Here is a funny but sad story. A old customer that thought I had gone away went to another local so called tuner. After spending thousands of dollars at this shop installing a blower and other mods. He told me his car actually went slower and it only made 35hp more that it had when he first installed a SLP 400hp package which basically consisted of 1.8 rocker arms, headers and a CAI. He also had the M6 transmission upgraded at a huge cost. New rear end gears were installed.

During the initial installation he also complained about the way they hacked up his SS hod for additional clearance of the blower inlet and connection to the TB. This car is a 98 SS camaro which is the pride and joy of Jim (not his real name), so much that he actually yelled at a ex-employee for parking too close to other cars in the lot! I looked at the hood and while the Vortech instructions clearly called out "cutting" the hood for additional clearance, that shop should have exercised a bit more finese when cutting it.

Jim went back several times complaining about the cars poor performance and a check engine lite that was on. On the second occasion the crank pulley blew off the crank snout causing $3000 worth of damage to the underside of the car and right fender. When Jim went back the shop the owner asks him "what's your take on this".........Jims reply was "Hey you guys are suposed to be the experts and the Vortech instructions clearly calls out pinning the balancer to the crankshaft and a special tool is even supplied, I think you need to fix it or I am going to see a lawyer!"

After 3 months they finally fixed it, it took that long because they were frantically trying to find a used K frame! In the end they replaced it with a new K member. The last encounter after Jim went back again complaining about poor performance, they tell him that the clocks are wrong at the track and that is the reason that his car is going slower!

After I got the car I found that the intake wasn't even close to being torqued down. The bell housing had a missing bolt and all the other bolts were loose with 2 backed out so far that they almost fell out. The rear end had a leak that was caused by the pinion gear bearing preload improperly set, in other words the pinion was wobling around.

The auxillary fuel pump supplied by Vortech was wired by what appeared to be high school quality and not that of a professional shop. The relay which is not weather proof was left hanging on the rear sheetmetal panel right above the rear axle, the grounds were literally loose so the fuel pump operation was at risk. The check engine light was a DTC for a KS fault, which I found the KS wiring crushed under the intake causing a dead short which incapacitated one of the sensors.

During tuning the tune that they had attempted was not even in the ball park. After tuning his car and fixing all their screwups the car picked up a whopping .7 (seven tenths!!) of a second in the quarter. He was ecstatic with the results and will be coming in for a cam job later this year. I am not bragging but what was done to Jims car was childish, purely unprofessional and a total rip off, especially when they told him that the tracks clocks were way off! I couldn't believe it when they told me!!

 

Its sad but those kinds of shops are everywhere. I have ran into a few of them. At least we have you and Ellis in the area to take care of our cars when we break them.

 

Wow! That's exactly why a community like this one is so important. It's a place where reputation is earned with real-world results. Places that do good work get our business, repeatedly.

 

We tend to forget how blessed we are to have the likes of you, Ellis & George in our midst Tom. Sadly for each of you there seems to be at least 10 morons out there with shops screwing people over.....how DO they stay in business?

 

I have to tell you I can not even count how many cars we have recieved from so called "Pro" shops that had the lowest quality work I have ever seen. Some of teh most coveted names on the internet.

I SEEN some VERY high Quality work from a few Local shops and at least two huge names(LPE and Calloway).

I am Glad you could get it straightened out for him

 

Yes, its pretty sad, and to top it off all of that BS adds fuel to the fire that gives all automotive related shops a black eye. I remember way back and I am talking about 20+ years where the news channels like the 20/20 of today would do expose' on rip off auto shops.

The only good thing I can say about these guys is that everytime the screw up I get a new customer I still can't get over that they actually told the customer that he is slow cuz the race tracks timers are way off, that really tops it!

 

Any idea on the name of the shop? I am curious to know who these jokers are so I can avoid them.

 

that's when you take pics of the problems and take it to the BBB, and explain to them that these people should not be in business due to the lack of professionalism and customer service. i think you should release the name of the shop, word travels really fast. and with credentials like this they wont be open for long.

brody

 

yes please pm us the name of the shop, so we can avoid them... and i love your sig xlr8n i feel your pain man just 30 more days for me!!! hey nick i called the wife she doesnt care let me fig out when she is gonna be around and sorry for the hijack

 

yes please pm us the name of the shop, so we can avoid them... and i love your sig xlr8n i feel your pain man just 30 more days for me!!! hey nick i called the wife she doesnt care let me fig out when she is gonna be around and sorry for the hijack

 

oops! ws6man, its that damn internet huh? lol

brody

 

That is pretty sad Tom! I'm glad he was able to get it to you to get his car running right. I agree that I can't believe that they said it was the track timers that were off. Thats funny and sad at the same time...

 

I gave him a complete write up of all the issues I discovered and repaired. I also documented the repairs with pictures of the problems and saved all the parts for him. I advised him to at least demand a refund, talk to a lawyer about a possible small claims case, and rip them up on the internet forums. I will let the customer release the name of the shop if he wants to. Personally the longer they stay in business the better for me, as their screwups keep coming my way

 

Very good business practice TJ. You are a true professoinal!!!!

 

Fast Specialties in Vancouver. They also apparently can't work on Fords. I have a friend in Kennewick who came to see them. Car won't start and idle when cold.

Another guy I know drove in with a running C4 corvette. 8 months later had to get a lawyer to demand his car back minus a motor and a hacked up wiring job that shouldn't even have been installed.

Nothing but garbage comes out of there.

 

Wow, google'd them and amazing some guy trusted them with his Ford GT

http://home.fastspecialties.com/

 

You know its funny, as soon as you said the name it reminded me of something an I had to check a site, an wouldnt you know it, I was right. This guy I know got his skittle worked on there an boy did he have some problems--here's the post he made

Okay, so I picked it up even though they begged me for more time.

1.) FPR was hooked up to see vacuum, even though i told them not to do it that way. Base FP is 42PSI, and if it dips below that, the fuel does not get atomized, and it will idle like crap.
2.) They were pulling -46 % fuel at idle. This should be more like -35% tops.
3.) Dash assembly was not even attempted to be put back together.
4.) Many cuts and scratches in my dash, highly doubt they will own up to it.
5.) TiAL BOV has the wrong spring in it, so i'm getting lots of surge when just driving around casually.
6.) my 250$ boost gauge is not reading vacuum, OR boost properly, even though it is properly hooked up.
7.) DTEC isn't reading boost or vacuum properly, even though it is properly hooked up
8.) Wiring harness for all my tuning items (wideband, knock light, DTEC) strewn about and not even connected up properly.
9.) Took the sticker off my windshield, but failed to actually replace it. ( I ended up pulling the plug on that operation)
10.) My cams were adjusted 5 degrees in the wrong direction on both sides
11.) Car kicks and bucks violently, and is impossible to drive under 2K rpms, and over 3K rpms
12.) They said they finished tuning the car, but as far as I can tell, I paid 700$ for tuning that accomplished nothing.

Thank you fast, for keeping my car for 5 months, not doing ****, and giving me a pile of garbage leaving me to pick up after you.

 

sounds good evan, just let me know when, thanx

 

again, thanks tjwong. i cant believe that you spent the time to pm everyone, it just shows your profesionalism.

brody