DBC Tuning in San Antonio

[don40vette]

Don't let them touch your car. I did and it was not good.

Many people have asked so here is my experience:

I took my 2012 Cayman R to DBC Tuning to upgrade filter, intake plenum, throttle body, headers, tune.
I sent an email to Berk (owner) to give me price for parts, labor, full price. He did by email but it was not itemized bill just full price. That may have been a mistake on my part but an email is a legal binding document so I thought I was okay. I paid in full or so I thought that day.
After work was done, I now had a charge for labor. I told him that I have an email saying he gave me a quote for total price and he disagreed so I had to pay to get my car.
This is where it sucks for me. I thought even though Berk was screwing me I had the email to prove my credit card company would back me up. Was I wrong there.
I leave with my car and not even a 1/4 mile down the road I get check engine light. Go back. They work on it about an hour. Good to go and about 5 miles down the road check engine light. I leave the car there and go home.
Cayman is supposed to be ready again and I come back again with the intention of leaving my 2009 M3 Coupe that I installed an ESS supercharger on and they were going to install the ESS transmission software. Berk opened the hood and looked at supercharger.
I left M3 at shop and headed home in Porsche and about 20 miles down the road check engine came on again. Went back, left Cayman there and went home in M3. Im driving down the highway and I notice my hood shaking like crazy. I pull over the side of the very busy highway and my hood was not fully closed. Wow.
After all this I decided I was not going to let Berk touch my M3. When my Cayman was finally ready again I showed up without M3 and Berk would not even speak to me.
I decided to dispute my extra labor charges with my credit card company and sent Berk an email telling him what I was doing and I told him I was going to post my experience online. He fired right back about his attorney and going to sue me.
After going back and forth we agreed that I would pay $250 and as he put it "keep my mouth shut and not post my experience anywhere." He has 90 days to dispute my claim. At around 80 days he disputed it and now my credit card company says I have to pay. They say I should not have payed if I thought it was not right. So I should have left my car and found a way home. Thanks for your support.
So I am posting my experience here and have also posted on M3 Forum and Yelp.
I got a response almost instantly from a guy who had an appointment scheduled for a good amount of work on his car. We talked by phone and he is canceling that work.
So, after four attempts they finally got the car right but Berk got it all wrong.

[Patrón]

Elaborate please. I've heard a few good recommendations and they installed some parts for me, but I've heard more really bad stories.

[socalm3lover]

Are you guys going to keep "hinting" or tell us what is happening. You made the post??!! Is it mysterious??

John

[BrewRifle]

Originally Posted by Patrón

Elaborate please. I've heard a few good recommendations and they installed some parts for me, but I've heard more really bad stories. Today has to be the worst, as the error could have killed my friend.

They installed my ESS supercharger kit as they are the only authorized shop in Texas and everything so far has been great.

Please let us know what happened, either of you.

[Brian0473]

I don't want to diss my Texas M3 brothers but without the actual story I'm not sure what the point of this post is.

What's funny is that I'm dropping my car off at DBC in about an hour! They've been solid for me for the most part so I am curious about your experiences.

[BrewRifle]

Originally Posted by Brian0473

I don't want to diss my Texas M3 brothers but without the actual story I'm not sure what the point of this post is.

What's funny is that I'm dropping my car off at DBC in about an hour! They've been solid for me for the most part so I am curious about your experiences.

They have been nothing but helpful the entire time I had the VT2-625 installed and I wouldn't hesitate to go back to them for any job. I actually will most likely go in to get my bearings done at some point.

What work are you getting done?

[Brian0473]

They just uninstalled my IPE F1 and installed a Fabspeed X-pipe. I agree with you...Berk (owner) has been excellent to work with - he did my BBK, exhaust (several times), angel eyes, alignment, and some work on my old RS4 as well.

BTW, I want dibs on your car if you ever sell it!

[Patrón]

I'd rather let the folks that had the bad installation post their own experience. But know the more than three members that had issues and knowing they have nothing to gain by not telling the truth, I'll never take my car there again. My brother and I are active on Porsche forums and Berk's negative posts about the quality of BMWs (huge, general accusation) as a whole, solidifies my opinion. I know one major problem, they provided the repairs and the replacement parts and took responsibility. Perhaps it was concern of further negative publicity is what helped the situation.

[Patrón]

Originally Posted by Brian0473

They just uninstalled my IPE F1 and installed a Fabspeed X-pipe. I agree with you...Berk (owner) has been excellent to work with - he did my BBK, exhaust (several times), angel eyes, alignment, and some work on my old RS4 as well.

BTW, I want dibs on your car if you ever sell it!

Brian, your car mod list sounds amazing in itself.

[Brian0473]

Thanks Patron. The only thing missing now is a S/C!

[myBailey07]

I am likely one of the folks mentioned. Purely based on my own life experiences I do not see the value of handling these kinds of situations on forums or other social media. As my dad used to tell me: “Son, there is nothing good that can come from that...” Therefore, I am not willing to discuss my case in detail in public, except to, in fairness, say that, yes, I did have an incident with a brake install that went wrong and I shared this with a few friends. Could it have ended bad? Yes, but it did not.

I went and calmly and constructively discussed with the owner what happened. I did not have an attitude and neither did he. He immediately recognized what happened, assumed full responsibility, was very apologetic and offered right away to repair the damage fully at his cost.

Was I unhappy that it happened in the first place? Yes, I was. But I also have to give full credit for how they (and I) handled the incident. I am squared with them and will use them again for certain work.

Unfortunately, shit happens. Cancer taught me that. It also taught me it is often our attitude in how we respond to that shit that determines the eventual outcome. I am proud of myself for how I handled the situation. I again learned that my own attitude when confronting something like this can change a situation from confrontational to constructive and even though they should not have made the installation mistake I am happy for how they accepted full ownership and corrected it and I have to give them credit for it.

As far as I am concerned the case is close for me ;-)

Life Fast. Live Hard. Live Fearless. Be Kind.

Peace.

Michiel

[imolam3]

Michiel,

I"m glad to see you made it out of TWS unharmed after the incident. It could have been much worse. As a friend, I would recommend using someone else since you are tracking the car. I have too many bad experience with the tech that is now working at DBC. Google Prestige Tuning and you'll see.

Rob that you spoke to today is an excellent mechanic, he is only one in SA that I let touch my car. When you're at going at 100 plus, the last thing you want to worry about is did my mechanic installed the brakes properly...

See you at the track next time...hope you had fun

AG..what's up buddy...should have come to HH and see our boy Michiel tored it up...

[AbtSportsline]

Good evening gentleman,

My name is Berk Ariercetin, owner of DBC Tuning, LLC

It is, generally, my policy to stay away from threads like these. That said, in my company's 7 short years, I have never been exposed to the type of accusations expressed by the OP of this thread and I feel a response is warranted and necessary so Bimerforums members can make their own judgments concerning my company and its business practices after hearing the facts in this case.

First of all, I want to publicly apologize to the OP for any and all inconveniences I have caused him. I also want to apologize to our loyal customers on Bimmerpost for any disappointment I may have caused you all, because I am very thankful for your continued support through thick and thin. The attitude toward BMW as an automotive manufacturer I purportedly have does not accurately reflect my true feelings toward the brand nor its loyal customers. To prove this, I will be applying for forum sponsorship to better communicate with current and prospective customers. I have been monitoring this thread since this morning after an email I received from the OP at 1:24 AM this morning, which I feel was an ill attempt to display what he perceives to be his power to drive customers away from the business I have worked very hard to build. I, in some respect, sympathize with the OP’s situation; however there are more than a few points of contention and some missing pieces from his review. I will outline them below.

Here is the chronological order of events:

-Customer emails me requesting pricing for possible modifications to his Porsche Cayman R to improve performance. He specifically asked about an increase in air flow and a performance tune. He mentioned one of our customers' name from Corpus Christi who owns an E92 BMW M3 whose modifications include an ESS Tune, DCT Tune, and ESS exhaust system. I put together the following formula for the OP: IPD Intake plenum, OEM 997 GT3 Throttle body, Evoms Air Intake, and Evomsit Tune.

-Customer responds back and asking for a timeline and pricing.

-I responded back with price on all the parts. I offered him anywhere between 10-20 discount on all parts. I clearly stated in my email all parts are special order from manufacturers and require payment up front except the ECU tune, which is done in-house and billed for at the time of services rendered.

-Customer called for a phone chat. We discussed, at length, how all these parts work in harmony, how the performance would increase, at what RPM’s, expected horsepower, and torque gains. Customer asked me if there would be anything else that I would suggest to complement the package and squeeze out more power. I advised him to add an exhaust system that would help, despite informing him as to its minimal HP gains. He complained about his PSE (Porsche Sports Exhaust) and wanted something better. He mentioned it was too quiet and the valving had never worked properly. I gave him a few options and we agreed on Fabspeed exhaust system. Upon agreement on list of parts to be installed, I gave OP the final price on all parts, labor and tune excluded.
NOTE: On projects like this, where a lot of special order items are involved, we require full payment for the parts up front. We are charged by the manufacturer for all of these parts immediately, whether made-to-order by the manufacturer or are in-stock ready-to-ship. Labor is collected at the time of vehicle delivery. I specifically disclosed this information to OP.

-We set an install date: 2 weeks to fulfill all parts orders and have them at the shop ready for install.

-After this conversation, I stayed in touch with the customer. All his email requests were replied to in timely fashion. As some of the posters here will attest, it is common for me to reply to an email late at night.

-Some unfortunate, but perfectly normal events occurred. IPD Plenum (one of the parts for the package) went into a backorder. Fabspeed exhaust turned out to be a 6 week backorder. Unfortunately, between the time I responded to initial email and the day I took OP's order we lost the current availability on parts. I tried my best to get everything in by the agreed date of installation but it seemed impossible. I take blame here. Before closing the deal, I should have asked for a few moments to recheck the availability. I am at 100% fault here.

-I immediately notified OP via email asking for a reschedule. I explained the reasons why. A day passed by and I did not received a response. I called OP's cell phone, no answer. I left a voice mail, it was not returned. I did recall at the time the OP mentioning his work place being in a remote area with little to no cell phone reception. However this was the best I could do at the time. In my email I left him my cell phone number and told him it is perfectly fine to call me anytime to discuss this backorder situation and rescheduling. This occurred over a weekend and so the installation was scheduled on the following Monday.

-Monday morning I came to work and OP was at the shop. He was a little upset at the situation. I explained exact same things I wrote down in the email. He said he would go back home. I offered to have him to leave his car with us and let me pay for his rental back to Corpus Christi, or he could take one of my personal vehicles. I also offered him, upon completion of the install, to drive the car back to Corpus Christi as long as he is ok with it. He agreed to take my 2008 Audi A4 Quattro and leave his Porsche Cayman R with us at the shop. He also made mention of transmission problems with his E92 BMW M3 ESS charged car. He said he would swap cars when he comes to pick up his Cayman R so we could take a look at the BMW.

-That day we had most of his part, except the Fabspeed exhaust system. IPD plenum showed up later that same day. I disclosed the timeline on the exhaust and I told him I would work on alternatives in case Fabspeed could not come through with their expedited production promise. Unfortunately Fabspeed never came through. I had an idea. We carry other exhaust systems and are an authorized dealer for several other quality companies. I started calling each of them. The Cayman R is a rare vehicle and not at all easy to find in-stock performance parts for. I finally located a Tubi exhaust at Champion Motorsport. There was one problem. The Fabspeed MaxFlo exhaust system retails at $2195, whereas the Tubi system retails at $3400.00. At the time of the sale I had already given the OP a very healthy discount on the Fabspeed exhaust. Tubi systems are more expensive and, in accordance with our agreement with the manufacturer for resale of their products, we simply cannot afford to discount them. Nonetheless, at this point, I wanted to make up for the inconvenience and keep the customer happy. I sent him an email and asked his permission to change the exhaust from Fabspeed to Tubi. After a few questions and answers back and forth, the customer agreed and thanked me for this. In 3 days we had the Tubi exhaust at our shop.

-During this time, I sold my A4 that I loaned to OP. It was on Autotrader and a couple who previously visited to check the car decided to purchase it. I drove down to Corpus to pick up the A4. I gave the OP details about his Cayman R performance upgrades at the time of the pick-up.

-In the following days we completed the installation. I test drove the vehicle twice. That happened to be a very rainy week so I had limited seat time for the test drives. After every test drive we scanned the car and there were no ECU fault codes. Car drove and felt great. Although I could not take it over certain RPM’s where the Porsche engine comes alive, the improvements were noticeable across the power band I was able to achieve. Tubi exhaust sounded exotic.

-I called OP and told him the car is ready for pick up.

THIS IS WHERE THINGS WENT ABSOLUTELY SOUTH:

-The OP came in to take delivery of his Cayman R and brings us his BMW M3. When I showed him his final invoice, including the tune and the labor charges, he seemed very confused. I spent the next 30 minutes going through the charges line-by-line explaining what his initial purchases were and what the final invoice was for. Finally, he agreed to pay and handed me his credit card. There are witnesses to this conversation. We chit chatted about his BMW and he left looking very excited.

-A few minutes after he left, he called me on my cell phone telling me the car produced a check engine light. I asked him how far he was and asked him if he would come back. He did. We got the car back in and, upon quick inspection, found the vacuum valve was stuck open. We uninstalled it, inspected it, reinstalled it, and cleared the code. I asked the OP if he could take the car for a spin and bring it back for a final scan before attempting to return home again. I wanted him to drive the car the way he would. I did not heard back from him for another 30 minutes. I assumed everything was ok. Cell phone rings again. CEL. He drives the car back to the shop. I apologized to him again for the situation. I asked him to give us an hour to look into it. I offered to take him to lunch. At this point he was angry and rightfully so. He said he would take the M3 and go back to Corpus Christi. He asked me to let him know when the car was completely finished. The source of the problem: the stock intake plenum on the Porsche Cayman R has 2 vacuum valves that control the change-over flap. IPD plenum only uses one. The one we chose to use on the IPD plenum unfortunately went bad. Same day we replaced the valve with a new one. I kept the car for 2 days and test drove it several times to ensure the problem would not repeat itself. It did not. The car ran flawlessly. I have no explanation as to how the perfectly working valve broke, however I will take all responsibility for this, regardless. I also want to underline, this is a known problem on stock cars and would have been agitated by modifications that changed the intake system fundamentally. I admit we did not do a good job with quality control here. We should have had more seat time with the car after installation. That is our mistake, no question.

-Same evening, I started getting text messages from OP. He started kindly telling me how this was turning into an unpleasant experience. I apologized several times. This turned into a 4 hour non-stop texts from OP and escalated to belittling me and my company using vulgar language. I continued to apologize. He asked me why his hood was left open. I told him I was the only person who opened his hood and I made sure that I closed it back. He then became extremely aggressive with his text messages. At that point I decided to let it go.

- I reported back to him and told him that everything was under control. I agreed to drive the car to Corpus Christi at his earliest convenience. He asked me to bring the car on a Friday. I agreed. Friday morning after checking the car one last time, I got ready to get on the road. Minutes before my departure the OP suddenly, out of nowhere and with no warning, shows up at the shop. I simply turned over his keys and told him to have a nice trip. He picked up his car and left. He is absolutely right about one thing: I did not have much to say when he showed up. After offering every possible thing I could imagine to accommodate the OP, I was degraded, belittled, and profusely cursed at. Further, he then proceeded to send late night text messages using violent language. That level of after-the-fact abuse was intolerable. I still maintained my composure with him and refrained from becoming very unprofessional in my communications with him.

-Days pass by, and the OP sends me an email stating that we screwed him on his invoice. He stated he would immediately be filing a chargeback. He also wrote he will share his experiences with DBC Tuning LLC and me online. Once again, this was on a late Friday night. I reminded him he was explained to, in detail, what he paid for. I broke down the numbers one more time for him. I also notified him the email was being carbon copied to my attorney should he decide to post untrue and inflammatory comments online regarding me, personally, or my business in relation to our transaction. I promised him one of my employees will call him and make sure we resolve this. The following Monday, I received a notification from my merchant services regarding his chargeback. I asked them what my options were. They requested all written documentations, receipts, and email conversations which I was MORE than happy to provide to them. We called him several times that week and got no answers. I finally decided to dispute the credit card chargeback.

-The week after his last email, on a Saturday, we finally got a hold of him. He spoke with my employee. He said he was very happy with the car despite the experience. He asked my employee for a reimbursement, otherwise he would write bad reviews about his experience (extortion). He verbally agreed on 50% refund from the final invoice. He asked my employee to have me write him an email containing a settlement agreement. He said that would make it right and within minutes I sent him an email and asked him if he agrees on the terms. He responds back "I do not agree. I am going to post my review of DBC Online. If you want that, I will agree with $250.00". This email response started to show where we were heading (extortion). I sent him an email back to clarify if he was asking 50% of the final invoice and $250.00 additional. At this point, I told him I would do 50% plus $150.00. I asked him to be reasonable. He responded back he is willing to pay $250.00 and he would not post any reviews. I was very confused, as I’m sure most of you are by this point, but I agreed. I asked him to contact his bank and remove the chargeback so I could issue him a proper refund. He did not. He responded back asking me to address the dispute or wait 90 days. After that he would pay me $250.00.

-I chose to wait 90 days. In the end, his bank sided with us. Mind you, I repeatedly told the OP I was doing this settlement as a courtesy to make sure he feels completely satisfied. Unfortunately it kept becoming more and more unreasonable, abusive, and I decided to let this whole thing run its course and, given the evidence I provided my merchant services that was communicated to his credit card company, it was decided in my favor.

In conclusion, my shop specializes in Porsche’s, Audi’s, and BMW’s. We are passionate about what we do. On an average day, we service 5 to 6 cars at our shop. Regardless of model, year, or condition we strive to show the ultimate attention to detail on every car. However, we are far from perfect. We are human beings. When we make mistakes, I always do everything in my power to make it right. If you are a potential customer, I welcome you to come visit our shop, talk to our technicians. Please come see our facility and experience our straight forward approach to performance, modification, and repair of your vehicle.

Thank you for your time and reading my post.

[///M3Fresh]

^ I am just curious what the OP's total labor costs where that he was trying to reduce to $250?

Looks like the OP missed a lot of info. Always two sides to every story.

[X5-User]

Originally Posted by ///M3Fresh

^ I am just curious what the OP's total labor costs where that he was trying to reduce to $250?

Looks like the OP missed a lot of info. Always two sides to every story.

I agree but don't you see it weird that DBC gave quotes for parts only? I usually get a quote for both parts and labour. I don't remember when I ask about something to be done on my car and I just get a quote on parts

[Shredicus]

Originally Posted by Bimmer-M3

I agree but don't you see it weird that DBC gave quotes for parts only? I usually get a quote for both parts and labour. I don't remember when I ask about something to be done on my car and I just get a quote on parts

NOTE: On projects like this, where a lot of special order items are involved, we require full payment for the parts up front. We are charged by the manufacturer for all of these parts immediately, whether made-to-order by the manufacturer or are in-stock ready-to-ship. Labor is collected at the time of vehicle delivery. I specifically disclosed this information to OP.

Makes sense to me. You wouldnt pay for labor up front, he had to pay for the parts so they could get them shipped in.

[Brian0473]

As I have no personal knowledge of this situation I can't really comment on it but I'll chime in one last time with my personal thoughts on DBC as a company. As mentioned in my post on Saturday, I actually dropped my own car off there for some minor adjustments to the exhaust. I arrived almost an hour late and and asked Berk if he could still accommodate me and he said he would take care of me. There were several guys in the waiting room so I know he was busy. When I returned a little while later my car was on the lift and Berk was eager to show me personally how the exhaust was fitting while still on the lift. This kind of personal interest and service is why I trust Berk and his team. What's funny is that the last couple of times I asked Berk to do something for me I didn't even ask what he was going to charge me! He's proven to me time and time again to be more than fair. Now, if I was going to have major work done I'm sure I would ask but the point stands that he has earned my trust.

Just yesterday I made a deal on a full Akra exhaust and shot Berk an email to set up an installation time. Literally 4 minutes later he replied and we had it scheduled.

As long as I drive German hardware DBC will be my go to shop.

That's my 2 cents.

[s85e90]

Originally Posted by ///M3Fresh

^ I am just curious what the OP's total labor costs where that he was trying to reduce to $250?

Looks like the OP missed a lot of info. Always three sides to every story.

Fixed.

[W Cole]

Originally Posted by AbtSportsline

Good evening gentleman,

My name is Berk Ariercetin, owner of DBC Tuning, LLC

It is, generally, my policy to stay away from threads like these. That said, in my company's 7 short years, I have never been exposed to the type of accusations expressed by the OP of this thread and I feel a response is warranted and necessary so Bimerforums members can make their own judgments concerning my company and its business practices after hearing the facts in this case.

First of all, I want to publicly apologize to the OP for any and all inconveniences I have caused him. I also want to apologize to our loyal customers on Bimmerpost for any disappointment I may have caused you all, because I am very thankful for your continued support through thick and thin. The attitude toward BMW as an automotive manufacturer I purportedly have does not accurately reflect my true feelings toward the brand nor its loyal customers. To prove this, I will be applying for forum sponsorship to better communicate with current and prospective customers. I have been monitoring this thread since this morning after an email I received from the OP at 1:24 AM this morning, which I feel was an ill attempt to display what he perceives to be his power to drive customers away from the business I have worked very hard to build. I, in some respect, sympathize with the OP’s situation; however there are more than a few points of contention and some missing pieces from his review. I will outline them below.

Here is the chronological order of events:

-Customer emails me requesting pricing for possible modifications to his Porsche Cayman R to improve performance. He specifically asked about an increase in air flow and a performance tune. He mentioned one of our customers' name from Corpus Christi who owns an E92 BMW M3 whose modifications include an ESS Tune, DCT Tune, and ESS exhaust system. I put together the following formula for the OP: IPD Intake plenum, OEM 997 GT3 Throttle body, Evoms Air Intake, and Evomsit Tune.

-Customer responds back and asking for a timeline and pricing.

-I responded back with price on all the parts. I offered him anywhere between 10-20 discount on all parts. I clearly stated in my email all parts are special order from manufacturers and require payment up front except the ECU tune, which is done in-house and billed for at the time of services rendered.

-Customer called for a phone chat. We discussed, at length, how all these parts work in harmony, how the performance would increase, at what RPM’s, expected horsepower, and torque gains. Customer asked me if there would be anything else that I would suggest to complement the package and squeeze out more power. I advised him to add an exhaust system that would help, despite informing him as to its minimal HP gains. He complained about his PSE (Porsche Sports Exhaust) and wanted something better. He mentioned it was too quiet and the valving had never worked properly. I gave him a few options and we agreed on Fabspeed exhaust system. Upon agreement on list of parts to be installed, I gave OP the final price on all parts, labor and tune excluded.
NOTE: On projects like this, where a lot of special order items are involved, we require full payment for the parts up front. We are charged by the manufacturer for all of these parts immediately, whether made-to-order by the manufacturer or are in-stock ready-to-ship. Labor is collected at the time of vehicle delivery. I specifically disclosed this information to OP.

-We set an install date: 2 weeks to fulfill all parts orders and have them at the shop ready for install.

-After this conversation, I stayed in touch with the customer. All his email requests were replied to in timely fashion. As some of the posters here will attest, it is common for me to reply to an email late at night.

-Some unfortunate, but perfectly normal events occurred. IPD Plenum (one of the parts for the package) went into a backorder. Fabspeed exhaust turned out to be a 6 week backorder. Unfortunately, between the time I responded to initial email and the day I took OP's order we lost the current availability on parts. I tried my best to get everything in by the agreed date of installation but it seemed impossible. I take blame here. Before closing the deal, I should have asked for a few moments to recheck the availability. I am at 100% fault here.

-I immediately notified OP via email asking for a reschedule. I explained the reasons why. A day passed by and I did not received a response. I called OP's cell phone, no answer. I left a voice mail, it was not returned. I did recall at the time the OP mentioning his work place being in a remote area with little to no cell phone reception. However this was the best I could do at the time. In my email I left him my cell phone number and told him it is perfectly fine to call me anytime to discuss this backorder situation and rescheduling. This occurred over a weekend and so the installation was scheduled on the following Monday.

-Monday morning I came to work and OP was at the shop. He was a little upset at the situation. I explained exact same things I wrote down in the email. He said he would go back home. I offered to have him to leave his car with us and let me pay for his rental back to Corpus Christi, or he could take one of my personal vehicles. I also offered him, upon completion of the install, to drive the car back to Corpus Christi as long as he is ok with it. He agreed to take my 2008 Audi A4 Quattro and leave his Porsche Cayman R with us at the shop. He also made mention of transmission problems with his E92 BMW M3 ESS charged car. He said he would swap cars when he comes to pick up his Cayman R so we could take a look at the BMW.

-That day we had most of his part, except the Fabspeed exhaust system. IPD plenum showed up later that same day. I disclosed the timeline on the exhaust and I told him I would work on alternatives in case Fabspeed could not come through with their expedited production promise. Unfortunately Fabspeed never came through. I had an idea. We carry other exhaust systems and are an authorized dealer for several other quality companies. I started calling each of them. The Cayman R is a rare vehicle and not at all easy to find in-stock performance parts for. I finally located a Tubi exhaust at Champion Motorsport. There was one problem. The Fabspeed MaxFlo exhaust system retails at $2195, whereas the Tubi system retails at $3400.00. At the time of the sale I had already given the OP a very healthy discount on the Fabspeed exhaust. Tubi systems are more expensive and, in accordance with our agreement with the manufacturer for resale of their products, we simply cannot afford to discount them. Nonetheless, at this point, I wanted to make up for the inconvenience and keep the customer happy. I sent him an email and asked his permission to change the exhaust from Fabspeed to Tubi. After a few questions and answers back and forth, the customer agreed and thanked me for this. In 3 days we had the Tubi exhaust at our shop.

-During this time, I sold my A4 that I loaned to OP. It was on Autotrader and a couple who previously visited to check the car decided to purchase it. I drove down to Corpus to pick up the A4. I gave the OP details about his Cayman R performance upgrades at the time of the pick-up.

-In the following days we completed the installation. I test drove the vehicle twice. That happened to be a very rainy week so I had limited seat time for the test drives. After every test drive we scanned the car and there were no ECU fault codes. Car drove and felt great. Although I could not take it over certain RPM’s where the Porsche engine comes alive, the improvements were noticeable across the power band I was able to achieve. Tubi exhaust sounded exotic.

-I called OP and told him the car is ready for pick up.

THIS IS WHERE THINGS WENT ABSOLUTELY SOUTH:

-The OP came in to take delivery of his Cayman R and brings us his BMW M3. When I showed him his final invoice, including the tune and the labor charges, he seemed very confused. I spent the next 30 minutes going through the charges line-by-line explaining what his initial purchases were and what the final invoice was for. Finally, he agreed to pay and handed me his credit card. There are witnesses to this conversation. We chit chatted about his BMW and he left looking very excited.

-A few minutes after he left, he called me on my cell phone telling me the car produced a check engine light. I asked him how far he was and asked him if he would come back. He did. We got the car back in and, upon quick inspection, found the vacuum valve was stuck open. We uninstalled it, inspected it, reinstalled it, and cleared the code. I asked the OP if he could take the car for a spin and bring it back for a final scan before attempting to return home again. I wanted him to drive the car the way he would. I did not heard back from him for another 30 minutes. I assumed everything was ok. Cell phone rings again. CEL. He drives the car back to the shop. I apologized to him again for the situation. I asked him to give us an hour to look into it. I offered to take him to lunch. At this point he was angry and rightfully so. He said he would take the M3 and go back to Corpus Christi. He asked me to let him know when the car was completely finished. The source of the problem: the stock intake plenum on the Porsche Cayman R has 2 vacuum valves that control the change-over flap. IPD plenum only uses one. The one we chose to use on the IPD plenum unfortunately went bad. Same day we replaced the valve with a new one. I kept the car for 2 days and test drove it several times to ensure the problem would not repeat itself. It did not. The car ran flawlessly. I have no explanation as to how the perfectly working valve broke, however I will take all responsibility for this, regardless. I also want to underline, this is a known problem on stock cars and would have been agitated by modifications that changed the intake system fundamentally. I admit we did not do a good job with quality control here. We should have had more seat time with the car after installation. That is our mistake, no question.

-Same evening, I started getting text messages from OP. He started kindly telling me how this was turning into an unpleasant experience. I apologized several times. This turned into a 4 hour non-stop texts from OP and escalated to belittling me and my company using vulgar language. I continued to apologize. He asked me why his hood was left open. I told him I was the only person who opened his hood and I made sure that I closed it back. He then became extremely aggressive with his text messages. At that point I decided to let it go.

- I reported back to him and told him that everything was under control. I agreed to drive the car to Corpus Christi at his earliest convenience. He asked me to bring the car on a Friday. I agreed. Friday morning after checking the car one last time, I got ready to get on the road. Minutes before my departure the OP suddenly, out of nowhere and with no warning, shows up at the shop. I simply turned over his keys and told him to have a nice trip. He picked up his car and left. He is absolutely right about one thing: I did not have much to say when he showed up. After offering every possible thing I could imagine to accommodate the OP, I was degraded, belittled, and profusely cursed at. Further, he then proceeded to send late night text messages using violent language. That level of after-the-fact abuse was intolerable. I still maintained my composure with him and refrained from becoming very unprofessional in my communications with him.

-Days pass by, and the OP sends me an email stating that we screwed him on his invoice. He stated he would immediately be filing a chargeback. He also wrote he will share his experiences with DBC Tuning LLC and me online. Once again, this was on a late Friday night. I reminded him he was explained to, in detail, what he paid for. I broke down the numbers one more time for him. I also notified him the email was being carbon copied to my attorney should he decide to post untrue and inflammatory comments online regarding me, personally, or my business in relation to our transaction. I promised him one of my employees will call him and make sure we resolve this. The following Monday, I received a notification from my merchant services regarding his chargeback. I asked them what my options were. They requested all written documentations, receipts, and email conversations which I was MORE than happy to provide to them. We called him several times that week and got no answers. I finally decided to dispute the credit card chargeback.

-The week after his last email, on a Saturday, we finally got a hold of him. He spoke with my employee. He said he was very happy with the car despite the experience. He asked my employee for a reimbursement, otherwise he would write bad reviews about his experience (extortion). He verbally agreed on 50% refund from the final invoice. He asked my employee to have me write him an email containing a settlement agreement. He said that would make it right and within minutes I sent him an email and asked him if he agrees on the terms. He responds back "I do not agree. I am going to post my review of DBC Online. If you want that, I will agree with $250.00". This email response started to show where we were heading (extortion). I sent him an email back to clarify if he was asking 50% of the final invoice and $250.00 additional. At this point, I told him I would do 50% plus $150.00. I asked him to be reasonable. He responded back he is willing to pay $250.00 and he would not post any reviews. I was very confused, as I’m sure most of you are by this point, but I agreed. I asked him to contact his bank and remove the chargeback so I could issue him a proper refund. He did not. He responded back asking me to address the dispute or wait 90 days. After that he would pay me $250.00.

-I chose to wait 90 days. In the end, his bank sided with us. Mind you, I repeatedly told the OP I was doing this settlement as a courtesy to make sure he feels completely satisfied. Unfortunately it kept becoming more and more unreasonable, abusive, and I decided to let this whole thing run its course and, given the evidence I provided my merchant services that was communicated to his credit card company, it was decided in my favor.

In conclusion, my shop specializes in Porsche’s, Audi’s, and BMW’s. We are passionate about what we do. On an average day, we service 5 to 6 cars at our shop. Regardless of model, year, or condition we strive to show the ultimate attention to detail on every car. However, we are far from perfect. We are human beings. When we make mistakes, I always do everything in my power to make it right. If you are a potential customer, I welcome you to come visit our shop, talk to our technicians. Please come see our facility and experience our straight forward approach to performance, modification, and repair of your vehicle.

Thank you for your time and reading my post.

There's two sides to every story but assuming your recollection is correct it sounds like an absolute nightmare for the OP. As someone who works on their own car and only goes to a shop for convenience it would have been much less aggravation to install everything myself.

[socalm3lover]

"I sent an email to Berk (owner) to give me price for parts, labor, full price. He did by email but it was not itemized bill just full price. That may have been a mistake on my part but an email is a legal binding document so I thought I was okay. I paid in full or so I thought that day."

It would be interesting to see the real email specifying parts and labor. The OPs experience with having to return the car is understandably frustrating. But I am not sure his version of the cost makes sense.

John

John

[///M3Fresh]

Originally Posted by Bimmer-M3

I agree but don't you see it weird that DBC gave quotes for parts only? I usually get a quote for both parts and labour. I don't remember when I ask about something to be done on my car and I just get a quote on parts

Originally Posted by Shredicus

Makes sense to me. You wouldnt pay for labor up front, he had to pay for the parts so they could get them shipped in.

The OP said he got a quote and it was a total for both the labor and the parts combined.

Bert @ DBC said he quoted it and went over with the OP line by line via email and then by text after the fact. It would make sense that there is a increase in price (could of been the upgraded muffler ~ 1K more) and the OP didnt pay for it untill he went to pay for the labor when picking up the car. I cant say for sure, emails would prove everything I guess.

[davis449]

I have owned 2 highly modified Audi's (one FBO 2006 A4 2.0T and another 2011 A3 2.0T FBO+K04 Turbo Upgrade that a member here now owns) and now a new-to-me 2012 BMW 135i he has already done suspension work on that will soon have more of that and a Cobb 1+ package installed. All of my cars have been modified and taken care of by DBC and it will continue to remain so. Berk has never been anything but fair with me and I have never had any issues with his shop's quality of work.