Slow Boy Racing Nightmare (Very Long)

[spyderturbo007]

Just wanted to inform everyone about my horrible experience with Slowboy Racing.

I had an appointment on July 5th to have an EVO III 16g, 650 FIC injectors and a 190lph Walboro fuel pump installed by SBR. I also had them replace the valve cover gasket and the gaskets for the spark plug wells, as one of the wells was filling up with oil. I traveled about 170 miles to get there and arrived at around 9:30am. I talked to Nate about the installation and the parts I was buying. He showed me all the parts and was very polite. He told me that they would start working on the car at about 11:30am when all the other employees arrived, so there were people there to answer the phone. Another person, who I assumed was Mike Huml, offered to have someone drive me to the mall, so I would have something to do. I was very impressed with their customer service to this point.

That is where everything went downhill…..

I had told Nate that I wanted to be present when he performed the WBO2 tuning and to call me when they were ready to tune. I was picked up at around 3:30pm and taken back to the shop. They told me they would have the car ready to be bolted to the dyno in about 45 minutes and would inform me before they started tuning. Before I knew it, the car was brought around front and told they were all finished. Huh, why wasn’t I informed that they were in the process of tuning? I looked over the car and noticed a little antifreeze under the car where it was parked. Nate got under the car with a rag and told me that the turbo was not leaking and some of the spilled antifreeze was dripping off the cross member. I was satisfied, everything looked ok, so I paid my bill and was off on my way home.

About 5 miles down the road, my logger was showing the O2 voltage at 0.00v. I proceeded back to the shop and had Nate come back out to take a look at the car. He verified that they had indeed plugged the O2 back in and said that it should “come back” on my drive home. He said that if the O2 didn’t start cycling when I got home to call and he would get me a new O2. That didn’t sound right to me, but I didn’t know if starting out with a really rich tune would leave the O2 coated with carbon that needed to be burned off. So I proceeded home. It had started to rain and traffic was heavy so I didn’t have a chance to jump on the car until about 30 miles away. As I was pulling out on the expressway (Rt. 22 East) I decided to “give it a romp”. I was in 3rd gear at about 5000 rpm’s and that’s when it happened. BANG! I heard this really loud noise and the car started to carry on and wouldn’t let me accelerate. So I coasted to the side of the road.

When I got out of the car, I was happy to see that the car still had all of it’s fluids and there wasn’t a giant hole in the block. I looked and noticed that the LICP had blow off from the side mount. Wow, that was scary! I had no tools to loosen and reinstall the clamp so I called SBR. It is now about 6:30pm. I was told that everyone had just left and they would try to get a hold of someone that could come out to help me. I was told to call back in 5 minutes. While I was waiting, I got back under the car to see if I could get the pipe back on and noticed that the front banjo bolt water feed line on the turbo was leaking. I looked around a little closer and saw that the oil feed line for the turbo was leaking at the oil filter housing. I hadn’t noticed it before I left because it was dripping on one of the plastic splash guards……great!

I was irritated, so I crawled out from under the car to smoke a cigarette. That’s when I noticed that they had snapped off on of my passenger side wheel studs, apparently while removing the wheel for the dyno tuning. WTF! I called SBR back to be told “sorry, I can’t get a hold of anyone and I’m the only one here, so I can’t help you.” “You can come back tomorrow and we will fix the car.” Huh, what! I live 170 miles away and my car won’t run, how do you want me to come back tomorrow. No tow truck offer, no AAA offer, NOTHING. So I hung up not happy.

I’m now stranded 140 miles from home, 4 miles from the nearest exit and it’s pouring.

Somehow, 15 minutes later, I was able to muscle the tightened clamp off the LICP and shove the pipe back on the intercooler. I proceed down the road with the hazards to the next exit. Thank god for Advanced Auto, I love those guys! I was able to borrow some tools from the nice guys there and get the LICP back on and tightened in the rain. One of them even let me use their raincoat! SBR could learn something from those guys! I purchased a 7/16 socket, ratchet, 1g of antifreeze and had 1 qt of oil in the car. Off I go, $16 later.

I stopped every 40 or 50 miles and filled the coolant reservoir, checked the oil and to make sure the 4 lug nuts I had left were still tight. Better safe than sorry!

Finally I get home and park the car…..wow, what a day!

I called SBR at 9:30am yesterday and talked to the manager Mark. I asked for Nate and was told he was unavailable, so I explained my situation. I was put on hold for about 10 minutes and who gets on the phone, but Nate. So, again I explained my problems and was told that they “forgot” to tell me about the wheel stud, sorry about the leaks and the pipe blowing off and they would sell me an O2 if I wanted. WTF. I have that logger on constantly displaying O2, airflow, timing and rpm. Nate said that he didn’t know if the O2 worked before I brought the car in, so they won’t do anything about it. Um, how did he set my FT’s with no O2???

I was placed back on the phone with Mark, as Nate had no authority to offer me anything. Mark told me to bring the car back in and they would take care of everything but the O2. Huh, the water leak and the O2 were bought to their attention before I left the shop and they KNEW they had snapped off the wheel stud. Why should I have to drive 170 miles back with a car leaking coolant, oil, a LICP that keeps blowing off and missing a wheel studs. I was then offered an O2 sensor at their cost and a store credit for 10 minutes of shop labor and $5 for the stud and lug nut. I told them that I was going to have to pay someone ½ minimum labor for the stud replacement and have never heard of a shop charging labor in 10 minute increments. They then offered me a $40 store credit to take car of the wheel stud and to sell me an O2 sensor at their cost….Wow, great, OK…..nice way to take care of a customer. I wanted them to send me a check for the cost of the wheel stud replacement, fixing the leaks and a new O2 sensor. Well, of course, no go there.

I decided that I wasn’t going to drive 170 miles back with a broken car and 170 miles home so they could fix problems that were brought to their attention before I left the shop. So, I gave up. I’m sure they figured they could get away with doing that to me, as they knew where I lived and that I had paid in cash. Side note: Always pay for this kind of stuff with a credit card or by check!

I took the day off work yesterday and called a friend that has a lift. I got the wheel stud and lug nut from the dealer for $7.63 and was able to install that. We removed the clamp from the LICP and replaced it with 2 worm clamps. The clamp they installed was too big and bottomed out before it was tight enough to hold the pipe on the side mount. My friend fixed the coolant leak at the turbo and I was able to fix the oil leak at the oil filter housing. Apparently they used pipe dope on the fitting instead of Teflon and didn’t coat the threads enough. We figured out why the O2 sensor wasn’t working…..it looks like they had beat the shit out of it with a hammer. It is bent (see picture). I have that on order from the dealer and will be getting it next week ($123).

http://www.dsmtalk.com/gallery/showp...cat=500&page=1

I can’t understand how a company like this stays in business. I will never deal with them again and will do everything I can to make sure people are informed of their habits. All of the problems were either told to them before I left, or they were aware of but didn’t tell me.

That’s my horror story……

Short version:

Boy pays company $2100 for parts and labor.
Company butchers installation and breaks customer’s car.
Boy informs company.
Company tells boy to go piss up a rope.

[scottsee]

wow. thats just wrong. i've been involved with some situations with businesses. that one dosn't make sence. How could somone's definition of customer service be: Make the customer pay for damages casued by the incompatince of our shop's employee's. At the veary least, admit to the problem presented being the fault of your employees, even if your not going to provide further services to compensate. it sounds like Mark tried to help, but needs to go back to Mangment Tranning.

sorry bro, but how's it pull!!

[spyderturbo007]

Originally Posted by scottsee

sorry bro, but how's it pull!!

Truthfully, I have no idea. I got on it once in 3rd gear at about 3500 rpm's and about 2 seconds later....POW there goes the LICP.

The rest of the time I spent nursing it home and to my friends garage. Got the leaks fixed, but I need some more questions answered before I go slamming on it. I am going to start another thread with my questions.

Thanks for the support. I am going to do everything I can to reduce this company's business.

[l_eclipse_l]

For you to throw down that much money at a business and for them to treat you the way they did, I can't imagine how pissed off you are. They should have fixed everything from the start, without giving you a bunch of shit about it, and then given you some type of store credit on top of it, to try and entice you to keep doing business with them.

Things like this will happen on occasion. Just take your licks, spread the word, and move on trying to find another reliable business. I have to think that they don't treat their customers like this every day, because as far as I have heard, Slow Boy is a good company. It just sucks it was you that had to find out they arn't as good as everybody says, all the time.

[-Josh-]

Nothing pisses me off than hearing stories like this, this is why the auto industry has such a bad rep because of shit like this happening, if you came into the shop i work for, we would make sure you didn't have any of the problems you had, and whatever concerns you had would be taken care of free of charge. I'm sorry you had those problems, they should have helped you with everything.

[gthompson97]

that sucks big balls. i was always under the impression that SBR was a pretty decent business but i guess i was wrong.

[TsiTalon9587]

Sorry to hear about that, I guess it goes to show that the best way to get things done is to learn how to do it yourself. I don't like shop bashing, and I doubt it's allowed on this forum, but to me it's a matter of who actually *cares* about what they are working on that depicts what the end result it. In all honesty, I haven't had anything go wrong through SBR and I've bought thousands of dollars worth of parts from them. It surpises me that things like this happen.

I blow off IC couplers all the time, scares me everytime, and I have lost so many worm clamps from it. Sounds like you and I need tome t-bolt clamps.

[hellah fresh]

Damn sorry to hear that man. If i was you... take it to and Import shop that is operated my asians. Not to be racist or anything but... I dont think i would trust my car with a bunch of stupid white boys that thinks they know what hell they are doing. Thats just my opinion... asian knows their shit and also they wouldnt "forget" to tell you they broke a wheel stud.

[Whathits14]

hmm that blows donkey....When I put my UICP on it blew off a couple of times...Its tightened waaaaay down now, hasn't given me shit since. I don't see why shop bashing would not be allowed, we should share our experiances with other dsm'ers so they don't get their balls in a vice...

[kjewer1]

I think sharing your experience as in the original post in this thread is ok. I just can't stand when the person brings it up every single time SBR is mentioned for the next 5 years. I hope that doesn't happen in this case.

Sucks that things worked out this way.

[JoeWagon]

Sounds like all of them were pretty nice, and honestly I can see forgetting about the wheel stud. I assume they are in a hurry over there and didn't properly fasten the water and oil lines. You were probably able to fix it easily because there wasn't anything broken. As a manager, you have to be nice to customers but losing hundreds of dollars because one of your employees took a shortcut hurts. Let us know if your o2 comes back with the new sensor. There is no excuse for the bent o2 sensor, though. It doesn't sound TERRIBLE but I can see how it feels much worse because you were stranded in the rain at night.

[Thor06]

Holy shit man, that fuckin blows. I am never going to get anything from them. If I were you I would go down there and give them a good hard pimp smack. How can they treat someone like that after they spent over 2g's? Well, I hope everything works out for you man.

[Shpyder]

A good manager also knows that a single customer carries the potential to bring in more business or lose many would-bes.

Screw-ups happen, that isnt the issue. The issue is responding aqequately to the screw-up. Being polite doesnt do a whole lot if youre stranded out there like he was. Every trouble caused by their screw-up, directly or indirectly, they should be liable for, which includes no transport, towing issues, everything. A good manager goes out of his way if he can to help out...sounds a lot like people at SBR, in this particular case, couldnt give a fuck, and each passed his responsibility to another like a run-around. Any person part of the equation should have tried harder.

I say this, because the first time I had lowering springs installed on my car in San Jose, my car left the shop at 9MP. They closed shop and everyone headed home. The manager gave me his cell phone number just incase, even after a few trial runs. On the freeway at around 10PM, something came lose, started clanging, etc, like the car was about to break, and I pulled over. I called the guy, who lived 45 minutes away. Without an instant, he told me he was coming over. He got there with two other cars. Drove my car back to the shop. Opened the garage up. Fixed the problem (one of the newer employess had not installed a "bumpstop" or something). And refunded my 35% of my money. By the time we got out, it was 1 AM. THATS customer service.

Most of the times, popular places like SBR perhaps lose that ideal, which is fine...they have enough business coming in as it is, and they are just one of a handful of professional turbo upgrading places around, so being a monopoly helps you get away with shit like this with an apology and a smile. Which is the way it works. I don't have to complain though. I live near RRE

[spyderturbo007]

Originally Posted by TsiTalon9587

I don't like shop bashing, and I doubt it's allowed on this forum, but to me it's a matter of who actually *cares* about what they are working on that depicts what the end result it.

I do not consider my original post "shop bashing". The post was a statement of pure fact. At no point did I write anything slanderous or make personal attacks directed towards the employees.

Originally Posted by Thor06

Holy shit man, that fuckin blows. I am never going to get anything from them

That is awesome! After having this experience, I am trying to inform as many people as possible so the same thing doesn't happen to them. I see that they are getting more negative reviews on www.dsmtalk.com and www.vendors-reviewed.com lately. Maybe they should look into that.

I am in the process of filing a complaint with the BBB, so we'll see how that goes.

Thanks for the support guys.

Originally Posted by 95GSXRacer

I think sharing your experience as in the original post in this thread is ok. I just can't stand when the person brings it up every single time SBR is mentioned for the next 5 years. I hope that doesn't happen in this case.

Sucks that things worked out this way.

I don't plan on doing that.....Maybe 4 1/2 years!

[kjewer1]

To be honest, the BBB is not going to give a shit about an o2 sensor and a 7 dollar stud, LMAO. They have enough on thier hands with people that have much bigger problems. Its not like they blew your motor and sent you on your way I had an oil change/muffler shop ruin a motor. I took care of the problem, because accidents happen (and it was really the fault of the mitsu engineers), then politely informed them about it, told them what they can do about it to prevent it from happening to other (less agreeable) people, etc. I have recieved thousands of dollars in work at substantial discounts since then. I got much more out of working with the shop than trying to put them out of business. It's times like this when poeple really show thier true character. Maybe I'm just in a bad mood because I just woke up, but this thread is starting to sound like a lot of crying. Lets not forget that the vast majority of poeple that do business with SBR have a good experience. Share your experience in the appropriate places, then get on with life. But thats just my 2 cents.