RSI/Racing Solutions Experience F-

[Dajerseyviper]

All I will say is that if you haven't been in this industry, try it for 30 days. My bet is that 7 days in, you will say "F this" and never look back. The industry is a disaster of hand-shake contracts on ALL sides that are never held up, customers who don't understand what they are asking for, and shops stuck in the middle who already assume all risk for a small part of the overall profit. Suppliers make all the money, and handle none of the risk... while the shops get stuck holding the bag. .

As much as I hate to admit it, I actually agree with you on this one. I had my own shop for a while, and can say I have personally seen screwed up parts almost cost me entire engines and the companies that sell you them are not responsible in any way shape or form. I remember an aftermarket oil cooler kit we installed on a car where there was a machining error on the sandwich adapter threads, which caused the oil filter to thread on, but popped off about 60 miles later, almost costing a customer his engine, and costing me $450 in tow fees to get the car back to my shop to fix it..The manufacturers response: Oh thanks for letting us know, well look into it...


But on a side note, WIll and RSI are a bunch of thieving,lying assholes..

[Dajerseyviper]

As an example of the above, one of the cars I built when I was building cars for a living was a '39 Zephyr with an Aston Martin Vanquish V12 in it. I spent several weeks trying to track down a random but persistent misfire. I talked with all the tech support I had access to, from the ECU and ignition manufacturers on down. Turns out the problem was that the coil trigger wires were too close to the coil power wires coming out of the ignition boxes, and the stray EMF was causing the coils to randomly fire. Two wires too close together by an inch, nearly a months worth of lost time.

There's always stupid little stuff too. A quick exhaust gasket replacement + a broken bolt can turn a 30 minute job into an all day affair. In this industry hard deadlines just can't work effectively.

I had a random missfire onn a customers car that would shut the car down and throw it into a safe mode where the DBW throttle basically goes dead and you cant get above 2500 rpms, randomly . Weeks and weeks of diagnosing and it turned out that the aftermarket ECU would loose the crank trigger on this particular car. The issue was the particular type of clutch and flywheel the car was running. It only happened with this particular ECU and 2 different types of aftermarket clutches we tried. The good thing was when we saw it happen again, we knew straight away what it was..

[labtec]

The above comments are true, many times things happen outside the control of the shop, particularly with custom, one off work. Although I realize everyone's comments are not really trying to justify what RSI has done to their customers it kind of seems that way, especially to individuals like me and others they tried to and/or did screw over. I cannot stress this strongly enough....this is not what happened to me and many, many others in regards to RSI. They take your money, then they lie to you and forget you exist. In my case I got my money back about 3 months later only after calling my CC company, too many others did not....

[Viper Specialty]

The above comments are true, many times things happen outside the control of the shop, particularly with custom, one off work. Although I realize everyone's comments are not really trying to justify what RSI has done to their customers it kind of seems that way, especially to individuals like me and others they tried to and/or did screw over. I cannot stress this strongly enough....this is not what happened to me and many, many others in regards to RSI. They take your money, then they lie to you and forget you exist. In my case I got my money back about 3 months later only after calling my CC company, too many others did not....

Believe me, siding with RSI is the least of my intentions. I am just trying to temper the pendulum swinging too far back in the other direction as a result of what is going on here.

I am firmly placed on the list of people who ended up in the middle of their not paying vendors bullshit years ago. It wasn't us owed money directly, but after near four months of bullshit excuses blaming the clutch manufacturer while waiting for a defective clutch to come back for a warranty repair, I called the actual clutch manufacturer, RPS. It was then I found out it took them almost 3 months to bother sending it, and they never even told RPS what to do with it, what was wrong with it, etc. As we were told by RPS, they were on Credit Hold, and our clutch was sitting with their pile of ain't-going-nowhere orders, and had zero documentation with it. After explaining the situation, RPS investigated and confirmed it was ours, confirmed the issue, and offered to honor the warranty + dealer costing on the upgrade to accompany if we paid directly, and the clutch was rebuilt and on its way back in less than 72 hours.

Luckily, this was quite early on, and I cut ties immediately as the writing was on the wall; thus avoiding any of the later problems.

To this day, I don't even think RSI knows nor cares what ever happened to our clutch. Hell, they probably didn't even know that I handled this direct with RPS until now. Nice customer service... can't even be bothered to keep track of a multi-thousand dollar clutch for a fellow vendor who was getting reamed by his customer due to their product failure, and their inaction. All they had to do was tell me the truth and I would have called RPS myself to sort it MONTHS before, or simply sent it directly to them in the first damn place.

I know it seems petty and insignificant compared to others here, but at the time it was a BIG problem, which we got stuck holding the bag on. Luckily, it wasn't a $50,000 problem.

[BrassMonkey ACR E]

MAYBE the VOA will start a STICKY that shows all the businesses/thieves/con artist/people that are out to screw everyone over.
Make VIPER OWNERs aware of who these people/businesses are and DO BUSSINESS AT YOUR OWN RISK
Person making the complaint MUST HAVE VALID PROOF to prevent the GOOD BUSSINESSES/PEOPLE from getting a bad rap.
for no good/valid reason
Just something to think about/consider

[AZTVR]

MAYBE the VOA will start a STICKY that shows all the businesses/thieves/con artist/people that are out to screw everyone over.
Make VIPER OWNERs aware of who these people/businesses are and DO BUSSINESS AT YOUR OWN RISK
Person making the complaint MUST HAVE VALID PROOF to prevent the GOOD BUSSINESSES/PEOPLE from getting a bad rap.
for no good/valid reason
Just something to think about/consider

I think that you will find that every vendor has at least one person that feels that they were slighted/ripped off/done bad to. At least, over the years (since 2005) I have read someone post about pretty much each of the respected vendors. I wouldn't want to be one of the club judges that would have to rule on each case and categorize them based on internet hearsay or other supposed proof. These are volunteers with no intellectual credentials. LOL.

[Bugman Jeff]

I think that you will find that every vendor has at least one person that feels that they were slighted/ripped off/done bad to. At least, over the years (since 2005) I have read someone post about pretty much each of the respected vendors. I wouldn't want to be one of the club judges that would have to rule on each case and categorize them based on internet hearsay or other supposed proof. These are volunteers with no intellectual credentials. LOL.

The good/bad review pendulum can swing both ways. There are also many bad vendors that have positive reviews. For example, I remember some conversations with people who to this day heap praise on Hennessy and consistently defended him because he did well by them. They actually got what they paid for and were satisfied with the work. Even the yutz from XVipers has some positive reviews. In both cases, the supporters were local people who dealt with the venders in person. Then there are the internet folk who jump in on one side or the other without actually having done any business with the vendor.

[rlhay2]

My e-conversation with Will Hamblin of RSI:

Will :

"I know that you are a local guy. I invite you to stop by and see what our company is actually about. Would be happy to meet you."

My response :

"Thank you for the invitation. As much as I am intrigued by the Motec TT package, I could not in good conscience visit the shop where my friends'/acquaintance's cars are languishing in limbo.

If within the next 6-8 months you clear the backlog, feel free to let me know. Having a car completed while so many are still awaiting theirs would trouble me greatly."

Will :

{no response}

[Dajerseyviper]

My e-conversation with Will Hamblin of RSI:

Will :

"I know that you are a local guy. I invite you to stop by and see what our company is actually about. Would be happy to meet you."

My response :

"Thank you for the invitation. As much as I am intrigued by the Motec TT package, I could not in good conscience visit the shop where my friends'/acquaintance's cars are languishing in limbo.

If within the next 6-8 months you clear the backlog, feel free to let me know. Having a car completed while so many are still awaiting theirs would trouble me greatly."

Will :

{no response}

ahahahahahahaha EPIC....

[Sybil TF]

The good/bad review pendulum can swing both ways. There are also many bad vendors that have positive reviews.

Did I miss the thread(s) on any site where numerous happy RSI customers post in his favor? If so I would like to see it...

[XSnake]

The good/bad review pendulum can swing both ways. There are also many bad vendors that have positive reviews. For example, I remember some conversations with people who to this day heap praise on Hennessy and consistently defended him because he did well by them. They actually got what they paid for and were satisfied with the work. Even the yutz from XVipers has some positive reviews. In both cases, the supporters were local people who dealt with the venders in person. Then there are the internet folk who jump in on one side or the other without actually having done any business with the vendor.

That is not the case with this particular shop.

[Bugman Jeff]

While not coming right out and saying "I love RSI", Dave has many, many times made excuses for them and has often tried to diminish customer complaints to just being over demanding customers. In nearly ever RSI complaint thread on the Alley, he's jumped in to try to belittle the screwed customer's problems. He's been in the Viper community long enough to know what's what, and he still stands by RSI.

[Sybil TF]

While not coming right out and saying "I love RSI", Dave has many, many times made excuses for them and has often tried to diminish customer complaints to just being over demanding customers. In nearly ever RSI complaint thread on the Alley, he's jumped in to try to belittle the screwed customer's problems. He's been in the Viper community long enough to know what's what, and he still stands by RSI.

Don't see him on here defending them for some reason. Wonder why?

[Dajerseyviper]

Don't see him on here defending them for some reason. Wonder why?

Cause he is too busy

[21 Bubba]

While not coming right out and saying "I love RSI", Dave has many, many times made excuses for them and has often tried to diminish customer complaints to just being over demanding customers. In nearly ever RSI complaint thread on the Alley, he's jumped in to try to belittle the screwed customer's problems. He's been in the Viper community long enough to know what's what, and he still stands by RSI.

All I've seen him say is that HE didn't have a problem with His dealings with them.

[21 Bubba]

Don't see him on here defending them for some reason. Wonder why?

Reading comprehension is still not your strong suit.

[21 Bubba]

Cause he is too busy.

You're just pissed that you got your know it all ass handed to you on the alley.

[Sybil TF]

Reading comprehension is still not your strong suit.

Your username says all anyone needs to know...

[Dajerseyviper]

I was banned for potty words, yet scammers, thieves and cheats are allowed to post on here with impunity..LOL...Good Job VOA!!!

[Dajerseyviper]

You're just pissed that you got your know it all ass handed to you on the alley.

Hi Dave6666!!!

[slovenom]

Lol I have Daveputo blocked over there so I can't see his stupid "drivel "

[AZTVR]

I was banned for potty words, yet scammers, thieves and cheats are allowed to post on here with impunity..LOL...Good Job VOA!!!

Hard to believe that Viper Alley banned you for potty words !

[Dajerseyviper]

Hard to believe that Viper Alley banned you for potty words !

No this site banned me.. I had a 5 day time out, they said this is a family forum...Right...How many people childrens are posting on here..Basically the VOA is a bunch of men acting like little girls who apparently never said a potty word in their lives.

[Vprbite]

That is not the case with this particular shop.

To me it seems like people who are geographically close to RSI seem to say they have positive experiences. Perhaps because they are close and could show up every day to bang on his door he takes care of them?

Either way, given all the horror stories I hear I wouldn't buy a windshield wiper from them.

[AZTVR]

No this site banned me.. I had a 5 day time out,

Oh, I think of banned as a permanent thing. Anyway, some people can read the tone of a room, and others cannot. If that is how you talk around your minister, your Mom, or sitting around the lunch table with a bunch of people you recently met, then I understand that is normal for you. Anyway, probably a discussion for a different thread, sorry to take this one off topic.