Alpine - John Conchie

[UtahVXer]

The first part of last April I ordered a supercharger from Alpine. John Conchie assured me, at the time, that they would not charge my credit card until the product shipped. He lied. They immediately charged my account without shipping anything. I phoned repeatedly over a period of time, requesting that they refund the amount charged. Each time they said they would, but never did. Mr. Conchie finally admitted that they had spent my money, and didn’t have enough in their account to make a refund.
However, he promised to pay me $100 to compensate me for the interest I was paying on my credit card. Another lie. I eventually got tired of the constant B.S. and had to call the bank to dispute the unauthorized charge. I am still waiting for the $100. The last time I called, Mr. Conchie gave me some crap about having to check with the secretary to see why they hadn’t sent the money. I am not posting this to bellyache about a lousy hundred bucks; but because I think some of you might like to know what kind of a company you are dealing with.
Personally I would not buy their products now at any price. I prefer not to do business with any company that lies to and jerks their customers around like John Conchie. If they make a promise they should keep it. It is that simple. I also question the viability of an international corporation that doesn’t have a couple thousand dollars in their bank account.

[Tone]

Sorry to hear you have had all these problems with John over a $100. I have tried to be the go between on dealings with him here but he sometimes offers a better price than I can. I'm assuming you never got the kit which IS a big deal if your money has not been refunded. I am scheduled to talk with him tomorrow and will bring up your issue.

[BaM*BaM]

I saw this topic and felt compelled to respond. I am currently in a small town in the Altai Mts. in southern Siberia climbing a mountain, Mt. Belukha.http://extreme.k2.omsknet.ru/trekking/ALTAI99/NALETOV/5a.jpg But I felt that I needed to speak of my knowledge on John Cronchie.

I have two VX's and both are supercharged. I was one of the first to get a supercharger back in that very first shipment before Tone started selling them. That one has been 'super' since we first fired it up almost two years ago.

My second SC had a defective part, and John Cronchie represented me and my supercharger, with Magnuson (the parent company of the supercharger) wonderfully, and got me a complete replacement. He always answered my calls, and was always professional and pleasant to talk with.

This guy was very 'standup' with me at all times,... and I would do business again with him anytime.

[MachineVX]

Sounds to me that we should buy our superchargers through Tone, even if Alpine offers a better price at times. Not only is Tone one of our own, he's more than proved he's dedicated to the VX and that he's very knowledgable.

Now, if I only I could find someone in Chicago I trust to install the supercharger reasonably . . . any suggestions?

[VX crazy]

Tone travels to do installs........

[frankie100]

Originally posted by Tone
Sorry to hear you have had all these problems with John over a $100. I have tried to be the go between on dealings with him here but he sometimes offers a better price than I can. I'm assuming you never got the kit which IS a big deal if your money has not been refunded. I am scheduled to talk with him tomorrow and will bring up your issue.

Hi Tone, plase speack for me too:smack: I talk to John on the phone about getting the cruise control bracket and cable for my VX, this parts were not included in the SC kit. He asked me to email him with my home address, which I did. I emailed him the info several times with no response from him. I faxed the requested information twice and no response. I don't know if he ever received the information or he just don't care. :madr2:
I also advise VXrs to buy from your Co. Your support is exelent.

Thanks, Frankie
From the Pearl of the Caribbean

[Tone]

If you bought directly from Alpine and not through me, I have very little if any leverage - that is the benefit of buying through me but I'll bring it up. I also can provide details of the install and suggest additional parts that are not included in their instructions. They DO have a great product but sometimes lack in following up with customers - call them if yo have issues with them - John is old school and seems to deal better with phone calls than email 714-379-8066

[UtahVXer]

Originally posted by Tone
Sorry to hear you have had all these problems with John over a $100. I have tried to be the go between on dealings with him here but he sometimes offers a better price than I can. I'm assuming you never got the kit which IS a big deal if your money has not been refunded. I am scheduled to talk with him tomorrow and will bring up your issue. It is not the money I am complaining about, but all the lies and being jerked around for over four months. His company's reputation for integrity doesn't seem to be worth much to John. I canceled my original order and got my money back from the bank. I had no choice, since they refused to either send the product or give a refund. I waited patiently for a while, but eventually got fed up. I had ordered direct since the price at that time was better. But I agree if you want to buy one of these, by all means go thru Tone. I am sure his customer service will be well worth the extra cost (if any). The "Super Sale" is apparently an emergency attempt to get some needed cash flow for a failing (or at best, poorly managed) enterprise.

[jayfotos]

I had MANY bad experiences with John, mind you he is very polight and yeses you to death on the phone.
I'm in the same boat with Alpine, parts were missing and were promised to be delivered.....some were.....some were not, even after going over a list repeatedly on what items they needed to send me. I notified John he still needed to send the other parts, "yes, I will get right on that"......two months later......nothing.
Another hole in there instructions and general knowledge to the customer is THERE IS NO CRUISE CONTROL BRACKET! Others here will tell you they have been waiting two years for this part, I was told I should have it in 2-3 weeks(a few times).....it's been 3 months.

Again, he is very nice on the phone and seems to egnolage(sp?) your fustration, but after the phone hangs up...see ya, I got your money, screw off.

I can only give Alpine a HUGE thumbs down and I will never buy or reconmend anyone to buy anything from them.

Tone has a good track record, but I don't know why Alpine would treat him any different than any of us(other than he sells their product). I mean, if I bought the SC from Tone could he get all the parts that were broken or missing any faster if I went straight to Alpine? And what about the criuse control bracket, if I went to Tone and asked about that, what would happen?.....the part does not exsist.

To give an example, my SC cone was leaking oil and needed to be replaced. I sent photos to John to show him the problem. From that point John sent my photos to the manufacture of the SC cone and waited for a reply from them to see what could/had to be done. The company sent Alpine another part and Alpine sent it to me.....witch took 3-4 weeks. So, if I bought it from Tone would anything be different?

I along with some other board members here have had bad expirences with Alpine and these problems need to be addressed to better prepare anyone before someone goes out and spends a nice chunck of change on the Alpine SC.

[frankie100]

Thanks Tone. I did not buy my SC directly from Alpine. It happend that I went to the local Isuzu Shop for service and they had the SC for sale. After two hours the shop supervisor came out of the owners office and told me that the price for the SC was $2850.00...........WITH THE INSTALLATION INCLUDED AND SINCE THEY ARE DOING THE JOB THERE WAS NO PROBLEM WITH THE WARANTY.

Frankie

[jayfotos]

Originally posted by frankie100
Thanks Tone. I did not buy my SC directly from Alpine. It happend that I went to the local Isuzu Shop for service and they had the SC for sale. After two hours the shop supervisor came out of the owners office and told me that the price for the SC was $2850.00...........WITH THE INSTALLATION INCLUDED AND SINCE THEY ARE DOING THE JOB THERE WAS NO PROBLEM WITH THE WARANTY.

Frankie

Now that's a F'n good deal!;eekb;

[UtahVXer]

I agree with Jay. Calling Alpine on the telephone is a big waste of time. John always lies on the phone, says they are sending it out the next day, etc. etc. But never does what he says. That is why it would be better to go thru Tone. At least that way you will get a straight answer. If a part doesn't exist, I'm sure Tone will say so straight up, instead of jerking you around saying that it is in the mail, etc, etc. Personally I don't need an S/C that bad; so I prefer not to do business with them at all. I'll save my money for other things.

[Dallas4u]

Well, since you were serious (at one time) about a supercharger, and you did get your money back from the bank, would you consider buying an SC kit through Tone? I'm sure you're waiting to make sure the bank notifies you one way or another if it gets the money from Alpine, but you WERE in the market and DID pay for one already... I'm sure you still want one but don't want the pain-in-the-***** service you got last time, right?

Just wondering... when I bought mine I actually went through Featherfoot (John) who was selling the SC kits and the PV mufflers at the time. I didn't get bad service, although I had a little trouble when trying to get a replacement nose cone (which I never ended up putting on... keeping it for a rainy day I guess).

[Nazrat]

Originally posted by Dallas4u
Well, since you were serious (at one time) about a supercharger, and you did get your money back from the bank, would you consider buying an SC kit through Tone? I'm sure you're waiting to make sure the bank notifies you one way or another if it gets the money from Alpine, but you WERE in the market and DID pay for one already... I'm sure you still want one but don't want the pain-in-the-***** service you got last time, right?

Just wondering... when I bought mine I actually went through Featherfoot (John) who was selling the SC kits and the PV mufflers at the time. I didn't get bad service, although I had a little trouble when trying to get a replacement nose cone (which I never ended up putting on... keeping it for a rainy day I guess).

FYI, that replacement nose cone didn't make any difference. I feel better I guess that it's on, but it still makes that noise.

-Tad

[jayfotos]

I think it depends on the cone, the first one I had was a rattle box.....

http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/9012.jpg

Then I put the new one on, quite as a mouse.....

http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/901in1.jpg

[Nazrat]

Is there another source for these? I have two just like the one in your top pic.

-Tad

[Dallas4u]

I have, ahem... another like the one I gave you, Tad. They said they sent one with needle bearings as the original had ball bearings, but the one(s) they sent I believe still had ball bearings.

[Nazrat]

Needle bearings might be an improvement. Maybe those are the "Sealed Bearings" that I've read about on this forum. Both of the ones here have non-sealed ball bearings.

-Tad