Poor Experience: RX8 Performance
 

So much of me wants to slam Scott at RX8 Performance, however, I think the truth of my experience will speak for itself, and let others see what type of businessperson he is.

I ordered and paid for a 13B REW engine swap mount, as well as delrin diff bushings on Nov 15. Admittedly, I wasn't aware that their mounts were made to order, so I sent an inquiry a couple days later (Nov 19th) asking for tracking information. When I got a reply from Scott the same day saying they are in the build process, and my order will ship next week, I figured okay, fair enough - I can appreciate that unique items like this would be made to order. No harm to foul right?

Anyway, I patiently waited until December 5th, a week after they were supposed to ship, and inquired about my order...no response. Email a few days later on the 9th, get a half-ass response saying that he's still running parts and it won't be too much longer. I inquire as per why it was next week a few weeks ago, and now what happened? No response.

Wait 2 more weeks, send another note on Dec 22 (slighly bitchy might I add) as per the status of my paid order...no response. Email again on the 27th, guess what? Finally a response!! A response saying he's still waiting on parts to finish my order.....over a month after telling me my parts were in production and that I'd be seeing them "next week"....

Another week goes by (January at this point) and guess what? I send another follow-up email, and receive a response on the 8th saying he'll be picking up my parts in the morning, and shipping tomorrow...awesome right?? WRONG. Another week goes by, no sign of a tracking number, no sign of my package. Send another email, no response. Send yet ANOTHER email...getting pretty bitchy with my emails by this point, and finally get a response on the 22nd.

A tracking number!!! Great, right?? WRONG AGAIN. For over a week, I checked the tracking number daily, and it just said pre-shipment info sent to USPS each time I looked. Time for another email... No response as expected, but the day after I sent the email, my tracking number shows my package start moving towards my location, where it finally arrived yesterday.

Now, I will honestly give credit where credit is due. The mount looks great, feels pretty solid, and bolted into the car pretty close. It needed some minor trimming to clear the eccentric bolts at the rear of the front suspension arm, but pretty damn good all said and done. Impressive piece for sure. The bushings pressed in to the diff mount well which is also a testament to RX8 Performance's products.

HOWEVER, at the end of the day, dealing with RX8 Performance was truly a nightmare. My build has sat virtually idle for nearly 3-months, and is way behind schedule solely because of RX8 Performance's inability to meet reasonable turn-around times.

What I don't understand is why couldn't Scott just be honest and upfront with me from the start? If he was waiting on more orders to make the production expenses worthwhile, tell me! I would be a lot more understanding, had I not been lied to constantly along the way. I understand business, I understand production, and wanting to wait for more units to make building it worthwhile but come on....be honest with your customers!!! We'll respect you a heck of a lot more.

Moderator note to people reading this thread:
We have quite a few threads that go into Scott's past history, people that side with him, people that side against him. Please do your best to keep this thread relating to the circumstance in the opening post. If all you are going to do is post an opinion of Scott (good or bad), it would be best if you simply refrain.

The staff knows how easily threads about him tailspin, so we are watching and will endeavour to keep it on track.

Scubasteve, unfortunately this story is the same old same old. My buddy waited six months for his rotary canister recently and got similar treatment and another buddy the same a year or two before that as well as many others. I will never understand why he just isn't up front and honest instead of blatant BS but that is just his nature. Glad you got your parts though, I fear one day history will repeat itself and people will stop receiving parts all together. But this is why I push people to choose other vendors. There really is no reason to take the risk.

But I'm happy that you can now get back on track, I am sure the downtime was a bummer.

Thanks for the post. I almost bought a turbo manifold from him. I'm kind of glad I didn't after seeing stuff like this.

I've done a large amount of custom production that was sold in one or two units at a time. To get costs down in manufacturing it normally takes large quantity's to make a difference.

The cost to have something like your engine mount would be relatively small. Especially if he builds it in house. There's no way he sells enough that it's hard to keep in stock. So I would expect that to be in stock If I was buying it. Or get a straight forward response that I just sold my one stock unit. It will take x time to build another one.

3 months ? Pssh get in line buddy, I waited 6 months for his trio canisters with excuses ranging from the necks being out of stock at the manufacturer, to his welder broken, to his workers not showing up, to floods, to shop relocation, power outage, etc ... I need to read the emails again. SIX months worth of excuses, even called me personally with even more excuses that he probably didnt feel like typing out. Also, after 6 months, the canisters are leaking all of them at the fittings and one had a pin hole at the welds. So much for his so called Inspection process that he supposedly carried out at his "4th month" process.

I can see how some people would be upset with a 1+ month lead time, but it really isn't that long. IMHO you were a bit hasty with your expectations, though to your credit you did not know they were made to order. With custom made stuff you always have to assume its a small man operation. I waited about 3 months for mine, still waiting on the canister trio, however, I am in no rush to swap as my current engine is fine and dandy. In a build process, I tend to order custom items prior to starting the actual swap so that in the event something like a delay occurs, I am not sitting idle.

A 6 month lead time however is a bit long, and leaky canisters are no bueno. That is a very acceptable reason to be upset.

I don't know why more are not kept in stock, however, a larger company like turblown does not keep their turbo manifold in stock and builds them to order. The reasons are probably similar if I had to guess.