My VF Engineering Experience

[coolmody]

For some reason my thread about this got closed on m3forum so I will try here. I feel that I am being treated unfairly by VF and need to voice my concerns to others. For the original thread please see here:

http://www.m3forum.net/m3forum/showthread.php?t=273902

Snippet from my original post:
I purchased a VF Engineering Stage 2 kit on May 29. I put my 25% deposit on it that day, and everything appeared to be going quickly. Sean was answering my questions very quickly and customer service seemed to be very good. On June 9, they received payment for the remaining portion of the kit. Now all they had to do was ship my kit. On their website it states the kit is in stock so I presume shipment would come very shortly afterwards.

I got word from Sean that the manifolds were still being made and I needed to wait for them to be complete. They were hoping for my kit to be complete by June 12. I was fine with this so I patiently waited. June 12 came around and the date got pushed to June 17. Cool... delays happen, so I continued waiting. June 17 rolls around, and manifolds are apparently being coated, and my kit will ship shortly. It's now June 22 and I get notice that the manifolds are complete and orders are shipping today. I remind Sean to ship my order via USPS (avoid UPS rapage brokerage fees and I requested it go this way), and since it was going USPS it would have to wait a day. So the promise now was to ship it June 23. It didn't go out on June 23, but Sean stated that the shipping manager took it himself to the office on June 24.

I was pretty happy, and I was waiting for a tracking #. I guess the VF office are being remodelled so Sean didn't have access to the tracking # for me. I wait for a week (July 1) and I get word from Sean that my kit never actually shipped. The reason is they didn't have enough manifolds, and I would have to wait until tomorrow (July 2) for the manifold to be ready. If I wanted my kit to ship on July 1, I could if I took a red manifold. I was fine with that, as I actually like the red manifold. So I'm assuming my kit went out yesterday (July 1) with the red manifold, but I haven't heard back from VF.

So they shipped the kit out on July 2, and I received the box on July 10 via USPS. This is what came in the box.

http://wes.theurbanedge.ca/photos/albums/userpics/10001/47/P7101002.JPG

It doesn't take a car guy to notice its missing a LOT OF PARTS. They informed me that they had trouble shipping another 2 boxes due to size and they had to go back the same day to ship the boxes. I was ok with that, as the box should arrive a day or 2 later. It's now a lot later, and the other 2 boxes haven't arrived.

As suggested by VF, I tried contacting them via telephone as PM and email apparently wasn't enough. I tried NUMEROUS times and left several messages for Sean to call me back using phone, IM, and email (maybe I should fly down to Anaheim?). Never got a call back, but finally on the 4th or 5th call I got a hold of him. When asked where my shipment was, he said all boxes had shipped July 2, and blamed USPS for being slow. I got all 3 tracking #'s.... and what I saw was a surprise. Box 1 showed it shipped on July 2 as they said, but the other 2 boxes never shipped. They left almost a week later on July 8.

Now I want to give VF the benefit of the doubt, but I think I am being lied to on numerous occasions here to cover up other lies. Unless they can give me a proper explanation of my whole experience, I will draw my own analogies. They keep blaming me for using USPS and that is what is causing all the delays, but any Canadian ordering from the US knows this is the ONLY way to go. USPS also got my order here perfectly in 8 days, and the other 2 boxes should arrive in a similar time frame.

This is by far the worst experience I have had with a company, and I hope nobody else has to go through the same thing.

[funkboy316]

i rethought my post and edited accordingly, MY own personal thoughts against VF wont be of much help to you.....

I hope they get their act together though for your sake. Its just flat out wrong to take a customers hard earned money and not provide the product your suppose to in a timely manner.

[SPDu4ea]

That sucks its taken so long, but I have no doubt that you'll get everything. I've shipped things to Canada many times through all the different carriers and hold-ups at customs seem pretty random (ship 2 boxes at the same time through same company and 1 will get held up etc).

[coolmody]

That sucks its taken so long, but I have no doubt that you'll get everything. I've shipped things to Canada many times through all the different carriers and hold-ups at customs seem pretty random (ship 2 boxes at the same time through same company and 1 will get held up etc).

I totally understand this can happen, however the packages are NOT stuck at the border. I was lied to and the package never shipped when I was told they were shipped on numerous occasions. I want VF to admit they are not treating me like a valued customer, and it seems they need to feed me misleading information to cover up previous promises which were never met.

If they had told me right from the start, that parts were short and the kit wouldn't be ready I would have been fine with that. Telling me otherwise does not give a customer a lot of trust in a company.

[MSpired]

With my old eBay business I would always be shipping things to Canada, and with USPS it was NEVER consistant. I totally believe VF sent you the product, and the problem lies with shipping/customs.

[MSpired]

I totally understand this can happen, however the packages are NOT stuck at the border. I was lied to and the package never shipped when I was told they were shipped on numerous occasions. I want VF to admit they are not treating me like a valued customer, and it seems they need to feed me misleading information to cover up previous promises which were never met.

If they had told me right from the start, that parts were short and the kit wouldn't be ready I would have been fine with that. Telling me otherwise does not give a customer a lot of trust in a company.

Why would they not have shipped the other parts of the kit? The manifold was the only thing holding up the kit... all the plastic pieces are made in house and i've personally seen plenty of them in stock, Vortech is down the street from them and i'm sure they have plenty of V3 Si trims in stock at all times... everything else in the kit is easy to come by as well...

If you got everything except the manifold, then I would believe maybe that they were trying to buy themselves some time, but this isn't the case...

[coolmody]

With my old eBay business I would always be shipping things to Canada, and with USPS it was NEVER consistant. I totally believe VF sent you the product, and the problem lies with shipping/customs.

They did send it. Shipped on July 8, and cleared customs on July 15.

However, I asked them clearly in emails and over the phone of WHEN it was shipped and they told me FOR SURE it shipped out on July 2 (along with the first box). Clearly they are having troubles getting my kit together, and are trying to make up excuses to cover up the tracks. All I'm asking from VF is an honest answer of what the heck was going on with my kit there. They don't answer my emails, don't return my calls.

[mpower95]

I know shipping to Canada can be a pain sometimes. I experienced it first hand a couple of times.

Is there not an authorized VF dealer or installer in Canada? That might have been easier to source the kit from as they could have delt with the shipping of the kit.

Good luck.

[docwyte]

USPS across the border sucks. Despite the duties involved, it's much easier to ship via UPS, they probably drop by VF everyday for pick ups and it's easier to track the packages.

Bottom line you'll get everything you ordered. It stinks it didn't come as quickly as you wanted, but you'll get it all...

[GJGM3]

I wasn't in the least surprised your thread was "closed". What did surprise me is it took as long as it did. Seems VF has some pull in this regard. YIKES! LOL. Good too that you didn't get banned or whatever - assuming that's the case.

For the matter at hand, I have heard of issues with shipping to the Great White North via USPS, although at various times I've shipped multiple items and never had someone complain that they never got what I sent. That's not to say it didn't happen with VF's parts. What's too bad is the run-around you've gotten and the seemingly poor treatment, although I and others don't know what's happened behind the scenes. I have no reason to doubt you though as you don't appear to be the first to have experienced issues.

I can say that I obviously bought mine from ESS and it came from Norway in less than a week and no issues whatsoever - FTMFW biatches. LOL

[docwyte]

Yeah, just be happy you didn't insist they send it Norwegian post. You would've gotten it in 2 months. I bought a set of scirocco euro lights from a guy in Germany. He sent them Deutsch Post (equivalent of USPS), it literally took 10 weeks for them to get to me.

[GJGM3]

Good to know that. I paid for mine on a Saturday and had it the following Thursday. That's hard to beat domestically and shipping was much more than reasonable.

G/L with the sale of your car BTW - she's a beauty and a beast. :D

[Tim30250]

Well, I can say that I had an excellent experience from the time I inquired about my kit all the way through the shipping of the kit and tech support during my install. Everything they shipped to me arrived promptly. Of course, none of my items were leaving the country either.

From my personal experience I have to give them the benefit of the doubt. They made me feel like their top priority even though they had several cars they were working on in house (and many other customer orders, I'm sure) while I was doing my install. I couldn't imagine why they would selectively treat one customer any different than another. That just wouldn't make sense. This is just one of those fluke things, and I'm sure they'll do what they can to make it right going forward.

[funkboy316]

I wasn't in the least surprised your thread was "closed". What did surprise me is it took as long as it did. Seems VF has some pull in this regard. YIKES! LOL. Good too that you didn't get banned or whatever - assuming that's the case.

Ive often wondered myself how much they pay their M3forum henchman to make sure they are the only FI company over there to get a fair shake. Your right, all the good VF threads stay and the ones that are not favorable to VF do get closed or deleted very quickly. :facepalm:

[battaM3]

^^^ i agree with what he said.. I have a AA kit now but will be in hpf fam very soon

[Nik@vf-engineering]

We are not in the business of arguing with our customers. Most reasonable enthusiasts would use normal channels of communication such as contacting us to discuss things. In this case Coolmody whom we thought was a cool cat has chosen to discredit us in a public forum for obvious reasons. One of them to encourage the usual lineup of reader ready to jump to conclusions to post their hate comments and assumptions.

Like you, we are normal people, not a conglomerate multinational. We have our reasons for operating in certain ways. One of them, is not ever use the US Postal System. Anyone who has used it to ship multiple packages of unusual products overseas will know why.

In this case, Coolmody (Canada) insisted that he would only accept our product if it were shipped from us (California) by US Mail. We do not need to waste the band width on the aggravation and lip service the mail office workers gave us when our sales manager had to make 3 trips to local post office. But let me tell you, it was not as simple as it may seem.

I would also add, that Coolmody insisted despite our policy, that we accept his final payment of the 75% balance of his kit on 06/09. It is our normal policy NOT to take full payment until a few days before the goods are ready to ship.

We are not going to post any further responses to this thread. However dont be surprised to see more negative threads from Coolmody - remember though - there are always 2 sides to a story.

VF-Engineering strives to provide the highest level of customer service and support on the market. Once you develop a reputation for the best service and support, you have to work harder to keep that reputation, and thats what we are doing.We hope Coolmody decides to work with us rather than against us as we have our customer interests at heart.

[BimmerDude18]

We are not in the business of arguing with our customers. Most reasonable enthusiasts would use normal channels of communication such as contacting us to discuss things. In this case Coolmody whom we thought was a cool cat has chosen to discredit us in a public forum for obvious reasons. One of them to encourage the usual lineup of reader ready to jump to conclusions to post their hate comments and assumptions.


He claimed to have tried to contact you through normal channels (I wasn't there - don't know if this is true or not, but if he did, then he was being reasonable there).

I haven't seen a lineup of readers jumping on an "I hate VF" bandwagon. Personally I stayed out to see A) how this was handled from you, and B) I know how much USPS sucks as a shipping company, although I've never had any trouble getting them to take a package (aside from my blackstone labs container). But, I do know the frustrations of not being able to just have packages picked up by your regular carrier.

Taking the approach that the consumer can't post his experience without being unreasonable or wrong and immediately taking a defensive approach makes you look bad. If you take the approach of "I am very sorry for what has transpired in this instance, let me make it up to you by _____" or "let me resolve it by ______" makes you look much better publicly. Just my 2 cents at least.

[coolmody]

We are not in the business of arguing with our customers. Most reasonable enthusiasts would use normal channels of communication such as contacting us to discuss things. In this case Coolmody whom we thought was a cool cat has chosen to discredit us in a public forum for obvious reasons. One of them to encourage the usual lineup of reader ready to jump to conclusions to post their hate comments and assumptions.

I'm no longer a coolcat? :( I am trying to call, email, PM. No response. Flying down there is not an option. I can't do much more here from my end. I want product. I give money. You send product. Shipping a product should not be a "favour". That is a part of your business....

Like you, we are normal people, not a conglomerate multinational. We have our reasons for operating in certain ways. One of them, is not ever use the US Postal System. Anyone who has used it to ship multiple packages of unusual products overseas will know why.

There isn't a problem with USPS. First box came in a quick timeframe. The other boxes are also on target with the same timeframe. The only problem here is the time they were dropped off at the post office. I personally spoke to Sean over the phone of WHEN the boxes were shipped and its clear I was lied to as they left a week later.

In this case, Coolmody (Canada) insisted that he would only accept our product if it were shipped from us (California) by US Mail. We do not need to waste the band width on the aggravation and lip service the mail office workers gave us when our sales manager had to make 3 trips to local post office. But let me tell you, it was not as simple as it may seem.

I didn't insist. I asked if it was possible in a single email and you guys accepted? Once again trying to blame the postal service.

I would also add, that Coolmody insisted despite our policy, that we accept his final payment of the 75% balance of his kit on 06/09. It is our normal policy NOT to take full payment until a few days before the goods are ready to ship.

What? Your faulting me for paying you early?

We are not going to post any further responses to this thread. However dont be surprised to see more negative threads from Coolmody - remember though - there are always 2 sides to a story.

I'm still waiting for responses from emails and PM for your side of the story in a "private" manner.

VF-Engineering strives to provide the highest level of customer service and support on the market. Once you develop a reputation for the best service and support, you have to work harder to keep that reputation, and thats what we are doing.We hope Coolmody decides to work with us rather than against us as we have our customer interests at heart.

Work with me by answering my emails and returning my calls. Thank you.

[wrecklessfool]

HPF's thread from December of last year is was enough for me to write off M3 Forum forever. It's true that M3 forum looks out for particular vendors...like VF. I'll never buy anything VF for this very reason alone. The way M3 forum is run, in my opinion, is downright unethical. They create a board of threads which make their sponsors look favorable to members. They close or delete threads which shed negative light on their sponsors...all to keep the $$ or perks...or whatever it is rolling in. What a disservice that forum is doing for members looking for solid reviews or experiences others have had with sponsors:tsk: That's one thing I love about E46 fanatics--the fact that threads are left alone for the most part unless they are totally out of control. Thanks E46f:hi: FUUUUUUUUUUUK M3 Forum!!!!!!

Check out HPF's thread I spoke of here:

http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthread.php?t=634206&highlight=hpf+m3forum+ban

[GJGM3]

M3 Forum is a great forum. :hi:

They support their sponsors and that's what seemed to have happened here!

The only gripe I have there is there seems to not be a lot of room for other F/I sponsors, but then I don't run the joint, and thus don't understand the rationale.

Having dealt with numerous mods there and the Administrator - the great Evil Alex, :evil: not always on the best of behavior (mine), I can say it's a great forum. I do know that oftentimes folks with Non-M's may take offense at some of the stuff - it's understandable. I love E46F for the terrific variety of bimmers here - M and non, but M3 Forum has some great people who dwell there, and very nice mods too.

Back on topic - Coolmody seems to be a very cool cat in my view and just wants what he paid for, and customer respect. While this is also a two-way street, it's the customer that keeps the vendor (VF) afloat. It seems to me with others coming in with equal and/or superior products (like ESS - haha), they'd do everything possible to avert this and accommodate coolmody.

So far some pretty bad PR being done. Hence, the thread here and other forums will persist - lest some leverage is placed on this and other forums too. Hence, don't be surprised if this is shut down. :rofl:

[M5chas]

We are not in the business of arguing with our customers. Most reasonable enthusiasts would use normal channels of communication such as contacting us to discuss things. In this case Coolmody whom we thought was a cool cat has chosen to discredit us in a public forum for obvious reasons. One of them to encourage the usual lineup of reader ready to jump to conclusions to post their hate comments and assumptions.

Like you, we are normal people, not a conglomerate multinational. We have our reasons for operating in certain ways. One of them, is not ever use the US Postal System. Anyone who has used it to ship multiple packages of unusual products overseas will know why.

In this case, Coolmody (Canada) insisted that he would only accept our product if it were shipped from us (California) by US Mail. We do not need to waste the band width on the aggravation and lip service the mail office workers gave us when our sales manager had to make 3 trips to local post office. But let me tell you, it was not as simple as it may seem.

I would also add, that Coolmody insisted despite our policy, that we accept his final payment of the 75% balance of his kit on 06/09. It is our normal policy NOT to take full payment until a few days before the goods are ready to ship.

VF-Engineering strives to provide the highest level of customer service and support on the market. Once you develop a reputation for the best service and support, you have to work harder to keep that reputation, and thats what we are doing.We hope Coolmody decides to work with us rather than against us as we have our customer interests at heart.

As a fellow business owner, this response is rather surprising. For the most part in whatever situation I am, I will follow the mantra, "the customer is always right." There are definitely exceptions to that rule, but this is not one of them. Without customers, we are nothing. I want my customers to be happy, and will bend over backwards to ensure that they are. So, to publicly declare that your customer is no longer a "cool cat" and that he acted out of hand by paying you in full early, and to attack him for asking for USPS shipping, etc..is really not painting you or your company in a positive light. I have for the most part always heard positive comments regarding VF service and products, but I would seriously re-think purchasing any product from them after this type of response.

I agree, there are always two sides of the story, and coolmody may be in the wrong, I am not picking sides, but as a business owner, you never berate your customer in a public forum.

[[TYPE]SS]

I agree, there are always two sides of the story, and coolmody may be in the wrong, I am not picking sides, but as a business owner, you never berate your customer in a public forum.

im a business owner myself but i just cant see this as a 2 side story. coolmody purchased the kit on May 29th. Today is July 16th and he still doesnt have the full kit in his hand. :facepalm: he is just asking for an honest excuse. end of story.

[RACEMX-M3]

So Coolmody did you ever receive the parts? I can't speak for anyone else but my experience with VFE's egregious lack of communication is consistent with yours. I wish you luck moving forward - hopefully you don't have issues with the kit, posting any negative experience about the mighty VFE is the kiss of death.

[GJGM3]

posting any negative experience about the mighty VFE is the kiss of death.
:rofl:

[funkboy316]

So Coolmody did you ever receive the parts? I can't speak for anyone else but my experience with VFE's egregious lack of communication is consistent with yours. I wish you luck moving forward - hopefully you don't have issues with the kit, posting any negative experience about the mighty VFE is the kiss of death.

something tells me that it most likely STILL has not been shipped. i wouldnt be surprised if they arent HOLDING the parts to "teach him a lesson" about coming forward with a bad experience. why else would Nik make this comment.


We are not going to post any further responses to this thread. However dont be surprised to see more negative threads from Coolmody


Coolmody, you should tell VF that you plan on attending Mfest to tout their kit, this seems to get you a kit ahead of others that paid after you did,:lmao:

[Alan L.]

At this point i would just return the manifold and demand for a full refund. You don't have to take this kind of crap after spending that kind of money.

[funkboy316]

I have to agree, I would already have charged my card back.

[GJGM3]

When are you supposed to get the remaining parts? Has anything been communicated?

[Novare330]

At this point i would just return the manifold and demand for a full refund. You don't have to take this kind of crap after spending that kind of money.

+1

get your money back and give active a call, or PM active autowerke II (david), he'll take good care of you

[coolmody]

Sorry I haven't posted a response to this. I am being overwhelmed by the support from this community and the vendors.

To answer some of your questions, I now have 2/3 boxes and the other box is on its way. I have tracking #'s which show its close. All the mishaps, excuses, and diversions have all been explained to me (over the phone) and apologies have been made where needed. VF has also personally gone out of their way to keep me a happy customer. We are gradually making progress on a good vendor/customer relationship and they are working really hard over there (must give them credit for this) for me. I hope everything goes in a positive direction once the final box arrives and I'm ready to put the kit on. Things are starting to look better already :)

I also must give credit to the other FI vendors in this community. They also stepped up to make my FI experience a positive one. I made the choice to go VF, but I think you can't go wrong with any of our options.

Once again, I thank everyone for their support and I hope to be boosting soon. :thumbsup:

[finger123]

glad to see its working out. there is just mis-communication thats all. im glad they and you have decided to work it out. im not going to pick sides, but my opinion is that anything shipped USPS sucks. at least for me. my experiences with USPS has always been horrible. Whether it is regular mail or packages. USPS loses my mail regurlarly and i always try to avoid USPS. so when reading your story of using USPS, it didnt surprise me with shipping problems.

just my 2 cents..

[funkboy316]

glad everything worked out. I sure hope they didnt strong arm you into an apology

[mtran850]

+1

get your money back and give active a call, or PM active autowerke II (david), he'll take good care of you

+1, AA is a good choice

[docwyte]

I dunno, I've always been impressed with VF's service. They made the big fat doughnut off of me money wise as I bought my kit used. However, they always had time to answer all of my questions, my sponsoring shops questions and even send pics to my cell phone while I was at the track.

I've never had an issue getting ahold of them via phone, email, pm etc.

OP, I'm glad everything was taken care of, you're going to love the kit.

[Devious1]

OT - dont' take no guff. just get your money back.

[evilstar]

Sorry I haven't posted a response to this. I am being overwhelmed by the support from this community and the vendors.

To answer some of your questions, I now have 2/3 boxes and the other box is on its way. I have tracking #'s which show its close. All the mishaps, excuses, and diversions have all been explained to me (over the phone) and apologies have been made where needed. VF has also personally gone out of their way to keep me a happy customer. We are gradually making progress on a good vendor/customer relationship and they are working really hard over there (must give them credit for this) for me. I hope everything goes in a positive direction once the final box arrives and I'm ready to put the kit on. Things are starting to look better already :)

I also must give credit to the other FI vendors in this community. They also stepped up to make my FI experience a positive one. I made the choice to go VF, but I think you can't go wrong with any of our options.

Once again, I thank everyone for their support and I hope to be boosting soon. :thumbsup:

Update request

I'm glad that for the most part things have been resolved for you. just sucks that from the looks of things it took a negative post on a public forum. to get results. Wouldnt mind hearing from Nik again as to what happened. As i dont see ANY reason for all the "miscomunications" other than a bad employee that has been delt with.

[benjamin1]

Update request

I'm glad that for the most part things have been resolved for you. just sucks that from the looks of things it took a negative post on a public forum. to get results. Wouldnt mind hearing from Nik again as to what happened. As i dont see ANY reason for all the "miscomunications" other than a bad employee that has been delt with.

I don't think this was the best of times to bump this thread. :facepalm:

[HPFMTRE]

We are not in the business of arguing with our customers. Most reasonable enthusiasts would use normal channels of communication such as contacting us to discuss things. In this case Coolmody whom we thought was a cool cat has chosen to discredit us in a public forum for obvious reasons. One of them to encourage the usual lineup of reader ready to jump to conclusions to post their hate comments and assumptions.

Like you, we are normal people, not a conglomerate multinational. We have our reasons for operating in certain ways. One of them, is not ever use the US Postal System. Anyone who has used it to ship multiple packages of unusual products overseas will know why.

In this case, Coolmody (Canada) insisted that he would only accept our product if it were shipped from us (California) by US Mail. We do not need to waste the band width on the aggravation and lip service the mail office workers gave us when our sales manager had to make 3 trips to local post office. But let me tell you, it was not as simple as it may seem.

I would also add, that Coolmody insisted despite our policy, that we accept his final payment of the 75% balance of his kit on 06/09. It is our normal policy NOT to take full payment until a few days before the goods are ready to ship.

We are not going to post any further responses to this thread. However dont be surprised to see more negative threads from Coolmody - remember though - there are always 2 sides to a story.

VF-Engineering strives to provide the highest level of customer service and support on the market. Once you develop a reputation for the best service and support, you have to work harder to keep that reputation, and thats what we are doing.We hope Coolmody decides to work with us rather than against us as we have our customer interests at heart.

When i read this i was very surprised at the way it was handled. I understand all the crap nik is going through with the number of pointless threads but still some comments were a little out of line. Im glad it was cleared up.

Sorry I haven't posted a response to this. I am being overwhelmed by the support from this community and the vendors.

To answer some of your questions, I now have 2/3 boxes and the other box is on its way. I have tracking #'s which show its close. All the mishaps, excuses, and diversions have all been explained to me (over the phone) and apologies have been made where needed. VF has also personally gone out of their way to keep me a happy customer. We are gradually making progress on a good vendor/customer relationship and they are working really hard over there (must give them credit for this) for me. I hope everything goes in a positive direction once the final box arrives and I'm ready to put the kit on. Things are starting to look better already :)

I also must give credit to the other FI vendors in this community. They also stepped up to make my FI experience a positive one. I made the choice to go VF, but I think you can't go wrong with any of our options.

Once again, I thank everyone for their support and I hope to be boosting soon. :thumbsup:

This makes me very happy. This is the way a company should work. Always take care of its customers no matter what even if it means going way out of your way. Definitely great customer service from VF to handle the situation the RIGHT way:thumbsup:

[coolmody]

Update request

All parts finally arrived. Kit is on the car. Install in my garage took about 2 weeks and about 30 hours total. There was a lot of putting on and taking off parts because the instructions aren't updated for their V3 charger, new manifold, and its a Stage 1 guide (I got the stage 2). I think I must have taken off the supercharger bracket at least 10 times which is not fun! So you have to hybrid your knowledge a little to get everything in. If I were to do it again, it would probably take me half the time.

As far as customer service goes, VF FINALLY took care of me. I had tons of questions during the install and actually couldn't get the car fired up the first time. The throttle was hitting the clamps on the couplers and not allowing the butterflies to open. It instantly threw my car into limp mode when this happened. Nik, Sean, and even Hubert were all there to answer my questions usually within minutes of me asking them.

I've been driving it around for awhile now and the car runs smooth. I get idle hunt about once every 5 startups? After I drive it though, it never does it again. I've cleared adaptations and been monitoring my fuel trims. Everything looks ok, but I have an AFR and Boost guage coming in the mail just to make sure. I've also put her on a dyno and she did put down a disappointing 395whp. This was on a Dynapack dyno which is known to read low, and I'm also at 3000ft above sea level. The car seems to be running a little on the rich side, but I can't tell for sure until my guages arrive. When the guages are in, and I know my AFR's are bang on, I will throw her on a Dynojet to get some comparable numbers.

Pics and vid:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjgU531To80

http://wes.theurbanedge.ca/photos/albums/userpics/10001/48/IMG_5794.jpg

http://wes.theurbanedge.ca/photos/albums/userpics/10001/48/IMG_5742.jpg

http://wes.theurbanedge.ca/photos/albums/userpics/10001/48/IMG_5755.jpg

http://wes.theurbanedge.ca/photos/albums/userpics/10001/48/IMG_5763.jpg

http://wes.theurbanedge.ca/photos/albums/userpics/10001/48/IMG_5769.jpg

[docwyte]

You're going to be down 9-10% on power due to the altitude. Be thankful you're not at 6000 feet above sea level like me! On a dynojet you should see somewhere around 420-440 uncorrected for altitude...

Car looks great!

[finger123]

also if u dont have headers and csl or race cats, make sure you get those too before you throw it back on the dyno or you will still be dissapointed by the numbers. VF's numbers for their stage 2 is equipped with the supporting headers and cat to pull the numbers they advertise. docwyte will tell you, he pulled an amazing 486!

[BimmerDude18]

Dynapacks are known for reading on the high side...The early GTR's were making 480 AWHP on dynapacks.

[eedna]

if your policy is to never use USPS -- and the customer said he would only take it from USPS -- seems pretty clear cut. vf-e pretty consistently comes into threads talking about bad experiences with them and all they ever say is 'theres two sides to every story, were being victimized'. tell us your side of the story, or work it out. noone cares if you think its not your fault, if thats all youre going to say then you probably shouldnt post in these topics. i am hardpressed to believe that all of these numerous threads telling stories of bad experiences are embellishments or complete fabrications.

[rage2]

Wow, it's been a long time Wes. How have you been?
I've also put her on a dyno and she did put down a disappointing 395whp. This was on a Dynapack dyno which is known to read low, and I'm also at 3000ft above sea level.
3400-3700ft to be exact, depending which part of the city you're in, which works out to roughly 12% power loss. That's why turbo'd cars are so much faster in Calgary, they boost a little higher here to give you the same power as sea level but with a little more lag.

Welcome to the FI club. See ya on the streets.

[GJGM3]

Car looks great and glad you're finally FI! What are you running for the exhaust? Sounds good.