Upgrade to enjoy this feature!
Vital MX fantasy is free to play, but paid users have great benefits. Paid member benefits:
- View and download rider stats
- Pick trends
- Create a private league
- And more!
Only $10 for all 2024 SX, MX, and SMX series (regularly $30).
Not everyone who is good at building engines is also good at dealing with customers. Usually they aren't, at least in my experience.
With as busy as it sounds like he is, it'd probably make a lot of sense to start hiring some folks. Doesn't sound like he can keep up with the demand, and more instances like this could cause the demand to drop.
The Shop
DH does both good work and some real shitty work, but the constant is extreme poor communication skill and zero customer service.
Just when I feel like He is being piled on He posts and reminds everyone what the problem is.
Go kick rocks
You’ve had every opportunity to “right the ship” and just say you’ve made mistakes and are doing what you can to make them right.
Sure you would still have some people that are pissed, but you would have saved a lot of face....
Instead you double down and go on the defensive.
I am sure your engines are good, but no ones engines are good enough to treat people, let alone customers, the way that you do.
Originally I was asked if we could fix only the leaking drain bolt. And that it would arrive completely bare - because I had said I was really busy and if that’s all he wanted fixed - I would need to split the cases to do that and I was too backlogged to do so in a short time manner. I frankly was trying to not get the job.
It also showed up with “the full engine parts” scattered about. Because Of this - it didn’t click with me this was the drain bolt repair conversation motor.
I finally did find the envelop - amongst the packing after he contacted me about a month after it had arrived to see if it arrived.
I can literally spend all day on the phone if I choose to
Or email
Or doing administrative shit
So sometime I answer sometime I don’t. I’m not getting rich doing this - and while I certainly would love to - even if we charged more it would just go to better process control and more overhead. Something I don’t feel this industry will support for much longer with e bikes coming and the already massive decline in those that ride over the last 10 years.
People seem to forget that jgr had a consumer division that failed miserably. Despite the best of everything in every regard they couldn’t survive. It’s a tough business to be done at the level that “makes sense” to be done right.
Without subsidy the jgr consumer division would have never existed - and it was without a doubt one of the most expensive aftermarket out there. Still not enough to pay the bills.
PC looses money with their repair shop. Mtich does it because he can - and feels people deserve a place to get shit fixed. Good on him for doing so - lucking the repair side has the mod side and machining side that comes with the mod side to lean on for things they need. But if pc only did repair - they wouldn’t be around. You have to charge more than the market can tolerate for proper quality and customer relations.
I feel the same way - people deserve to get shit fixed but 90 percent of the general repair work I do looses money.
I don’t take on a lot of general repair work for that reason. In this instance Travis seemed nice and had told me he was fucked by 2 other shops before me. I haven’t and won’t bash them - as it’s clear why this project is stalled.
It really needs some bearing pockets redone (or new cases) and some other areas sorted out. The repair of the drain plug previously looked like decent work - so fixing it this time appears to be a pretty good operation where the drain plug is milled out and a slug that is machined with threads pre tapped will get welded in
I use a guy for that - as he is the best welder and fabricator in about a 100 mile radius and happens to be within 5 miles of me - but he is really busy too because of that skill set. This sort of work to be done right by a guy like that is time extensive and while he goes over kill a lot it’s always done to perfection. However with the loose transmission bearing pockets, the weld heat and preheat requirements is Also an issue. So the cases will need to checked after to make sure they will still seal with one another (easy enough to lap) and bearings and all that are right enough (already some too loose). On top of this the pockets need to line up with the other side of the case - and that is always a massive pain when redoing them.
I could blast a host of individuals and won’t. Every business in this industry gets fucked more than they fuck.
Let’s be real - how exactly have I gained from travis? I certainly have no money gain
I have no need for these parts or engine
I have not sold them - it cost me money to have a place to store them
It has now cost a tremendous headache here - and all for literally 0 dollars on a job where I’m asked to help solve a problem for someone? I should have just said no... I don’t want to do it - and I certainly will in the future
But then you get dill holes who bash you for not taking on their work “not having time for me but having time for so and so”
Well - it’s the business world. I have to pay my bills and frankly they aren’t that’s big- i drive an 82 truck, have no nice shit, and work in the fucking swamp we call Texas right now 100 degree heat and super humid because ac is expensive and I don’t have it
I really - really - don’t have to do that for someone who at the end of the day I didn’t solicit for work. Ask for work, advertise for work etc, they called me to solve their problem. Do I enjoy it when things go well as we help people achieve their goals. Yep
So I want success and quick turn around and more
Money ? Yep
But unlike the majority of this industry - I haven’t sold my soul to get rich. So everyone keep buying pipes you have no data on, and buying parts you haven’t truly tested back and forth, keep buying “suspension” mods that often are within clickable rsnge from stock...etc and feel happy about it. At the end of the day - 90 percent of it is total crap.
I laughed when the vital Rmz250 review said the pc bike with a piston and pipe was close to the jgr stage2 bike they rode. I can say with certainty they aren’t even close. But how many people will Now opt out of jgr combo and into a piston and pipe - thinking, well they said it’s close why spend 5gs
The whole industry is a marketing, customer service expertly oiled and run circus.
You couldn’t pay me to ride a bike with some of the aftermarket products pushed by all these sites. But these sites survive off them.
I’ve used a lot of Tuners over the years and have never seen this kind of behavior, and I’ve had some way bigger names that have way more titles and big named riders to their name. Not sure how old Derrick is, but he comes across as a cocky guy for sure ! Plenty of good tuners with more reputable names out there, no need to gamble !
Pit Row
"Look in the mirror, that's your competition"
Maybe stick to what you do know.
I bend over backwards time and time again to help people and quite honestly I’m tired of it.
I pull all nighters so kids can go racing the next day
I help tons of people trackside for free when needed
We give local kids parts help and support on labor
I even help the competition. St js7 I remapped curren Thurman’s ecu for him and munn racing for no charge - no love - I don’t have anything to do with his engines or builder - and fixed the problem for him/his builder
I did the same for josh at ebr the same week on another ecu for one of their guys when joshs lap top broke.
A couple years back I fixed jace Kesslers husky 85 for free at js7 so he could race.
we routinely give free riding help and lessons when I can get to the track.
I drove 12 hours round trip so Zane could get a race bike this year
We support our customers to a level that very very few shops do - and it’s one of the many reasons I’m very busy.
I mean really? Taking a thread on vital as a reflection of literally thousands of customers - most of which who come back? I literally could not survive in this industry if we did poor work and treated people poorly
Maybe you should actually meet me - spend a day at the shop - before you pass judgment
It’s a tough industry and dealing with people can really suck. I think most can agree on that. But you have to realize the picture that has been painted.
We’ve seen the emails, and we’ve seen your demeanor with your holier-than-thou attitude.
You say stick to what I know, that’s fair enough. I know customer service. It’s how I make my living and provide for my family. I’m pretty good at it and if I wasn’t I’d be out on the street.
With that being said, the fact you openly told a presumed client, via Instagram post, that you were too busy to answer the phone shows that you seriously need to work on your client relations.
You clearly had enough time to post to insta, as well as reply to the person whom you didn’t pick up the phone for.....
Couple that with the multiple people on here whom have said they got shafted for months on end ain’t a fluke. Put all the details to the side, everyone on here that has had issues with you stems from lack of communication. Someone could send you and engine wrapped in dog shit, but that doesn’t explain not hearing a single thing for 2-3 months at a time.
I wish you the best of luck, and truly hope you get this shit figured out.
Your just mad I didn’t build your engine
Go kick rocks
If you are going to tell someone off, at least do it with correct grammar. Otherwise it is not effective.
For example. People want answers. Derek posts a long and detailed response, and gets this...
If you're not contributing something worthwhile to the thread, or too lazy to read what the guy has to say, maybe it's time to find somewhere else to post. Stuff like that irritates me.
And, his next comments deriding 'site's', plus the parts and modification industry in general?
Post a reply to: Derek Harris – good/bad reviews