Go Big Or Go Home wrote:
Figured I would share this experience....
I would like to think that I didn't rush to this conclusion but I will leave it up to you all to decide that. As most of you know and saw I made the switch to the dark side over the winter and I am overall very happy with that decision. What I am not happy with is the process I used to make that switch.
I went back and forth on switching over for over 2 years and when I finally decided to do it I chose to use Alpha Fab. I did't have the knowledge or the time to go pull a motor and harness from the junk yard and make it work myself so their stage 4 kit was very appealing to me. I called AFI a few times during the buying process and they were super helpful. They answered all my questions and concerns with no problems at all so I pulled the trigger on it paid for it. That is when it all went down hill. They told me I would have it in two weeks and it took almost 4. I was obviously getting anxious after 2 weeks went bye so I called and of course nobody answered so I left a message. It took a few days but I finally got a call back and they updated me on the shipdate. No real big deal but it seemed to just keep snow balling downward. Once I received everything it looked great and I started putting it in the buggy. The wiring harness was very clean and the machine work on the aluminum parts was nice..I had a couple questions/concerns during this time so I called and left a couple messages again to finally get a response over a week later. Again I stayed calm and knew they were at some shows and such but a week to get a response had me concerned as I was waiting to start it before I got the questions answered. One of my concerns was that I was missing a fitting for the oil pressure relocation kit. I got tired of waiting so I just went to Summit and bought what I needed. When they finally called over a week later I mentioned the fitting and he apologized and said he could still send it out so I said sure I will keep it as a spare. That was months ago and I never got it. Again its a little fitting... no big deal.
I finally got to take the new motor for the maiden voyage on MDW and it ran pretty good. Then I had a couple issues where it would backfire rather loudly then not run right for a bit. It would eventually clear up and I would go on my way until it finally backfired so bad it sounded like someone dropped a quarter stick behind me. It was so aggressive it cracked my whole intake manifold.
So naturally when I get home I give them a call and the guy that answered was no help and said he would pass the info on to Shaun. I waited a week and never got a call so I called again and this time nobody answered so I left a message. Guess what... another few days go buy and nothing again so I feel I was beating a dead horse but I called and left another message. Well now it has been almost a month since I called originally and I have still not heard anything from them. I tried to stay calm but now I am quite frustrated and don't wish anyone else to drop the money I did to get shit for customer service.
Well I got sick of sitting on my hands and wanted to ride so I went and bought a new intake and put it on. I then got in touch with some guys and got set up with Tuned by BlueCat. I know several other guys are running these ecotecs with no problems so I made the almost 5 hours trip to Bluecat to get what should have been a second opinion but since AFI choose to not get back to me it was really a first look. First off I would like to say that Bluecat is top notch. He was more than dedicated to get my setup running right and went way above and beyond. There ended up being 3 major issues with my setup. First was that AFI had the wrong map sensor setting in. This is scary because Bluecat literally found that problem in 5 seconds by running the scanner. So that tells me they never even put a scanner on it to double check everything before they shipped it and makes me wonder if it was really bench tested as they claim they are. Second was that they wired the wrong plug on the exhaust sensor so when I plugged it in (it only goes in one way) it seemed to short it self out and quit working. We got those corrected and started test running it. We then found out that the fuel pump that was sent in the stage 4 kit was bad. It made 58 psi idling but when you mashed the pedal it went right down to 25-30 psi. This basically meant we had to back track all the tuning and almost start over. (On a side note I ran to advance auto and tried two E2000 pumps that were supposedly good for 100 psi and they were both dead out of the box and wouldn't break 30 psi so I don't recommend using them). We finally tracked down a walboro pump and it ran right up to 58 and held.
I arrived there at 10am and loaded the buggy back on the trailer at 11:30pm after all the adjusting and fuel pump issues. He knew how far I came to get it retuned and said he would stay out there as long as it took and he obviously meant it.
I then stopped by Chads place in WV and rode the rest of the weekend with out one problem. The buggy ran amazing and allowed me to climb some stuff I had no business even trying lol. It never backfired one time and had all the power I could ask for... even ran well enough to ruffle some feathers with a couple aircooleds... but I am not going there.
Just for reference I have a pretty good size business and sure I get unhappy customers but I do all I can to make right by them. Sure there are always those people that you can't please and I sure hope I am not being that customer to AFI but quite frankly I am quite disappointed in them and it pisses me off that once they got my money they weren't worth shit. I also know that sometimes things slip through the cracks but with the chain of events I faced I do not think that was the case here. I know there are other guys that used them so lets hear your honest opinion good or bad of them as well before anymore of our group sends money their way.
Hi All,
I don't get to the forums much anymore, so just seeing this.
Our customer service has sucked, especially with Bo. I have no excuse for that and I've apologized. I'm taking steps to improve that. I smoked the shit out of my team today for making AFI [me] look like an asshole. For any of you military folks out there - my team did a straight hour of front, back, go's, flutter kicks, and cadence push-ups. Good for the soul.
I think the bottom line here is that we weren't able to fix Bo's problem in an appropriate time frame. I won't go into everything because that's not the point. The underlying problem being issues he couldn't get a hold of us for. One of those being a bad fuel pump and the O2 sensor plug. The poor service we provided Bo led to the snow ball effect. I've offered Bo a full refund of his out-of-pocket money. I've also apologized for the inexcusable delay in response and taken steps to prevent that from ever happening again.
I pride myself in providing a product that is solid and turn-key for an affordable price. I can't say everything has been perfect, because it hasn't. We've had harness issues with our manufacturer. We've had fuel pump issues with our manufacturer. We address those issues, learn from them, and move forward. We have a new harness manufacturer and we use Walbro fuel pumps now. I also pride myself in being a Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business and taking those qualities I led my Army team with and applying that to my business. LDRSHIP
Loyalty
Duty
Respect
Selfless Service
Honor
Integrity
Personal Sacrifice
I take those qualities to heart and we pour those qualities into the kits and products we provide. We've come up short in instances, but I'm unaware of any instance of us not going out of our way to make things right, in any way possible.
Let me give you just one example.
We sold a supercharged harness and calibration [along with an engine setup] to a customer in Kentucky. The customer had nothing but problems with getting it to run right. We sent new harness, new ECM, diagnosed everything we could over the phone and still it never ran right.
I told that customer to bring his car up here for us to fix it, free of charge, then dyno it, free of charge. He made the 10 hour drive to us here in MI.
The issue with the setup wasn't the harness, it wasn't the ECM, or the engine. The SC manifold was hitting the engine mount and never was seated properly [huge vacuum leak] - we trimmed the engine mount and the car ran as advertised. It took us a little over 2 days, non-stop, to find the issue. But we found it, fixed it, dynoed it, and the customer left that night with a smile. We built a new intake for him, upgraded his fuel pump, and swapped his stock injectors out for good 42lb green giants [he paid for the injectors and fuel pump on a payment plan].
I think what I'm getting at is that we're not here to just take your money and run. We're here to provide a quality product and customer support when needed. We've failed in the customer tech support and we are dedicated to fix those issues.
I have customers all over the nation and world from WIX Racing, CBM, Turn-key, etc., who tell me the same thing. I can't get any support from out west. I suppose I'm saying that I would put my product against any other no questions asked. I can't count how many ECM's I've 'retuned' from Turn-Key or CBM. It is what it is.
We do our best. Our best hasn't been good enough. But it will be.
Bo, thank you for bringing this to my attention. I hope that my offering of a full refund and apology is us making it right.
helmetguy wrote:
I didnt deal Alpha fab but I know three people that did and all three basically had the same story
Please. List specifics IE; List the names, issues, and resolution to the issue you speak of here, if any. If you can't, then I don't understand why you feel the need to be involved in this thread. Better yet - have the three people you speak of post here and/or contact me. I don't speak without full facts and I will say when I'm wrong. I can't say I'm wrong or I didn't address said issues when you post non-informative hearsay. Again, I am, and always have been wiling to address questions, concerns, unhappiness, etc.
jimp wrote:
Thank you for posting on this! Can you also post your baseline
parameter settings? What software do you use for your OBD?
We use HPT. We tune the E67 in speed density which requires advanced knowledge of virtual VE tables and a secondary 3-rd party software. The MAP settings are STOCK on ALL naturally aspirated setups. We do nothing to the MAP settings it is not needed. I've attached a screen shot of where you would change the MAP scale in a BOOSTED version along with a compare of it to a stock file.
Attachment:
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purplerail wrote:
I have also hear a lot of the same about them
Please share specific examples, because for the most part, we do the best we can to support any issues. Bo's example is an example of us fucking up bad. I'm doing my best to make it right.
MadMike wrote:
Please, if we must go this route, first hand experiences ONLY. He said, she said don't work.
My first hand experience says the same thing Go Big, once they got what they want, poof.
And I would prefer to look at this as a consumer alert or as a buyer beware section.
Hi Mike - instead of posting here why don't you put your mouth where the phone is. You've got my personal direct number. If you've got an issue with something please let me know! I haven't heard from you since we reserved a pre-paid spot at the MBB show for you. I assumed that since you never showed up or contacted me - you blew me off because you couldn't make it up. If you want me to provide you with some feedback on the product you sold me - call me - or I suppose I can post it here, if you prefer that method of communication.
Go Big Or Go Home wrote:
Figured I would give an update. Jason AKA Giveitagallon stirred up enough fuss on facebook and I finally got a call from Shaun the owner. It appears that a couple of his employees are lacking in the service tech region and never relayed my messages. He was very apologetic and told me to send over an email with my expenses and he would make it right. I sent the email and will update again if/when he makes it right.
I can't fix issues I'm unaware about. I contacted you both within the hour of your friend taking to FB. I would have gone about things differently, but that's me.
Kinchloloe King wrote:
Go Big Or Go Home wrote:
Figured I would give an update. Jason AKA Giveitagallon stirred up enough fuss on facebook and I finally got a call from Shaun the owner. It appears that a couple of his employees are lacking in the service tech region and never relayed my messages. He was very apologetic and told me to send over an email with my expenses and he would make it right. I sent the email and will update again if/when he makes it right.
Yep, Shaun called me today also after a few weeks of calling and leaving messages. I never received any wiring schematics and the result was i had the cam sensor plugs opposite of one another. My fuel pump i received from alphafab leaked like crazy. So i removed the banjo fitting and tapped the pump out to 1/8 npt, so i could use a barbed fitting. shaun is sending me a new walbro pump. And yes he was very apologetic. I would like to work with alphafab again to get a supercharger setup, So i hope things change up there and he gets it together. Thanks BIG SPOON!
Hi Mike - IIRC I've responded to your emails. I know we chatted on the phone as recently as last weekend [I know you reached out on a Saturday]. I also sent a Walbro pump w/ fittings at cost along with an OBD2 for any inconvenience. No doubt - you should have received a schematic and had your calls answered within a reasonable time frame. I apologize for the issues and I hope that we can make it right for you! Please keep us posted sir!
BAJABUGNUT wrote:
Two years ago I went with Alphafab. I had a good experience. I had some questions about the wire diagram and called Shawn, it did take a day or two but he emailed me the correct diagram. What ever the issue I had he got back to me with in a day or so. Now this was a couple years ago. I am sure he is experiencing growing pains.
Here is why I will return, yes he is more expensive, true it takes time to get back to you, but I had the chance to meet him twice at the Michigan buggy show. The first time I weighed 240 lbs at 5'11" and spoke with him maybe 20 min. A year later, a battle with throat cancer, sixty pounds lighter from being on a feeding tube for several months and I walked up to him and he knew I lost weight and called me by my first name. What's that prove, I don't know, maybe he has a photogenic memory but that went a long way in my book.
My 2 cent......
It's always good to hear from you Jim. And yes. I try to remember all of my customers names, cars, applications, etc., because I know that goes a long way with me when I spend money. No matter whether it was 1 month ago or 2 years ago - I remember all of my customers... Although you may have to jog my memory sometimes lol. I hope you stay well sir.
We do our best , I assure you all. Our best hasn't been good enough in terms of customer support lately. I sincerely apologize - we will make it right.
I don't see the owners of CBM [Bruce/Chris] or Turn-Key [Chad] or WIX [Adam] on these forums. I hope that shows you the dedication and passion I have for the woods, our products, and our customers.
Cheers,
-Shaun