Okay, since I didnt get any answers the first time....

[8UWITH6]

Opinions PLEASE

Bought a fully prepped trans in May from Vendor X and out of the box it was wrong. It came with the wrong valve body, the wrong harness plug, defective TCC, etc. 40 miles into things it slipped really bad when I kicked it down (maybe 1/4 throttle) to 3rd from OD on the highway. Vendor X sent a valve body, valve body gaskets, pan gasket, and a TCC. I dropped the pan and replaced the valve body. Put the new TCC in and went for a drive, TCC stayed locked all the time. Drop pan again, take known good TCC out of my original BRF, and go around the block again. TCC operation was fine, went WOT and it shifted at 4grand. WTF? Drop pan again, take governor out and replace with the one out of my original BRF. Are you counting how many times the pan has been down? Car now shifted at around 4800 or so, was suppost to be 5200, either way it was still short shifting. Put about 200 more miles on it and went to the track for 3 passes. Short shifted. About a month ago I took the car out (it had been sitting for almost a month) and went WOT getting on the highway 40mph roll, it kicked to 2nd and slipped, vibrated, and made all kinds of noise. By this point Im getting pissed, so I straighten out in OD and hit it again, kicks to 3rd same deal. Get on the phone right then and there and call Vendor X and left a message. To this day Vendor X tells me he needs more proof of whats wrong, and doesnt trust my judgement. He told me to take it to a tranny shop and have them look at it. I may not know a ton about trannys, but I do know when something is not right! Oh yeah, the pan had copper/bronze material, lots of black dust, and even aluminum looking chunks in the pan after 40 miles, yes 40. So what am I gonna do? Vendor X thinks its my converter causing the problems........which it may be, but its not my fault it may be ruined because of the initial screw ups on the tranny. Im usually pretty level headed, but its getting to the point where Im just going to become very angry. I could mention the vendors name, but I will not..........YET. Its very dissapointing when you pay lots of money for a "professionally built" transmission, only to have it cause nothing but problems and prevent me from driving the car instead of working on it. I dont know how many hours me and my buddys have underneath this car, and how many quarts of trans fluid! I have not called Vendor X in about a month or so, because I know it will be the same questions........1. Did you take it to a shop.....Answer: no, Im not paying someone else to diagnos your mess up. 2. Whats it doing exactly......Answer: I have already told you 10 times.

Im beginning to lose my patients. Its to the point where Im about to just pull the thing and go through it with my friend that knows trannys, and find out what it needs/what is damaged. Or I may just send it back, and have a local shop do my original BRF with some hard parts. The cars in the garage for the next ???? anyway because its starting to get cold again.

Anyone please.......

Bruce T, I emailed you a while back and never got a response, Id really like some of you tranny guys to chime in, especially the builders, and what they would do as a vendor in this situation. Im not asking for any compensations, I just want a good working transmission that I can use for the years to come. Hell, I even offered to pay the shipping both ways, and I really shouldnt have too...............

 

[chris718]

as a vendor we assure shipping out a good transmission by installing it in our test vehicle and putting at least 100 miles or more in some cases to be absolutely certain on what we are giving to someone who may be 50 or 3000 miles away from us.this cuts down the problems incurred by about 95 percent.we would also go out of our way to make sure if there were a problem that we did everything we could to rectify it in an expedient manner.things go wrong with everyones products from time to time but those who get them straightened out asap and correctly are the ones thatll be in business while the others will be scrambling to find business when no one wants to use them.who is brand x?any clues?you may be helping others by telling them.

 

[8UWITH6]

Come on fellas.......nobody has any thoughts to what I should do?

 

[RickWI]

Let's see, slipps real bad, replaced a bunch of parts, now the clutch packs are in the bottom of the pan. I'd say it's junk.

Send it back, request a full refund and shipping cost. You, out of the kindness of your heart, will tell vendor x that you will forgo your labor costs in trying to fix his/her F up. If that does not work time to file in small claims.

I am sure I can list 3 who ARE NOT Brand X, but would like to hear who is.

If I were a vendor I would not comment any further than what Chris has carefully attempted to do. He did give you one piece of information that is critical in case you file a suit. Most tranny facilities will test/drive the tranny prior to shipment. A faulty valve body should show up under this test.

 

[chevyII]

I feel your pain I had a 700r4 built LOCALY and the 3500 converter was also bought local. Same crap slipping,TCC,shift points, went back to the builder. he say theres brass all over and its cooked. He say the only brass parts are in the converter. So I took the coverter to them knowing the trans has brass bushings. nop its the trans they said,so I had the to vendors actually meet and quess what I got nothing from either but the converter was checked for free and was fine. so if your X gives you the run around its get the check book out for a new trans or a lawyer. Not to get down on locals as Ive worked in the feild and there are always good talent but a stock rebuild and a specialized trans that can last isn't usually local when shopping for specialized parts. It sucks but I learned a good lesson on researching before buying.

 

[8UWITH6]

Guys, Ive tried telling him my demands, (which arent unreasonable at all), and he fires back a reason to "just drive it" everytime. In fact (youll love this), my father got into it with him a little bit in the beginning, and Vendor X told him, "you dont know what your talking about, let me talk to your son." Pops was hot that day.........

I did plenty of research before buying. A few local guys have the same trans, which mine was suppost to be a exact copy of since my buddy has a similar combo. He put his in, and hasnt had a problem at all, same converter as mine too. After 1000 miles he dropped the pan and it was clean. 100+ passes. Its frustrating because this crap always happens to me and even my father. Our TR buddys buy something and its fine, we buy something and its ****ed. Its really starting to wear on me, and Im beginning to wonder why I mess with these cars anymore. Bad luck spell I hope.............thanks for the info..........it was tested (to my knowledge) before shipment. *shrugs*

 

[DKREDT]

Can they suggest a tranny person in the area that THEY recommend you to take it to? If so I would make a deal with them that if they find that the tranny has problems the cost is on them, if not you will pay for the diagnosis.

Since I am the curious type I looked at old posts and figured out who the vendor is.

Since they do not hang out here too much, why not light them up? It might make you feel better.

Hope you get this straightened out soon though.

 

[AsphaltAnihil8r]

Originally posted by RickWI
Let's see, slipps real bad, replaced a bunch of parts, now the clutch packs are in the bottom of the pan. I'd say it's junk.

Send it back, request a full refund and shipping cost. You, out of the kindness of your heart, will tell vendor x that you will forgo your labor costs in trying to fix his/her F up. If that does not work time to file in small claims.

I am sure I can list 3 who ARE NOT Brand X, but would like to hear who is.

If I were a vendor I would not comment any further than what Chris has carefully attempted to do. He did give you one piece of information that is critical in case you file a suit. Most tranny facilities will test/drive the tranny prior to shipment. A faulty valve body should show up under this test.

Sorry to jump in,,,Rick do you have a brother hear on the NW side of Chicago named Jerry..

 

[8UWITH6]

Originally posted by DKREDT
Since I am the curious type I looked at old posts and figured out who the vendor is.

Since they do not hang out here too much, why not light them up? It might make you feel better.

Hope you get this straightened out soon though.

What good would it be to "light them up"? It will probably just anger people and get a bunch of crap flying the wrong way. Im looking for advice from you guys on what to do in terms of getting this deal straightened out. I am also looking for examples of what other Vendors would do in this situation to make things "right" for the customer. The customer is always right, correct? Well, not always, but Im darn close this time.

 

[8UWITH6]

*SIGH* Time to get nasty, I hate this.

 

[2quiktocare]

Neil, the way this should of been handled in my opinion is it should be sent back, and tested by them, since they feel they have all the answers apparently. If in fact your converter wasn't new, it may well have caused this situation, but, they need to check it and verified that fact. EVERYONE makes a mistake time to time and they should be man enough to admit something took a dump if so. The one question I have is, what happened to your old trans? Did it break? If so, what failed? I would get a build on your old trans and then ship this one back to the vendor for a recheck. We avoid these questions ourselves by installing the trans and fully testing it before shipment. Preferably with your your own converter. Give it a try and keep us informed. Mark

 

[8UWITH6]

Mark, the converter was brand new out of the box, orange stripe 3000. I also installed a brand new stacked plate transmission cooler upon installation of the transmission. My old trans was getting very soft. It never actually failed though. A local guy wants to go through it for me, which I will probably do, since I have 2 trannys sitting in my garage. Ill probably make my T-type the test mule for the local builder, since the trans in that is flaring badly on 2-3. Man, all I wanted was a good working transmission to last a few years, not a few months. Thanks for the reply.

 

[WE4]

Neil

I did reply to you. You never got the email? Damn man, it never came back so why not on Monday, Call Mark or I or Chris and get one of us behind you to assist in your "war".
All on here would be glad to assist.

Bruce
WE4
PTS XTREME

 

[8UWITH6]

Never received an email from you Bruce. Ill call you Tuesday on my day off. Whens a good time to call to have 10-15 minutes of your time? Thanks......

 

[WE4]

Anytime

Originally posted by 8UWITH6
Never received an email from you Bruce. Ill call you Tuesday on my day off. Whens a good time to call to have 10-15 minutes of your time? Thanks......

We got guys on vacation so I will be around for sure.....

Bruce
WE4
PTS XTREME

 

[RickWI]

Originally posted by AsphaltAnihil8r
Sorry to jump in,,,Rick do you have a brother hear on the NW side of Chicago named Jerry..

Nope, no brothers, only two sisters.

 

[opeltwinturbo]

Neil: Your reluctance to bring forth the vendors name is a credit to you. Don't bash the vendor until you're sure it is the vendors doing. I would send the trans back to them, have them diagnose the failure and see what they plan to do. Unfortunately, the vendor must not be local so you are going to have some serious down time and expense in getting the unit shipped.
If you send it back and do not get total satisfaction, then you should feel free to rip the vendor a new a$$hole. Good luck.

 

[8UWITH6]

Opel, thats the problem.........they wont take it back. They requested that I take it to a local shop to have it looked at. This kind of angers me because for one, I do know a few things about transmissions, but am obviously no expert. And two, its their mess up, not a local shops, and hows the shop to know anymore than me and/or my local TR buddys? You never know. I figured they would take care of me. I havent called him in a while. Its almost pointless (at least feels that way) because everytime I have called they tell me, "run it, it will be fine". That gets very frustrating when the trans is obviously not correct. I hope Im not coming off as blaming anybody? The point of this post is to see what other vendors would do for a customer in this situation. I have never been rude or out of line with this vendor. In fact, I have been very patient. Lets see here, mid-May to mid-October??? I define the word patient, orrrrr stupid. Im not sure anymore. The point of this post is to get input from vendors and/or customers who have been in this situation. However, I hope not many have, because it SUCKS. I usually put about 3000 miles on this car a summer, not 500. Opel, I dont care about down time, the car could sit all winter for all I care, but come spring I want to be able to drive the car and run it at the track. I got 3 passes in this season............

So whatcha think? I got a te44 to put on the car for a while, Im thinking about racing it this weekend, see if it breaks? Probably not a good idea right? But the thing that keeps running through my mind is, "run it, it will be fine".

Sorry, frustrated. Calling you tomorrow Bruce, THANK YOU.

 

[Morkai]

Follow their advice...

You know what I'm thinking? I think I would call them up and when they say, "run it, it will be fine", ask them if they'll warrantee the trans and any non-vender X parts (ie: converter) that may be damaged when she blows. If they will, try to get it in writing, or at least email, then go out and beat the crap out of it at the track. When it breaks, they'll have to take it back.

I really sympathize with you on this, sounds like something that would happen to me.

Good luck with it, maybe you'll get some satisfaction.

 

[turbov6joe]

Neil,
Here's an idea...send the tranny back signature required and use a moniker return name. After you've verified from UPS that they have it, call and tell them it's yours and to FIX THE ****'N THING ALREADY! Then if they still refuse, you could always call the Texas Rangers and tell them someone stole your tranny and you think you might know who has it, make sure you stencil the tranny part number down before shipping I'd pay for any shipping on a CC and any additional $ they might charge ya then call the CC company and refuse payment and let them go after Mr. AC. Glad you have more patience then me, I'd be on a flight to TX. to visit him in person! He and Kenny Bell are in the same catagory with me.