Originally I sided more to the side of FP, but after reading the response from Robert with FP in the evo thread, I have lost a lot of respect for that company. Anyways heres the original thread.
You know, this sort of incident really does act as a good test/filter/interview of sorts for potential customers. The people that a guy like this scares off never make power anyway. They end up driving around “on a safe rich toon” for years waiting for the next holy grail part that is supposed to turn them into a hero and eventually sell off their car without ever finishing what they set out to do in the first place. If I had to guess, I’d say there is a good number of Subaru guys that get manicures more often than they work on their cars, much less understand how to make power. I’ll take some heat for that comment I am sure, but for some reason the Subaru guys have the most stupid ass questions and problems that I have ever heard (and I have been doing this a LONG TIME) and are always looking to blame somebody. There is a core of serious STI guys out there, and that is why we offer product. The posers can go fly a kite.
Some of you guys arent going to like my frank and politically incorrect attitude, and that is fine. FP does not equal Walmart.
Lots of reading/BS/flaming but if your looking to kill some time…
that was a long read… haha from what i got from it, coming from FP’s point of view, they really did what they were expected to do, and offered a replacement for the 2nd turbo which showed nothing wrong on his part. warranties with turbos especially are sooooooo hard to pinpoint there are way too many variables involved, at some point the company has to cover their own ass too or else they’d just be giving out refunds all day because of peoples negligence.
but, that comment he made on the evo forum…thats a pretty low blow, and i’m sure will cost him a ton of business from subaru owners in the future, not that it seems like he really cares though
edit i only read the original post, that thread is huge!
Hmm. I just started reading into this, and I think the only reason the initial incident has gotten the time of day is because the guy was a mod on IWSTI (and some people think NASIOC is bad, IWSTI is arguably a worse forum).
The quote you have from an FP guy is bad customer service, however he really does have a point. Its awful that he’s saying it, but it doesn’t make it any less true. Probably 90% of Subaru people just say over and over “I’m gonna get a big turbo” and if they ever do, they half ass it or go the cheap route and have problems. Its even worse if they decide they’re going to do any of the work themselves. Fortunately there are shops (Innovative) that will figure out what a person wants as their goal and if the customer is willing to spend what its going to take to do it The Right Way.
To me it sounds like the guy from FP was going to replace/repair one or both of his turbos and make good on the whole thing, but the guy had to get all whiney and throw his forum status into it, as well as request things that are beyond any parts manufacturer’s control (time without vehicle, tow charges, shop labor, etc).
I’m curious as to what Mike@Innovative thinks about the whole debacle, as he’s put a good number of FP turbos on customer cars that are making lots of power, over a few years time.
Oh and not for nothing, there’s been a good number of incidents out of XXTuning, and they’ve never been known as a wonderful shop or flawless by any means.
Alot of people do exactly what they say and they are succesful enough not to worry about the whiners and do a good job taking care of the real performance minded customers.
yea i’ve never had a problem with fp in all the times i’ve dealt with them… great customer service and they do what they can to accomidate you. my one and only beef was when they forgot about my turbo the first time and it sat around for 2 months in their shop but once i talked to them about it they were cool.
i should go stir the soup over in iwsti hehe. i’d probably be banned for taking fp’s side but what ev im never on that forum.
That’s not poor customer service. Honesty > Sugercoating.
Customer service does not mean constanly kissing ass and sucking off potential customers, particularly of the “bolt on” & “safe tune” variety.
You know, this sort of incident really does act as a good test/filter/interview of sorts for potential customers. The people that a guy like this scares off never make power anyway. They end up driving around “on a safe rich toon” for years waiting for the next holy grail part that is supposed to turn them into a hero and eventually sell off their car without ever finishing what they set out to do in the first place. If I had to guess, I’d say there is a good number of Subaru guys that get manicures more often than they work on their cars, much less understand how to make power. I’ll take some heat for that comment I am sure, but for some reason the Subaru guys have the most stupid ass questions and problems that I have ever heard (and I have been doing this a LONG TIME) and are always looking to blame somebody. There is a core of serious STI guys out there, and that is why we offer product. The posers can go fly a kite.
Some of you guys arent going to like my frank and politically incorrect attitude, and that is fine. FP does not equal Walmart.
:bigclap:
IMO he should garner MORE respect for that sort of mission statement.
Because I would get the joy of dealing with the same kinds of people. I know many other shop owners, it’s hilarious when we all get together, they are all the same. Angry at the general ignorance of the world lol
Customer service isn’t sugar coating (to some it is) but it definitely is being professional and tactful. That statement was neither. However, it probably effected their different types of customers differently. What was said probably hurt their relationship with the at-home DIY-er looking to buy a big turbo, but it probably strengthened their relationship with shop owners. And they probably like it better that way.
They should just stop selling retail all together and have their vendors deal with warranty-type issues, instead of the end user bitching at FP. I bet FP punished XXTuning somehow after this mess, since they’re siding with the user and not the product. As always, there’s more to the story than that guy is telling, but being a forum moderator he has control over the spin.
The truth hurts sometimes. I agree with the guy from FP. There are times when you have to cut the bad customers loose becuase they’ll end up costing more than they spend.
I’m talking about the crowd that wants to run 600 hp on pocket lint and magic beans. Then when they get there and blow a motor they look for a person to blame it on, why because they dont understand shit about shit just only know what someone a few states away on the internet told them the car should do or that it should have survived or whatever… just no real knowledge, yet acting like they have half a clue./
I’m just glad I dont have to deal with nummie nums like that anymore.
I’d side with FP on this one too, if for no other reason that this guy was being a douche right from the get go - “Hi, I’m a big shot online and you should take care of me because the intrawebs is serious business”
FP stood by their product. It failed, they replaced it. Even if it failed because of something other the defect.
that’s pretty much who I see the FP quote aimed at. The OMG THE INTERNET SAYS SO humpers that run around in 600 whp hondas / camaros / mopeds that get irate when the shit is down every month because they didn’t see the need to build the shortblock / replace 100k mile valve springs / ran 87 octane, etc…
