This is just a heads up for anyone considering doing business with Dallas Performance.

I'm sure they have a lot of satisfied customers and I've heard they do great work, but in my particular case I found their customer service a bit lacking.

I own a 2000 C5 Corvette which I need to have tuned. I do a lot of road course HPDE events, so I was interested in having the car tuned on a load bearing dyno because my research suggests tuning on one can provide better driveability.

I recently moved to Colorado from Oklahoma. I left the car in Oklahoma because there were a few odds and ends that needed to be finished up and it needed to be tuned.

As there was an HPDE event down at Texas World Speedway at the end of March, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to trailer the car down to Dallas and have it tuned on the Friday before the event, then attend the event on Saturday and Sunday, then drive it back to Colorado on Monday.

I did some research and contacted Dallas Performance about tuning my car.

I emailed Dallas Performance on Feb. 15th to schedule an appointment for March 25th. I explained that I would be bringing the car down from Oklahoma and that I had a track event that weekend. They promptly emailed me back and said that they had put me on their schedule and to call them with the details.

I called the same day and spoke with an employee named John (who apparently is no longer with the company). I explained the details of my car and he said it would be no problem for them to tune it and that I was on the schedule for March 25th at 10am. I told him we would be leaving OKC early in that morning and that being there by 10am would work good for us.

With the tuning scheduled, I booked a plane flight from Colorado to OKC for Thursday, March 24th and registered for the track event at TWS.

Today I called Dallas Performance to confirm that everything was still a go and spoke with Chris who said that John was no longer with the company and that he could not find me on their schedule for Friday March 25th. He also informed me that the Texas Mile event was that weekend and that he didn't think they would even be in the shop on that day.

I explained the situation to Chris, that I had travel reservations and a track event to attend and that I'd made the reservation over a month in advance and he said he would work something out and call me back.

After an hour and a half with no return phone call, I called a friend of mine to see if he could arrange for the car to be trailered down to Dallas earlier in the week and he said he would personally take it down there for me if they would make room in their schedule.

I called Chris back and he said, "Yeah, no problem, we can do it on Tuesday." He said that it appeared that John had scheduled me for February 25th instead of March 25th. This seemed odd to me because they didn't bother to contact me when I didn't show up on Feb. 25th.

A few hours later I get a call back from Chris. He says that they have a couple of other cars that they have to get ready for the Texas Mile and that there's absolutely no way they can get to my car this week.

So now I'm scrambling to see if I can find someone else to tune my car in time for the track event next weekend.

I understand when people make mistakes. When a business is successful, it gets busier and often it grows faster than can be managed efficiently.

But when a mistake like this is made and someone gives you a week to make it right, it seems like an effort should be made to work it out. Unfortunately it seems I wasn't much of a priority for them.

If you schedule your car to be tuned at Dallas Performance, you might want to call them fairly often to make sure you're still on their radar.

Alan

 

this honestly warranted a public post?? people like yourself often times do not realize the damage you guys do with your "just letting you guys know" posts.. just my opinion... sorry they couldnt put you ahead of customer's that have likely dropped 20+k at their shop, just so you could make your HPDE day....

 

So it's ok to blow off customers?? Not impressed by your opinion!

 

Ryne,

Vendors with opinions like yours are the reason that customers like us have to use public forums to warn each other about poor customer service.

Vendors like yourself often times do not realize the damage you do when you take small customers for granted and belittle them because they're only attending an HPDE event.

If you re-read my post, you'll see that I never said not to do business with the shop in question. I simply suggested that my experience with their customer service was lacking and that others should be aware.

After posting this, Dallas Performance contacted me and apologized for not being able to fit me into their schedule.

Attitudes like yours - that the smaller jobs aren't as important are missing the fact that small jobs like a tune can often lead to much larger jobs from satisfied customers. And I assure you that the shop that did manage to fit me into their schedule (they were booked solid all week too) will be doing my next 20K job, and I'll be recommending them to all of my fellow HPDE peons.

I'm surprised that as a vendor you would risk alienating potential customers by posting such a callous attitude towards customer service on a public forum.

 

Regardless of the shops busy schedule, the Texas Mile dates are established well before a week in advance so shops and owners know to have their cars in line and ready to go.

Yes, a shop gets busy once it’s established. No, that does not mean they can jack around potential/existing customers. Be honest, straight forward and to the point. If this shop knew well before hand their high dollar customers will be in line for tune’s and work before the Texas Mile they should notify any customer or potential customer as soon as they know the dates that for XX-amount of days they will not be available for a tune or service, because that’s simple customer service.

OP didn’t bash this shop at all. He stated that the customer service he encountered was well below his expectations and being jacked with this soon to his event as well really made a problem on his part. I’m happy he posted this experience. It will save how many other potential customers the hassle of trying to find a last minute tune because this shop cannot keep a secure schedule for the dates to come? Unfortunately neither the shop nor this forum would ever know how many prospecting customers will avoid last minute scheduling for this shop, but at least they know to seek elsewhere if they have a deadline.

I don’t care if you spend $5 or $50,000, a customer is a customer. A sale is a sale. A deal is a deal. Don’t offer being available for a service and turn around and cancel that close and make lame excuses. An apology is an excellent method of resolving a conflict when you’re in second grade. An apology on a forum for the public would be a little bit better. In the end I don’t care how many times you tell me “I’m sorry for blah blah blah” I want to know what YOU, the shop manager/owner, will do to get my services in the future!

 

@ Ryne @ CMS: the link to your web site is no longer active.

 

WOW. The OP scheduled far enough in advance, He Called on Feb. 15th to schedule an appointment for March 25th, they even emailed him after that CONFIRMING THE APPT!

I'm glad that he gave us a heads up. I would be pissed to show up at a dyno session that was scheduled to find out that it wasnt or they bumped me to make a faster buck.

A customer that spends $100 could eventually spend 20K. Its first impressions that makes a customer come back to spend more. If they treat me like crap for $100 why would I give them more $$?

Mark CMS off my list of LS1 tech sponsors to deal with!

 

Yes it did. I guess your shop would be one of the those "Your service depends on what you pay / who you are".

 

Makes me want to do more research before I finally get my car tuned. Thank God I live next to Ragin Racin and 45 minutes from Thunder.

Hey Ryne, brings a whole new meaning to "**** and fall back in it" huh?

 

^^ this guy, My car sat at his shop for a ******* month waiting on a dyno tune! He said it would sit there for 2 weeks at most. 2 weeks went by, then another week, then another.
Then they final call me and tell me they cant get it to idle right, and that my throttle blade was open alittle bit, so they closed it and couldnt get it to idle. well no **** u couldn't get it to idle!! I had a FAST 90mm, so i dont have a hole in my throttle body blade!!!! of course its cracked open alittle bit!!! how the hell else would it get air. so i went and got my car from them. with no dyno tune after they had my car for a month!!!!
I get my car back with i ******* 99 tune in my computer, (i have a 01), no one has a single clue as to why they flashed a 99 tune to my computer, as the 01+ operating system is better. So i couldn't get back into my own computer with HPTuners

 

WOW, I would have insisted that they flashed your 01 OS back into your PCM before you left.

You didnt pay them did you!!??

Correct the Fast TB's do not have a hole in the blade, from what the guy at fast told me they get around that by having a larger IAC passage.

Seems like CMS is a place to stay away from.

 

No i didn't pay any thing excpect being without my car for a month.
He told me it had a "different cars" tune on it, and knew i hp tuners, and said i could just flash it back. When he told me it had a different tune i figured he meant he just did some segment swaps or something. I didn't know it was a complete 99 file flashed to my computer untill i got home. At that point i was done with CMS i never talked with them again, i never let them know how pissed i was.

 

That sucks, what a HORRIBLE expierence!

 

yeah, it was about a year ago now, I'm over it, but i couldn't bite my tongue when i saw Ryne's post.

 

Wow what a retard! Some professional huh? & they wonder why they get negative things posted about them on the net when they charge the big dollars they do for a tune & commit this kind of butchery? People make mistakes but from the sounds of it guys like this shouldnt be in business.

 

you didn't bust their *****?

 

no, there shop was an hour from my apartment one way. I didn't want to make the drive to have them flashed my computer back. So i didn't even call. I was pissed about them having my car for a month but i figured it would be worth it since everyone in socal said cms was the best place to tune LSX's.