of our guys in shipping return the Snow pump for a refund. Getting a refund for a brand new, never used part that was only purchased a week or two prior shouldn't be an issue right? Especially when it is faulty right? Wrong.....
I ended up having to call. The person I spoke with was Jake who proceeded to tell me that the only thing they were going to do for us was they would inspect the pump and if indeed found to be faulty they would replace it. Well, we had to get the car done and we used the Alky pump we had here so I no longer needed it. I asked for a refund but he refused. He refused to refund a DEALER.....not just an average joe that had made that their one and only purchase! He refused a refund for a brand new part that had never even been bolted to the car!!!
Jake went as far as to tell me that their pumps were 200% quality tested and there would be no way that it was faulty....that it had to be our installation!!! WE NEVER EVEN INSTALLED IT, IT WOULDN'T EVEN RUN WITH DIRECT BATTERY POWER!!!!
I told Jake that I didn't want a replacement pump now, that I didn't want any more of their **** pumps. I told them that I would make this public if that is how he wanted, to which he stated that Snow doesn't take kindly to threats and that if I cursed him again he would hang up (the only curse word I said in the entire conversation was calling his pump '****').
So here I am, making a stupid negative feedback thread that I've never had to do in my entire 13 years of business. All because Snow won't refund a product that is a brand new, un-installed product.
What makes matters worse is this car has a leaking nozzle AGAIN also....go figure. There wasn't much use in even bringing that up since we'd just have to pay for that also. I will advise any future customers to steer clear of Snow Performance methanol systems not only due to the poor quality of their product be even more so due to the poor quality of their customer service.
-Jonathan
Over the years we've installed a few Meth systems, and our first outlet for a meth system happened to be Snow Performance. On those systems, we've seen problems with a faulty controller, leaky nozzles on multiple cars, and meth pump failures on a few as well.
I believe that Snow warrantied the faulty controller for us that one time, but as for the pumps and nozzles we were on our own and paid our dealer price I suppose. Its a bit hard for a customer to swallow that they purchased a meth system and then 10 months later they have a leaky nozzle that could have potentially caused damage to their engine, or worse it could have caused a fire. On two cars we have specifically found leaking meth nozzles while being re-tuned on our dyno months after the initial installation.
Fast forward to a week or two ago. One of the same problem cars needs another meth pump. We're talking about a 2013 model Grand Sport Corvette that has less than 5,500 miles on it. It has spent more time at our shop that it has with the customer for constant upgrades and installs. In that amount of time, we had already replaced the meth pump once at our cost....not as a warranty.
With yet another pump faulty, we ordered and paid for a new pump yet again from Snow..... The pumps are literally rusted up at the bearing which can be seen on the motor side of the assembly....under the metal cover that encloses the motor. There is no seal, no o-ring, or gasket of any kind to keep moisture, rain water, or whatever out of the assembly. The pumps simply lock up and do not work until replaced.
When we got the new pump, we pulled it from the packaging and with our battery box we hooked up our power probe to test it before installation. With the ground supply of the probe hooked up, no ground feed was shown on the hot wire. We applied power to the hot wire and the pump did not run.
With our already known issues with Snow kits, we switched over to Alky Control based on much positive feedback a year or two ago. We actually had one of their systems here for another customers install, and with a quick call to Alky we determined that their pump would work fine with the Snow controller. We installed it after bench testing successfully and it worked just fine. I might add that the Alky pump has a large rubber covering of sorts to protect the motor and internals from moisture.
Not thinking anything about it, I asked one of our guys in shipping return the Snow pump for a refund. Getting a refund for a brand new, never used part that was only purchased a week or two prior shouldn't be an issue right? Especially when it is faulty right? Wrong.....
I ended up having to call. The person I spoke with was Jake who proceeded to tell me that the only thing they were going to do for us was they would inspect the pump and if indeed found to be faulty they would replace it. Well, we had to get the car done and we used the Alky pump we had here so I no longer needed it. I asked for a refund but he refused. He refused to refund a DEALER.....not just an average joe that had made that their one and only purchase! He refused a refund for a brand new part that had never even been bolted to the car!!!
Jake went as far as to tell me that their pumps were 200% quality tested and there would be no way that it was faulty....that it had to be our installation!!! WE NEVER EVEN INSTALLED IT, IT WOULDN'T EVEN RUN WITH DIRECT BATTERY POWER!!!!
I told Jake that I didn't want a replacement pump now, that I didn't want any more of their **** pumps. I told them that I would make this public if that is how he wanted, to which he stated that Snow doesn't take kindly to threats and that if I cursed him again he would hang up (the only curse word I said in the entire conversation was calling his pump '****').
So here I am, making a stupid negative feedback thread that I've never had to do in my entire 13 years of business. All because Snow won't refund a product that is a brand new, un-installed product.
What makes matters worse is this car has a leaking nozzle AGAIN also....go figure. There wasn't much use in even bringing that up since we'd just have to pay for that also. I will advise any future customers to steer clear of Snow Performance methanol systems not only due to the poor quality of their product be even more so due to the poor quality of their customer service.
-Jonathan
07-23-2015, 06:22 PM
#2
Here is a pic of the brand new pump that they won't refund along with the rusty one it was supposed to replace. The rusty pump had been on the car for probably a bit more than a year and maybe 2,000 miles.
The really sad thing for Snow is, they could have used this build to promote their products if they just treated us right.....this car made almost 1100 rwhp with their meth kit, dual nozzles, and pump 93 fuel. LSx block build with an F1x Procharger.
The really sad thing for Snow is, they could have used this build to promote their products if they just treated us right.....this car made almost 1100 rwhp with their meth kit, dual nozzles, and pump 93 fuel. LSx block build with an F1x Procharger.
