Look don’t get me wrong I understand completely all that jizz with cars taking longer than expected... yes working with cars is like walking into the unknown.

I’ve had a combined 20 years experience in Car Audio and 10 years of those as professionals so I understand completely and most customer I dealt with would understand that doing things properly takes time and they appreciate the time we invest treating their cars like if it was our own.

My issue is not how long the car takes to get completed, my issue is being pushed for a month just to get my car booked in and broken promises 3 times... I think that would be a bit of an issue just to know when are they gonna start not when they’re gonna finish...

I think the real reason is the modified car industry has an exceptionaly high number of fuckhead customers. As a shop, there is only so much dumb questions and incessant nagging from dumb cunts that you can take before you are overwhelmed. Which stops you from actually doing the work you have infront of you.

There are very few people doing this line of work, and a whole lot of people wanting the work done. If you had to stop a job every 5 minutes to answer a stupid question like "should i put a 3port on when you tune this td04." You wouldnt get anything done and then you would be pushing customers back...

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Doing it for all the wagons out there

I know of people standing all day at Justins place taking up room and generally being a hindrance..... But Justin didn't complain he just gets on with what he has to do....

Choose a workshop that you're comfortable with....build up a rapport over time....don't keep skipping from one to another or playing one off against the other.....take advice from your chosen workshop.....if there is a good reason to get a job done elsewhere (eg your workshop is very busy or doesn't have the equipment needed) have the courtesy to inform them....all this leads to good relations and trust...and getting good advice....and getting the job done right.
This has been my experience with the same Subaru workshop I have used for the past 23 years (which is probably greater than the age of quite a few on this forum).

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No Subarus currently owned

As a workshop you should also be taking really good care of your "good customers". Who are these good customers? They are the ones who aren't asking dumb questions etc that you go on about. I spent about 10mins on the phone talking to Justin about my car, my goals with the car, future plans etc. Then he gave his advice on what parts to get, HOW LONG it will take to finish the work and he got his wife to send me a quote.

The very next day I placed a deposit (about 3k) on the parts and the parts were "ordered". I then made a booking for 3 weeks later. No dumb questions were asked, no incessant calls were made, no haggling on the prices that were quoted etc etc- just a good customer (in my eyes). 3 weeks later comes along, I arrive at BYE and find out that the intercooler wasnt there- whether it was not ordered or delay in shipping I'm not sure but fine, shit happens, I wasn't too pissed off, just disappointed that they didn't have the courtesy to call me.

I then rebook for 3 weeks later (they said it was a busy period), so I booked far ahead as not to clash with any events they said they had on etc. I once again let them know that the car is my daily driver and she said not a problem, if you drop the car off on a Tuesday morning you should get the car back by mid Thursday.

3 weeks later comes along, I drop the car off. Thursday comes along, no call by the workshop. I call, she says Justin will call me back ASAP. This never happened. Friday comes along, no call from the workshop, I call them again about the car- the "manager" says she will get Justin- Justin tells her he's busy tuning cars and can't talk to me.I go down there Friday at the end of the day to see what's happening, Justin says they haven't had time to finish installing the parts and they will probably get the car finished by next Tuesday. No apologies, no real explanation- nothing, he then just walks away- this is when I suspected he may have autism or something like that cos he had no basic manners.

Next week comes along, no calls or follow up about my car- I had to call again on Tuesday towards the end of the day- they then say the car should be ready Wednesday. Wednesday end of the day finally they made their first call to me telling me my car is ready.

I understand that shit happens- but at the very least keep me in the fucking loop about things! I told them many times that the car is my daily driver- at least have the courtesy to tell me so I can organise transport for myself. A simple phone call from someone would be enough! Not even an apology or a decent explanation was given. And to top it off, they charge me $1700k over their original quote without even warning me.

I think I will take my business elsewhere!

I know this sounds like a rant- it's not, it's just my experience dealing with BYE and I hope it helps someone make an informed decision on what they may expect when dealing with them.

Wow thats a bit rough.

I cant speak for every tuner but the 3 that i have used (sean - asg, justin bye, matt - throttlecrappy) have all had ups and downs, unfortuantly sometimes the customer relations are lacking. Maybe its like you say, need a little bit of autism/savont to be able to read the numbers, but probs at the expense of human skills.

I always found sean to be ok. But dealing with asg was never smooth.

I havent had any probs with bye. When justin tuned the car, he even invited me down to the dyno on the day to watch. It went well, only thing was the time frame. But that wasnt even a issue for me as the car is a project car, not one i rely on for daily commutes. And it was explained upfront that it would be done when it could be done. They dont have a 4wd dyno, so it is logistically harder. I think they basically wait until they can get some time on one. And that time needs to line up between all the other jobs. It was hard to get in contact with him. Would always get the front desk intercept. But i think thats needed. It keeps the tuner on focus and not being distracted. I wouldnt like it if someone was in the middle of concentrating on tuning my car, and got interupted 5 times to answer customer enquireys. When you break concentrating thats when mistakes happen.

Matt TH blew up my engine and that was that. No sorrys no comp. Just fuckoffski.

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Doing it for all the wagons out there

When Justin tuned my little rwd corolla I happened to be working away. I wanted a video of the dyno run and Justin said if my brother comes down he can get a video for me.
As Justin was tuning my car late at night he said he'll keep me in the loop. I was still awake as it just passed 12am Justin texted me each time on the progress as he tuned. I thought that was damn awesome. One thing about Justin I like is if you're there he'll actually explain what goes on even tho you don't ask him.

I was there even when Daz had his sti tuned and that's why at the time I said I'll get Justin to tune my car just the way he went on about his tuning and explaining everything.

If Justin opted for an awd dyno that would solve most of these issues on waiting for a dyno for you awd guys.

Regardless of having a really good experience using Justin it does kind of suck reading the negative experiences some of you blokes had. I'm sure there is a way around it and something can be resolved in the near future as I mentioned awd dyno in house.

Mines off to see Justin before racewars cant wait to see wht it will do with 30psi up its bum

This is not a rant but rather wanted to know everyone’s opinion on this.

So Long Story Short, I bought en engine built from someone who’s gone on a different direction and got a workshop to do the engine swap and got Justin to do the Tune.

So I have been given an estimate Engine Swap $1000 including fluids etc and $500-$800 touch up tune as the tuning was previously done by ASG when it was still on EJ205 with a different Turbo.

Comes the day for payment, what I ended up spending $1800 for the Engine Swap and $1600 for the tune (there was issue with injectors so they spent a bit of time calling someone to clean up the injector and do spray test etc).

Now even though I paid double than what is quoted I am fine with all that, again as I said before working on cars is like walking into an unknown and yes it’s only fair when they spent more time than anticipated they would have to be paid for their time just like anything.

So now is the second time I need to get this done and what I am doing is the following:
Turbo Swap VF35 to VF34
Side Feed to Top Feed Conversion – Std 440cc Yellow Injector to Injector Dynamic ID1050x
Aeroflow Top Feed Rail
Aeromotive Fuel Pressure Regulator
Deatschwerk Modular Surge Tank 2.5L with Twin DW250IL Pump
Tuning

So with the past experience in paying double more than what I have been told, I’ve asked Justin if I can get a rough estimate and explain to him that I understand completely that it is rough estimate and will end up costing more. I also ask him how long he would need the car for – again I understand if 1 week becomes 2 weeks etc and completely fine with that.

But his response on both was – It’s hard to say however much it cost and however long it takes.

I personally find that a bit unreasonable and I think as a customer I have been patient and understanding to paying double and having the car twice longer than expected Without a single word of complaint, just a smile and thank you when I pick up the car. But at least give an estimate so I can be prepared from both financial and transport arrangements.

For example and this is just example not in any way a reflection of the real figure or time, if they estimate the bills to be around $1500 and it becomes $2000 or $2500 I am fine with that, hey that’s the price you pay for modifying cars no problem, but if it becomes $4000 or $5000 then of course this would be a problem, might not be to some people but sure as hell will be for majority of customers. Same with the Time Frame if they say 1 week and it becomes 2 or 3 weeks sure fine I can live with that but if it becomes 1 or 2 month then there is obviously an issue.


What do you guys think? Am I expecting too much is that how the whole industry operates? Is it really that difficult and unknown to quote the jobs above?

I have nothing but respect for all the workshops I've dealt with, it's no easy task and they are brilliant at what they do but I think equally as a customer it is quite important for us to get an estimate so that we can make an informed decision based on our finance and transport arrangements.

It sounds like a classic case of someone gets a good rep and then he is just absolutely snowballed under with to much work. Should he be handling the amount of jobs he takes on better certainly sounds so. I recommended a mate to Justin who had a ls1, the workmanship was spot on, the time it took blew out a bit as well.