First of all,

This is "MY" opinion and, "MY" feeling towards the way "I" was served at Speedstyle.

Ok some background. I got my JDM tranmisssion installed about a month an a half ago there. Everything went OK.

After that 3 weeks later I finally noticed that there it was tranny fluid dripping on my driveway, mostly when the car was warm.

I called Speedstyle and left a message for Eric to call me back with whoever answered, since he was not there.

I never got that call back. I called back two days later, still with a undriveable car. I talked with Eric and made an appoinment to get my car looked at.

They informed me that there was a crack in the tranmission casing. Someone at the desk, dunno who told me it was welded and should be ok now.....I was charged 2 hours labour ($140). I heard Eric say "welded" in the background.

I called Eric a week later since I noticed it was leaking even more now and he told me that they epoxyed the tranny...I thought it was welded.....I could have went to Canadian Tire and done that myself for $10.....alot cheaper than $140....(waste of money). Eric said that he would have to charge me extra if there was anything else to be done to fix the problem, other than more epoxy.

So I was pretty pissed now, but decided to stay under control...LOL....I made an appointment on Thursday for supposed to be today (Tuesday).

But last weekend I decided to take action myself.

I took the wheel off and noticed the epoxy on the tranny end cap.....the tranny oil just bubbled right through. I took off the tranny case endcap and drained the oil....(had to spend another $60 bucks on new Redline Fluid). I took the tranny endcap to a welding shop called Ridalco, they welded it for $80 and took him like 45 minutes.

All and all I feel I was mislead and had bad customer service, along with an outrageous price of $140 for epoxy.

I have spent over $3000 there in the last 3 yrs, recently doing my entire suspension there last fall.

I think its unfortunate, especially in this days competitive market, that there is no more good customer service or honest service.

I actually called Eric, yesterday (Monday) and left a message to call me, but today no call at all.

The tranny is not leaking anymore and is running perfect.

I talked to all the guys at the Ottawa DSM meet about it and they thought the whole situation was weird service from Speedstyle, although a few admitted to bad customer service (no interest in their customers, unless your speding 10,000 a pop).

I personally will NOT be dealing with them anymore. Another loyal customer going to the competition.

Thanks,
Shawn McCorkell

P.S I'm sure some people from Speedstyle will read this, they can contact me at shawntalonz@yahoo.ca, and I will give you my phone number or I can meet up with you at the shop if wanted to discuss.

Ouch, sorry to hear that Shawn, one of my buddies had a bad experience there as well. Too bad really, they are good guys. (helped me out in a pinch)

Sorry to hear about that Shawn....

I have heard others talk about poor customer service at SpeedStyle, although I must say I have been quite happy with them over the past 4 years. The customer service (for me) was always very good when dealing with either John or Eric directly.

It's unfortunate that this happened to you, but I'm glad that you were able to get everything back up and running!

Hopefully someone from Speedstyle reads this thread and gives you a call to straighten things out.

epoxy???

They must be on crack or something else really bad.

Just goes too show, if you want something done right....DO IT YOUR F$%$king self

If there was a crack in the tranmission casing shouldn't it have been sent back to whereever you purchased it?
Is there no guarentee's with anything anymore?
I don't like the sound of using Epoxy to hold together castings. Sounds like a bandaid approach to me.

S*&T like this really pisses me off!!!

Why is it that most shops assume their customers to be complete IDIOTS? They obviously thought you would just pay them more money to actually weld the front case this time and their little plan to leech more money out of you would have been perfect.

I hope many of Speedstyle's customers read this and their business is effected substantially...

Why is it that now days most shops try and milk their customers for every possible penny instead of being honest and do the job right the first time and only charging what the job costs?

Thanks for the support guys,

Yep it was grey epoxy that they used.

I only had a 2 week warranty....on the tranny I picked up in T.O off Ken Barkhouse. I didnt get the tranny installed untill 2 months after I bought it.

Either way, I guess it was damaged during transportation.

The point is that I paid to have it fixed (alot).

Thanks guys,

I agree with you Vince.

As usuall there are always 2 sides to every story.

Here is what I understand. I will also try to stay unbiased since I do work at Speedstyle.

Quote:I got my JDM transmission installed about a month an a half ago there. Everything went OK.

You brought Speedstyle a USED transmission to be installed. Speedstyle installed it properly. Then it turns out the tranny has a crack in it.

Speedstyle recommended you send back the transmission since it had a crack in it, you declined.

Quote:They informed me that there was a crack in the transmission casing. Someone at the desk, dunno who told me it was welded and should be ok now.....I was charged 2 hours labour ($140). I heard Eric say "welded" in the background.

There must have been a misunderstanding about the welding. You were told that we used JB weld (which is an epoxy) to TRY to fix the leak. What Eric was trying to do was to save you the expense of the tranny part being removed for the part to be sent out to be tig welded with aluminum.

Quote:I called Eric a week later since I noticed it was leaking even more now and he told me that they epoxyed the tranny...I thought it was welded.....I could have went to Canadian Tire and done that myself for $10.....allot cheaper than $140....(waste of money)

Yes its about $10 for the epoxy but it takes time to find leaks on trannys and try to fix things, the labour rate is $60/hr.

If the transmission was purchased from Speedstyle things would be different. You brought us a bad tranny and it sounds like you wanted us to warranty the transmission or fix it for free.

Speedstyle has a policy not to install used parts brought in by customers for this reason exactly. When the parts are faulty the blame seems to land on us.

I asked Eric to make an exception to the rule since you were a friend and fellow Club DSM member, my mistake, now I look bad. Teaches me not to do favors for club members.

Quote:Eric said that he would have to charge me extra if there was anything else to be done to fix the problem, other than more epoxy.

What Eric meant was that since the epoxy "band aid" fix didnt work he would have to fix it by removing the transmission and sending it out to be repaired. He was going to subtract the amount you paid for the epoxy attempt at fixing the problem.

Quote: I took off the tranny case endcap and drained the oil....(had to spend another $60 bucks on new Redline Fluid).

You could have drained the oil into a clean container and reused it, you did not have to spend another $60 on new fluid.

Quote:So I was pretty pissed now, but decided to stay under control...

If anyone I would be pissed at whoever sold you a tranny with a crack in it.

Quote:I talked to all the guys at the Ottawa DSM meet about it and they thought the whole situation was weird service from Speedstyle, although a few admitted to bad customer service (no interest in their customers, unless your spending 10,000 a pop).

There has been customer service problems in the past but there is new customer service staff (and I have also returned) and we do try to give everyone fair honest service.

Quote:I personally will NOT be dealing with them anymore. Another loyal customer going to the competition.

It is your choice to go wherever you like, it is unfortunate that this had to be dealt with here.
We installed a faulty transmission you brought us, we installed it for cheaper than a dealer would have installed, but you have made us out to be the bad guy.

When you called and said it was leaking Eric should have said something like this
"Sorry to hear that it is leaking but since we didnt supply the faulty part it isnt our responsibility to try to fix it"

Anyway, many people will agree with me and back me up that Eric is a fair honest guy and I personally dont think that he would screw anyone. He usually will work into the wee hours 7 days a week on peoples cars and always undercharges them for the actual amount of hours of time spent.

If you or anyone would like to discuss this further they can come to Speedstyle when I am there and I would be happy to talk to them.

Regards,

John Armas

Was it the bell housing that was cracked or the 5th gear cover. You both seem to be talking different stories here. Seems that if your going to post in this forum, you should have the details exact so that people can form an opinion based on accurate information.

Ken sold him the tranny WITH A 2 WEEK WARRANTEE.It was up to Shawn to return the tranny or at least make ken AWARE that there was a problem with it. But there's no mention of either. Ken's a fair guy and would have taken care of it.

Looks like he's talking about the 5th gear cover....?????

Hey Guys

Now that we have both sides of the story its obviously there was a communication failure some where along the line.

I was at the meet when Shawn said that and I was surprised when he said it .... I known Shawn briefly but I can tell

that he is a fair and stand up guy ( NOT a Hard ass customer ) I also have dealt with Speedstyle for a while now and they have helped me out a several times this is why I was wondering what happened here.

I hope both parties can put this incident behind them and go on

Shawn you a valuable DSM member ( 1 of the 6 that usually show to meets :-P ) and good guy

The SpeedStyle Guys are always helpful and they are the go to guys for DSM stuff.

I thinks this situation was a big misunderstanding and I hope its water under the Bridge for Shawn and Speedstyle

If any one wants to talk to me about this you can call 1-800-pimp-daddy X 007

I have made corrections to my post since i was incorrectly stating bell housing.

LOL thanks yassar,

Yes, John I did bring a used tranny to you.

No the price of the install wasnt cheaper than anywhere else, I called Chris Tapp and he quoted the same hours/labour rate that you did. I just took it there because it was cheaper.

Speedstyle never recommended me take back the tranny, dont know where you heard that......the tranny itself works fine....would probably cost more to take it back to Toronto.

Not sure if it is the 5th gear cover or bell housing, Its the part at the end of the tranny with 11 bolts on it....right behind the driver side wheel, there was a small crack in the housing.

I was not told that they used JB weld, I was told and could hear Eric in the background when I was on the phone with the other rep there, telling him that and he was repeating it.

I tried to buy a tranny from you guys, but you couldnt find any, I left my name for a week, and you guys never called back as usual.

I know it takes time to find the leak, but as soon as I took the wheel off and the tranny plastic protector, I saw the leak right away, took like 10 minutes with regular tools.

I dont understand what point you are trying to make about a USED tranny, the installation went fine. Its the fix that i was unhappy about.

An honest mechanic would have called me when they saw what the problem was and not try to do a half ass job with JB weld, the tig welder I took it too, and that charged me half the price, thought that was ridiculous. I thought it was also bad service when I finally called Eric back and he said he would have to charge me more to fix it, after he was already supposed to have fixed it.

I understand you are trying to stick up for your business since you work there, I would too...but I honeslty called you guys 3 times after I told eric it was leaking again, he never got the message or called back, thats bad service.

I fixed the tranny with easily just taking off the endcap, didnt which cost half of what you guys charged me, so I dont think he was trying to save me money.

No I didnt want you to warantee the tranny or get it fixed for free, what are you talking about, I paid a good $140 to get the thing fixed and it wasnt thats the bottom line. I never said I wouldnt pay for it, just I wanted proffessional service, not something I could have done myself.

I didnt want to deal with this on here, but it seems everytime I call, Eric isnt available, and he never returns his messages anyways. I even called Tuesday when it was supposed to go back in, but no return call.

Anyways its fixed now and not leaking anymore.

Just wanted to give you guys a heads up, I know alot of friends here in Orleans, that dont go to you because of the service also. But I will not name any names.

Anyways John I understand that this post may hurt your business, I hope it doesn't. Just wanted to give my opinion. Which I am entitled to and you guys should be happy to get a chance to improve and get feedback from loyal customers.

Take care.
Shawn

Thanks to all who have over the years and will contine to support Speedstyle.

Those of you who know me personaly know that I allways try to go the extra mile for you guys, and will continue to do so.

It is unfortunate that the unusual and rare instinces happen, and I feel they can be resolved much better face to face rather than on a public forums.

I do know that while I was absent from Speedstyle some customers/members have gone elsewhere thinking that they will get better service, but many end up coming back after finding out that some of the "other places" didnt/couldnt provide the DSM service/knowledge base they expected.

Yasar...I tried the pimp daddy phone # in your post and I think your sister answered. :-) j/k

Shawn.

I dont disagree. You paid to have it fixed, a temprorary fix was attempted. It didnt work.
I agree that jb weld epoxy wasnt the best choice for a temp. fix. Should have used GOOP.

I personally dont think Eric would have charged you more to take it and get tig welded. But I guess we will never know.

I am happy to hear it is fixed and working properly.

I will be emailing you directly to dicuss a few details.

Cheers.

John Armas

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA. Too funny John. No come backs Yasar?

The mistake that Speedstyle made here is an obvious one. They underestimated the customer's mechanical knowledge and abilities.

The reason for my previous post being so "harsh" was I had a similar experience with a local shop. My timing belt broke, it was winter, and I don't have a garage, so I paid them to do it while I am nice and warm inside. To make a very Long story short as soon as I started the car I told them that they didn't install the timing belt correctly (balance shafts were out of phase, vacuum was low so the timing must have been off, and there was way too much slack in the belt). They basically said I was full of sh!t because they had a former Chrysler mechanic do the job :rolleyes: , 2 days later the belt slipped 2 teeth. I didn't pay the shop the $800+ dollars they say I owed them and did the job myself.

Their mistake was assuming I was just like 99% of their customers, gullible with very little automobile knowledge. If I didn't know anything about the job they did, I would probably have ended up paying them more money to fix their first mistake.

This situation is very similar, Shawn was capable of fixing the crack on the tranny cover but for what ever reason he decided to pay a shop to do it. When he paid the shop to fix the crack he assumed they would do what he paid for...fix the crack, not put a band-aid on it.

If Speedstyle was going to try and fix the crack with JB weld they should have said that right from the start, explaining to the customer that they were trying a "temporary" fix to save the customer some money, and it would cost more if they were to weld the crack.

After telling Shawn that this is what they intended to do they should have asked him if he wanted them to proceed with the JB weld fix or if they should spend the time and weld the crack properly.

Since Speedstyle didn't give Shawn this option or even explain to him what they were attempting to do Speedstyle is at fault! Shawn paid Speedstyle to fix the crack PERIOD! He didn't pay them to try and fix it the first time with the possibility of having to go back and have them fix it again! Speedstyle did not fix the crack the first time and they should stand behind their work and fix it right the second time at no extra charge to the customer...Shawn is already suffering more down time at speedstyles expense!

In my opinion these are not the actions of a good shop that respects and values it's customers and stands behind it's work.

Secondly
Since the job is already done this is just out of curiosity. What did they do on the car for those 2 hrs they charged? Remove the tire, remove the plastic in the wheel-well (10min), look for the crack (20min being generous), mix and apply JB weld (15min), reassemble plastic and put wheel back on (10min). I really find it hard to get 2 hrs out of that unless they actually removed the cover to apply the jb weld....in which I don't see how the JB weld fix wouldn't work in the first place. And if that were the case why did they not weld the crack since the case was
off the car? Do they not have access to a welder in the shop? It only would take a few more minutes to weld the crack, fix it rightbe done with it.

John,
You are an employee of Speedstyle so obviously you are going to defend them, but even you have to admit that they did not do what they were paid to do and they aren't standing behind their work or trying to save a customer.

If you and Speedstyls have helped out the DSM community and members of this club that is GREAT! That's what this club is all about. But the fact that Speedstyle has helped out others in the past does not give them a free ticket to do a half ass job every once in a while. Shawn didn't complain about the tranny instillation.

The way I see it is Shawn went to Speedstyle as a separate job, he had a tranny that had a crack on it which he paid to get fixed, the tranny could have been on the car for 8 years or 8 days. It really has noting to do with the tranny instillation or Speedstyle installing used parts purchased by an outside dealer on a car.

Quote:
John,
You are an employee of Speedstyle so obviously you are going to defend them, but even you have to admit that they did not do what they were paid to do and they aren't standing behind their work or trying to save a customer.

We were bringing the car in to repair it. Shawn fixed before his appt.

We do stand by our work. He paid for the leak to be fixed, the fix didnt work. We were going to bring in the car and fix it again.

Regardless. I have contatcted Shawn directly to try to come up with a resolution to this.

Quote:
If you and Speedstyls have helped out the DSM community and members of this club that is GREAT! That's what this club is all about. But the fact that Speedstyle has helped out others in the past does not give them a free ticket to do a half ass job every once in a while. Shawn didn't complain about the tranny instillation.

Its to bad you dont hear about all the extra's we have and will continue to do for Club DSM members.
People just seem to post when they are complaining.

If this had been delt with differently by Shawn (not posting on the web) and instead talk to myself or Phil personaly we probably could have come to a mutually satisfiying solution.

Regards,

John

I haven't dealt with Speedstyle for service but I have purchased parts over the phone. I have never had problems getting through to place an order or talk to a representative.
This is starting to sound exactly like another shop and a used tranny scenario. Maybe the best solution is for these speedshops to turn down all these shitty used parts installs for you cheap-ass DSMers. The shop always ends up being the bad guy in the end in these situations. You want to save money buy buying sketchy parts then you beter be willing to run into a hassle or two (or three or four...).

Yes but Shawn was told that he would have to pay for the extra work..this is not standing behind your work.

Yes I agree, people only remember the bad and tend to forget about the good, unfortunately it's human nature.

How does that one joke go.. you lay bricks and they call you a brick layer, you wash a bunch of windows and they call you a window washer, but you sick one D*&K....! (Or something like that)

But by preforming hundreds of good deeds doesn't give you the right to do one bad deed.

Blake,
This has nothing to do with the tranny install, this is a customer going to a shop to fix a crack in the tranny...plane and simple, how the tranny got on the car or where it came from is not the issue here. And Ken is not known sell sketchy parts, I think he has a good reputation for the parts he sells.

Maybe Blake would like his tranny fixed with JB-weld????

I'm just saying with all the bitching these used parts boys have been doing I think if I were a shop I'd be thumbing my nose at installing used parts (or for that matter, white box parts) that were brought to me. The respnsibility of the part always ends up on the shop when something goes wrong not the person who didn't fork over the extra for something decent. I wouldn't have installed the part to begin with, let alone tried fixing it to save someone more money.
And EVERYONE screws up now and then, you just never hear about the satisfied customers, just the dicks that figure they were screwed. If Speedstyle is satisfying the vast majority of their customers then that is a very good accomplishment. No business can satisfy 100% of their customers, if you think you can you obviously haven't tried running a business.

If anyone is a dick it is you Blake, obviously you dont know anything about how a business should run, or have worked at one yourself, Ken sells amazing parts. Nothing wrong with used parts, what the hell is all that about.

Anyways, you dont know the whole story so I think you should chill out.

Shawn

P.S John and I have resolved this matter.

Well I just would like to say that over the past 2 years I’ve spent over 3grand at speed style. I found that they usually beat all the other guys when it comes to price. Plus the big extra is that they give u good advice... Over all I think they are fair and a great asset for the DSM guys.
This is just an unfortunate incident.

Thanks to Ziad, Steve R.,Yasar, Blake, Tom, Yves, Mark, Patrick and everyone else who posted, emailed me and called me. Your $5 is on the way. j/k

This was an rare and unfortunate incident and a resolution has been reached between Shawn and Speedstyle.

Cheers.

John

All their $5 should be mailed to me.....since I threw $140 out the window, enough, enough. Its all good I realize I wont get it back, and really dont care. Just wanted to let everyone know what I felt, not cause a war.

Lets end this post.

Shawn