Let’s start this off by saying that I am not always the most reasonable person, but I have never before expressed publicly my disappointment or problems with any company/vendor on this forum. I am at the point now, that I have to express my disappointment with Mike at 5 Star... not for his tunes mind you... they are awesome and we bought our tuner through Freedom Motorsports and had no issues.
The problem came when we purchased a SW exhaust and looked into people to install it. We found that Mike was willing to install it for less than a local company wanted to charge us, plus he said he had installed exhausts on other Raptors before... Sounds great; however he is three hours away and is booked... Joe calls and Mike is able to work out where he can get us installed between jobs by keeping the truck 2 weekends. (The second weekend being only 10 days before Christmas)... We are excited that he is able to fit us in.
We drop our truck off on a Friday (six hour round trip), and no one is there to meet us.... they call us Saturday for the means to get into the truck... all is well so far.
The following Friday, Joe calls to tell them that whenever they are finished on Sunday we will come get it. We were hoping that it would be done early, before Sunday night. Mike's business partner informs Joe that he was told by Mike that he could keep the truck until Monday... Joe tells him that that doesn’t work for us, we need it Sunday night. He says he’ll do what he can and either Mike or he will call Sunday with an update.
Sunday afternoon (3 pm), Joe calls and talks to Mike who says that they broke the dip stick tube and would need to wait until they can get a replacement from the dealership. We are under a time crunch and Joe asks if Mike could switch the part from his own truck... he laughs... and then insures us that the part will be available at the Ford dealer the next day and we can get our truck Monday night. (In all fairness, we knew that it would have been a giant production to take the part from Mike’s truck, but his flippant attitude about the whole thing was aggravating plus I wasn’t helping the situation). Joe asked Mike to call Monday and let him know when he can pick up the truck.
Monday afternoon, Joe calls and cannot get in touch with Mike. He gets a hold of the business partner and finds out that the dealer does not have the part and that when they get it in the next day it will be late when they have the truck done (They have had the truck for 10 full days at this point). He leaves a couple messages for Mike, with no response.
Tuesday, again Joe has to call Mike and gets no response. You would think that a responsible person who broke a part on your truck or stated that your truck would be done on a certain date would contact you? Joe again talks to the business partner who says that he got the replacement for the broken part, will finish the truck and will meet us half way the next night (Wednesday). This is unacceptable for us. Joe needs to do some work to the truck before Christmas/ Snoball pre-run... which Mike knew. At this point, if we pick up our truck on a Wednesday, there would be no time to do what needs done. We need to leave for Pittsburgh early Friday morning, Joe works 12 hour days and Thursday night we will be loading up to leave. Tuesday late afternoon, he tries Mike again and doesn't get a response. We need our truck back for the Snoball pre-run mods (new tires, rear bumper, loading snoball required gear).
Joe gets home from work about 7:00 pm and Mike finally calls shortly after (haven’t heard from him since Sunday afternoon). Mike spends the whole time talking over Joe and blaming the situation on just about everyone and everything he can. He blames his business partner, to which Joe told him that the business partner was the only one being forthcoming and responsive in this situation. He says the truck was full of mud… ok, fair enough as Joe didn't have a chance to clean out the engine bay after Havoc. The undercarriage had been sprayed pretty good 3 times and the truck was otherwise clean inside and out. He says that it took hours to get the skid plates off, Joe told him before this whole mess that we had aftermarket skids. He says it’s not his fault that the truck has been in water up over the engine…Wait What? Our truck has never been in deep water. There were puddles at Havoc, but I cannot speculate on his thought process behind that comment. Joe was very upfront about the fact that we off road our truck, to which Mike of course responded, no problem, we've done other Raptors, ect…
Once he’s done blaming everything, Joe brings up a solution to help compromise for the situation. Mike gets super incredulous over this and keeps saying things like, “I can’t believe you are trying to screw me, I guess I’ll make no money on this deal then, How can you make such a big deal over such a small amount of money” etc… Yes Mike, How could you make such a big deal over such a small amount of money? In no way did Mike offer any way to help remedy the situation other than to say that the truck will be done, and we’ll call you. But for the past few days the tuck was supposed to be done and he was supposed to call. At least Mike’s business partner had offered to drive the truck and meet us half way, which was considerate.
At this point Tuesday night, Mike doesn’t think it will be done until the next day, but Joe asks for a phone call at 11 pm for a status. 10:00 pm Mike calls back, the truck is done and they will meet us half way. We drive the 1.5 hours, pick up the truck at midnight with very little fanfare.
Overall, I cannot recommend Mike at 5Star to do work on your tuck. His tunes might be great, but we found his service/attitude severely lacking. We worked the issue out, but the entire situation could have been avoided by forthcoming communication and consideration for the tuck owner.
Like I said in the beginning, I may not be the most reasonable person but Joe on the other hand is very level headed and understanding. It would have only taken a proactive phone call on Mike’s part about the broken part and he would have understood. Same with not really being able to fit us in between his other jobs, even after we had already dropped it off, all he had to say was, “hey can’t do it, see me after the New Year”. It would have sucked driving another 6 hours, but Joe would have understood and we would have had our truck the last 11 days. But that did not happen.
The problem came when we purchased a SW exhaust and looked into people to install it. We found that Mike was willing to install it for less than a local company wanted to charge us, plus he said he had installed exhausts on other Raptors before... Sounds great; however he is three hours away and is booked... Joe calls and Mike is able to work out where he can get us installed between jobs by keeping the truck 2 weekends. (The second weekend being only 10 days before Christmas)... We are excited that he is able to fit us in.
We drop our truck off on a Friday (six hour round trip), and no one is there to meet us.... they call us Saturday for the means to get into the truck... all is well so far.
The following Friday, Joe calls to tell them that whenever they are finished on Sunday we will come get it. We were hoping that it would be done early, before Sunday night. Mike's business partner informs Joe that he was told by Mike that he could keep the truck until Monday... Joe tells him that that doesn’t work for us, we need it Sunday night. He says he’ll do what he can and either Mike or he will call Sunday with an update.
Sunday afternoon (3 pm), Joe calls and talks to Mike who says that they broke the dip stick tube and would need to wait until they can get a replacement from the dealership. We are under a time crunch and Joe asks if Mike could switch the part from his own truck... he laughs... and then insures us that the part will be available at the Ford dealer the next day and we can get our truck Monday night. (In all fairness, we knew that it would have been a giant production to take the part from Mike’s truck, but his flippant attitude about the whole thing was aggravating plus I wasn’t helping the situation). Joe asked Mike to call Monday and let him know when he can pick up the truck.
Monday afternoon, Joe calls and cannot get in touch with Mike. He gets a hold of the business partner and finds out that the dealer does not have the part and that when they get it in the next day it will be late when they have the truck done (They have had the truck for 10 full days at this point). He leaves a couple messages for Mike, with no response.
Tuesday, again Joe has to call Mike and gets no response. You would think that a responsible person who broke a part on your truck or stated that your truck would be done on a certain date would contact you? Joe again talks to the business partner who says that he got the replacement for the broken part, will finish the truck and will meet us half way the next night (Wednesday). This is unacceptable for us. Joe needs to do some work to the truck before Christmas/ Snoball pre-run... which Mike knew. At this point, if we pick up our truck on a Wednesday, there would be no time to do what needs done. We need to leave for Pittsburgh early Friday morning, Joe works 12 hour days and Thursday night we will be loading up to leave. Tuesday late afternoon, he tries Mike again and doesn't get a response. We need our truck back for the Snoball pre-run mods (new tires, rear bumper, loading snoball required gear).
Joe gets home from work about 7:00 pm and Mike finally calls shortly after (haven’t heard from him since Sunday afternoon). Mike spends the whole time talking over Joe and blaming the situation on just about everyone and everything he can. He blames his business partner, to which Joe told him that the business partner was the only one being forthcoming and responsive in this situation. He says the truck was full of mud… ok, fair enough as Joe didn't have a chance to clean out the engine bay after Havoc. The undercarriage had been sprayed pretty good 3 times and the truck was otherwise clean inside and out. He says that it took hours to get the skid plates off, Joe told him before this whole mess that we had aftermarket skids. He says it’s not his fault that the truck has been in water up over the engine…Wait What? Our truck has never been in deep water. There were puddles at Havoc, but I cannot speculate on his thought process behind that comment. Joe was very upfront about the fact that we off road our truck, to which Mike of course responded, no problem, we've done other Raptors, ect…
Once he’s done blaming everything, Joe brings up a solution to help compromise for the situation. Mike gets super incredulous over this and keeps saying things like, “I can’t believe you are trying to screw me, I guess I’ll make no money on this deal then, How can you make such a big deal over such a small amount of money” etc… Yes Mike, How could you make such a big deal over such a small amount of money? In no way did Mike offer any way to help remedy the situation other than to say that the truck will be done, and we’ll call you. But for the past few days the tuck was supposed to be done and he was supposed to call. At least Mike’s business partner had offered to drive the truck and meet us half way, which was considerate.
At this point Tuesday night, Mike doesn’t think it will be done until the next day, but Joe asks for a phone call at 11 pm for a status. 10:00 pm Mike calls back, the truck is done and they will meet us half way. We drive the 1.5 hours, pick up the truck at midnight with very little fanfare.
Overall, I cannot recommend Mike at 5Star to do work on your tuck. His tunes might be great, but we found his service/attitude severely lacking. We worked the issue out, but the entire situation could have been avoided by forthcoming communication and consideration for the tuck owner.
Like I said in the beginning, I may not be the most reasonable person but Joe on the other hand is very level headed and understanding. It would have only taken a proactive phone call on Mike’s part about the broken part and he would have understood. Same with not really being able to fit us in between his other jobs, even after we had already dropped it off, all he had to say was, “hey can’t do it, see me after the New Year”. It would have sucked driving another 6 hours, but Joe would have understood and we would have had our truck the last 11 days. But that did not happen.
