I have been a registered user of driver for about a yr now. First of all I am not one to post, but felt this was necessary to say thanks. I usually use this forum as a learning tool. I have been amazed at the wealth of knowledge by some of the veteran members on here. Well let me get back to the reason I am writing this post in the first place. As you can see the title says "Is Strafe really that bad"? I can't tell you how many posts I read detailing some of the bad experiences users on the forum have experienced. Honestly I read some of them and wonder is this the same company. Well in the past 7 months I have been researching different builds. I knew I wanted to go FI when I first bought the car, but needed to really understand the intricacies of the VQ engine. Well after months of research and many conversations with veteran members on here I finally decided on the path I would follow. I decided to go with an HKS kit, but not just any kit a one off prototype. I can't tell you how excited I was to finally get it, but unfortunately the install didn't happen instantly. Anyone that was in my situation knows how exciting this day was. So a few months went by and I finally got started on install. About 3 days along in the project I come to a obvious issue. It turns out that the engine idler pulley that replaces the stock on on the motor was missing. At first I tried to stay calm and started calling the company from which I bought the kit. I am not going to reveal the name of this company for the sake of argument, but 4 days had gone by and I still had not received a phone call.

At this point I decided to reach out to some companies that had helped me along the way. I had purchased many products from Strafe and felt if anyone could help Lawrence or Dustin would give me a hand. One thing you have to understand is with HKS not in business in the USA anymore my only option was contacting Japan. At this point I wanted to exhaust all other resources first. Strafe tried to reach out to the company for me every day, but he also started researching other possible options. Let me say when it comes to companies you rarely find individuals that really care about customer support. So now one week and a few days have gone by and no one has heard from the one that sold me this kit. I finally get a call that afternoon and was told what is the issue and what part are you missing. So I explained what happened and asked do you have the part. Well he proceeds to state he doesn't have the part but will make some calls. So I am thinking this guy is going to call me back later that day. Well I didn't get a call until days later. At this point my patience is starting to run thin and getting frustrated. So I give Lawrence at Strafe a call explain the conversation, and ask if he has any ideas. This is where the customer service really comes into play. Lawrence starts to call all of his HKS contacts and anyone else he thinks might help. This guy spends hours researching the forum threads looking for part numbers in hopes it might make the conversations with HKS Japan a little easier. Well I decided to reach out to another company that has been incredibly helpful with building my car. Both from an informational perspective and problem resolution. Danny at Slammered calls me the next day saying he has an idea. He is going to get the stock pulley and see if he can machine it. Since the part I am missing is the smooth pulley. Sorry if I forgot to mention that earlier. Well turns out there isn't enough material on the part to machine. So Danny being the bright individual he is decides to take it to a machine shop. Now you have to remember the person I have purchased the kit has yet to call me back. I started to figure at this point I would research alternative methods of getting this part, and deal with what I should be compensated for this later.

Well I find out today from Danny the machine shop can make the pulley. It should be done this weekend. My car has been down and in the shop for 3 weeks now. Because of Strafe and Slammered I will finally get my car back in time next weekend to visit Z1 for my tune. I personally want to thank both of these companies for the excellent service. If it wasn't for these guys I would still be sitting at my phone waiting for a call. It's truly sad in most cases companies are more concerned with profit rather than integrity. Based on the responses I have gotten from the original owner I can clearly tell I am not and will not be a priority. Thanks again for all the help guys, and for many of you that experienced poor customer service take this as a message that some companies out there still understand what customer service means. Oh yeah I will definitely be doing more business with Strafe and Slammered.

-Auditunr

 

Moved to vendor feedback.


It seems that YMMV with Strafe depending on what you order and your expectation of CS.

 

There are not that bad. Ppl get butt hurt over the littlest things. They are really friendly and fun to hang out w/. Order lots of things through them and had no problems. They even refer me to others contact to get the stuff i got on my G. I bet if you hung out w/ them things would be different. But i guess there is always going to be haters

 

Yeah, everyone who complains about poor customer service is a hater. Sure.

For the original poster, paragraphs are your friend. Or, well, apparently not.

As for Strafe, I would say they average about 2/3 satisfied customers, 1/3 dissatisfied. 2 out of 3 is good odds if you are going to Vegas. When there are plenty of other vendors with much better satisfaction rates, going with the 2 out of 3 satisfaction rate is a poor strategy.

Your mileage, of course, may vary.

 

It is unfortunate that so many negative threads have appeared about Strafe's customer service. But it is a welcome change of pace to see a positive review about them appear as well, you hear a lot about the bad and not enough about the good.

I've dealt with both Strafe and BAUSauto and received all my parts from them without any issue. Dustin and Eric have both helped me get products for myself and for my buddies.

Personal experiences will vary from individual to individual. It is unique to you. In the end, I got the stuff that I paid for and that is all that matters to me.

I may also add I'm not out to bash anyone or anything. If you didn't have a good experience, than that is unfortunate and I hope it all works out for you in the end. Many of us work too damn hard to just sit idly by while we don't receive the parts that we pay for with our money.

 

Sorry guys this is my first post on the forum. I was writing it while working on some

scripting, but paragraphs were definitely needed. I realized that after the fact as it's difficult

to read.

-Auditunr

 

they are not that bad, its just one of those things...i work here at microsoft and i only hear from the upset customers and not much from the happy ones if you catch my drift...i appreciate their business as i do everyone elses

 

Yoshi you are personal friends with them of course you've had great experiences with them; that is to be expected. Please don't chalk this up to "haters". Some people have had issues with their customer service. The threads in this subforum, both positive and negative, speak to each individual's personal experiences with them.

 

You calling incorrect parts, months of wait time, and getting used parts passed off as new little things??!

Since you continually like to ride your team founder/owner/vendor's d**k and want to call everyone who's had poor experiences with them haters, I'll call you a fanboy.

Stop defending these guys when they are clearly giving poor customer service to people. They've even admitted to giving poor customer service.

However, the disclaimers that they have pretty much give them an opportunity to blow every single customer off without notification nor justification.

Of course your friends give you great customer service...THEY'RE YOUR FRIENDS.

Stay out of these types of threads if you can't give an unbiased opinion. Everyone knows you're on the team and everyone knows you hang out with them at R&J on the regular.

Leave the opinions up to those that have legitimately done business with Strafe.

I would voice my opinion but I will get tattled on to numerous mods via PM. (OR be called one of the "usual posters"). So if anyone wants to know what one of my experiences were with Strafe(particularly Law), feel free to PM me.

As for Yoshi, keep your grammatically challenged, biased, fanboy opinions out of Strafe review threads because no one is taking you seriously.

/rant.

 

^ im printing that and hanging it on my fridge. TELL EM BOY

 

In a way it makes me that much more disgruntled to read that they (Strafe) helped this fellow out with something they didn't sell him, but the part they sold me that has imperfections in manufacturing and will cost me even more money to fix, they have no real concern over.

 

Ive order a pair of hood shocks/dampeners, a Nismo Poly front bumper by VIS, and a Nismo CF splitter by VIS from them. All were a great price, they had great customer service, quick shipping, and good quality products that fit. Maybe I just got lucky, but that's been my only experiences with them, so judging from that, I would deal with them again.

I think the problem alot of people have is that they order an aftermarket part and are expecting one thing, but dont fully understand the reality of the fit/form/function of aftermarket stuff. Very rarely in the aftermarket body world do you get something that you can take out of the box and just slap it on your car. Show cars and cars you see in pictures have alot more work and custom fabrication/modification done to them then people can imagine. And generally, you get what you pay for.

 

Whoa, horsey! I knew exactly what I was getting in to. $600 for the bumper and $600 for the prep and install from a reputable custom body shop. It still cracked under the paint. I wasn't expecting perfection. I was expecting that it wouldn't crack barely 4 months on the car. My body shop said they could prove it was defects in workmanship but I'd have to pay up front for them to strip the nose and repaint it after it gets repaired. Strafe didn't even offer to pay for the repair if the body shop could prove it was workmanship issues.

 

pfffff strafe automotive

took them 2 months to get me an exhaust that they said would ship within a week when i ordered it. after the 2 they shipped the exhaust without test pipes at my request (because they were "back order") It was a nightmare emailing them back and forth. they still owe me some test pipes which i dont expect to get or hear from, i had to order some from another website which had them delivered in 7 business days. They are quick to get the money and always have some sort of smart answer to your emails like its not there problem.

here is is what i emailed them after multiple times trying to get a tracking #
(I was seriously ready to take the lose)

"With all due respect what does that mean? Its been over a month and last week i was quoted that the exhaust was in stock and would ship asap. I dont know how long it takes you to wrap it up and ship it. I just want a straight answer, i not a person who likes to cause problems. I spend the money and have nothing to show for it. I feel like i have been stolden from, let me know if i have or not been stolden from so i can sleep at night. Im not making accusations but these are my feelings. Everything is about perception and my perception of your company is not a good one."


I'm sorry i had to post this seriously i not a person who tries to give anyone a problem, btw i have a business and if there is any kind of dissatisfaction I will correct it even if I have to take a lose.

i have read both good/bad reviews and i at least gave them a chance.

-luis

 

Thread backfire.