Apology for Active Autowerke & the Forum

[roninpb]

First a recap FYI: Last year I purchased ac AA SC kit for my 05 ZCP M3 thru Autohaus Bayern in Beaverton, OR. We have suffered problems ever since. I remained kind, patient and generous UNTIL an AA employee initiated gross, unjustified insults.

After those incidents I posted my complaints, concerns, experiences, etc, on numerous websites.

For full details please see my threads in re Active Autowerke SC and Project Loud Red.

Phil has been my main contact w/AA for a while now and he has been a pleasure to deal with lately. Facilitating a WARRANTY reflash and other troubleshooting. The car's not running well .... yet .... but there are some improvements (to be posted as an update to "Project: Loud Red" thread asap).

Recently Phil of AA asked me for an apology and a retraction. But he did NOT elaborate. Nor reply to my PM in that regard. So I dismissed his vague request and forgot about it.

So much for ancient history let's move on to the present .... onward.

I feel that it's my duty to be open and honest at all times; even when it's not in my best interests. WTS, since I have learned that the installer of my Active Autowerke Supercharger for late model SMG M3s deceived me on at least three separate occasions, it's incumbent upon me to set things right. Please keep in mind that they told me, in no uncertain terms, that excepting the skid plate (not installed w/my approval after the fact) they had performed the AA SC kit install EXACTLY as per AA's instructions. EXACTLY!!!

Well, that's not even close to the truth.

The fact is (as some of you and AA have learned) the oil cooler was installed upside down. Although there's no reason to believe that the probs we're troubleshooting were related to the oil cooler, the fact remains that AA are within their rights to DENY warranty service until they've had a personal look at the vehicle and determined that the rest of the install was performed as specified by AA.

I have been placed in an untenable position and am now at AA's mercy. Unless I decide to ship my car to AA at a cost of at least $5K (not to mention the many risks involved).

What did AA do when they learned the install was NOT performed EXACTLY as they required .... AA reflashed my ECU and continued to offer phone tech support!

THAT ALONE SHOWS THEIR GOOD WILL AND DEMANDS THAT I RECOGNIZE THEM AND OFFER THEM .... AND YOU .... AN APOLOGY!!!

Please accept my abject apologies for unintentionally misleading you; recognizing that I did NOT know that I was spreading misinformation in re the improperly installed oil cooler.

Peace, Love & Truth,

Richard Allen.
AKA: Ronin.

[sjpgoalie]

Thats fucked man. I have not heard good things about reliablitity and support from Aktive. I suggest get a good lawyer. Keep us updated man.

[328iPower]

It sucks how people put so much time and money into there cars and then someone just screws you over

[deafboy]

Its wierd how many complaints have been popping up....

anyways that is good of you to appologize...

+1

[roninpb]

Originally Posted by sjpgoalie

Thats fucked man.

Thx for commiserating.

Originally Posted by sjpgoalie

I have not heard good things about reliablitity and support from Aktive.

Clarification: Over a period of time covering a variety of posts during the early part of my ordeal I agreed with and/or admitted, that "installer issues" might apply. After all "to err is human..."

Although I make no pretense of divinity [tic of course] I am (abundantly!!!) known for forgiving human error. Hoping that perhaps I shall be forgiven my natural errors in turn. So when I queried Darby & Brandon on (at least) three separate occassions in re their install methodology they knew that they could admit error w/o suffering anything other than .... PERHAPS .... an uncomfortable moment. Btw, I had absorbed the cost of some of the errors they made in the past. Autohaus had no good (ie; financial) reason to deceive me (IMHO).

The immediate result of my staunch defense of Autohaus' install (in re exactitude) was to FIRMLY establish an adversarial relationship between Active and Yours Truly. A deplorable circumstance which then snowballed .... in no small measure due to my stubborn pride [sigh].

Recognizing that hindsight is 20/20, I still believe that if Autohaus had been honest about the oil cooler mounting (and what else, if anything?) I would have felt differently about Karl's INITIAL (since GRACIOUSLY retracted by him) demand that I send the car to Active for their attention.

In case some of you missed my early posts in this regard: Karl also told me at the time that Active would fix whatever was wrong (except for non kit related issues, if any) at Active's expense! That should have been a clue for the clueless right there.

There is another mitigating factor which had great impact on my feelings in re my defense of Autohaus .... the pics I posted all over the Net in re "Project: Loud Red" which generated a host of "we see an install error" posts .... were the IDENTICAL ones I posted intitially. Which had received positive commentary from some of the experts and RKIs who were assisting me (online) with our many probs.

Short version: No one noticed that the oil cooler was mounted upside down (or commented if they did notice, until relatively recently).

So, although it did occur to me to personally check the install .... I had no way of knowing what was right or wrong and trusted that the experts (ie; JMWeb) would comment if they saw something wrong.

Not blaming them of course. Just pointing out why I didn't break out the printed instructions and go over the install in detail (of course I did, many times, look for obvious probs, loose lines/fasteners, etc).

HTH explain why I was not kindly disposed to hearing negative criticisms of Autohaus' install.

Originally Posted by sjpgoalie

I suggest get a good lawyer.

BTDT:
1) I have no intention of suing Autohaus. I think that the principal (whom I have great regard for) did not know what was going on although he is legally and ethically responsible. Ergo: I will not hold him accountable for what his employees did w/o his knowledge nor consent.
2) Actual damages have not been establised and would be difficult (to say the least!) to establish at this point.

Originally Posted by sjpgoalie

Keep us updated man.

Will do my best. Sooo freakin' busy right now. [sigh]

Peace, Love & Truth,

Richard Allen.