my expierance with a local shop (FL)
03-30-2009, 10:43 PM
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my expierance with a local shop (FL)
Enhanced Concepts
I am not one to complain about a company on the internet after receiving poor service at a business, In light of recent finding I feel I have no choice I recently had a serious issue with this shop and I would recommend that you DON’T take you car to this establishment .Why you ask let me explain……..
I decided to upgrade again from Manual valves to electronic to make the lifting and lowering more controlled and a little quicker. I had a friend that owned a shop I had been recommending to all of my friends for awhile now just based on the reputation and the quality of work I saw. I had also been handing out flyers at all of the shows that I attend to help my friend promote his business and get his name out there. So it was a no brainer when I decided to upgrade who I would trust with my car to do the work. I went to Enhanced Concepts and spoke to the owner (My Friend) who gave me an estimate of $1300.00 to install all of the new parts on my car. We discussed in detail what I wanted done and I stated to him that I only had $1500.00 to spend if he saw that he was going over that cost he would have to leave some parts off or change the set up to fit the pricing we laid out. The owner stated he wanted to mold the new control panel in the ashtray of the car I told him I only wanted the ashtray cut out and the control panel laid in there because I wanted to be able to take it out at my leisure to prevent theft, ECT. The Owner advised me that he wanted my car to be his show piece and this would be at his cost. It would be his signature piece on the car. I re-inerated that it must be at his cost because I had only $1500.00 to pay him. I paid $1500.00 CASH up front and dropped my car off to be worked on. 2 days into the build I visited the shop and had a discussion with The owner on how much nicer my car would look if I changed out the spacers on the wheels to make them a little more aggressive. The owner told me he could change out the wheel studs and spacers if I provided them while the car was off the ground. He would only charge me 4 hours of labor. I agreed to the additional costs of the spacers and studs and purchased the spacers from another retailer and had them overnighted to me. I took them to the shop and had them install them. The shop tech didn’t have an impact strong enough to change out the studs so I brought my own. The car was supposed to be ready for pickup in 1 week including the spacer adds. At the end of the week I was told that the car was not done and it would be until Tuesday of the next week. I continued to check on my car periodically and speak to my friend about the additional costs to add the spacers. He told me I was getting a great rate of 45.00 an hour and not to worry we would take care of everything. I told him that I wanted to pay the bill before I picked up the car to get it ready for me. On Monday night before my car was supposed to be picked up I took my Friend out to dinner just to say thank you for the work and price break he was already giving me. On Tuesday I got a call from the shop tech saying that my car was not ready it wouldn’t be ready until Wednesday evening and Frank would bring the bill up to the Tuesday night meet at Tampa bay Sports Grille. I still wasn’t concerned until I went to the meet and Frank never showed. Later on at the meet the shop tech Alex showed up and said Frank couldn’t make it I asked Alex to call and ask how much my bill was so I could get the money together and ready to pick up my car tomorrow. Alex called Frank and asked how much the bill was and wouldn’t tell me he handed me the phone and Frank told me I owed an additional $1180.00 on top of what I already paid……………………………………..
I could only say what a normal person would say HOW?????? At this point I could tell that Frank was shocked to hear that I might be disputing the bill in any way and became aggravated with me and said I had to add the spacer and modify the ash tray. I said I didn’t want the ash tray modified remember Frank you were doing that as your signature piece. Frank Immediately became Irate and threaten to push my car outside unfinished. I left the meet and drove over to his shop where his car was parked out front knocked on the bay door to discuss this with my so called friend. He wouldn’t answer the door and speak to me so I decided to let him cool down and come back tomorrow when I could discuss the overage with him and work out the differences. Wednesday I showed up to pick up my car it was still unfinished and Frank was not at the shop instead I was told by Alex the shop tech that my car was not completed because Frank had to move his friend and he wouldn’t be back until tomorrow. At this point it occurs to me that I never saw Frank work on my car it was always his shop tech or Apprentice as he calls him. His Apprentice was putting my stereo back together , after he installed the amps he turned on the car and I immediately said the RCA’s sound backwards something is not right. You might have them backwards or something do you have it hooked up right. Alex stated he knew what he was doing and I shouldn’t worry about it. At this point Alex still had the car running and touched a ground tester on one of the subs which immediately caused a loud thump and a sound like a spark to come through the speakers. He did this about 2 more times when I told him to stop before he broke something. I will find out later that he BLEW the ground traces in the head unit. I asked Alex if Frank would be back tonight he said no I asked if he left a copy of the bill for me to see. Alex brought me a copy of the bill and left for the night and told him I would be back tomorrow to pick up my car and settle the issue with the bill with Frank. Thursday night at 6:00pm I came to the shop ready to pickup my car again and still no Frank at the shop and the car was not completed. Instead the Apprentice tells me the Air controller they just put in doesn’t hold the ride height and it will have to be reprogrammed. He also tells me that mysteriously there is a bad engine noise coming through my stereo and he cannot figure out why. I stated “ What kind of operation are you guys running here” . Alex disappeared into the office and got on the phone. He left the door open to the shop so my wife walked down to the outside of the door and listened in on the conversation he was having. Alex was on the phone with Frank and telling him that myself, my wife and my mother were calling his shop a piece of **** and we were talking mad **** about Frank and Alex. Soon after this Alex walked out of the office and hands me a bill stating owed$ 850.00 more instead of the original $1180.00 along with my keys and says Frank wants you gone before he gets back he is done with you.
I took my car home in complete disbelief as to what had just occurred. I thought surely this must have been a misunderstanding I called Franks cell phone and got bombarded by Alex and Frank screaming obscenities at me on the phone and calling me a *****. I tried to reason with Frank on the phone telling him that his Apprentice was not telling the whole truth and causing unnecessary trouble. Instead they continued this time calling my wife and mother names. I gave it one last attempt to reason with Frank to have him fix my car and settle the bill that I supposedly owed. I told him the new bill was 850.00 I would pay $450.00 and give him back the ashtray he spent 10 hours modifying and we could call it even. Franks statement was that his pride wouldn’t let him take my money; I said that was stupidity not pride. And we ended the call.
Since then I have spent close to 1000.00 trying to repair all of the damage that this shop caused and make my car ready for HIN Tampa this month. When I got my car home the stereo had engine noise and a loud humming coming from the subs and none of the panels for the stereo would line up in the trunk. It turned out that the shop blew all of the ground traces out of my Pioneer navigation head unit when the shop tech while I was standing there had the stereo on and used a ground tester on my subs. This caused an unbelievably loud popping sound and still he continues to do this until I told him to stop. By then it was too late. The entire stereo had to be removed from the car to make the changes to the air suspension. But when it was installed by the shop they moved the entire stereo over about ½ inch which caused all of the panels to line up. While cutting wires in the center console to install the new control box the shop cut the power to the center console TV. This is just the problems with the stereo.
The Air suspension had a serious leak when I brought the car home and parked it over night all of the air was out of the system in the morning. Turns out the valve they installed at the rear of the car to remote fill and drain the tank was leaking. After repairing this I noticed a more serious problem. When the air is taken out of the tank the car will slam down. That’s right even if I was driving down the road it would slam down and severely damage my car. This is caused by the shop not installing a valve in the return line of the manifold so that it will hold air even if the tank malfunctions. If this was something that was not included in the price of the quote I was given I would have easily spent the extra to have them installed for my safety and for the security of my car. The modification I had done doesn’t work properly. It will go up manually and down manually but will not hold ride height. This is because the Easy street controller and the AcueAir Manifold are not compatible. I heard through a friend that I recommended use this shop earlier this year that has the same set up as myself that the shop owner was sending the manifold to Easy street to have them work out the compatibility issues. So essentially the reason why I decided to upgrade to the electric instead of the manual doesn’t even work and may not work ever. The sad thing about this is I wasn’t even going to post anything about this incident but the more I have to spend and the more sleepless nights I have over this I can’t help it.
Soo in short the navi head unit was blown ,I had to pay the stereo installer to fix the problems with the stereo (countless hours of labor troubleshooting the problems ) such as ,panels not lining up, rear tv in trunklid didn’t work ,rear speakers in trunklid didn’t work, the led lights were connected to direct power soo it killed my optima battery, wiring for pump was inadequately hooked up at the battery terminals which had to be fixed, tank valve was severely leaking ,front right strut is sill leaking , and iam in process of installing check valves which should have been done in the first place .. and my center consol tv is still not working
This very long and drawn out story is precisely why you should NOT take your car to ENHANCED CONCEPTS !!!
I am not one to complain about a company on the internet after receiving poor service at a business, In light of recent finding I feel I have no choice I recently had a serious issue with this shop and I would recommend that you DON’T take you car to this establishment .Why you ask let me explain……..
I decided to upgrade again from Manual valves to electronic to make the lifting and lowering more controlled and a little quicker. I had a friend that owned a shop I had been recommending to all of my friends for awhile now just based on the reputation and the quality of work I saw. I had also been handing out flyers at all of the shows that I attend to help my friend promote his business and get his name out there. So it was a no brainer when I decided to upgrade who I would trust with my car to do the work. I went to Enhanced Concepts and spoke to the owner (My Friend) who gave me an estimate of $1300.00 to install all of the new parts on my car. We discussed in detail what I wanted done and I stated to him that I only had $1500.00 to spend if he saw that he was going over that cost he would have to leave some parts off or change the set up to fit the pricing we laid out. The owner stated he wanted to mold the new control panel in the ashtray of the car I told him I only wanted the ashtray cut out and the control panel laid in there because I wanted to be able to take it out at my leisure to prevent theft, ECT. The Owner advised me that he wanted my car to be his show piece and this would be at his cost. It would be his signature piece on the car. I re-inerated that it must be at his cost because I had only $1500.00 to pay him. I paid $1500.00 CASH up front and dropped my car off to be worked on. 2 days into the build I visited the shop and had a discussion with The owner on how much nicer my car would look if I changed out the spacers on the wheels to make them a little more aggressive. The owner told me he could change out the wheel studs and spacers if I provided them while the car was off the ground. He would only charge me 4 hours of labor. I agreed to the additional costs of the spacers and studs and purchased the spacers from another retailer and had them overnighted to me. I took them to the shop and had them install them. The shop tech didn’t have an impact strong enough to change out the studs so I brought my own. The car was supposed to be ready for pickup in 1 week including the spacer adds. At the end of the week I was told that the car was not done and it would be until Tuesday of the next week. I continued to check on my car periodically and speak to my friend about the additional costs to add the spacers. He told me I was getting a great rate of 45.00 an hour and not to worry we would take care of everything. I told him that I wanted to pay the bill before I picked up the car to get it ready for me. On Monday night before my car was supposed to be picked up I took my Friend out to dinner just to say thank you for the work and price break he was already giving me. On Tuesday I got a call from the shop tech saying that my car was not ready it wouldn’t be ready until Wednesday evening and Frank would bring the bill up to the Tuesday night meet at Tampa bay Sports Grille. I still wasn’t concerned until I went to the meet and Frank never showed. Later on at the meet the shop tech Alex showed up and said Frank couldn’t make it I asked Alex to call and ask how much my bill was so I could get the money together and ready to pick up my car tomorrow. Alex called Frank and asked how much the bill was and wouldn’t tell me he handed me the phone and Frank told me I owed an additional $1180.00 on top of what I already paid……………………………………..
I could only say what a normal person would say HOW?????? At this point I could tell that Frank was shocked to hear that I might be disputing the bill in any way and became aggravated with me and said I had to add the spacer and modify the ash tray. I said I didn’t want the ash tray modified remember Frank you were doing that as your signature piece. Frank Immediately became Irate and threaten to push my car outside unfinished. I left the meet and drove over to his shop where his car was parked out front knocked on the bay door to discuss this with my so called friend. He wouldn’t answer the door and speak to me so I decided to let him cool down and come back tomorrow when I could discuss the overage with him and work out the differences. Wednesday I showed up to pick up my car it was still unfinished and Frank was not at the shop instead I was told by Alex the shop tech that my car was not completed because Frank had to move his friend and he wouldn’t be back until tomorrow. At this point it occurs to me that I never saw Frank work on my car it was always his shop tech or Apprentice as he calls him. His Apprentice was putting my stereo back together , after he installed the amps he turned on the car and I immediately said the RCA’s sound backwards something is not right. You might have them backwards or something do you have it hooked up right. Alex stated he knew what he was doing and I shouldn’t worry about it. At this point Alex still had the car running and touched a ground tester on one of the subs which immediately caused a loud thump and a sound like a spark to come through the speakers. He did this about 2 more times when I told him to stop before he broke something. I will find out later that he BLEW the ground traces in the head unit. I asked Alex if Frank would be back tonight he said no I asked if he left a copy of the bill for me to see. Alex brought me a copy of the bill and left for the night and told him I would be back tomorrow to pick up my car and settle the issue with the bill with Frank. Thursday night at 6:00pm I came to the shop ready to pickup my car again and still no Frank at the shop and the car was not completed. Instead the Apprentice tells me the Air controller they just put in doesn’t hold the ride height and it will have to be reprogrammed. He also tells me that mysteriously there is a bad engine noise coming through my stereo and he cannot figure out why. I stated “ What kind of operation are you guys running here” . Alex disappeared into the office and got on the phone. He left the door open to the shop so my wife walked down to the outside of the door and listened in on the conversation he was having. Alex was on the phone with Frank and telling him that myself, my wife and my mother were calling his shop a piece of **** and we were talking mad **** about Frank and Alex. Soon after this Alex walked out of the office and hands me a bill stating owed$ 850.00 more instead of the original $1180.00 along with my keys and says Frank wants you gone before he gets back he is done with you.
I took my car home in complete disbelief as to what had just occurred. I thought surely this must have been a misunderstanding I called Franks cell phone and got bombarded by Alex and Frank screaming obscenities at me on the phone and calling me a *****. I tried to reason with Frank on the phone telling him that his Apprentice was not telling the whole truth and causing unnecessary trouble. Instead they continued this time calling my wife and mother names. I gave it one last attempt to reason with Frank to have him fix my car and settle the bill that I supposedly owed. I told him the new bill was 850.00 I would pay $450.00 and give him back the ashtray he spent 10 hours modifying and we could call it even. Franks statement was that his pride wouldn’t let him take my money; I said that was stupidity not pride. And we ended the call.
Since then I have spent close to 1000.00 trying to repair all of the damage that this shop caused and make my car ready for HIN Tampa this month. When I got my car home the stereo had engine noise and a loud humming coming from the subs and none of the panels for the stereo would line up in the trunk. It turned out that the shop blew all of the ground traces out of my Pioneer navigation head unit when the shop tech while I was standing there had the stereo on and used a ground tester on my subs. This caused an unbelievably loud popping sound and still he continues to do this until I told him to stop. By then it was too late. The entire stereo had to be removed from the car to make the changes to the air suspension. But when it was installed by the shop they moved the entire stereo over about ½ inch which caused all of the panels to line up. While cutting wires in the center console to install the new control box the shop cut the power to the center console TV. This is just the problems with the stereo.
The Air suspension had a serious leak when I brought the car home and parked it over night all of the air was out of the system in the morning. Turns out the valve they installed at the rear of the car to remote fill and drain the tank was leaking. After repairing this I noticed a more serious problem. When the air is taken out of the tank the car will slam down. That’s right even if I was driving down the road it would slam down and severely damage my car. This is caused by the shop not installing a valve in the return line of the manifold so that it will hold air even if the tank malfunctions. If this was something that was not included in the price of the quote I was given I would have easily spent the extra to have them installed for my safety and for the security of my car. The modification I had done doesn’t work properly. It will go up manually and down manually but will not hold ride height. This is because the Easy street controller and the AcueAir Manifold are not compatible. I heard through a friend that I recommended use this shop earlier this year that has the same set up as myself that the shop owner was sending the manifold to Easy street to have them work out the compatibility issues. So essentially the reason why I decided to upgrade to the electric instead of the manual doesn’t even work and may not work ever. The sad thing about this is I wasn’t even going to post anything about this incident but the more I have to spend and the more sleepless nights I have over this I can’t help it.
Soo in short the navi head unit was blown ,I had to pay the stereo installer to fix the problems with the stereo (countless hours of labor troubleshooting the problems ) such as ,panels not lining up, rear tv in trunklid didn’t work ,rear speakers in trunklid didn’t work, the led lights were connected to direct power soo it killed my optima battery, wiring for pump was inadequately hooked up at the battery terminals which had to be fixed, tank valve was severely leaking ,front right strut is sill leaking , and iam in process of installing check valves which should have been done in the first place .. and my center consol tv is still not working
This very long and drawn out story is precisely why you should NOT take your car to ENHANCED CONCEPTS !!!
03-31-2009, 10:57 AM
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Re: my expierance with a local shop (FL)
Wow Shawn, I remember you telling us a few weeks back. Totally blows that it had to happen to such a nice guy like you!
03-31-2009, 12:12 PM
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Re: my expierance with a local shop (FL)
They think cuz you drive a lexus you got mad cash flow :p I skimmed the story and it sounds like they need to grow up and work on the maturity level as well as a lot of other things needed to run a business.
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