Jedi54

iTrader: (7)

I just laugh at people who continue to complain about slow service.
suckers...

invasion08

iTrader: (7)

Did the email you received look loke this?

Thank you for submitting your calibration request! We wanted to let you know that we have received your submission and all your answers and data logs look correct. I have forwarded the information to Jeff so he can create your calibration.

Please keep in mind that all calibrations are worked on in the order they are received. We will be working as quickly as possible to complete your calibration but times do vary. As such, we do not currently have the means to identify how long the process will take. Please do not resubmit your calibration request as this will only make the process take longer.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to email us. Otherwise we will contact you as soon as your calibration is completed and ready for download.

invasion08

iTrader: (7)

It is a hard concept to follow directions. To the BHR Crew keep up the great work.

zenrx8

iTrader: (4)

******' A. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I"m starting to understand Jeff better the more I read this insane thread.

BTW, Paul: Badge of honor to have my quote in your sig

ninjajim4

iTrader: (4)

no i'm quite sure it doesn't help... that's certainly not the issue nor the point made. i don't think you yourself delete or otherwise ignore emails that have some sort of ambiguity to them, or for that matter are perfectly clear but separated across emails.

that quote in your sig is gone, but i remember reading it and thinking how MM could not possibly hope to have the same said of him. interesting to see you defend business practices you yourself are above.

04Green

iTrader: (1)

There has been a lot said here by a lot of people. My turn.

I wanted an AP. I was planning a purchase in the latter part of this year with an MM tune. Turns out COBB discontinued the puppy without a lot of notice. I found out through this forum (MM). He was part of the team that: (1) found out, (2) worked what was in essence a bulk buy before the deadline, and (3) offered to delay MMCCS for those that had to buy earlier than intended. I have not said it before, but thanks Jeff, thanks Charles, thanks whomever else.

I made a couple of assumptions when I signed up.

1. I was a part of a big group buying these things. That meant that it could be awhile before I got one (COBB would not have discontinued with a lot on the shelf, they had been trying to run out their inventory with a sale for some time) if they got a ton of orders, it was likely they would have to configure more. I fully expected to be a part of a ton of orders and to have to wait.
2. There is one guy that does the tuning. He has so many hours a day. If a bunch of us bought these things, the queue is going to get pretty darn long. Especially if he has a day job.
3. Option 2, a non-COBB approach, was going to cost me 2X to 3X as much, not something I was willing to pay.
4. It was going to take 6 months or so to get through this tune thing.
5. COBB was going to be really stupid and go through with the discontinue thing.
6. I better get my submit right each and every time, because the receiving end is likely a mess. If I cannot deliver a good data package, that fits into the designed process, one designed to turn these things out as fast as possible, they are going to reject it and I will lose my place in line.

The only assumption I got wrong was the discontinued forever one. Oh well. That is good news for just about everyone, including those of us who might break the ones we have an need a new one. Um, we have the same folks to thank for this good news as well.

I will tell you that it took awhile to get my first tune. That was expected. It also installed like I expected, and the car is running great. It starts better, idles better and feels a little stronger. When I sent my second round of data in, I made sure I followed the directions, and am waiting for tune 2. I will get it when I get it.

A weekly status of where I am in the queue would be nice, but I have a strong feeling that the current process (developed when a few of these were sold at a time), does not support it. Do I want the team to stop work and build a feedback process for an artificial bump in demand, NO. That would just delay my tune and not really get anything out the door faster (a poor business decision). The scarce resource here is MM. I am responsible for getting a complete package into the system, he is responsible for working those packages in order. That is the deal.

I had a few questions about an upcoming track event and the base calibrations. They were answered in a timely manner with the data I needed.

A lot of words. Here is the short form. I wanted to buy something. I was going to lose my chance. Someone stepped in and fixed it for me. I really have a hard time bitching because he guessed wrong on how many people he needed to help.

Or, the ship is stuck on the reef. The guy that came to save us has a little boat and can only take a few of us to shore at a time. I am not going to bitch that he should have a bigger boat or critique is rowing style. I am going be darn happy he is willing to row me to shore.

:rant off:

Merry Christmas Everyone

StealthTL

iTrader: (1)

Well said, very fair comments......

Kane

iTrader: (1)

The rowboat analogy made me LOL.

Ray makes good pancakes, Jeff has good taste in booze. Erik is also a fan of Sailor Jerry like me, and Todd is a hirrarious drunk.

All in all, if I'm buying and BHR has what I need then they get my money. If you are unwilling to wait the required (and rather public at this point) amount of time. Then do it yourself or buy from someone else I guess, called voting with your wallet.

I want a midpipe, and a new catback exhaust... I shall wait until I can get what I want. I also need a fuel pump, new fuel line and gauge adapter etc....hmmmmm - who can I possibly get to do all my legwork for me and make my life easier by ordering with one phone call? Hmmm...weird. And if they couldn't get it to me in MY timeframe, I'd find someone else... joys of being the customer.

If you need a tune faster than MM can get it to you... why not do it yourself. I know it can be frusterating, BELIEVE me I know, but the only person that you can control 100% is you.

zenrx8

iTrader: (4)

Ancient Chinese Proverb:

"You can have it done right, or you can have it done quickly. Rarely can you have both. You chose."

ninjajim4

iTrader: (4)

i feel like we are having two different conversations here. i don't recall saying anything about the effort involved in tuning. that's largely irrelevant. i think the soup **** comparison is quite apt; the quality of the soup is not in question.

there is a reason that BHR as a whole enjoys a better reputation than MM, and it has nothing to do with the quality of the product (where both yours and MM are stellar, or so i've read). obviously i don't need to tell you of all people that there's more to ANY business than the product itself, and no one needs to be an in depth tuner, rebuilder, aftermarket part supplier etc. to know this or observe it. other people in this thread seem to imply otherwise.

TeamRX8

iTrader: (25)

shove that up your @ss for TWO+ YEARS and let us know how it smells once you finally pass it ....

MazdaManiac

iTrader: (3)

OK. I'll bite.

What about when the customer uses different e-mail addresses? How about different spellings of their name?
How about when these differences are buried in several hundred e-mails a week?
I'm not psychic - If a submission isn't exactly right, I have no idea who you are.


The format I require for submissions has a purpose - it is not just designed to somehow magically reduce my workload.

MazdaManiac

iTrader: (3)

https://www.rx8club.com/showpost.php...28&postcount=1

See #6

TeamRX8

iTrader: (25)

there's a huge chasm between getting it now vs still waiting over 2 years later

and you create half your custoner service issues through perception. The latest "get it right or go f-ck yourself" attitude of your latest customer directions thread is a perfect example. While you may feel that way you would be much better served to say someting like "we will make our best effort to inform you of incorrect submittals, but cannot be held accountable for resulting delays, receipts of being informed, etc" even if you trash them anyway. When it comes to customer service perception is everything, assuming you actually care about providing any. Its perfectly your right not to care, but then it only serves to fuel BS like this further still.

MazdaManiac

iTrader: (3)

You would think that, in quoting Ghandi, you would at least understand the quote before you comment to the contrary.

TeamRX8

iTrader: (25)

That has nothing to do with it. Regardless of my forum persona, my success in business life is based on knowing customer service. Your monthly bills equate to my play money. Think about it.


https://www.rx8club.com/showpost.php...6&postcount=34



.

MazdaManiac

iTrader: (3)

I wouldn't presume...

paulmasoner

iTrader: (1)

Since being on topic has become more of a rarity than the norm, I'd just like to say this:

Over the last couple of years I've become acquainted to more than a few folks who have a lifestyle I would love to have. I am making an assumption here, but it seems that(despite current predicaments) Jeff has led a life of self sufficiency. Others I know for a fact fit this description. And though most of them fall into an economic and lifestyle class many folks would not be proud of, I very much admire the idea of self employment and working only to the level that supports current needs/wants.

Although I am admittedly too lazy to pursue such a lifestyle, I have great admiration for those who apparently are largely self educated and support themselves in various ways throughout their life, adapting to needs as necessary. I envy quite a few folks I know who work only a couple of days a week, and often not at all. Said people lead very simple and frugal lives, but they appear to have the advantage of being unanimously content in life.

I am far from uncontent in the life I've chosen, but most folks I know have a decent amount of stress and drama added to their lives from factors related to working for the man, keeping up with the Jones', etc.

I've actually recently decided to make some significant changes in my lifestyle with some basis around similar thinking. As soon as I am healed up and back in Belgium I'll be selling the 8 as a part of these changes. I guess I'vejust discovered that being happy in life isn't always about having the things you think will make you happy

(also, this post most certainly is applied to my new Sig disclaimer )

Flashwing

Well then go ahead and whip it out there big boy since you seem to be more than willing to brag about how big it is.

StealthTL

iTrader: (1)

Awed by the depths that this thread has plumbed.

Carry on.....

Flashwing

Against my better judgement I'll try to address some of this in hopes that there might be some understanding. I guess it's just the Christmas spirit in me!

Administration of the custom calibration process had become such a tangled mess that Jeff required a second person to assist in the process. Not because he's incapable of the organization himself but because he needs to spend more time focusing on completing tunes instead of dealing with the onslaught of nonsense that gets thrown every single day.

90% of our customers require very little time to address. It's the other 10% that occupy the majority of both my time and Jeff's time. It's the repetitive emails, its the inability to follow directions, its the fact that we have to continue to explain and reexplain our process and procedures because people are not willing to take the time to do things right the first time. All of that detracts from our ability to do what we're being paid to do which is tune your RX8.

For example,

So you're interested in knowing why it takes so long to respond to your emails?

^ Because of this. Now multiply that several dozen times and you can understand why response time for emails becomes a serious issue. Now, in Fonzy's defense I've been investigating some issues that happened in the September/October time frame when the transition to our new administrative process took place. Honestly, some emails got dropped and some people were lost in the process. That is no one's fault but mine and I've been working with Jeff to get those people handled.

Anyone who deals with a high amount of email traffic during their daily job understands the challenges of responding to every email. It's not an excuse, it's just the way it is. Compound this with the fact that since people know I handle most initial email correspondence that they send me PM's, email our primary email account AND email me at my BHR account as well as doing the same for every other BHR team member.

I'm not picking on ninjajim4 here, but using this to make a point. When addressing a single person from two different emails it's understandable that it's possible. When you are dealing with hundreds of customers and thousands of calibrations you have a literal nightmare when someone tries to use two different emails to communicate.

When a person emails for a calibration request, there are several steps that have to be taken just from my side of things before that email even makes it to Jeff. I review all 11 of your questions for accuracy, review all of your logs to ensure the proper parameters are in place (including details such as whether or not you got into open loop for cruise etc.) and then also check to see if you have the correct data file and whether you are sending a new submission or resubmitting a previous one. How am I supposed to track previous emails if you use multiple addresses, change the submission name or alter your spelling?

Then, once I've done that, I have a whole check process I go through to verify that you are actually a customer of MazdaManiac and not someone attempting to get a free tune. We've had this attempted enough times we had to put a process in place to eliminate it.

This is performed for every single submission we receive. Considering MazdaManiac handles 96% of the accessPORT business for the RX8 in total that's quite a lot of submissions.

The purpose is to protect our customer base who follow the rules, follow the process and give us all the required information from those who don't read instructions and don't cooperate. Otherwise we would be overran with the amount of attention a small group of people require. When we are producing highly detailed instructions and then having to make instructions on how to read the instructions and still having people who cannot follow the process the amount of time necessary to address those people means having less time to do other things. The other reason this is necessary is to ensure that we never, under any circumstances, provide a calibration to one person that was meant for another person. The risk of engine damage with tuning is enough that making mistakes is not an option. I highly doubt anyone here would tolerate a male patient who is in the hospital for brain surgery being switched with a patient getting a vasectomy under the guise that the hospital was attempting to make the information gathering process easier for patients.

For the same reason no one would tolerate getting an incorrect tune because we allowed mistakes to be made because we didn't want to upset or inconvenience our customers.

Insinuating there is a lack of customer service or no service at all simply displays ignorance about the process. Obviously everyone is free to comment but with a clear ignorance about what goes on behind the scenes the majority of what is posted here is pure speculation in regards to a "lack" of service on any level.

And finally, I'd like to add that the entire Black Halo Racing team has been working on various projects both on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Erick and Charles were building, packing and shipping ignition upgrade kits yesterday and I have been working today on accessPORT emails due to my lack of time this week to do so. Our customers are put first, we are not.

RX8Soldier

iTrader: (24)

Thanks for that Flashwing! I'm still waiting on my calibrations, so don't think that all is hunky-dory But, I understand that Jeff is busy, and that there are many different issues with what we (the customer) don't observe behind the scene. As I've stated in another thread, people want everything, and they wanted it yesterday.
Now, 1 month is a long wait. 2 months is even more. But, if we (the customer) have a vague understanding of WHY things are taking so long, then MAYBE we could accept it.
I have accepted it, and I'm in no rush. But, I can also understand the frustration of not getting a returned email.
So, maybe this is something you guys could take into consideration? I'm not gonna pretend that I know how many emails you get every day, or what manner they are! This is just a perspective from a patient customer
Again, I HOPE that your last message will provide some insight into those customers without any. Marry Christmas to you and the BHR staff and may 2011 bring you patience and success!

ASH8

Ain't that the pot calling the kettle black!...

Flashwing

I'm not busting your ***** but one of the reasons is simply having to explain the reasons. From just the email aspect we receive emails on everything from people trying to get tuning information from us, questions about turbo kits and turbo sizing, questions about injector sizes and types, questions about "does X modification effect my tune" and so on.

I think the expectation is that Jeff simply makes a few keyboard strokes and the process is completed. If you're truly interested I'd suggest talking to anyone who has taken Jeff's tuning seminar or even take the seminar yourself to understand the complex nature of tuning the RX8 and the level of attention and detail that is given to every single customer. The last seminar was over 12 hours long so it's not like learning to play farmville.

The process isn't perfect and changes to how things are done are happening all the time.

rx 8speciale

iTrader: (3)

Fhlashwing this issue should have been fixed or address a long time ago when the service started not years of accumulated job after, thats was just mm being dumb. Ps: Ur are doing a good job flashwing