TrackForged Performance. Portland, OR
09-24-15, 04:35 PM
#1
TrackForged Performance. Portland, OR
I will try to write this review with fairness in mind despite my ongoing experiences. I was referred to this company to have my Haltech tuned by several reputable rotary builders and owners in the area. I dropped off my car on 07/23/2015 to have it tuned. It is 09/24/2015 and my car has yet to be tuned. We had agreed to a two week time frame due to transportation issues. I told them if need be, this can be fudged a little bit if I'm given advance notice and to keep me in the loop.
Now, this review can in no way be based towards the tuner as he has yet to touch my car. He only tunes on each Thursday of the week unless otherwise indicated. This review is aimed towards shop owner and customer service (or lack thereof) I've received.
Breakdown:
7/23/15- Dropped car off with what I believed to be a vacuum leak, I gave up and asked them to diagnose. They agreed to and it turned out to be my throttle cable being just a little too short for my custom set up. This was repaired on that day. I was informed that they will tune it the following Monday.
7/30/15- No phone call or contact. I call them the next day and they don't answer the phones. I get it, shops get busy and I left a voice mail.
8/03/15- I reached out via email and call again with no response. Swung by after work and an employee told me that the tuner was on vacation this week and would not return until next week. I understand people need vacations. However, this should have been communicated to me.
08/06/15- Tuner on vacation
08/13/15- At this time, I was running out of options for alternative transportation to work. I waited until the end of the day and did not receive any communication. I called the next day and once again, nobody answered the phone.
08/20/15- Still no communication. I called after hours and got hold of the owner who informed me that they were having connectivity issues with the ecu and their laptop and moved on to the next car. When I was told that their windows 7 laptop couldn’t connect, I informed them of the fix immediately. Had they of called me when this issue happened during the day, they could’ve fixed it and tuned it that day. I previously informed them that I always have my phone on me at work and this should have been communicated right away. After this, they requested I bring in my laptop since so they can grab the software, drivers, and base tune. Reluctantly, I cleared off the personal information off my personal (new) laptop and brought it in for them to use. I was told it would be tuned the following Thursday.
08/27/15- As the day passes, I still receive no phone call. I call them again after hours and get hold of the owner. He informs me my laptop battery won’t charge consistently and keeps dying on them. (I told them this as I expected them just to use it to test with and pull the required information). I was a little taken aback that they, a professional tuning shop, were still using my personal laptop to tune with. They should have this equipment. Assured me it would be tuned the following week
09/03/2015- No contact all day, called and the owner told me he forgot that the tuner had a race scheduled for that date and wasn’t in. Scheduled for next Thursday again.
09/10/15- No contact all day. I called after work and they informed me that my main relay kept disconnecting and shutting off the ecu. This issue was entirely my fault. I replaced the faulty pin in the main relay connector but apparently not well enough. The owner was kind enough to let me come over after hours and fix the connector as I wasn’t going to pay $90.00 to solder 5 wires. He sat and chatted with me while I fixed this. I really did appreciate this.
09/17/15- Didn’t receive a call. Attempted to call them and I received no response. I drove down after work and got stuck in traffic for an hour. Finally got ahold of them while I was sitting in traffic, and they told me they had software issues and couldn’t tune. Assured me the tuner would come in the next Monday and finish it.
09/21/2015- Did not receive any communication. At this point, I gave up and figured I’d wait until Thursday when the tuner is scheduled to be in.
09/24/2015-still waiting for a call with any news
During this entire time, all I’ve asked is to be called with a status update. This NEVER happens. I have to call them and hope they will answer their phone. I’m now taking the bus to work. This situation really sucks. Everyone at this shop, including the owner, is extremely nice. However, this shop seems to treat my business as not important. I am a paying customer who entrusted my vehicle to them. As the owner works full time elsewhere, this seems like a hobby that he does in his spare time. That’s all fine and dandy, but he is operating a business. This should be treated like a business.
I will update this as this situation continues.
Now, this review can in no way be based towards the tuner as he has yet to touch my car. He only tunes on each Thursday of the week unless otherwise indicated. This review is aimed towards shop owner and customer service (or lack thereof) I've received.
Breakdown:
7/23/15- Dropped car off with what I believed to be a vacuum leak, I gave up and asked them to diagnose. They agreed to and it turned out to be my throttle cable being just a little too short for my custom set up. This was repaired on that day. I was informed that they will tune it the following Monday.
7/30/15- No phone call or contact. I call them the next day and they don't answer the phones. I get it, shops get busy and I left a voice mail.
8/03/15- I reached out via email and call again with no response. Swung by after work and an employee told me that the tuner was on vacation this week and would not return until next week. I understand people need vacations. However, this should have been communicated to me.
08/06/15- Tuner on vacation
08/13/15- At this time, I was running out of options for alternative transportation to work. I waited until the end of the day and did not receive any communication. I called the next day and once again, nobody answered the phone.
08/20/15- Still no communication. I called after hours and got hold of the owner who informed me that they were having connectivity issues with the ecu and their laptop and moved on to the next car. When I was told that their windows 7 laptop couldn’t connect, I informed them of the fix immediately. Had they of called me when this issue happened during the day, they could’ve fixed it and tuned it that day. I previously informed them that I always have my phone on me at work and this should have been communicated right away. After this, they requested I bring in my laptop since so they can grab the software, drivers, and base tune. Reluctantly, I cleared off the personal information off my personal (new) laptop and brought it in for them to use. I was told it would be tuned the following Thursday.
08/27/15- As the day passes, I still receive no phone call. I call them again after hours and get hold of the owner. He informs me my laptop battery won’t charge consistently and keeps dying on them. (I told them this as I expected them just to use it to test with and pull the required information). I was a little taken aback that they, a professional tuning shop, were still using my personal laptop to tune with. They should have this equipment. Assured me it would be tuned the following week
09/03/2015- No contact all day, called and the owner told me he forgot that the tuner had a race scheduled for that date and wasn’t in. Scheduled for next Thursday again.
09/10/15- No contact all day. I called after work and they informed me that my main relay kept disconnecting and shutting off the ecu. This issue was entirely my fault. I replaced the faulty pin in the main relay connector but apparently not well enough. The owner was kind enough to let me come over after hours and fix the connector as I wasn’t going to pay $90.00 to solder 5 wires. He sat and chatted with me while I fixed this. I really did appreciate this.
09/17/15- Didn’t receive a call. Attempted to call them and I received no response. I drove down after work and got stuck in traffic for an hour. Finally got ahold of them while I was sitting in traffic, and they told me they had software issues and couldn’t tune. Assured me the tuner would come in the next Monday and finish it.
09/21/2015- Did not receive any communication. At this point, I gave up and figured I’d wait until Thursday when the tuner is scheduled to be in.
09/24/2015-still waiting for a call with any news
During this entire time, all I’ve asked is to be called with a status update. This NEVER happens. I have to call them and hope they will answer their phone. I’m now taking the bus to work. This situation really sucks. Everyone at this shop, including the owner, is extremely nice. However, this shop seems to treat my business as not important. I am a paying customer who entrusted my vehicle to them. As the owner works full time elsewhere, this seems like a hobby that he does in his spare time. That’s all fine and dandy, but he is operating a business. This should be treated like a business.
I will update this as this situation continues.
09-24-15, 05:48 PM
#2
i've tuned hundreds of cars and you certainly run into issues with connections and random issues with the cars but yours sounded a bit mild and could have been avoided by them calling you to ask, since apparenly you knew about all the problems with your car.
but the rest seems like pure laziness. the tuner is on vacation and out racing more than spending the 2 hours to tune your car, that's pretty pathetic and shows where their priorities lie.
seems to be a case of "out of sight, out of mind" syndrome where they park your car out back and push it aside for months over a rather quick and profitable job. i mean really, who the **** blows off a job that generally pays upwards of $125 per hour? that is the labor rate that multi million dollar automotive dealerships charge, and it's being divided between 5+ people, not 1-3. if they can give you the finger over that kinda cheddar then they're total fuckups, while i sit here starving for work. your avatar is ironically how i see this business yet they apparently don't need it.
it's too bad too, i rather liked the looks of their manifolds. apparently they take their business name a little too seriously.
but the rest seems like pure laziness. the tuner is on vacation and out racing more than spending the 2 hours to tune your car, that's pretty pathetic and shows where their priorities lie.
seems to be a case of "out of sight, out of mind" syndrome where they park your car out back and push it aside for months over a rather quick and profitable job. i mean really, who the **** blows off a job that generally pays upwards of $125 per hour? that is the labor rate that multi million dollar automotive dealerships charge, and it's being divided between 5+ people, not 1-3. if they can give you the finger over that kinda cheddar then they're total fuckups, while i sit here starving for work. your avatar is ironically how i see this business yet they apparently don't need it.
it's too bad too, i rather liked the looks of their manifolds. apparently they take their business name a little too seriously.
Last edited by RotaryEvolution; 09-24-15 at 05:58 PM.
09-24-15, 07:35 PM
#3
Update as of 09/14/15- went to the shop after work and talked to the tuner for a while. He did inform me that they have been working on it after hours all week. Apparently, a setting may have been changed and the car is only firing to one rotor. I supplied him with the original basemap and typical e6x settings for ignition. He is going to review the ecu settings and verify what was changed. I was told to contact them tomorrow in the afternoon for an update. I'm aware this isn't the thread for this, but Lyger: Do you know what settings could cause this behavior on an e6x? Internal toggle or firing mode? I can supply this information to the tuner and this will expedite the process.
To be fair to the tuner, he does work at another shop the rest of the week. I will also offer praise for their manifolds and parts they fabricate. I've seen them in person and they are very high quality.
Hopefully this is situation improves
To be fair to the tuner, he does work at another shop the rest of the week. I will also offer praise for their manifolds and parts they fabricate. I've seen them in person and they are very high quality.
Hopefully this is situation improves
09-25-15, 12:10 PM
#4
most issues with the haltech is with setting up the ignition cycles(rotary presets 2/32 tooth CAS, blah blah), the offset and the filter levels, if any of those aren't set properly then it can sound like a pissed weed eater when the timing goes nuts.
those settings can be found in the haltech section for your generation and tigger setup.
those settings can be found in the haltech section for your generation and tigger setup.
Last edited by RotaryEvolution; 09-25-15 at 12:22 PM.
10-08-15, 11:47 PM
#7
10/08/15: I called at the end of the day and was told they would be working on it tonight. Apparently some other car gave them trouble. I'm kind of confused as to why my car seems to be at the bottom of the list as its been there so long. I was instructed to call back tomorrow for a status update.
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10-09-15, 09:36 PM
#8
10/09/15. Called in for an update as told. Was told the car was on the dyno when they opened shop this morning but didn't know what was done or how far the tuner got as he worked after hours last night. I was then told they would call to find out what had been done and call me back. No call back received.
10-15-15, 06:48 PM
#9
10/15/15: I called and was informed that it isn't running correctly still and they are calling in the local rotary expert on Tuesday to look at it. They also said if they can't figure it out with him, they won't be able to tune it. So... essentially I've wasted 2.5 months waiting for my car to be tuned. I could of learned to tune it myself by this time.
I feel like I have been extremely accommodating given the circumstances but I'm nearing my limit.
I feel like I have been extremely accommodating given the circumstances but I'm nearing my limit.
Last edited by djSL; 10-15-15 at 06:51 PM.
10-22-15, 11:29 PM
#10
10/21/15: called and found they had no luck in trying to get it operational.
10/22/15: had the day off and swung by the shop. Checked all the wiring again and it was fine. Called haltech and Claudio helped base tune the car again. Car idles and runs somewhat smoothly now. I was having issues getting the timing light to read accurately off the leading coil and I suspected a faulty coil. Bought a new one and same problem. Now we are just having issues in getting the timing set correctly as it keeps reading way off. Now that it's running decently, the shop said they should be able to tune it once the timing is fixed.
10/22/15: had the day off and swung by the shop. Checked all the wiring again and it was fine. Called haltech and Claudio helped base tune the car again. Car idles and runs somewhat smoothly now. I was having issues getting the timing light to read accurately off the leading coil and I suspected a faulty coil. Bought a new one and same problem. Now we are just having issues in getting the timing set correctly as it keeps reading way off. Now that it's running decently, the shop said they should be able to tune it once the timing is fixed.
10-26-15, 06:39 AM
#11
Rotary Freak
It may be just me, but if the shop is having difficulties tracing down basic setup and electrical issues on your car, how confident are you that they can actually tune your car better than you could?
I don't know anything about them, but the good local tuners here can usually work these things out fast. They usually get angry that they have to do more, but they are good with this kind of stuff and that's why they are tuners.
Eric
I don't know anything about them, but the good local tuners here can usually work these things out fast. They usually get angry that they have to do more, but they are good with this kind of stuff and that's why they are tuners.
Eric
11-05-15, 01:26 PM
#17
Well, the shop has had much better customer service recently. I brought a bunch of tools from home and worked on it 2 thursdays ago. They were kind enough to lend me a battery to start my car after my key had been left on by someone there and killed my battery. The tuner was genuinely nice enough to help me try and set the timing. However, they've seen this post and just told me they will not work on my car and they don't want to associate with customers like me. Funny considering I did most of the work getting the base tune sorted out on my days off in the parking lot. Well, that was a waste of over 3 months.
Last edited by djSL; 11-05-15 at 01:52 PM.
11-06-15, 10:58 AM
#18
Rotary Freak
You would think that they would show that it was all a misunderstanding and get it working to show you that they were on the right track all along and that they needed a bit of time. Dumping you like this, because of what I think was a very fair representation without hysterics, smacks of childish behavior.
Sorry you had to go through this, but something doesn't sit right with me and if I lived out in the Portland area, I would be hesitant.
There are tuners everywhere, its hard to find the good ones.
Eric
Sorry you had to go through this, but something doesn't sit right with me and if I lived out in the Portland area, I would be hesitant.
There are tuners everywhere, its hard to find the good ones.
Eric
11-09-15, 06:45 AM
#21
Rotary Freak
Great job. Next time I'm in Portland I will give you $20. Now just start trimming the fuel MAP and you should be close. Again, doesn't look like the "Tuners" had much of an idea on what they were doing and were looking for an excuse to dump the project while saving some face.
Congrats.
Eric
Congrats.
Eric
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