Sorry to hear about your experience especially how particular/meticulous you are.It does not look like a Class A job as you have pointed out an maybe worse if he tries to fix it. Best of luck on the future result and let us know what happens.
Super VXer
Sorry to hear about your experience especially how particular/meticulous you are.
Larry S.
99 Astral Silver VX (176k)
91 Porsche 928 S4 (73k)
Super VXer
I agree ^Originally Posted by lasturbo
Sorry to hear about your experience especially how particular/meticulous you are.
Some of the welds dont look the best. Lumpy and smoove wise.
But then again looking at them in person instead of a close up picture you can see the difference.
Tho the twin pipe on yours rick does look very good!
On the loudness When i had my old celicas muffer replaced with a straight through one it took about a week or 2 before it quietened down but when i want to get a wof (Warrant of fitness) it was too loud. Maybe a resonator a two in your new system might make it a bit quieter.
I remember one of Etlsports video when he got his exhaust done i think he said his got quieter after a few weeks. ( tho i maybe wrong )
Personaly if your not happy with the welding and quality of the job id take your vx somewhere else.
I remember paying double to fit a muffler on my old car at one shop than to get the cat removed on my vx at another shop.
But yea good luck.
Super VXer
That Sucks...
Calling the guy who did the work on your exhaust a "hack" may be a bit over complimentary...
I would call the manager of the shop tomorrow morning & explain the whole nine+ hour ordeal, then ask when it would be convenient for him to have a look at it for himself.
Let him know, in no uncertain terms, that you do not want the same tech who did this to have any part in the fix.
That is, IF you decide to give them a chance to make it right.
Super VXer
Holy Cow, that looks absolutely terrible. I would contact the muffler shop business owner and see if he would fix it for free due to the shoddiness of work and wait for his response. If the owner says he's not going to do anything about it, then "tactifully" suggest that you may go to the State Attorney General Office for further assistance.
Another avenue of a possible solution may be the public news media like a local TV Channel News Station. Sometimes they have a "Consumer Fraud or Consumer Complaint" division that will actually send a TV News Camera Crew out to the bad business and do a featured news story on the issue. In the past, these are extremely effective. No business owner wants to be shown on film and interviews in a negative manner plastered on the evening TV news. So, this may be another tool of leverage in addition to the State Attorney General Office and even more effective as State Government move really slow, and TV News teams move really fast with fast results as they don't want the story to get old and stale.
Thus, my attack plan would be in this order:
(1): Talk to the muffler shop owner nicely and kindly ask him to "re-do" the total installation free of charge. If he agrees, then take no further action. If he doesn't agree, then "suggest" that you may be forced to take further action to include the State Attorney General Office and more importantly, his shop will be featured in a TV News Story about the shoddy work. If the muffler shop owner still refuses to comply, then you MUST take further action in steps 2 & 3 below (give the business owner "one last chance" to redeem himself before you actually drive away).
(2): Contact State Attorney General Office. Expect very slow results.
(3): Contact the biggest and most powerful TV News Station in your area and pursue a featured news story regarding the issue. Expect swift and immediate results, because the TV news media has a 100% success rate when exposing rip-off businesses in the local community.
In any event, I would not just lay down and eat-it. I would take action in a precise step-by-step manner. Be very nice and tactful in your communication with the muffler shop owner. Yelling and screaming solves nothing. When one step fails, you must take it to the next step until the issue is finally resolved. The TV News Story should be the absolute last resort; but if the business owner forces your hand, then it will get the job re-done for free. Plus, you'll get your pretty Dragon featured on the evening TV news!!! Let us know how things work out.
Lastly, you must have not read the latest "muffler threads". The overall viewpoint of this forum have determined that the Magnaflow Brand IS NOT the best muffler for the VX. The very best muffler by far for the VX is the now famous "Dynomax - Super Turbo" muffler. Do a forum "search" for DYNOMAX SUPER TURBO and specifically look for a thread entitled "Muffler Help Needed", then prepare yourself to be impressed.
Last edited by Riff Raff : 07/06/2009 at 04:58 AM
Super VXer
^-1. My thoughts:
(1) Unless you've done a really good business with these guys in the past, I think it's highly unlikely that they're going to be willing to start over from scratch. Shops have fixed time estimates for every service job they perform, and most will bill you for that number of hours no matter how long it really takes (this plus parts mark-ups are where shops make a profit). If they took 9.75 hours to perform the initial install they have, at a minimum, already lost all profit on the job; but more than likely they're actually in the hole several hundred dollars at this point. I have a hard time believing that the shop will choose to lose hundreds more to deinstall/reinstall, especially if (as mentioned above) you don't do a large amount of business with them. I agree with RiffRaff that you should definitely ask, but I would expect them to argue that the exhaust system is functional and that redoing it just to make it pretty is unreasonable.
(2) There are thousands of shops in any given state, and many do mediocre to shoddy work and get away with it every day. Highly unlikely that the law will intervene unless there's credible evidence that this is a massive scam that's ripping off lots of people, since it costs the attorney's office a ton of money to investigate and prosecute this kind of crime. Plus it's not like you needed a new alternator or some other critical repair and they sent you away with a dangerous misinstallation; you chose to do a performance/appearance mod that most citizens could never afford, and your complaint basically circles around the notion that it wasn't pretty enough. Unfortunately, from the AG's perspective, I don't think there's a compelling argument to even look into it, much less ever see results (slow or otherwise).
(3) Same reasons as (2), but for ratings rather than $$$. If the story isn't big enough to engage a wide audience, they're just not going to be interested.
I feel for you and do think you're getting ripped off, but I think the reality is that you're going to have to pay for it one way or the other. Personally I'd rather incur additional cost to have it done right by another shop than to take it back and hope they don't screw something else up in the process of fixing it. It's a crappy situation, but unfortunately I think you're stuck.
Sorry dude.
Super VXer
Hmmm, now where did I put my big yellow phone book with the list of local "TV News Stations"??? Ah; yes, here it is-- K-RAT/TV.
Super VXer
Rickshaw...IF the guy decides to repair his mess make sure to be specific as to what you expect and get it in writing. Then tell him if he can not meet YOUR expectations that you will gladly accept a FULL reimbursment so that you can take it to someone that is actually qualified to do the quality work that you expect.
You should not have to pay anything extra for him to fix his mess!
Billy Oliver
15xIronman
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