Dr. Vanos

[imola red zhp]

Seth,
Great letter and excellent result

sent from dennis' personal electronic device

[aurelius]

Surprised to see a full refund. Then again, you guys unwittingly served as final R&D subjects re their "slightly modified" solenoid cleaning process.

I agree they handled it well and it's good to see they have a handle on what went wrong.

I would use them, tho as DW pointed out, I'd have them rebuild my actual Vanos unit. I suppose I'd have to score the outer casing to know for sure I got the same one back.

[UdubBadger]

I think they're trust worthy enough to take their word.


- Goin' H.A.M. Mobile

[KevinC]

Here's what I just fired off to the good doctor....

Chris,

I just dropped off one of the two return units, not sure if it's the core or the original (bad) rebuild you sent. I was given both back in their shipping boxes, but one of the two, despite being put back in its plastic bag (which apparently has a hole in it someplace), leaked a ton of oil into the box and destroyed the box. Also apparently no prepaid return label was sent with the replacement. I looked hard but don't have another box on hand that I can ship the 2nd one back in, so please send me another box with prepaid return label, and I'll turn it around right away.

This has been a horrible experience. I can forgive a bad unit - it's going to happen from time to time with any product. But you could have been a hero and greatly minimized my inconvenience by promptly overnighting a replacement on Thursday (I first spoke to you before noon (my time) that day and gave you the shop's number.) I'd have had my car back last Friday. Instead a replacement didn't arrive until Wednesday, leaving me without my car for 5 additional days. I returned my $40/day rental car after one day or I'd have had an additional sizable expense for that. The car was running horribly according to the shop, so driving it while waiting for the replacement wasn't practical, I just made do without. My shop was very accommodating and only charged me half the labor for the re-do, but I'm still out that money as well. Maybe you didn't have another unit available immediately? I don't know, because you didn't communicate with me again. If that were the case I should have been told, as well as when to expect a new unit to arrive at the shop. Is any of that unreasonable or too much to expect? I don't think so.

I'll leave it to you to decide what a reasonable credit is given the circumstances. Even with a full credit I won't break even between out-of-pocket expense and loss of use, but it would go a long ways towards making me feel better about the whole matter.

Regards,
<yada yada yada>

We'll see what comes back. Stay tuned.

[UdubBadger]

Keep us updated


- Goin' H.A.M. Mobile

[Hornung418]

So I guess thats probably more than expected on an entire refund (and apology) which makes me think they obviously know they messed up. Sounds like their QC is going to jump up a few notches from now on regarding this matter so in my honest opinion, I'd probably try them again in a few years when it's time to do the vanos again.

VANOS seals are a one time deal. No need to do it again.

[UdubBadger]

LOL

my bad, I thought they needed to get replaced every 60k-ish

[KevinC]

Full refund for me too. Apology reply included a blurb about them "receiving a small batch of cores that didn't have the solenoids properly cleaned". Which of course is something we'd ASSume is part of THEIR rebuilding job. My guess: they've gotten busy, and hired some Spicoli-like dude, who convinced them to hire him with his "my father is a television repairman, he has this ULTIMATE set of tools! I can fix it!!" line of BS. Several disastrous customer experiences later, Spicoli is once again unemployed, sitting in a '64 Microbus parked at Bolsa Chica state beach, smoking massive quantities of dizzy broccoli, and banging himself in the head with his Van's checkerboard slip-on, proclaiming "That was my skull! I'm SO wasted!!" Meanwhile, all is right again in the world of VANOS rebuilds.

[UdubBadger]

Good to hear Kev.


- Goin' H.A.M. Mobile

[Milano]

Hate to bring an old thread back to life.... but I just bought one of these from Dr. Vanos and I'm a bit worried mine won't be up to par given the horror stories from Seth and Kevin.

For us novices, what kinds of things should I be looking for when installing this thing to avoid future problems?