Turbo D16

I've decided, out of the goodness of my heart, to warn all of you of a company here in lovely Colorado. Turbo Engineering Corporation of Golden, Colorado does not desere to be in buisness. Yes, I know that does sound a bit harsh but after you read this story and think of how pissed off you would be, i'm sure you'll understand my accusation.

I'll type this little "yarn" in chronological order so that it's absurdity is easily grasped. Not that it will be hard to grasp in the first place.

Day one: I decide my turbo needs a rebuild and send it off to Turbo Engineering Corporation, 17222 South Golden Road, Golden Colorado, 80401. I say, call me when you know what needs to be done to make this bad boy run again. I have also included a rebuild kit to make the process easier and less time consuming for the technician.

Day two: I call and ask if they know anything about my turbo. I dropped it off a day before and they said they would call me to tell me what needed to be done. I'm a bit anxious since this is my only car and I kind of need it. They say "We'll he hasn't gotten a chance to look at it yet, but we'll call you as soon as we know." "Ok" I reply. Then a week goes by...

Week 2: I call them. "Well, he hasn't gotten a chance to look at your turbo yet, it's been sitting on his bench all week but for some reason he hasn't gotten around to it." Once again I reply "Ok, call me when you know."

Week 2 day 2: They call me and tell me my turbo does in fact need a rebuild. (Well i'll be damned ) And along with that, the compressor bearing needs to be machined and a whole host of other crap. I ask "Ok, when can I expect this to be done?" "We'll try to have it done by the end of this week, but it will probably be early next week." "Fine" I say, "Call me when it's done."

Week 3: Monday ends, no phone call. I call them on Tuesday. "Hey, umm, is my turbo done" "We got really backed up, it looks like it'll be the end of this week" they say. "Well really try to have it done by Thursday because my parents are going out of town and this is my only car." "Ok" they reply "We can't garuntee it by this Thrusday, but it will definantly be done by Friday. We'll call you as soon as it's done."

Week 3, Thrusday: 4:30 rolls around and they close at 5 so I call them to see if there's any chance in hell this little task would be accomplished. "No, it'll be done tomarrow though so we'll call you as soon as it's done so you can come pick it up." "Fine" I reply.

Week 3, Friday: No call in the morning so I call them in the afternoon around 2. (Golden is a bit of a drive from where I am so I need to try to get there before 5) "Yeah it's not done yet, but the technician says he'll get it done tonight. He's got lots of other things to do so it'll be done tonight and you can come pick it up tomarrow even though we're closed. We'll call you when it's done tonight." "Ok" I reply, "I apologize for calling you so much, but you don't seem to call me." I say.

Week 3, Saturday: No phone call and they don't pick up when I call them.

Week 3, Sunday: No phone call annd they don't pick up when I call them.

Week 4, Monday: I call them, "Is my turbo done yet?" "We got really backed up, it'll be done today though. We'll call as soon as it's done." No phone call the rest of the day.

Week 4, Tuesday: I call them, "Is my turbo done yet?" "We swear, today is the day. It will be done and you can come pick it up after we close if you want. Were all staying after because there's lots to do." "Ok." I reply. No phone call...

Week 4, Wednesday (today): I can't call them because I have class, so instead, my dad gives them a call. "Hello this is Gene Ferry, I was wondering if my sons turbo is done yet." The lady we've been talking to for 4 weeks says "Hang on, I'll let you talk to the technician working on your turbo." A surly sounding man picks up the phone, "Yeah this is Jim." "Hi Jim, this is Gene Ferry, you've had my sons turbo for 4 weeks and you keep saying it'll be done and it isn't, ever. Whats the deal? How much longer is this gonna take?" To which Jim the Technician replies (and no, I AM NOT KIDDING) "It's not gonna be done for a while because we can't work on it because you keep harrasing us." "Umm, Jim" my dad says, "You've had this for 4 weeks and you said we would definantly have it by last friday." Jim then says "We never said that." "Yes Jim, you did." Says dad. "Well we never said it would be done on Friday, we said it would be done on Monday." "Well jim, it's now wednesday, you swore it would be done yesterday and you never even called." Then Jim has the audacity to say (and yes I quote) "Look, you can either stop calling and it'll get done when it get's done, or you can come pick it up right now in a box."

Now, I'm no buisness major, but to me, that seems like a pretty crappy buisness practice. Correct me if i'm wrong for saying this but, they can go right to hell.

Long story short: DO NOT DO BUISNESS WITH THIS COMPANY!!!

Turbo Engineering Corporation
17222 South Golden Road
Golden, Colorado
80401
http://www.turboengineering.com

1-800-950-turbo

so when are we gonna go set fire to this place? Taking prisoners or fuck 'em all?

Holy crap bud this sucks. I probably would have been yelling at them by the 2nd week. Hehehe...we should all call them tomorrow and ask for the turbo.

Do it!!! But only if more than 1 person calls. Otherwise they'd be pissed and call me and say "Come pick up your turbo bitch. It's in a box and you owe us $90 for telling you it needs a rebuild." Man I hate my life...

lol im seriously about to call them tomorrow and say that i was considering having my turbo rebuilt by them but i discovered that they had bad customer service and bad turn around times so go to hell

My friend is considering the same thing.

"How long is typical turn around time for a rebuild?"

"About a week."

"Oh, ok. You wouldn't lie would you?"

"Of course not."

"Man I love empty promises. Can you guys provide those too?"

I think I will send them an email. I was going to need a rebuild too. Sucks for them

dude, i love stuff like this. gimme their number. I'll call them today. no joke.

on Crank0r.com, Merkurclub.com, turboford.org, clublexus.com, escortunderground.com,
and im telling my friends to spread it around

If they try to make you pay for the turbo they probably never even had apart yet.
Let us know, im sure i can get over 30 people in different states to call them

hah, nevermind. I read that again, and lo and behold there was the number. Anyways, yeah callin now.

haha... gokart... I like your sig

OK, just called. That lady I dont think has any idea what she's doing.

Anyways, I called and was being nice for awhile asking what the turnaround time is for a rebuild, just feeling things, and that the turbo I'd be sending in is on my only car. They said that the time is 3-5 days. I then asked what kind of gaurantee they have if in case it's not done in that time. I asked if I could get some money back if it's not back in that time. She said she'd have to talk to the shop manager about that. I said that's fine, I was just wondering, because as a customer I'm looking for a place that is true to their word, and if they say it'll take 3-5 days, well then I'd expect it to have it done in 3-5 days not 3 months.

She also said it's $345 for a rebuild! $245 for labor, and $100 for parts. I've never had a rebuild, but that seems high.

I also said that I had a few friends that had done their work thru them, and it's taken MUCH longer than they said, and I told her that that was really bad customer service, and that they will lose a LOT of business due to that fact.

I'll call again if you want. I love stuff like that. hehe...

good information gathering.

I'm going to call them later on today, and also ask for the turnaround time

DOO-IT! Just DOO-IT! hah

HA! Rock. I didn't think anyone would actually call. Man that's awesome.

That sucks dude.

I'll put in my word here too that this place sucks ass.

My roommate called them and asked if they have any silicone hoses in stock.

"Oh, yes we do!! Come on over.", says the lady.

So he drives down there from Ft. Collins, a good hour drive, and guess what? They don't have shit in stock. They use the ol' "Well, we did, but someone purchased an entire box just before you got here." Riiiiight. How convenient. They then proceeded to suggest that they buy this little piece of silicone hose that they charge $17 for.

All said, don't deal with them.

that sucks, thats no way to do any kinda of Buisness. i might call them and let them know just how much buisness they are now going to loose. ill spread it around DADC also!

Great god all mighty. How rediculous. I think I might be more pissed if I were you instead of me. Thats quite a drive from the Fort. At least I think it is, I havn't been there for 3 F***ING WEEKS!!!! Man it sucks not having a car.

THIS WAS POSTED ON Turboford.org BY NEMIRO;

"Actually, they have a long track record. Although it's too much to post here, I dealt with TEC for years. The woman on the phone was probably Holly. She is by far, the most helpful person there. Jim is not the tech, he's the owner. Anyway, my company bought all sorts of performance turbos for many years from them. We even attempted a partnership over 4 years ago to build a turbo kit for the Dodge Neon (way before SRT4). (We even bought a brand new Neon to use as a development car. After a couple of months at TEC, and no progress made, other than using our new car to run errands, we picked the car up, and scrapped the project - that's a whole other story) Back to the story. We bought many turbos from them. In 2000, I had a project that required a VNT25. I bought a new one for our project car from TEC. After 100 miles, the turbo failed, and in short order, so did the rest of the engine. Upon teardown, I could not figure out why it failed. I sent the turbo to TEC. They say foreign material caused it to fail. Hmmmm. This was a new engine, that I had spared no expense on, and meticulously cleaned through the whole process. Not to mention that I have built several dozen Chrysler 2.2's in my time (doing it blindfolded does come to mind). Anyway, I thought, OK, it could happen. Machine another engine. Had to buy another turbo, because TEC though the failure was on my end. Put the whole thing together again. 25 miles into this engine, the turbo explodes. I mean explodes. Lots of smoke, oil everywhere. Compressor is nowhere to be found, lots of metal through the engine, engine is immediately trashed. On teardown, I found part of the compressor in the intercooler. Many tiny pieces made it through, and down the intake. Turns out that the compressor was never torqued to the shaft. It was simply never tightened, nor loctited. TEC basically tells me to get bent - these turbos are no longer manufactured, I built the engine wrong, I had more foreign matter go through the turbo, etc, etc. So now, at near risk of a divorce, I build another engine (all I had been doing for months). Did I mention these are not cheap? New sets of forged pistons, rings, bearings, seals, machine work, etc are high on one engine. We're on #3. I buy a 30k mile used VNT25. Over 2.5 years later, and that car is still running just fine.

So, will I deal with TEC? Not anymore. So many empty promises. So little responsibility for QA issues. So little accountability to a good customer. No, not anymore."

Oh man. Don't really know what to say to that. Yes I was dealking with Holly and yes she was helpful. That Jim guy is a bit of an ass though.