I have read nothing but good posts about BAMA's customer service so I am shocked at the lack of service I have received. I am not posting to bash BAMA, I have had some great tunes from them and they are always friendly when I call, but this case is just too ridiculous.
I swapped my motor out for an FRPP Coyote Aluminator NA and added long tubes while the engine was out. With such a drastic change I ordered a whole new set of tunes (free tunes for life member.) I ordered the 87 street, 91 performance and 93 race combo. When I ordered, I filled out the forms as usual and completed the additional comments section with every detail of my car. I received the tunes within a week and loaded up the 87 tune. It idled fine, ran fine with only minor "dead spots" in the power band but every time I came to a stop the car shut down. I switched to the 91 which ran horrible and shut down every time I wasn't giving it gas. I did not mind this because 90% of the 91 tunes I've had haven't been all that great. My last option was the 93. It ran the best, but is not for daily commuting with how aggressive it is. At low speeds it can experience a power burst more than called for by the pedal and people call the cops when you are randomly chirping tires in neighborhoods.
This is a mail order tune so please don't think I am complaining about imperfections. I understand its mail order and not a dyno tune. I called BAMA and they advised me to data log the car and send it in to them for revisions. They were extremely friendly and I had almost no on hold time. I loaded up the 87 tune and logged the parameters they requested and did all the pulls as instructed. They told me they get busy in the summer so a 2 to 3 week turn around is common.
After 4 weeks with no tune revision I called again and asked what was up. They told me the file went to their spam filter because the file was too large. I was told to put it in a zipped folder so it would be compressed. I did this and sent the data log to them in the new folder. After 3 weeks of no tune revision I called again. I was told that they did not see anything in my record or in their emails. I emailed in the existing chain again to confirm my email went through and they replied that they had no log.
They were still very friendly but they replied to my email stating they didn't get my email. I was a little confused by that. After I got the reply I called in again asking them to stay on the phone with me while I sent the data log again. I sent it and they did not get it. The rep asked me to send it to his personal BAMA email instead of the generic [email protected] email. I did this and he confirmed he received it. He told me that the turnaround is usually 3 to 5 days (turnaround time was no longer 2 to 3 weeks because I had been waiting 7 weeks now and peak season had passed.
After two weeks and many many more miles fighting my 93 tune (the most functional one) to and from work I received no tune revision. At this point I had been trying for 9 weeks. I called back and spoke to the same rep who had originally told me 3 to 5 days and had confirmed my logs. He was polite and apologized, there was a delay because "they were getting ready for the big American Muscle Mustang Show." I wish he had told me that instead of 3 to 5 days. I explained my whole story to him and he again confirmed he had my data log but said I should send another and he would get it right back to me.
It is now 2 weeks later and I have no tune revision. That is a grand total of 11 weeks of calling, emailing, logging and more calling with no tune revision. I have spent my entire summer with a completely undriveable tune, a moderately undriveable tune and a slightly off tune that is for race only. I hope no damage has come to my engine from any of them, my knock readings did concern me.
MY POINT IS THIS: Being friendly is not cutting it if your just going to blow off your customers when you hang up. With all of my calls I did not even receive extra consideration for being screwed so many times. I was polite and calm on every call and maybe that was why I was so easily blown off. BAMA tunes have always been great and I was hoping to receive a simple adjustment to make my car driveable. I am now looking at either dyno tuning or switching to Lund or AED. At this point I just want to have a car that I can drive with out it being more finnicky than a 60's jaguar, and I don't want another 11 week wait.
American Muscle has amazing customer service with fast customer response, please do not confuse the two. They are separate entities. And I have been a BAMA user for two years before having a single issue. Unfortunately that single issue has wasted my entire summer of driving.
I swapped my motor out for an FRPP Coyote Aluminator NA and added long tubes while the engine was out. With such a drastic change I ordered a whole new set of tunes (free tunes for life member.) I ordered the 87 street, 91 performance and 93 race combo. When I ordered, I filled out the forms as usual and completed the additional comments section with every detail of my car. I received the tunes within a week and loaded up the 87 tune. It idled fine, ran fine with only minor "dead spots" in the power band but every time I came to a stop the car shut down. I switched to the 91 which ran horrible and shut down every time I wasn't giving it gas. I did not mind this because 90% of the 91 tunes I've had haven't been all that great. My last option was the 93. It ran the best, but is not for daily commuting with how aggressive it is. At low speeds it can experience a power burst more than called for by the pedal and people call the cops when you are randomly chirping tires in neighborhoods.
This is a mail order tune so please don't think I am complaining about imperfections. I understand its mail order and not a dyno tune. I called BAMA and they advised me to data log the car and send it in to them for revisions. They were extremely friendly and I had almost no on hold time. I loaded up the 87 tune and logged the parameters they requested and did all the pulls as instructed. They told me they get busy in the summer so a 2 to 3 week turn around is common.
After 4 weeks with no tune revision I called again and asked what was up. They told me the file went to their spam filter because the file was too large. I was told to put it in a zipped folder so it would be compressed. I did this and sent the data log to them in the new folder. After 3 weeks of no tune revision I called again. I was told that they did not see anything in my record or in their emails. I emailed in the existing chain again to confirm my email went through and they replied that they had no log.
They were still very friendly but they replied to my email stating they didn't get my email. I was a little confused by that. After I got the reply I called in again asking them to stay on the phone with me while I sent the data log again. I sent it and they did not get it. The rep asked me to send it to his personal BAMA email instead of the generic [email protected] email. I did this and he confirmed he received it. He told me that the turnaround is usually 3 to 5 days (turnaround time was no longer 2 to 3 weeks because I had been waiting 7 weeks now and peak season had passed.
After two weeks and many many more miles fighting my 93 tune (the most functional one) to and from work I received no tune revision. At this point I had been trying for 9 weeks. I called back and spoke to the same rep who had originally told me 3 to 5 days and had confirmed my logs. He was polite and apologized, there was a delay because "they were getting ready for the big American Muscle Mustang Show." I wish he had told me that instead of 3 to 5 days. I explained my whole story to him and he again confirmed he had my data log but said I should send another and he would get it right back to me.
It is now 2 weeks later and I have no tune revision. That is a grand total of 11 weeks of calling, emailing, logging and more calling with no tune revision. I have spent my entire summer with a completely undriveable tune, a moderately undriveable tune and a slightly off tune that is for race only. I hope no damage has come to my engine from any of them, my knock readings did concern me.
MY POINT IS THIS: Being friendly is not cutting it if your just going to blow off your customers when you hang up. With all of my calls I did not even receive extra consideration for being screwed so many times. I was polite and calm on every call and maybe that was why I was so easily blown off. BAMA tunes have always been great and I was hoping to receive a simple adjustment to make my car driveable. I am now looking at either dyno tuning or switching to Lund or AED. At this point I just want to have a car that I can drive with out it being more finnicky than a 60's jaguar, and I don't want another 11 week wait.
American Muscle has amazing customer service with fast customer response, please do not confuse the two. They are separate entities. And I have been a BAMA user for two years before having a single issue. Unfortunately that single issue has wasted my entire summer of driving.
