I've never created one of these threads before, and I've been on the internet in car forums for a while. I generally have a positive experience with the shops I use.
A little about me (for character purposes) I'm 35 years old. I work in law enforcement and I'm a Veteran of Iraq twice. I served in the Army for 8 years. I have a 900hp Camaro that's been in GM High Tech Performance I built myself with the help of an FBody Shop. I held the stock SRT-4 1/4 mile record (that I think still exists) and I do all of my own wrenching, with the exception of tuning and engine building. I could probably open my own shop, but I have hammer hands and drop stuff every 5 seconds.
This morning I was hung-up on by JJ @ Woodbine. I'm not really sure what I did to him to receive such treatment. As you can see below, I've said Woobine was known for their service:
The tune JJ@Woodbine put into my car was a nightmare. I can't describe how bad it was. It was so bad that I never wanted to return to his shop. Why was it so bad?
My theory is that the car was rushed. JJ @ Woodbine wanted to make NMRA in Chicago. He tuned my car just before he left for the event. Woodbine was going to do both of my family's 2013 GT's, but he didn't have time (the other car went to Revolution Auto).
In defense and for transparency, my car's PCM bricked at one point during tuning. I've heard two theories so far as to why: Something proprietary with Vortech's tune or the last update from SCT is wonky. Either way, JJ had to put in extra work to get the car to start. I guess that is somehow my fault? I'm not sure.
So here we go. The story. All I ask during this, is that if you think it's MY FAULT, why would I want to get my car tuned TWICE and spend over $800.00? My only want was a properly running car for Mustang week.
JJ@Woodbine is 65 miles away from me (90 minutes one way). I spoke with JJ ahead of time and wanted to make sure the car would be right for Mustang week. He assured me it would make power and be safe to drive. At some point between July 8th-10th JJ attempted to tune the car.
The car in question is a 2013 Mustang GT, with a Vortech V3, JLT Supercharger Intake, Kooks SS Headers, Borla S-Type and X pipe.
I brought JJ my show-quality (read clean) orange vinyl wrapped car. When I picked the car back up, the vinyl looked like it had been molested by greasy hands. It was filthy. Also my Innovate gauge plug was hanging on the floor with footprints on it.
I had my exhaust tips wrapped in carbon fiber vinyl. My vinyl installer worked very hard to get it right. JJ melted the vinyl on the tips because "he didn't know it was vinyl and I should have told him". He was very rude about this and didn't apologize for the damage (even though I wasn't that upset about it). That wrap job cost over $100.00. But I'd rather maintain a good relationship with a shop in the long run.
JJ was rushing me out the door. He wanted to leave for NMRA and as a racer I completely understood.
I'm not a dyno whore. So I didn't get all crazy about the numbers, because a dyno is just a tuning tool. JJ said the numbers on his dyno were low because it was hot out. Um, ok? I didn't ask. I only asked JJ where a good place to eat was and I was on my way back home.
JJ doesn't own a shop. He works out of his home garage (keep this in mind for late). I had to maneuver the car out of his driveway, while I waited for my friend to maneuver my truck. When I pulled out of the driveway, the car stalled. It stalled again when I got to the tavern he recommended for food.
When I got into the tavern, I looked at the dyno sheet. This is what I saw:
This is the whole sheet:
Notice anything? How about this:
See that? That's called faking the funk. Everyone uses SAE. You use Standard Smoothing if you want to inflate numbers. Also, notice there's not a baseline. At this point, I gave JJ @ Woodbine the benefit of the doubt and figured he gave me the wrong dyno sheet. No big deal.
So when I finally got to a place to where I could do a WOT pull, my ass dyno told me the car was down on power. Now granted, it was in the 90's, but now the car's dying at stop lights, and the dyno sheet. Oh... Boy.
The credit car receipt that JJ has attached to my bill states the credit card was run at 15:29:31 (3:29pm) I picked the car up approximately 4-5pm, ate for an hour at the tavern and continued home.
When I finished my drive, the car was a WRECK. Stalling, no power and throwing codes. WOT AFR was 10-10.5. I CALLED JJ that night:
That's approximately 2-3 hours after I picked up the car, to tell him the car wasn't right. JJ @ Woodbine gave me numerous excuses. Again, I gave him the benefit of the doubt. He said the car had to adjust, it was hot, he didn't turn off all the electronic nannies yadda yadda yadda. Now keep in mind this is my first modular GT. None of this would have flown on my LSX's. But, what can I do? Well over the next few weeks I educated myself.
The next morning I'm driving the car to work, like he told me to:
Shortly after I texted this? The car started to stall again (you'll just have to trust my integrity here)
So now it's amateur hour. Even if you're 100% with JJ at the end of this story, and all the excuses that I'm sure are about to come, he didn't BASELINE the car BEFORE working on it. So that to me, means, he was in a rush from the beginning. Meanwhile JJ lives at his shop. Insult to injury.
I then asked him a question I already knew the answer to:
When I asked him if the car was safe? He called me. I don't have any more text messages. He said that there was absolutely nothing wrong with the car. Everything I was telling him had some sort of excuse or explanation. So at this point, I'm already almost done with him. Why? Because he wouldn't shoot me straight. It was never JJ. It was my car, me, Vortech, the heat... EVERYTHING under the sun. Oh, and then this happened:
I broke down at my bank. I had to have my car towed to my house. More money and time down the drain. JJ was in Chicago at NMRA. That's all he cared about. At this point he calls me again and tells me he's going to send me Vortech's original tune to put in the car. WHAT I DIDN'T KNOW WAS JJ WAS LYING ABOUT THE TUNE. HE RE-SENT ME THE SAME TUNE AND ADMITTED THIS ON THE PHONE BEFORE HANGING UP ON ME TODAY 7/30/13.
I went over the whole car. Top to bottom. No boost leaks, no ripped couplers, no belt slip, the MAF was clear. I checked everything. When I told JJ this? He scoffed at me. (Meanwhile I was literally ripping the engine out of a Mach1 last night).
I babied the car down to Mustang Week. It got 19mpg average when I usually got 24-26mpg. I didn't want to put another tune in the car in the case the car bricked.
That's when I got this:
Now the whole time this guy was baiting me, to see if it was his tune or not. Everything genuine from him, was complete BS. Because I was damned if I did, damned if I don't. If I installed JJ's tune, and it ran ok? He says "See I sent you the same tune". If the tune didn't fix things "See, it was SCT/Vortech/my Car/Sun Flares".
So I ask again about a refund (I'm literally arguing with this guy at Mustang week, and he's asking me to find other people at Myrtle to fix his tune) It was very embarrassing:
He calls me again:
JJ states (and you'll have to trust me here) that he will refund 100% of my money when I put the Vortech tune back in the car and it runs fine. During this conversation, and I want to make this perfectly clear, I offered to take the car back to him, let him install the Vortech tune himself and run it on the dyno to prove I had integrity, then refund my money. He said it wasn't necessary.
When I got back from Mustang week, I followed up with JJ:
I called him today. I installed the Vortech tune in the car, put about 100-150 miles on the car. Runs fine. I called JJ up, told him this, and he had his "gotcha" moment. Problem is? I have the original Vortech tune from Vortech.
Gotcha indeed.
TL;DR
Look at my dyno sheet. JJ@Woodbine can't make power with a V3 Coyote. Lies and tries to trick customers.
JJ I'm sorry I had to go this route. Your tune sucked man. It happens. You chose not to do the right thing and refund my money. I am going to dispute this with VISA. If that doesn't work I'm going to look to take it further.
A little about me (for character purposes) I'm 35 years old. I work in law enforcement and I'm a Veteran of Iraq twice. I served in the Army for 8 years. I have a 900hp Camaro that's been in GM High Tech Performance I built myself with the help of an FBody Shop. I held the stock SRT-4 1/4 mile record (that I think still exists) and I do all of my own wrenching, with the exception of tuning and engine building. I could probably open my own shop, but I have hammer hands and drop stuff every 5 seconds.
This morning I was hung-up on by JJ @ Woodbine. I'm not really sure what I did to him to receive such treatment. As you can see below, I've said Woobine was known for their service:
The tune JJ@Woodbine put into my car was a nightmare. I can't describe how bad it was. It was so bad that I never wanted to return to his shop. Why was it so bad?
My theory is that the car was rushed. JJ @ Woodbine wanted to make NMRA in Chicago. He tuned my car just before he left for the event. Woodbine was going to do both of my family's 2013 GT's, but he didn't have time (the other car went to Revolution Auto).
In defense and for transparency, my car's PCM bricked at one point during tuning. I've heard two theories so far as to why: Something proprietary with Vortech's tune or the last update from SCT is wonky. Either way, JJ had to put in extra work to get the car to start. I guess that is somehow my fault? I'm not sure.
So here we go. The story. All I ask during this, is that if you think it's MY FAULT, why would I want to get my car tuned TWICE and spend over $800.00? My only want was a properly running car for Mustang week.
JJ@Woodbine is 65 miles away from me (90 minutes one way). I spoke with JJ ahead of time and wanted to make sure the car would be right for Mustang week. He assured me it would make power and be safe to drive. At some point between July 8th-10th JJ attempted to tune the car.
The car in question is a 2013 Mustang GT, with a Vortech V3, JLT Supercharger Intake, Kooks SS Headers, Borla S-Type and X pipe.
I brought JJ my show-quality (read clean) orange vinyl wrapped car. When I picked the car back up, the vinyl looked like it had been molested by greasy hands. It was filthy. Also my Innovate gauge plug was hanging on the floor with footprints on it.
I had my exhaust tips wrapped in carbon fiber vinyl. My vinyl installer worked very hard to get it right. JJ melted the vinyl on the tips because "he didn't know it was vinyl and I should have told him". He was very rude about this and didn't apologize for the damage (even though I wasn't that upset about it). That wrap job cost over $100.00. But I'd rather maintain a good relationship with a shop in the long run.
JJ was rushing me out the door. He wanted to leave for NMRA and as a racer I completely understood.
I'm not a dyno whore. So I didn't get all crazy about the numbers, because a dyno is just a tuning tool. JJ said the numbers on his dyno were low because it was hot out. Um, ok? I didn't ask. I only asked JJ where a good place to eat was and I was on my way back home.
JJ doesn't own a shop. He works out of his home garage (keep this in mind for late). I had to maneuver the car out of his driveway, while I waited for my friend to maneuver my truck. When I pulled out of the driveway, the car stalled. It stalled again when I got to the tavern he recommended for food.
When I got into the tavern, I looked at the dyno sheet. This is what I saw:
This is the whole sheet:
Notice anything? How about this:
See that? That's called faking the funk. Everyone uses SAE. You use Standard Smoothing if you want to inflate numbers. Also, notice there's not a baseline. At this point, I gave JJ @ Woodbine the benefit of the doubt and figured he gave me the wrong dyno sheet. No big deal.
So when I finally got to a place to where I could do a WOT pull, my ass dyno told me the car was down on power. Now granted, it was in the 90's, but now the car's dying at stop lights, and the dyno sheet. Oh... Boy.
The credit car receipt that JJ has attached to my bill states the credit card was run at 15:29:31 (3:29pm) I picked the car up approximately 4-5pm, ate for an hour at the tavern and continued home.
When I finished my drive, the car was a WRECK. Stalling, no power and throwing codes. WOT AFR was 10-10.5. I CALLED JJ that night:
That's approximately 2-3 hours after I picked up the car, to tell him the car wasn't right. JJ @ Woodbine gave me numerous excuses. Again, I gave him the benefit of the doubt. He said the car had to adjust, it was hot, he didn't turn off all the electronic nannies yadda yadda yadda. Now keep in mind this is my first modular GT. None of this would have flown on my LSX's. But, what can I do? Well over the next few weeks I educated myself.
The next morning I'm driving the car to work, like he told me to:
Shortly after I texted this? The car started to stall again (you'll just have to trust my integrity here)
So now it's amateur hour. Even if you're 100% with JJ at the end of this story, and all the excuses that I'm sure are about to come, he didn't BASELINE the car BEFORE working on it. So that to me, means, he was in a rush from the beginning. Meanwhile JJ lives at his shop. Insult to injury.
I then asked him a question I already knew the answer to:
When I asked him if the car was safe? He called me. I don't have any more text messages. He said that there was absolutely nothing wrong with the car. Everything I was telling him had some sort of excuse or explanation. So at this point, I'm already almost done with him. Why? Because he wouldn't shoot me straight. It was never JJ. It was my car, me, Vortech, the heat... EVERYTHING under the sun. Oh, and then this happened:
I broke down at my bank. I had to have my car towed to my house. More money and time down the drain. JJ was in Chicago at NMRA. That's all he cared about. At this point he calls me again and tells me he's going to send me Vortech's original tune to put in the car. WHAT I DIDN'T KNOW WAS JJ WAS LYING ABOUT THE TUNE. HE RE-SENT ME THE SAME TUNE AND ADMITTED THIS ON THE PHONE BEFORE HANGING UP ON ME TODAY 7/30/13.
I went over the whole car. Top to bottom. No boost leaks, no ripped couplers, no belt slip, the MAF was clear. I checked everything. When I told JJ this? He scoffed at me. (Meanwhile I was literally ripping the engine out of a Mach1 last night).
I babied the car down to Mustang Week. It got 19mpg average when I usually got 24-26mpg. I didn't want to put another tune in the car in the case the car bricked.
That's when I got this:
Now the whole time this guy was baiting me, to see if it was his tune or not. Everything genuine from him, was complete BS. Because I was damned if I did, damned if I don't. If I installed JJ's tune, and it ran ok? He says "See I sent you the same tune". If the tune didn't fix things "See, it was SCT/Vortech/my Car/Sun Flares".
So I ask again about a refund (I'm literally arguing with this guy at Mustang week, and he's asking me to find other people at Myrtle to fix his tune) It was very embarrassing:
He calls me again:
JJ states (and you'll have to trust me here) that he will refund 100% of my money when I put the Vortech tune back in the car and it runs fine. During this conversation, and I want to make this perfectly clear, I offered to take the car back to him, let him install the Vortech tune himself and run it on the dyno to prove I had integrity, then refund my money. He said it wasn't necessary.
When I got back from Mustang week, I followed up with JJ:
I called him today. I installed the Vortech tune in the car, put about 100-150 miles on the car. Runs fine. I called JJ up, told him this, and he had his "gotcha" moment. Problem is? I have the original Vortech tune from Vortech.
Gotcha indeed.
TL;DR
Look at my dyno sheet. JJ@Woodbine can't make power with a V3 Coyote. Lies and tries to trick customers.
JJ I'm sorry I had to go this route. Your tune sucked man. It happens. You chose not to do the right thing and refund my money. I am going to dispute this with VISA. If that doesn't work I'm going to look to take it further.
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