92HB_HB

I did not want to do this.. But frankly, my patience has run out and I feel I've given Raceline Tuning ample opportunities to make things right..

(And I’m a pretty patient guy)

THE LONG STORY:

(Cliff Notes below)

I gave this shop a chance to tune my hatch. I trailored it 4.5 hours to their shop for a tuning session back on 10/7/06. Everything went smoothly that day and I made it back home w/o incident.

After driving on this tune for a month and logging my fuel mileage, I noticed that my gas mileage sucked and was allot worse than what my previous tune was giving me. I even swapped out 02 sensors to see if the original might have been clogged.. That wasn't the case, both sensors were working properly and I didn't see a difference in fuel consumption b/w the two..

So I called and talked to Josh, the tuner. This was around 11/6 - 11/7.. I left a message with one of the guys to have him call back on the 1st attempt, which he never did.. On the 2nd attempt, I reached him I let him know what was going on w/ his tune and asked if he could look at the burned map to see if there was anything out of the ordinary. He told me he would look at it and call me back.

A day or two passes, and I don't hear from him, so I call him back to see what’s up. He tells me the map may have gotten messed up a little when it was burned and he would re-burn the MAP and send it to me. I also asked him to burn a 2nd chip of my old tune because that one gave me good gas mileage even though the full throttle maps were not tuned yet for the new setup. He said it was cool and would get them both shipped out immediately.. So we hang up and I wait patiently for them to arrive..

Keep in mind, he's only 4-5 hours away, so it shouldn't take more than 2 days to get the chips at my door.. Well 3 days pass and still no chips... So I call back on 11/11 - 11/12 and ask if he's sent them out yet.. Guess what, he didn't have my address and would need it to ship them out.. So I give it to him and blow it off as an honest mistake on each other's part and wait out a few more days for the chips to arrive..

I wait patiently for another 3 days, no chips, so I call back on 11/19.. This time he tells me quickly over the phone, "You should get them any day now" and that was the end of the call.. He never provided me any specific shipping info.. Again I give him the benefit of the doubt and wait patiently over the holiday weekend for the chips.

11/26 comes, and still no chips, so I call back with my patience running out.. He blows me off and says he'll look for the tracking #'s and he's working on getting 3 other people’s shipments located. He also says he'll call me back in 1 hour and hangs up. Guess what, 4 fricken hours pass before I decide to call back that same day.. When I reach him, he now tells me he sent them out last week when we talked on the 19th via USPS priority mail.. I’m thinking to myself, "the fucck, thought you sent them out before the 19th?" Being the foregiving and patient guy that I am, I give it a couple more days to see if they arrive..

Guess what, they NEVER arrive.. So I call back on 11/29 before noon and demand answers.. When I reach him, he says he sent them last week and he then wanted to verify my mailing address and reads off what he wrote down.. Aparrently he missed a digit.. So for the 2nd time, I give him the correct address and benefit of the doubt.. He then says he'll check later that day to see if they sent the package back to the UPS drop station and get back to me.. He also promises he'll "OVER-NIGHT" the package to me if it's there; thus, I should get it by Friday or Saturday. So I give him a few hours to see if the package was returned to UPS, at the same time thinking, "I thought he said he sent it USPS priority the other day?" Later that day, I check back, and he says it is there and he would go re-send it..

Fast forward to today, 12/5/06. Still no Fricken chip and my gas mileage is even worse w/ the colder weather.. I'm at about 140 miles on my current fill up in my hatch and it’s nearing "E" already.. This is just with mild city driving and some hwy, no boosting.. So I call @ 4 pm looking to talk to Josh, the guy who picked up says he's out tuning a car on the street and will be back in an hr. Who does street tuning when you have a Mustang Dyno?? So I wait about an hour and call back, this time I get a different guy, the guy says Josh is there and also asks my name. He then puts me on hold for 8 minutes and towards the end of the call, I kind of hear them in the background wispering and fiddling w/ the phone line.. At that time, the call is disconnected and I am super furious now. I call back 4 times and they don't pick up the calls.. He's got my cell number, but has never returned any of my calls even after promising to.. I didn't didn't even a get call back after the phone disconnected, had it been an "accident". Thus, this was pretty much the last straw..


CLIFF NOTES:
------------
- Got a decent full throttle tune w/ about 3+ total hrs on the dyno..

- After a month of gas mileage logging, realized part-throttle maps where shitty and not to par with previous tune.. Got much better mileage on regular city/hwy driving with my Payn Tune..

- Followed up with Tuner regarding part throttle maps.. Tuner said he looked at map and acknowledged the map have been messed up during the burning process. He promises to re-burn and ship the corrected chips out.. Wait with anticipation and EXTREME patience for the new chips to arrive..

- It’s all Downhill from here.

- Coming up on a Month, and still no chip. CONSTANTLY BEEN GIVEN THE RUN-A-ROUND AND COUNTLESS EXCUSES WHY THE CHIPS HAVEN'T ARRIVED. Finally, blown off today by the shop via disconnecting phone.

- **** poor customer service/support after the sale. Seems like they're looking for the one time customer, not the repeat customer.

- Should I be FURIOUS? or is a commonly acceptable practice?

-----

FRANKLY, I'm just TIRED of this RUN-A-ROUND SH|T and EXPECTED ALOT MORE PROFESIONALISM and COURTIOUS FOLLOW-UP with Josh and his shop.

I went to them with optimism and a good conscience, hoping to build a strong customer relationship and bring them more business.. I know quite a few people who's cars need a good tune and I thought this shop would deliver. After going through this much crap, I regret my decision and wish I had gone elsewhere.

to RACELINE Tuning!! Your customer service/support TRUELY SUCKS!!

------

I am now looking for a new tuner for next year and will definitely think twice before committing.

siblues

iTrader: (1)

Good luck with your problems man I truely understand what it feels like when you get screwed I was in the same boat and eneded up waiting 16 months for a build to get done but thats another story.

DaveF

i wish bad gas milage was the higlight of my life.

Dunc

PM sent to you man....

g2turbo

Shitty! There is no excuse for any of that nonsense. Sorry to hear about your experience and its good to post this so others will see what the service is like and steer clear.

1Quikgsr

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by dturbocivic &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i wish bad gas milage was the higlight of my life. </TD></TR></TABLE>

lolll so all this because you get bad gas mileage? put your **** back to stock then

kordenbrock motorsports

i have heard much worse coming from that shop. its to no surprise that **** is still and will always be all "hay-wire" up there...good luck though. keep bugging josh (thats what i did...and my brother and so the list continues....)

brett

gutted-dx

iTrader: (1)

Raceline
I'm guessing we are talking about the same josh, he called me back once out of the many of times he said he would call back, i hads to call everytime.
Horrible customer service, and i got **** jacked out of my car. (MSD 6AL and JG Cam gears)
Also the car was never fixed.

nsxmatt

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by dturbocivic &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i wish bad gas milage was the higlight of my life. </TD></TR></TABLE>

It might be if you had a running car.

sohc_turd

yeah it sounds like poor customer service, but if it was only tuned on the dyno at WOT what more can you expect??

and a chip sent through the mail isn't guaranteeing 30mpg. You just got to tune part throttle on the street.

sewell94

if you drove 4.5 hrs to raceline you should drive the same distance to have Blundar tune your car. He is pretty **** about getting his tunes right, one of the cars he tuned for a customer of mine gets about 30 mpg and thats on a 500hp h22. You really can't say enough about the guy and his tuning abilities.

pheurton-skeurto

...take your **** to slowmotion in columbus. corey is mad professional/honest, and for my money-which is worth double yours-he is the best tuner around. no questions asked.

i havent heard anything bad yet about raceline until now...ive just seen a bunch of high hp shop cars. apparently they take a lot more pride in their own **** than their customer's (which is ironic to me).

ccivic

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by sewell94 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">if you drove 4.5 hrs to raceline you should drive the same distance to have Blundar tune your car. He is pretty **** about getting his tunes right, one of the cars he tuned for a customer of mine gets about 30 mpg and thats on a 500hp h22. You really can't say enough about the guy and his tuning abilities. </TD></TR></TABLE>

del slw

there has only been one shop car. the right hand drive civic hatch. it has been retired since last year. all the other high hp cars have been customer cars; and mine, but i too was once a customer, and still did all the work myself. just like i used to in my own garage

HiProfile

Depending on how valuable your time is... If you have a day, drive up there. Make sure you call before hand (from a friend's phone), pretending to be a big hot shot looking for a tune, and that you heard Josh was some big deal. Basicly make sure he'll be there. Drive up, demand answers. Park in front of their most-used door, and pull the ecu fuse. If they complain, call a cop, letting him know it was *their* tune that disabled your car, and that its *their* resposibility to have it towed 4.5h back to your house. They can either pay the driver, or you.

Then do the responsible thing, and let blundar tune you.


BTW, dynos are best for checking ignition timing, street tunes are best for AFR's - unless you drive mostly in a closed room w/o airflow.

seen4ever

there are alot of people around that tune, just move on to the next guy. There are quiet a bit of good tuner's in our little region, just most are pretty unknown.

pbsracerx

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by pheurton-skeurto &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">...take your **** to slowmotion in columbus. corey is mad professional/honest, and for my money-which is worth double yours-he is the best tuner around. no questions asked.

i havent heard anything bad yet about raceline until now...ive just seen a bunch of high hp shop cars. apparently they take a lot more pride in their own **** than their customer's (which is ironic to me).</TD></TR></TABLE>

Thanks for the support!

Joshua
SlowMotion Motorsports

92HB_HB

UPDATE..

Got a map of my old chip burned and shipped back and guess what.. It doesn't even idle or run my car..

DaveF

maybe there is something else wrong with your car......

94whtgsr

just like someone above already stated, a dyno is used mainly for WOT pulls so what more can you expect?

nsxmatt

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 94whtgsr &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">just like someone above already stated, a dyno is used mainly for WOT pulls so what more can you expect?</TD></TR></TABLE>

A Mustang dyno is load bearing so you can tune part throttle with it.

92HB_HB

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 94whtgsr &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">just like someone above already stated, a dyno is used mainly for WOT pulls so what more can you expect?</TD></TR></TABLE>

EXACTLY, that's why I took it there, just so I could get my WOT map tuned.. I went in w/ a good part throttle tune (good gas mileage etc) and a much needed full throttle tune..

Thus, to answer your question, I expected a full profesional tune w/ 100% satisfication, instead I got much less than that.. In the end, I came out with the total opposite; decent full throttle tune and very sub-par part throttle map.. And that, I did not expect...

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by nsxmatt &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">A Mustang dyno is load bearing so you can tune part throttle with it. </TD></TR></TABLE>

My point exactly, that's why I went there in the 1st place.. My last compentent tuner did both full and part throttle tuning soley on a mustang dyno and it ran perfectly.. Excellent gas mileage, power, and reliability.. Never did he have to take it on the street for some part throttle tuning..

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by dturbocivic &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">maybe there is something else wrong with your car......</TD></TR></TABLE>

The ONLY thing wrong with my car at the moment is my SH1TTY gas mileage, everything else if fine..

sohc_turd

Ive always tuned my own car and will never let anyone else touch my car, and with that being said I just feel that the prerequesite to going turbo is learning how to tune your own car. I just feel that you will never get a better tune than by tuning yourself. On multiple fuel setups on my car- sometimes it'll take me several weeks perfecting a tune because once i think i have it good... i'll find another little spot that needs tweeking and so forth. So the tune is constantly being chopped down to perfection.

I don't know how them pro tuners do it in one session but props to them.

F20Cteg

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 94whtgsr &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">just like someone above already stated, a dyno is used mainly for WOT pulls so what more can you expect?</TD></TR></TABLE>


That is a bunch of crap.

I always do the sub 0 in/hg by having the car in 5th gear on the dyno. You can tune almost the entire map that way. Then you can do the 3rd or 4th gear pulls for WOT depending on how much power is being put down.


Also, street tuning is always a good idea after dyno tuning. The street will tell about real-life loading conditions.

nsxmatt

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by sohc_turd &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Ive always tuned my own car and will never let anyone else touch my car, and with that being said I just feel that the prerequesite to going turbo is learning how to tune your own car....

</TD></TR></TABLE>

You should have a basic concept of what tuning is but every person who goes turbo should not tune their own car, that's just dumb. Tuners get paid what they do for the years and years of tuning knowledge they have learned and thier ability to pull big numbers with a safe tune. Telling someone to take his newly built $5k motor with $3k turbo kit and go "learn" to tune on his own is the worst piece of advice you could give someone and the reason people blow motors.