| Sharif@Forged |
04-09-2010 08:32 PM |
This will likely be my only post on this matter.
Forged Performance has been in business for over 5 years, and we literally work on about 400 cars each year and have thousands of satisfied customers. We are here 6 days a week working and managing 30-40 project cars at a time with the 11 employees on the payroll. We've performed everything from simple bolt on's, to full race car prep and custom fabrication. Our consistent track record is well noted on various forums we have always been one of the leading Nissan tuning shops on the country. I've personally tuned several hundreds of Nissan's with a pattern of safety and reliability.
That said, our shop is no different from many others in that we aren't perfect, and we do make mistakes. The people that worked on this customer's car were terminated long ago, and no longer work here. In fact, we haven't worked on this car for well over a year. Clearly, the pictures posted are not representative of the type of work we perform on a daily basis, and there is no excuse for it.
Now lets talk about the false and misleading claims that the owner of the car has posted:
1) On the original installation, the engine did not BLOW-UP on the dyno from tuning. During the initial baseline tuning process I made less than 10 dyno pulls on the car, and most of them were not even to redline. At this point, everything appeared normal. However, after an initial brief road test a light ticking noise was heard. This ticking noise was later determined to be caused by 5 rods with the smallest of bends to them. If you can tell me how rods become laterally wavy from some light tuning, I would love to hear it.
http://onfinite.com/libraries/1578973/cb4.jpg
Engine components show zero signs of detonation, lean condition, heat, or other issues that could be attributed to improper tuning:
http://onfinite.com/libraries/1578972/1f5.jpg
http://onfinite.com/libraries/1578974/cd3.jpg
http://onfinite.com/libraries/1578975/29d.jpg
http://onfinite.com/libraries/1578977/cc7.jpg
2) Once it was determined that the rods were bad, the customer had the choice of having us build him a new OEM block, or our built S1 Shortblock. He was not forced to switch to a built block. He chose our S1 Shortblock and paid for parts ONLY. All of the thousands of dollars of labor were covered by Forged Performance. All this customer had to give us was some time to complete the project.
3) The customer couldn't wait for his car to be finished, so instead he came into our shop and illegally removed the car from our lot without paying his $12,000 outstanding balance. I called 911 and the police arrived while I was on the phone with the customer begging him to bring the car back. I agreed not to press charges.
4) The damage to his vehicle while in our custody is unquestionably our responsibility and the customer was informed of this damage immediately. The tail light and bumper needed to be replaced and repainted. It always has been, and we paid for the repairs without any question. We never once suggested junkyard parts.
I am still at a loss as to why this person waited for over a year to make this thread. When the customer took possession of his vehicle from GTM, he drove it to my shop and we had a good conversation about the whole situation. At that point, we shook hands and looked eye to eye and agreed that I would take care of a portion of the GTM bill, and cut him a check for the damages. If there were still some hard feelings, I didn't sense that.
In fact, about 4 months ago, the customer called and spoke to Scott Siegel one of our tuners here, asking how much it would cost for a methanol kit and retune of his FCON.
So rather than speculate on the purpose of this thread, I will close by saying that I've spent the better part of a half decade building some of the best Nissan's in the country and building this business from the ground up. I started with myself and one employee, and we've now grown to 11 employees. Our business has quadrupled over the years and it's because we offer a lot to our customers. As we've gotten bigger, we've also become a bigger target and many people are just waiting to pounce if they ever see a horror story about our shop.
We aren't perfect obviously, and there have been plenty of bumps, poor hires, and mistakes made along the way. If you think there is another shop in the country that is perfect, you should think again. But under no circumstances have I ever turned my back on a problem, or a customer, when an issue presents itself. I've spent thousands of MY own dollars fixing issues that weren't even our fault! This business may seem like it's just fun and in many ways it is. But it's also the sole source of income for 11 households, and puts food on tables, pays mortgages and puts kids through school. So we will defend our business vigorously, while striving to get better each day at what we do.
I'm sorry I won't be able to go back and forth on this thread. I have advised my sales guys to stay out as well since they are not involved in this matter. I am still at the shop working and tuning, and will probably be here until midnight, or until the cops kick us out for making too much noise on the dyno.
|
