SLS - mixed feelings
 

Just thought I'd share to you all, my recent buying experience from SLS. This all started on 7/12. I purchased one of their DSM T3 manifolds, along with a Tial Wastegate. Nick told me I could get it the manifold at a good price through PM's here, so that was what sold me on theirs over Punishments manifold. I called them, and put the order in with Mike who I believe was the parts guy. When I told him I wanted the wastegate as well, he asked if black was ok, because he had a black one sitting there. I said black is perfect.

Approximately 5 days later the package showed up on my doorstep. Inside was the manifold. It looked great! Also in the package was my receipt, and a hand written note on the receipt saying that he had to order the wastegate and it'll be sent seperately. Strange because he had said that he had the black one sitting right there. But no big deal.

2-3 weeks later I call up. Mike said somehow my order got missed and that he was sorry. Said he had some in stock and would ship one off to me the next day.

2-3 weeks later I call up because I still have nothing. He said sorry, he is out of stock, but will call up his distributor and get one sent to me asap.

2-3 weeks later. I call and he says sorry, he is having problems with his distributor, but will have one drop shipped the next day from a different distributor.

2-3 weeks later I call and Nick the owner answers. He tells me that Mike has been let go due to issues like this that have been happening. He tells me that he will get one sent out to me asap, and email me the tracking number.

2-3 weeks later I am in Spain. Derek tells me that no package has arrived. I email them since I'm not going to pay long distance to talk to these clowns. I still try to be as polite as possible. This whole time I have not yelled or gotten angry with them, I've kept my cool the whole time, and tried to continue to do so. Here is the email I wrote them on 10/24:

Nick,

I spoke to you on the phone about 3 weeks ago concerning my Tial 44mm
wastegate that I ordered like 3 months ago. Your sales guy gave me
the run around for a long time. When I spoke with you, you told me
that you would get it taken care of, send one out right away and email
me a shipping number. I've been out of the country and am in Spain
right now, which is why I can not call you. My roommate has told me
nothing has arrived yet. I would like to get my money back for this
now, because this has taken entirely too long. Please write back. My
girlfriend lives a few minutes from you guys, so I can have her just
go there and get the money in person. Let me know when it's a good
time for you. If that is not doable, then you can just backcharge it
right back to the credit card I used to pay for it. Please just shoot
me an email back. If you try to call my cell phone if you have that
number, you'll probably go straight to voicemail since it doesn't work
over here. Thank you.

I wait for 5 days, and finally get a responce on 10/29. A nice long well thought out responce that really showed that he felt bad and was sorry. Here is the email

Being it was purchased on a card we'd need to credit it back to a card,

OK, maybe he completely missed the part in my email saying that he could charge it back to the card that I purchased it with? So I send him this reply the next day 10/30.

OK, could you please credit it back to the same card I purchased it on. It is Visa ******* exp *****.

Thank you,
Brandon

A week passes. No reply, no money in my account. I've had it now. I've been patient, I've been polite. It's now 11/7, and my off the shelf, easily drop shipped item that I ordered 4 months ago still isn't here, and the vendor's communication with me is dwindling down to pretty much nothing now. I send the following email back to him on 11/7 since I am still in Spain and don't feel like wasting long distance time for this crap.

Nick,

Just wondering the status on this. I still show no credit back from you on my card. I will be back in town from Spain this weekend, and there's a good chance I'll be up in Fargo during the week. Phone calls and emails don't seem to get me anywhere. So if it takes me being there in person to get any sort of action done, then that is what I will do. When I walk out of there, I fully expect to either have my card credited back, or the wastegate that you charged me for. I'm not a rude person, or a jerk at all. But waiting 1/3 of a year, for an off the shelf, drop shipped part, is simply ridiculous. And getting told everytime that it'll get sent out soon, I'm just getting lied to here, and I don't appreciate that much. I'm not in the wrong here by asking for my money back. But I'm not going to wait another 1/3 of a year for my money back. If this isn't settled soon, I will pursue other options. Thank you and take care.

Brandon

Still I get no responce, and no money in my account. Fast forward to 11/13 now. I get home from Spain and drive up to Fargo to spend time with the g/f. The next day 11/14, she has to work. While she's at work, I decide to take the 5 minute drive to SLS from her home. I find it pretty easily. They have a nice sized building in a great location right off Main. I go up to open the doors, they are locked. I look inside the "showroom" area I suppose is what you'd call it, and it's completely empty, baron. Looks like a place that should have had a FOR LEASE sign out front. I then go look in the window of the garage entrance, and I see some cars in there, and I notice the lights are on. I pound on the door a few times, nobody comes. I then call and someone answers. I think his name was Darren, but I don't remember. He said he was the machinist. Seemed like a real nice guy. Anywho, the conversation went something like this.
"SLS how can I help you"
"Hi, are you guys around at all?"
"Yes we are"
"OK, because I'm outside your door, right next to your truck"
"Ohh, ummm well we don't really take walk in customers anymore"
"Oh that's fine, because I'm actually an existing customer that has been waiting over 4 months for a wastegate, and I'm here to either take home my wastegate, or get my money refunded"
"Oh wow, ok who have you been talking to?"
"I put the order in with Mike and then got the runaround from him for a couple months, then I spoke with and was emailing Nick after Mike got let go"
"OK, what email were you sending it to?"
"You're gmail one. I know it works because Nick replied once, but never again"
"OK hold on let me get Nick on the phone"
....on hold for a couple minutes waiting for Nick. Mean while, I'm still standing outside by their door in the 40* weather, no one has come to the door to actually meet me in person, or to let me in out of the cold....
"Brandon, OK this is still Dustin, let me help you get this all figured out."
.... Why wouldn't Nick talk to me since he atleast knows my situation?....
"OK Dustin, (I go on and explain the whole story to him)"
"OK Brandon, your not really in the computer, but I've found your paper receipt. Looks like we owe you *** dollars, and you purchased it with Visa *****."
"Yes that's correct"
"OK well I'm sending the refund through right now, it should show up on your bank statement in a few days."
"OK Thanks for your help."

That's the jist of the phone call. I never did meet them, because they never did let me in. They just had me waiting outside their door and talk to them on the phone. Real classy. I get home and send Nick the following email:

OK. Well today I showed up at your store but the store entrance was locked up and the place was empty, and no one answered when I pounded on the garage entrance. I called and got ahold of someone who I think said was your machinist. He was actually very helpful and said he was refunding me today. So I am expecting to see the refund hit my bank account in a few business days. Not sure why it had to take me showing up at your shops door to get this taken care of. And not even actually getting to talk to anyone in person, just stand outside in the freezing weather and speak to a person on the phone the whole time, who's on the other side of the door.

Anyhow, I hope this is the end of it. Take Care.

It's now Friday. I still don't have any money in my account. Hopefully next week sometime it shows up because maybe it takes a few more business days to post up. We'll see.

Really it's too bad it had to come to this, and from a semi-local vendor. My feelings on them are mixed, because they seem decent on the phone, and the manifold I got from them looks great, but yet here I am over 4 months after I made my order, still without a WG, and customer service was beginning to vanish. But I'm amazed how a in house built manifold takes 5 days to get to me, but a drop shipped off the shelf wastegate is impossible to get. I usually don't like to say negative things publically like this about a vendor, but I think it is completely warranted in this situation, and I feel like I've been just getting pushed around and written off as no big deal. So I'm just spreading the word on my experience with these guys.

OK that's all, if you actually read the whole thing, thanks for reading!

Re: SLS - mixed feelings
 

Thats a pretty bad situation.. and you definitely have more patience then me. Within a month I would have asked for a refund and bought it somewhere else.

Hope the money goes through!

Re: SLS - mixed feelings
 

Man that sucks. I dont get how places like that can do that. You would think that places like that would want good customer service to get a good rep. He was trying to sell some O2 housing and I asked for more pics if possible and he never responed. Well he lost my sale right there(I shouldnt have to ask twice). But I would buy something else form them

Re: SLS - mixed feelings
 

Brandon, you are a lot nicer and more patient that I am.

Re: SLS - mixed feelings
 

Wow yeah that is a lot of patience.

I'd like to hear what SLS has to say about it.

Sooner or later one of these shops is gonna f*#$ with the wrong person and bad things are going to happen.

Re: SLS - mixed feelings
 

I have had the unfortunate pleasure of knowing Mr. Tufte for the better half of 10 years...

From the days when he was a clown at Type R - to a shop monkey at Tintmasters to his now (as you all see) mockery of a shop, named SLS.

Do not do business with this guy, granted he is very knowledgeable about the actual product, mechanics, and such; he lacks any business manner, social abilities, or just plain couth for that matter.

Sorry to hear that this happened to you, but at the same time, not suprised.

Re: SLS - mixed feelings
 

i think i may experiencing the same thing, i only bought one of those gauge mounting cups on monday and still nothing. I don't like this one bit.

Re: SLS - mixed feelings
 

Just wanted to say a quick thanks to those of you I've talked to offering their assistance, and also some info about them. ;)

PS, part has now been placed on order through MAP. Should've ordered it through them in the first place.

Re: SLS - mixed feelings
 

Yeah Map and LSE and I think DB are all direct with TiAL and regularly stock products.

Sorry to hear about your situation brandon.

Re: SLS - mixed feelings
 

Ya, I usually order all my parts locally, but since I bought the manifold from them, I just went ahead and ordered the WG from them as well, thinking it'd just make it simpler to buy them both at once. I'm keeping it local from here on out.

Re: SLS - mixed feelings
 

Yeah, that is too bad. I have been up there before and it was pretty bare then too. I got in the shop though :D Nice sized place and decent building. They have a very good opportunity as a vendor, I hope they don't mess it up. I know they got a really bad rap for a while with slow delivery of manifolds, it seems to have gotten better lately though.

Re: SLS - mixed feelings
 

Sounds like they've messed it up.

Re: SLS - mixed feelings
 

I kinda wish I was in your shoes right now, I would have gone about this a little bit differently. I have zero tolerance for stuff like this.

Wont happen thought, I deal through local vendors only. (ones that have proven trustworthy)

Re: SLS - mixed feelings
 

Still no money in my account...

Re: SLS - mixed feelings
 

I was thinking of oredering somthing from them after talking with them up at BIR one night. Seemed like some really nice guys to deal with. But not so much after this story.

Re: SLS - mixed feelings
 

I'm thinking someone needs to let themselves into their shop using one of my custom all-purpose-opens-all-doors-and-windows-key:

http://www.innfusion.com/blogimages/Brick.jpg

Re: SLS - mixed feelings
 

Time to start getting aggressive.

Re: SLS - mixed feelings
 

You should talk to your credit card company. Also better business bureau.

Re: SLS - mixed feelings
 

Or some brown folk. They're hired for cheap ;)

Re: SLS - mixed feelings
 

Hey Brandon, I am up in moorhead, I will be leaving for minneapolis tonight, maybe I can swing by there for ya and check into that, PM me with details if you'd like to have me do something, it's seriously 5 minutes away.

LMK.
Andrew

Re: SLS - mixed feelings
 

This is the best way to handle the situation. Let SLS deal with Visa if they have a problem with it.

If I were you I would demand your money back plus interest since they've been holding it for months. You might want to check into the laws, but I don't think they can actually charge you until the part ships.

Re: SLS - mixed feelings
 

Yeah, it is amazing how fast the CC company will take their money back. I worked on a case at my last job where a dealer had that happen and I was talking with the CC company. Basically the vendor is guilty until they prove their innocence, kind of messed up.

Re: SLS - mixed feelings
 

Great, another fucking SLOWBOY. What kind of "buisness" won't open the door for a customer? Fags.

Re: SLS - mixed feelings
 

How do you really feel? :lol: I can't believe they wouldn't let a customer in either though. That's just wrong.

Re: SLS - mixed feelings
 

http://fargostreet.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12590 here is why they wouldnt let anyone in... and i have delt with sls many times and been nothing but happy with them this kinda suprised me..

Re: SLS - mixed feelings
 

Yea and if Brandon was a new customer that would be different, but its BS to not let him in when he has a legit issue and isnt just some "tirekicker" in the front of the shop wasting their time. In my opinion SLS is the one wasting Brandons time dealing with crap like this.

Re: SLS - mixed feelings
 

o yea i understand i just posted that up so everyone would know why they dont let ppl in

Re: SLS - mixed feelings
 

Yeah, it's pretty retarded to not have a store front. then again, it is fargo. Not to many people buying turbo manifolds locally.

Re: SLS - mixed feelings
 

I just got off the phone with someone named Matt a couple hours ago. He said he was going to email me some form of proof that the refund went through. Still haven't received the email. But he also said that these usually take anywhere from 5-10 days to show up on the account. It's been 7 so far, so we'll see.

Re: SLS - mixed feelings
 

Looks like I might be going to Moorhead this weekend if you want introduce them to my friend Cindy the Cinder :)

Re: SLS - mixed feelings
 

Let the card company handle it. That is the best way to handle it.

Re: SLS - mixed feelings
 

I want to see if their refund goes through before doing anything with my bank. It was bought with a Wells Fargo VISA Check Card. And over 4 months ago. Do you think it's too late by now?

PS, still no email from Matt, and still no money in the bank. I will be giving it until Monday, and then I will begin pursuing other options.

Re: SLS - mixed feelings
 

Could be, its much harder to get a charge canceled if its not a real credit card.

Re: SLS - mixed feelings
 

Mostly out of luck with the check cards. Real credit cards are the way to go with bigger purchases, more buyer protection.

Re: SLS - mixed feelings
 

I'm pretty sure Wells Fargo has the same or similar buyer protection a standard card would have. Check and see, and if they do you have at least 6 months, usually a year. Once the set time frame is up they won't help. Whiel withing the time frame the company is forced to prove their side before they get their money back, and even getting it back can be a PITA for them. Sometimes that company is out another 3-12 months till they get the money back even when they have proven it's owed to them. YOu really tie the funds up when you do a charge back. Sadly I'm pretty familiar with the whoel process. Brandon, call the bank. Even if it's not on the account yet it will have hit their system and they will know if it's going to come through or not. Or they should. If it's not tell them you want to start the charge back process if you have the option.

Re: SLS - mixed feelings
 

https://financial.wellsfargo.com/wff...a/en/step1.jsp might help find out what your card has for features.

Re: SLS - mixed feelings
 

On the phone with Wells Fargo Fraud Department right now. I've basically read her the story right off my original post. She said I've definately done my part to correct this. She got ahold of one person at SLS, but not sure who exactly. The person said they simply do not know about my case, and that everyone else is out of the office. I will have a temporary credit given back to me from Wells Fargo, by midnight tonight. SLS has 45 days to respond with some sort of proof that they have already sent me the part, which obviouslly they won't have, because they haven't sent me a thing.

Now, hopefully THIS is the end of it.

Re: SLS - mixed feelings
 

I hope this thread serves as a reminder to all 'Style members not to ever purchase anything from SLS, just like the SBR thread did for SBR.

I have another friend that was ripped off by SLS when he purchased a car from them...but thats not my story to tell.

Re: SLS - mixed feelings
 

Yeah no shit; there are plenty of local shops that supply the same parts. And if push came to shove I am sure they would price match or close just to keep the buisness local. And if it was a custom part you want; if the local shops can't make it they could outsource it and probably get it quicker than you could anyway.

Re: SLS - mixed feelings
 

SLS, to me, is still local. They are 3 hours away, and just barely on the other side of the MN border. Maybe it's because I have lived other places where the closest Best Buy was 3 hours away, but to me, 3 hours for a place who makes beautiful manifolds, on a regular basis, for this specific car, is not that far away.

Now, as for the shops in the metro area, none of them advertise their own well built equal length DSM manifold, with a lifetime warantee. MAP advertises ones built by other shops, but for significantly more money then the pricing Nick at SLS gave me. Could our local metro shops make one? Sure they could. But it'd be more of a one off job, which in the end would probably cost me more money. While SLS makes these same ones regularly, has been making them for quite some time now, and sells them all over the country. It's not a one off item from them. They gave me a good price, and a lifetime warantee. I have full confidence in this manifold, and I think it will work very well. I would not have that same confidence if I had a manifold that was built by an outsourced shop, who probably has no knowledge of this specific car, and whom I've never heard of.

So, this is why I titled it "Mixed Feelings". I am extremely happy with my manifold purchase. I think I made a good choice there. But then I decided that since I was getting the manifold from them, that I might as well just get the wastegate at the same time. And that part of this order, well, it has been the 2nd worst transaction I've ever done with a DSM vendor (Taboo being the worst).