slow04wrx

iTrader: (3)

Hi, I feel it is my duty to post this for all you to read. Ok here we go,


So about 2.5-3 weeks ago I had some work done at gruppe-s including bf SS lines. This previous friday I left the bay area for tahoe after switching my brand spanking new bbs rims/winter tires on. So on saturday rolls around and on my way to kirkwood my brakes suddenly go out!!! yes out! Luckily I was able to control the car and not hit anything (thank god it wasn't snowing yet). I get it to a tire store in tahoe, and they put it up on the rack and imediately come to me telling me my brake line was cut from rubbing the wheel and I sure as hell ought to get back to whoever installed these. Well im pist and it's my vacation buy oh well. Subaru doesn't carry brake lines at any dealers in ca, and I wasn't able to find this out until monday because of the holiday weekend/no parts dept. open. Well monday comes around I can't get them so my father is able to drive up a set and bring them to me from subydude (same bf lines) which we later got installed. I had to wait until tuesday to get my car, but i had a flight to catch so I had to leave it in tahoe!!! and have my dad rent a car and pick it up later in the week.

Well gruppes called me later after hearing my message and we haven't heard to much back from them, although im definitely taking this all the way.

They told me a rock must have hit it etc.... yea right ......the tire store guy was a real car nut and he as well as subuaru were able to tell me it was installed incorrectly (they were horrified) and were able to show me the problem. Well gruppes claims it would have happened before since it was 3 weeks old, well my old wheels (ones on since install before tahoe weekend) are scrapped on the inside all around from the line rubbing. What a joke. Also the job was suppose to take an hour and a half and extended to 5 (at gruppes), i saw multiple people working on my car and none of them seemed to know what they were doing. (maybe packaging guys started doing some mechanic work). Also my sti which never has burned a drop of oil even after track, was very low within a week (great oil change huh).

Well luckily I didn't wreck, but gruppes is damn well going to take responsibility for this. I want to warn you all about this, if this happened sunday 1 more day later i could be dead as the conditions were heinous. The first time i went to gruppes the tuner put on a map and my idle was messed up. He then said no no it wasn't his map that my intercooler probably came loose etc.. as my idle was messed up and hanging rev's. Well of course the next day he frantically sends me a map that corrects the problem that wasn't his fault.
The major thing here though is the brakes, it was very dangerous and I never expected this crap from gruppe-s. I want everyone to be warned that there shop is not what its cracked up to be. I assumed because of all the good press they'd gotten on the msg boards there was nothing to worry about, boy was I wrong.
Well I hope you all pick your mech's very safely.

To clarify it was obvious by the mechanics the lines were not installed correctly at least on one side. I'm sure gruppes will take responsibility once the pictures/testimony is given to them. Well i'm glad to have my sti back up and safely running again, but this has given me a real scare, i bought these lines for safety better braking etc.. but instead almost wrecked. Be careful wht you chose people!

Keep in mind I live down south and constantly take the 101 cruising at 100, I did this on wed night last week. What if they had cut the rest of the way through then I could have died.

http://www.iwsti.com/forums/showthre...t=34728&page=2

scarface

iTrader: (3)

wow........interesting.......

stevenkhau

iTrader: (11)

whoa...crazy...

i've had some limited, unsatisfying exposure with GS...but I never thought they were this bad.

2 sides to every story though...although your's is compelling.

pablo_her

iTrader: (2)

so you had no stopping power what so ever? damn!

bassplayrr

iTrader: (9)

IBfanboyssaygrievancesabouttheirfavoritecompanysho uldn'tbepostedpublicly.

There are always to sides to every story, so I'd really like to see where this goes. I hope they right any wrongs they may have done here.
-Chris

sleepy22

iTrader: (4)

I'm really sorry to hear about your case Glad you made it out safe! But you have to treat each case individually.

When a company has grown as large as Gruppe-S, there will always be mishaps here and there.

I had the same crappy customer service in the lobby, but their work quality on my car was pretty darn good. I guess I prioritize the work done on my car over customer service.
I'll take good quality work over bad customer service anyday. It's kind of like the Soup **** -- eating good tasty food with crummy attitudes from the waiters... They have taken steps to fix this, so I hope in the future, things get better. It'll take time and doesn't happen overnight.

I know they're pretty good at resolving stuff, especially if pointed out, so I hope you guys can work out something.

slow04wrx

iTrader: (3)

I agree. Had I heard this 2 months ago i'd have thought the person was an idiot and definitely screwed up somehow, before i always thought gruppe-s was the best just because of so many satisfied people, but i assure you my side of the story is non biased and is how it happened. Think how I feel, I just wanted a little bit better brakes.

MARKSTI

iTrader: (4)

Edit...

c32c7

iTrader: (1)

Somehow all these posts have led me to believe that Gruppe-S doesn't really have the best mechanics over there. I'm definately hesitant to have them install my StopTechs now. Think I'll go with LIC.

bassplayrr

iTrader: (9)

As was said earlier, every company will make mistakes as they grow. It happens. Where the company can prove itself is how they fix those mistakes. Hopefully they prove themselves here, if indeed it was their fault. Your story sounds more than believable, but understand at this point it's just he daid/he said. If they don't budge on the issue and you are conviced you're right, I would recommend posting some pictures to get the word out. Since I've never dealt with GS, I can't pipe in one way or the other, however, I have met some of their employees on more than one occasion at other events, and all were stand up guys. I'd really like to see this get resolved. We all need good, trustworthy shops around here.

-Chris

mcowger

iTrader: (8)

Personally, I think the mechanics at G-S are competant. However, I think they are too busy, and miss things. At one point, my wheel lugnuts were not torqued down at all. Nothing bad happened because of it because I always check other people's work, but nonetheless...

I really think they are just too busy, and need to start turning away appointments they dont really have time for.

evsoul

iTrader: (1)

although your situation is bad. driving if you died while driving 100, even if the brakes went out. you are still driving 100.. as if that is super safe with working brakes.

but eitherway i hope it gets resolved for you.

Silver Mojo

iTrader: (9)

This might be the key to solve a lot of there issues.

gruppe-s

iTrader: (22)

Oh boy...

OK, first off, let me say that on behalf of everyone here, we are extrememly glad to know that you are OK regardless of what might have happened. I personally can't comment on what happened because I'm not involved in the labor side of the business. However, I will say a few things.

Firstly, we are all human here and we all make mistakes. Sometimes they're severe mistakes but hopefully these are minimized. We work constantly to correct our mistakes, and more importantly, to prevent mistakes from happening again in the future. This is not an excuse for whatever happened to your brake lines but just something for everyone to keep in mind. If we made a mistake (and it appears that we did from what you're saying), we sincerely apologize. We do our absolute best to maintain the highest quality of service for every customer that comes through our doors and that's a lot of people. I'll wait for Mike to chime in here since he would know more than I would about it (he's in SoCal for the weekend co-piloting a rally car).

Secondly, our mechanics are very good and very experienced; our shipping crew absolutely does not touch or work on any of the cars. We find that accusation insulting and hurtful. The only people who might have touched your car would be Tommy, Mert, or Mike. All of them know what they're doing but all of them are also human and make mistakes. On a side note, it's bothersome to hear that the faulty line was not discovered when you put your new rims on (since you said the inside of the old rim was all scratched up...). As far as Mike sending you a new map, he clearly was aware of the mistake that he made and corrected it.

If your brakeline incident is our fault then we will certainly take full responsibility for it; that is without question. The main thing to remember here is that we did not intentially install the brake lines wrong and that to my knowledge, this has never happened before. We've installed a lot of brakelines. People are generally very willing to bring to light the negative and less willing to point out the positive. Again, this is not an excuse, I'm simply saying that we are not hack mechanics who don't know how to install parts. We are glad that you are OK and we look foward to resolving this situation.

Thanks,

Geoff

rau

iTrader: (9)

its kinda intresting to me that no one from Gruppe-S has spoken a word about it on this thread...


does that mean that they are actually guilty of installing something incorrectly and almost killing someone? or are they just being mum about it?


hmm.....