My experience buying a Downforce CF/Lexan engine cover

[SFNSXguy]

This post is a copy of a letter sent to Peter Chou of Downforce.

Peter:

I just received and unpackaged the CF/Lexan NSX engine cover you made for me. Just thought you should know my thoughts:

First of all, as you know the cover took seven days to reach me via FedEX -- I suggest you use UPS ground in the future… they would have had it here in three.

While the engine cover is well made, I was dismayed by its presentation.
First, the cover itself seems unfinished -- the underside (the side you see when the cover is lifted to acces the car's engine) is completely unfinished and dirty. The underside of the cover should have been painted flat black at least.

The rubber gasket I requested was not installed -- it was simply tossed in the box.

The product was badly packaged for shipping (just loosely wraped in a sheet of bubble wrap with some scrap plastic foam tossed in the box for good measure) though it luckily arrived in perfect contition. Future engine covers should be nicely wrapped and packaged. Much as I hate plastic peanuts, they would have done a better job than what your company chose to use.

Guess I'm spoiled by fifteen years of doing business with folks like Comptech, Dali Racing, RM Racing and Science of Speed -- these firms have always done a job superior to the one done by your company.

For a product that cost $834 you should have done a MUCH better job all around. I know you're having employee issues at the moment -- that said, I would have expected you to personally supervise preparation and shipping of such an expensive and fragile piece of goods.

Needless to say, this Downforce product only receives my positive review with added comments. I intend to post a copy of this letter on NSXPrime.

Harry Somerfield

 

[SFNSXguy]

Yikes!!! Upon completing the un-wrapping of the cover I find a big crack in it. This was not done during shipping -- the box it came in was in PERFECT condition... it had to have been PACKED this way.

Phone calls... send photos... more phone calls.... they're sending me another one and I will return the damaged one when the new one arrives. Peter was very nice about this, but it certainly begs the questions "How did an expensive product like this get damaged BEFORE shipping?" and "Why would they ship a damaged product?" Someone would have had to step on this to break it -- and it would have made a big CRACK sound... really careless employees I guess.

More later.

 

[davidf]

Sorry to hear this happened. I recieved mine promply and very securely wrapped in bubble wrap. The underside is painted flat black and the top side is flawless.

 

[nsxpowered]

Harry trying to get the 2nd cover polished up. I will email you the tracking once its out. Its going out this week. As for the cover being damaged I don't believe it could be damaged here because I was there during the packaging and I even recorded video of the cover and pictures. On the box we put a lot of labels which stresses the fact that you need to check the box before signing off. In a bigger size company they implement rules in which after a certain point they are not responsible anymore. As you guys know right or wrong I do always take the slack and this is why I was forced to get a manager to come in here to help stop my losses before I go out of business.

Here are the pictures which didn't turn out so good so I took a video. There is no motive for me to do this. Anytime something like this happens I incur a loss on a transaction. This is bad for me, bad for you, bad for everyone except the shipping company because of the cost of shipping the damage cover back and shipping a new cover again. It takes me around 1 hour just to put the tape onto the cover.

I don't really care what happened and my priority is your satisfaction.

Video in MOV file

I thank you for your patience and I'm sorry you had received this cover like this. I was short on packaging material, I replenished our packing material and awaiting on our custom made boxes so I can get the HEPAs out. I'm also trying to get our instapak machine running too which has been sitting here for over 6 months. There's lots of problems because of the increased demand and if you guys can bare with me just a bit longer and allow my staff a fair amount of time to justify and make corrections I'm sure you guys will be pleased with the service we will be providing.

As I said in my email I hope this won't give you a bad impression on DF, I truly will make the second shipping exactly the same of how we do it normally. Many customers can probably attest to the amount of packing we use on our shipments because damages is what I want to avoid. If you can also inspect the packages this time if possible it would ensure better records of time events of what happened. I dropped off the cover at FedEx and it just sat there for almost a week, maybe it got damaged at the hub because of so much movement and traffic.

 

[SFNSXguy]

It has now been 25 days since I received the damaged engine cover (43 days since the inital order).

Last Friday Peter emailed
"Harry the engine cover is ready. We are building a new jig for the shipping so it will not break this time. You will get tracking very shortly and it will be out by noontime.
Thank you,
Peter"

Today I phoned and received this email:
"Hi Harry

the tracking number is
554150010003303 FedEX
it will come with a return label so it will be really easy to use same box and ship back out to us thank you and sorry for the trouble.
If you have a any questions or concerns please let us know..

Thank You
Sam Alfaro"


Unfortunately, that tracking number is not in the FedEx system (it hasn't been sent yet) -- this occured with the original piece that arrived broken too.

I was told it had been shipped, but it took seven days to get from Southern California to Northern California.

Don't know what's going on here. But I intend to post the results as I have been.

 

[SFNSXguy]

Forty-six days after my initial order and twenty-eight days after receiving the broken one, I finally received an intact CF/Lexan engine cover.
Was a bit surprised when I opened the box to see that this one wasn't packed too much better than the first one -- they did fabricate a wooden armature to help keep the box from collapsing, but the engine cover with armature attached was still able to flop around inside the box and could have been easily damaged.

I can't deny the end product is beautiful -- though like the first one, this one came without an invoice, packing slip, mounting instructions or any special mounting bolts.

Peter and Sam couldn't have been nicer in their emails and telephone conversations, but they both seem too anxious to over promise and under deliver (rather than the opposite expected of "custom" builders).

So, for others contemplating Downforce products: you have been noticed. Be patient, keep calm and don't hold your breath.