Bit of a long story - I'll try to keep it short. Cliffs: It's been about a month and I'm getting thrown the loop, now my turbos are "lost" in the mail.

I'm not trying to slander their name at this point, I just want my turbos back. I really hope this is all a misunderstanding, but at this point I'm giving them more than the benefit of the doubt.

I sent the turbos from my '04 TT with 3k miles out to Turbo-performance.com to be rebuilt as a hybrid k16/16g setup. The guy "Bob" who owns the shop sounded like a really straight shooter. Knew a lot about the setups for these cars and claims that he builds the turbos for some other distributer companies. His website says that he has been in business for over 25 years, but besides that I'm embarrassed to say that I don't know much about the company. He spent 20 min talking about all the setups that we could do and really seemed to know what he was talking about. Eventually agreed on the work to be done and boxed the turbos up and sent them out to Bob.

He claimed that he would build the setup overnight or in a few days and then get them sent back to me. I confirmed that he received them, and that he was going to get to work. A couple days go by, and no word. So I call him and he says they're finished, but he hasn't sent them out...says he will send them out later that day. No big deal.

After a few more days I didn't get a shipping label or tracking number so I call him. The turbos are "sitting on the work bench", and he says that he'll get them out to me. A couple days later we get a tracking number. The UPS page is really peculiar. There is a pickup date, but no other tracking information on the page(no est. delivery, destination, etc.), so I call UPS to see what's going on. They talk me off the ledge and say that this is typical for hand written labels. They gave me an estimated shipping date for CA to MD... this date comes and goes... and I still have no turbos.

So I call UPS and get Bob on the phone to see what's going on. He agrees to fax the shipping label that was on the box. From there I see that he didn't even write my house number on the label. Only the street that I live on... So, it MUST be getting returned back to him as an error. BUT, it gets better. He wrote the wrong return label on the box. So from here it's been almost a month and my turbos are said to be lost in shipment. The UPS investigation came back with nothing.

He insured the turbos for the amount of work that he did($1,100). But now I don't have any turbos at all, and that check isn't gonna cover a new set. Which again, might I stress were very low milage.

Does this sound fishy to any one else? Does anyone know anything about this company? Is there anyone local that would like to check it out for a small reward?

I've seen some **** poor reviews of this company. Of course I didn't see them until it was too late.

 

sounds like a nightmare bud and for us with just enough budget to mod our toys **** like this doesn't help. Ask Bob to help you out procuring a set of new turbos anyway he was responsible for your stuff if not, use the power of the Internet and post on forums where this company is popular but nothing derogatory he might realized that by doing it straight he will gain more business. Good luck.

 

How did you pay him for his services? If you paid with a CC or Debit card have your bank reverse the charges as you never received the services paid for. Then that might motivate Bob to get off his *** and find your turbos.

 

It really is! I just want to drive the car at this point! He claims that he will find me some new turbos and build them...but I've read some posts on other forums where people get thrown the loop for months on end. The problem is that I don't think they're a very techy company so they don't post on forums or anything that I've found. It was a top hit on google, but anyone who wants to pay that optimization bill can make that happen.

I paid him with a CC, and I think I will have them reverse the charges. Hopefully this will give me some leverage, but then again, I'm not 100% sure this guy doesn't just have my turbos. I mean it's possible that he fudged the shipping label expecting for them to get returned to this "other" location. The value of the turbos clearly exceeds the value of the work that he did by a pretty large margin. If he has the turbos, and doesn't get his service charge I don't think he's gonna be heartbroken.

BTW - the return label adress was apparently the location of his old shop(couple blocks away) with some Lotus racers that are "on the road traveling"...

 

why don't you support some of us and get it done right the first time... I never understand these threads... plus, common sense tells you that you should be upgrading the turbos with someone that does the K16s /k24s,vtgs regularly... I never heard of that turbo builder doing KKK upgrades... but I looked online and wonder if price was not the main factor for your choice... you get what you pay for....just saying...
good luck

 

Well I can't get it done "right" the first time anymore, but thank you captain hindsight.

He told me that he does the setup regularly, and that he had all the parts in house to do the swap. Again, he said that he builds the setup for some retailers...Implying that I was going to the source rather than paying you extra money. Sorry I didn't "support" you, big man. I realize I'm paying for it now and that I shouldn't trust people. And for reference, I am rebuilding this car and sent the turbos out to him just simply for a rebuild. I wasn't going to have him upgrade them until we started talking and I researched the setup/talked to my tuner.

Thanks for your help

 

I don't know the guy and never personally had any work done there but, I know a few people that have and he did them right so, perhaps this is what it is? Maybe not, but I thought I would chime in with a little insight.

 

lol captain obvious is that this guy is messing with you

you were going from stock k16 to k16G....that is an upgrade

Not sure the point of your thread...the story is obviously fishy, but thanks for warning everyone of this place!

 

UPS wouldn't normally accept a shipment without a street number.

 

Definitely threaten to reverse the charge if it is not resolved this week. Seems fishy; who ships anything without a house number?? Either he's an idiot or trying to do something shady.

 

That really sucks , I do feel for you.

When I hear stories like this it makes me sick. Thats why I always deal with
Captain Hindsight.

 

Bob is old school. He is actually a decent guy. Business practices are older and his help not the sharpest. Service history is mixed. I am local so I will offer to try and help or do my best to help make you whole as i have lots of cores. For the record he has been doing K16 stuff since my first round at By Design over 12 years ago. I think it's a case of nice guy, good intentions...But bad execution and staff.

"Captain Hindsight" is a good guy lol. Just forward and to the point.

The situation just sucks. Everyone wants a deal and Bob really makes you feel warm and fuzzy when you speak to him but...

Could have been worse trust me. This is fixable with some 6 speed support. The point of your post i'm sure

 

Lol.. Yes, I know it's an upgrade. I was trying to say that I didn't plan to upgrade when I sent the turbos out. I was only planning to have them rebuilt. But then who doesn't want more power!

Thanks, I've heard some good things about him too. He doesn't sound like the type of person that would be trying to pull a fast one, but how does one mess up THIS badly?

That's what I thought as well. Doesn't seem right that they can scan something into the computers without putting in the address. And if they can, then why didn't I get more tracking information? UPS has been equally as incompetent as this guy so far. To this hour, I still haven't been given a working fax number after 9 attempts.
Thank you Sam - This was exactly the point of my thread. Most of all, I just want compensation or my turbos back. I figure if I can find some information about whether this guy is actually a straight shooter, I won't have to throw the book at him. I'll give him some time to correct his mistake and buy me new turbos. But if I get nothing but negative feedback about him(which doesn't seem to be the case), then I'm going in with guns blaring. I'll give him a call back again this afternoon and talk about our options.

 

Reversing a charge will only going to get you the deposit or the payment of the service but not turbo. Your loss here is the turbo. He just need to replace the turbo because there is a clear evidence that you didn't get the package since there was no number on the address.

 

Used K16's in serviceable condition appear to sell for ~$500 for the pair... I'd be surprised if you can't come to some sort of resolution where you get your money back and serviceable, used K16s - or, alternatively, K16/16g's like you originally paid for.

Good luck! Hope you get it sorted out to your satisfaction.