RRRacing

iTrader: (1)

Hi Cleon, we explained to you on a few occasions that the reason your order was delayed was that you ordered an axle back setup... yours was the first axleback setup we made, all others were complete systems. We have your system completed but we needed a local GSF customer to come in so that we can verify fitment to make sure there are no unforeseen issues.

Most recently you expected an update on Friday June 7th. We did not get confirmation on the 7th from our GSF customer, so we failed to contact you, and we are sorry for that.

That said, for the record, you messaged us regarding the status of your order on Monday 2:14pm EST. We responded to you 2:19pm, and we once again followed up that evening. I am sorry that we didn’t proactively update you on Friday, but we always respond promptly to FB messages, email, and our phone line.

Its a tough situation now keeping up with orders because we are getting many orders but due to COVID the supply chain is disrupted leading to unanticipated delays.

So, in any case, we now have an axle-back Valvetronic Bazooka system in stock now. We will soon test fit it if anyone is interested... or better yet if there are any local GSFs interested please let us know, the system is ready for install!

Rafi

designo

iTrader: (6)

Did you pay them in advance?
And if so, were you told in advance that you were financing the R&D of this axle-back system?

ac253189

Sorry to hear that you had a delay on your order, it can be frustrating especially when you're anticipating the new and improved sound. I think the COVID stuff has really delayed items that have to be hand made - waiting for supplies, worker restrictions, ect. I've ordered multiple items from RR-Racing on separate occasions and have not had any issues. Personally, I'd give a little added patience given the global circumstances affecting us all and give them the benefit of the doubt. Stay strong Lexus community!

1A1

5 weeks? That really isn't a long time for a custom made exhaust.

Steve

kbot415

Rafi,
I am happy to have a civil and constructive conversation with you offline. Feel free to give me a call.
I didn't come on this forum with the sole intention of bashing your organization. Members here have been extremely helpful and invaluable to me. In fact, glm318 above even texted me with photos of his bazooka axelback installation to help me out!

In any case, the tone of an organization is set by its leaders and I truly wish for you to look into my matter, really look into the facts before you label me an unreasonable customer. I agree, your organization responded very quickly to me yesterday after my message pleading for someone to get back to me or I'd have to cancel my order. But how proactive and responsive was RR-Racing the prior 5 weeks (my order was placed on 5/4)? Are you willing to own this?

By Simon's own admission, my exhaust was ready from PPE by week 3, but just sat around because it was unclear who would perform fitment testing, PPE or RR-Racing. Did anyone think to call or message me?
In fact, my very first message to RR-Racing occurred at about week 3 of waiting to inquire about my order's status. I received a very generic email response stating that there is a 2-3 week lead time and to wait patiently. If someone had actually taken the time to really look into my order, do you think it could be possible that someone would've noticed that the exhaust was ready to go and awaiting fitment testing?

When Simon finally called me on 5/30, to explain the delay, I agreed to let RR-racing keep the exhaust to ensure fitment. He stated that it would only take another week. I had already waited 4 weeks at that point, so I agreed to wait another, but only based on ONE condition... that I would be notified if there were any delays.
Which brings us to yesterday, 6/8, a full 9 days after my discussion with Simon and no call or update from RR-Racing.

In the end, you have a very unhappy customer who at the end of 5 weeks, was still needlessly waiting for his product. I'm inviting you, Rafi, to look into the facts of this case so that RR-Racing can learn what went wrong. The tone of an organization starts at the top, and if your first response is to come out guns blazing and blame the customer, then what does this say about RR-Racing? Are you willing to own this?

Is anyone at RR-Racing empowered to go above and beyond to make things right for the customer? At Amazon, everyone from the tippy top (Jeff Bezos) to the lowliest customer service agent is empowered with the authority to make things right for the customer. What's the structure there? Did anyone at RR-Racing ever reach out to me to ask me "what can I do to make things right?"

Rafi, have you ever tried to call the telephone number listed on your own website? Does someone ever answer, or does it go straight to voicemail?
You have a lovely "Live Chat" feature on the RR-Racing website. Have you ever clicked it to see what happens? I'll tell you, it always re-directs the customer to send an email instead.

I'm hoping that these are constructive criticisms that can help your organization grow, because you seem to have a lovely product. But I'll never know...

RRRacing

iTrader: (1)

We work our *** off to Do our best to respond to calls, facebook, instagram, chats, email, etc. We are a tiny company So Amazon comparisons aren’t very relevant. I think if Jeff Bezos saw what we do, he would laugh at us as we bust out ***** catering to a tiny market of a few thousand GSFs, making products with relatively small profit margin, lol!




I hope you find what you’re looking for and get it quickly... if it’s valvetronic setup you likely won’t get it anytime soon, it’ll be foreign made, and you’ll pay a lot more for it.

Rafi

kbot415

I can see I'm beating a dead horse on this matter, so I'll make this my last post and let this die.

Rafi,
It's ok, I'm not asking for anything from you at this point, you don't have to be so defensive. You may find this hard to believe, but I'm actually trying to help RR-Racing out by pointing out some serious deficiencies in your workflow.
Your organization is one of the few that focuses on Lexus owners, and I'm sure everyone is grateful for that. By your own definition, you are a tiny company. A company that I and fellow Lexus owners would like to see grow and provide more products. A great way to grow without a lot of capital investment is to focus on your customer.

If you know that the telephone number on your website is never answered and goes straight to voicemail, why list it? If you do list it, at least make it clear on the site and your outgoing message that it will go straight to voicemail, but that all calls will be answered in X amount of time. Then stick to that promise!
If you have a Live Chat function on your website that isn't active and automatically re-directs to email, why have one? It'll only create frustration for your customer.
Your Facebook Messenger seems to be more responsive, so re-direct people to that instead!

Last of all, have everyone on your team make a commitment to listen to the customer and make good on their promise. At week 3, my order was sitting around for a week waiting for fitment, and nobody noticed. I can understand if it somehow slipped through the cracks, but when I specifically asked for an update at that time, the person clearly didn't really check on it's status and blew me off. That's a problem. And that's a problem that costs nothing on your organization's part to fix! But it does mean that someone has to go in and troubleshoot on how things went awry and have an uncomfortable conversation with staff as to why a customer was blown off. Maybe you need new software to keep track of pending orders and their status?

You clearly did not understand my Amazon reference, so let me clarify. From the one-woman cupcake baking operation, to the largest company in the world, Amazon... any organization can decide to make customer service its priority. Good customer service does not mean giving free ***** away. It means really listening to their customer, trying to understand their concerns and needs, and if something goes wrong, doing your best to make things right. Taken a step further, it then means going back to figure out why things went wrong and then doing your best to fix it so that it never goes wrong again. Any company, big or small can do these things with minimal expense.

So how does this grow your bottom line? We Lexus owners are your dream customers!! We love our cars and have plenty of disposable income!
If I had loved my experience with RR-Racing, don't you think that I would come back for a mid-pipe, some headers, and eventually, your supercharger?
If I am not happy with my experience, I will gladly wait and pay more for a foreign product, on the condition that I am treated well.

You can either choose to focus on peddling your wares, or to focus on your customer experience.
In either case, you've done more damage to your image than I ever could, as your posts show where your priorities lie.

RRRacing

iTrader: (1)

Our priorities are with our customers, literally every single day, as thousands of our customers can attest. Alec, our sales specialist is on our chat line most of the day, eastern time, except for lunch and bathroom breaks, lol.

As anyone who has a basic understanding of the current COVID situation can attest, the past couple month has been an extremely challenging environment to do business due to lockdowns, shipping delays, supply chain issues, etc. We have communicated this on an individual basis, as well as through general social media updates. Through it all, we are proud of the fact that we are generally on time with our orders and diligently working through any shipping delays.

We already apologised to you for the delay. in the interest of full disclosure, on May 30th and again on June 10th you *demanded* overnight shipping on a 30lb package... In response we offered you the option of a full and unconditional refund because shipping overnight was prohibitively expensive.

So bottom line is you are now you are bashing us online because we were unwilling to take a huge loss and overnight you this package. That’s what this is really about, “do as I say or you will be slandered”

Rafi

Onsit

A little bit back on topic.

The best advice clearly would be to wire into IGN/ACC. However sounds like some opt to tap into a always on 12v that is available in the trunk area.

Can anyone speak to how much parasitic draw there is if you wire the relay box to an always on circuit. At the very least did you manage to add a voltage shut off that is used on some parking dash cams, to essentially break the circuit if it finds battery voltage drops below a programmable threshold?

The thing about RF modules, is they do draw quite a bit of power since they have to always listen for a broadcast. A fob on the other hand can last forever, since it only has an open circuit when you press a button. Wouldn't want to take my GS-F to say an airport, for a 2 week trip and come back to a dead battery after all.

glm318 Can you speak to how you programmed your Homelink to emit the required RF handshake for the relay box? Also any chance you could put in a multimeter and measure how many amps the relay box draws? There has to be some sort of wire loom running to the trunk that has IGN/ACC power. Worst comes to worst, might be easier to hid all of this in the front glove box area, and just run signal wires from the O2 grommet that is conveniently located under the carpet.

designo

iTrader: (6)

Some companies have the benefit of online presence, however... any company involved in R&D ( whether 3rd party or primary ), trading, and after-sales service, has a full and equal obligation to its customers. I have pounded this ideology into my team's heads for decades.

Keep the communication channel open with your customers regularly, even if you do not have any or good news. Communication, communication, communication.

The moment a company cries "thousands of our customers etc etc", I lose all sympathy for them.
If you are not up to the demands and workload? Stop making excuses and bow down to those that keep your business alive.

I have seen this way too many times since 1999 on forums, and I can assure you. The only time a member comes bashing a vendor online is when the vendor does not keep a regular and honest communication channel open with those customers who have paid IN ADVANCED,.

FULL STOP

ac253189

Again, I've ordered many products from RRR other the last year and have not had any issues. If I send an email I usually hear back within 24 hours and if it was about spring rates or setting up the suspension, I got a call back to discuss.

The made to order things, headers, exhaust, suspension, yes, do take a little longer, but that's the reality of ordering custom fabricated parts for a niche market. If you look at all the people who have bought supercharger setups from RR, I don't see any complaints about customer service. Coming from a fully built car, I know first hand how many problems arises once you move past FBO.

I think the paucity of complaints about RRR supercharger setups is a pretty good litmus test for their products and customer service. I get all this customer first stuff, and I think it's generally a best practices. I'd just remember being the customer doesn't give the right to stop being human and show some empathy and compassion, especially during times like these where everyone is being affected. Most of the time giving a person the benefit of the doubt pays off.

kbot415

Thanks for your support designo. I fully agree with your sentiments ac253189.
I was wanting to let this issue die, but as it has been escalated...
As I hope everyone can see, I have never bashed RR-Racing's products, that would be unethical as I have never received mine. I had problems with their communication.
I'm mad, Rafi sure seems mad. But I was (and still am) willing to be an adult and open the lines of communication.
Rafi, my offer still stands for you to contact me because I really, really want to hear from your perspective. I promise to listen with an open mind. All I ask is for you to extend me the same courtesy.

For full disclosure, here is my entire unedited message to RR-Racing regarding shipping:
"Sat, 05/30/20 12:36 pm
Message: Thank you for calling me to update the status of my order. While I am VERY disappointed regarding this avoidable delay, I do appreciate that you will take the time to ensure 100% fitment prior to shipping. That said, I think it would only be fair for you to overnight ship my order at your expense to minimize any further delay."

If this sounded demanding to you, Rafi, then you have my apologies. Just be aware that I never received a reply to my message above and that the first time I first heard this was an unreasonable request (sorry, demand) was when I called RR-Racing 9 days later.

In the end, this whole thing could have been diffused by a simple generic corporate response, "We are sorry that you feel this way. We will try to do better with communication and promise to look into the problem. We pride ourselves on our products and work hard to keep every customer satisfied. We will contact you to hear your concerns."

kbot415

I'm also happy to get back on topic.

The main reason I looked into a valvetronic setup was that I live in California, a state with probably the most restrictive exhaust laws in the country. I was afraid to getting dinged by law for volume and our bi-annual smog tests (I'd certainly pass smog with an axelback, but would not pass visual inspection).
I feel less concerned about this now as it seems like practically every frickin' Mustang or Subaru WRX I pass by has an aftermarket exhaust, that's why I'm starting to look into non-valvetronic exhausts now.

Somebody from RR-Racing can certainly chime in about this, but as far as I'm aware, the RF box they provide for the bazooka is made by QTP. Reviews for the QTP box are generally favorable. I like the fact that this is at least an aftermarket product that isn't proprietary. If it somehow breaks, it's not too expensive and easily replaceable. I can't speak to the durability of these devices or as to what maintenance the valved exhaust requires (lube or WD-40 to the valves yearly???). Again, I hope somebody from RR-Racing can chime in about these issues.

glm318 was kind enough to text me pictures of his wiring install. He used a fuse tap to power the QTP box as our GSF's have a fuse box conveniently located in the trunk. I rather like that, as I'll do anything to avoid splicing wires when you don't need to.
Despite this, I am also concerned about parasitic draw as these electronic devices seem to be very sensitive to voltage drops. I spent the last 2 weeks troubleshooting my dashcam (with a voltage cutoff) only to discover that things weren't working because my battery was probably on the way out. I discovered this because I finally checked voltages with a multimeter and noticed that the voltages in my fuse boxes were in the 11.8 range (should be at least 12-14V). Replacing my car battery (with a Bosch AGM) fixed everything.

By the way, Pep Boys currently has a deal on car batteries for 25% off all models with free installation! Get some!!

RRRacing

iTrader: (1)

Yes, we actually used to use QTP, but recently switched to Granatelli cutouts, but they are the same as QTP, and components are readily available and inexpensive should they need replacement.

No lubrication is required.

If you are concerned with parasitic draw you can run power from one of the ignition-on sources in the drivers side fuse box next to the e-brake pedal.

Rafi

18ASGSF

I can't wait to get my exhaust. very excited.... counting the days till its on my GSF.