wirenut
Active Member
In sept. of 08 I priced a A-41 auto overdrive kit from Keisler after reading about it in Mopar action. I clicked on the picture of my car, 65 Plymouth Bel 2, and filled out the requested info. They e-mailed me a detailed plain english PDF quote with line item desciptions for a "complete bolt in and go kit". I felt the price was more than having an overdrive was worth to me and e- mailed the salesman asking if he could do better. The answer was no that this was a great deal (3800). Some time in dec of o8 I received an e-mail from them regarding a sale. I checked it out and it was for the kit I priced. The price had been reduced to 3200 and change. I e-mailed the previous PDF quote back to the salesman and asked if he could now sell it for 3000. He replied no. I asked why not and referred him to the current sale. He replied that he wasn't even aware they were having such a sale and he could do it for 3170. I told him that would be great lets move forward, and I give him my CC info, and he forwards a reciept with line items that are nothing but part #s. I did'nt give it much thought, I buy alot of materials through my company and sometimes estimate and invoices don't use the same language. A month or so passes and and the kit arrives. The box is kinda small and there isn't anyway there could be a drive shaft in it. So before I open anything I call the salesman and say whats up with the drive shaft. He says the drive shaft gets shipped later, but it dosn't matter because the kit I bought was a down graded kit. I ask him what the hell is a down graded kit, and what good is any of this with out a drive shaft. He tells me if I don,t like it just return it. I tell him fine send a shipping tag, he says if i want to return it I have to pay for shipping and a re-stocking fee, or he can "give" me a drive shaft for 325 plus shipping. I tell him in plain language how much this upsets me and he tells me call customer service.
I call customer service and get voice mail. After several attemps I get some woman that explains that customer service is also covering for the tech guy and he's very busy. He calls me back a day or so later and tells me he's already spoken with the salesman and they best they can do is "give me the driveshaft for 200 plus shipping. I tell him this is unacceptable and I want it for nothing. He then asks if I understand that there also is no crossmember. I tell him no. I have not opened the box. He said it dosn't much matter they don't make one anyway! He says he will have to discuss it with someone higher up. I figure OK, someone there must have heard of the customer is always right. I mean they are a huge company, and it seems a pretty small cost to keep a customer happy right? The better part of a week passes and nobody calls or e-mails. I call the customer service guy back and he has no clue who I am. We go over everthing again and now I am losing it. He tells me someone will be in touch. I find Shafi Keislers e-mail adress on the www and I e-mail him with my problem. Nothing from Shafi nothing from customer service. I send several e-mails to customer sevice with no response, until I get an e-mail from The business manager explaining that I am wrong and that the only offer I will get has been given, and he would rather have me return it than have me unhappy and bad mouthing them on various forums. I agree and ask when they will be sending the shipping tag? No response. I finally call the CC company and file the paper work to have the money removed from the account until the dispute is settled. On the day I receive notification that the money has been removed I get an e-mail from Shafi that starts with "Thankyou for reaching out to me" and would I give him a call. I e-mail him back and told him to cut through the crap and e-mail works just fine. He agrees to give me the drive shaft at no charge if I remove all posts. I do, and he does.
But unfortunatley its not over.
I install the trany. Not to bad to install, needed to massage the floor more than just a little, needed to fab a crossmember, fab linkage and in the end had to lean the motor and trans back to achieve the clearance needed at the torsion bar support, had to then rework the exhaust to clear the center link and properly mate with manifolds.
I drive the car around easy for a while and at times it seems to behave erratic, but then clears up. One day getting on the parkway from a stand still I put in low and nail it. It moves forward about ten feet and shifts to second, I lift and it goes back into first. So I test it on a back road and same thing. The last thing I want to do is call these people but I do. I get a guy and we begin a trouble shooting marathon that begins in may and ends in sept. of 09. At some point I discover that the wiring harness is defective and that is what is causing the sometimes erratic shifting but the main problem with not staying in first still continues. After exhausting every possibility of something external he tells me that the trans needs to come out and go back to them. I tell him I'm not fond of this idea, he tells me there is no other way. I ask if this is all covered under warranty and he tells me most likley, but they won't know until thier transmision builder ( the same one that built and supposedly dyno tested it the first time) determines that it is actualy his fault. He then further informs me that I will have to pay the shipping there (375) and if they determine its not their fault I will have to pay to have it repaired and ship it back. I e-mailed Shafi and asked if because it was so new and because the problem was out of the box could we just do an exchange. He said no. I asked if I could bring it to one of thier so called dealers, he said no. Asked if a local shop of thier aproval could repair it at their expense, he told me no. Given my first experience there just isn't any way I could trust these people to do the right thing. So there it sits in the garage. I will have a local shop go through it in the spring, and I will continue to discredit them as often as I can. If even one person dosn't buy after reading my story I'll have gotten some justification.
I call customer service and get voice mail. After several attemps I get some woman that explains that customer service is also covering for the tech guy and he's very busy. He calls me back a day or so later and tells me he's already spoken with the salesman and they best they can do is "give me the driveshaft for 200 plus shipping. I tell him this is unacceptable and I want it for nothing. He then asks if I understand that there also is no crossmember. I tell him no. I have not opened the box. He said it dosn't much matter they don't make one anyway! He says he will have to discuss it with someone higher up. I figure OK, someone there must have heard of the customer is always right. I mean they are a huge company, and it seems a pretty small cost to keep a customer happy right? The better part of a week passes and nobody calls or e-mails. I call the customer service guy back and he has no clue who I am. We go over everthing again and now I am losing it. He tells me someone will be in touch. I find Shafi Keislers e-mail adress on the www and I e-mail him with my problem. Nothing from Shafi nothing from customer service. I send several e-mails to customer sevice with no response, until I get an e-mail from The business manager explaining that I am wrong and that the only offer I will get has been given, and he would rather have me return it than have me unhappy and bad mouthing them on various forums. I agree and ask when they will be sending the shipping tag? No response. I finally call the CC company and file the paper work to have the money removed from the account until the dispute is settled. On the day I receive notification that the money has been removed I get an e-mail from Shafi that starts with "Thankyou for reaching out to me" and would I give him a call. I e-mail him back and told him to cut through the crap and e-mail works just fine. He agrees to give me the drive shaft at no charge if I remove all posts. I do, and he does.
But unfortunatley its not over.
I install the trany. Not to bad to install, needed to massage the floor more than just a little, needed to fab a crossmember, fab linkage and in the end had to lean the motor and trans back to achieve the clearance needed at the torsion bar support, had to then rework the exhaust to clear the center link and properly mate with manifolds.
I drive the car around easy for a while and at times it seems to behave erratic, but then clears up. One day getting on the parkway from a stand still I put in low and nail it. It moves forward about ten feet and shifts to second, I lift and it goes back into first. So I test it on a back road and same thing. The last thing I want to do is call these people but I do. I get a guy and we begin a trouble shooting marathon that begins in may and ends in sept. of 09. At some point I discover that the wiring harness is defective and that is what is causing the sometimes erratic shifting but the main problem with not staying in first still continues. After exhausting every possibility of something external he tells me that the trans needs to come out and go back to them. I tell him I'm not fond of this idea, he tells me there is no other way. I ask if this is all covered under warranty and he tells me most likley, but they won't know until thier transmision builder ( the same one that built and supposedly dyno tested it the first time) determines that it is actualy his fault. He then further informs me that I will have to pay the shipping there (375) and if they determine its not their fault I will have to pay to have it repaired and ship it back. I e-mailed Shafi and asked if because it was so new and because the problem was out of the box could we just do an exchange. He said no. I asked if I could bring it to one of thier so called dealers, he said no. Asked if a local shop of thier aproval could repair it at their expense, he told me no. Given my first experience there just isn't any way I could trust these people to do the right thing. So there it sits in the garage. I will have a local shop go through it in the spring, and I will continue to discredit them as often as I can. If even one person dosn't buy after reading my story I'll have gotten some justification.
