Topic: F/S 2008 Saturn Sky Redline, $6k rolling chassis

[ChopTop]

Wow Elff, I'm sorry to hear that.  I had just ass-u-med that because DDM has been a Kappa supporter for such a long time that they could be trusted without reservation. I've read similar stories about other business's that specialize in specific brands, but the hope is always there that it will never happen to one of our own.  Plus even it it does it's usually considered a fluke and not a standard operating procedure type situation.

 https://www.google.com/search?q=tuner+horrow+stories&oq=tuner+horrow+stories&aqs=chrome..69i57.4495j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#q=car+tuner+horror+stories

[elff]

I incorrectly assumed that as well. 
and it's not a Fluke.
Ask Miller
Ask Roxer
Rob the Elder has practically a Book dedicated to how long and how many problems he had with his DDM v8 conversion.
I believe 40rty also had similar issues with his v8 conversion.

Personally
I think DDM should  not be in the kappa business anymore.

[Gentleman Jack]

Holy shit Elff.  I just noticed you have over 10,000 posts!

[Sol Asylum]

Not all of those post are about how bad DDM is, some where about how great they were.

[Gentleman Jack]

Not all of those post are about how bad DDM is, some where about how great they were.

Yes, very true.  DDM makes some fantastic products.  They have great R&D and testing and have a bunch of solid improvement parts available for the kappas.  Elff had some real struggles with his install job and is very frustrated.  I'm not sure that is even a strong enough word for it, frustrated seems like an understatement. 
Even with all that, I can't believe he has over 10,000 posts.  I am nearly 2,000 posts behind.  I am going to need to increase my post count somehow.  Perhaps I will just start posting cat photos on every single thread that ever comes up.
Here is a cat: 

[Helios]

+1 for my limited post count.

[Sol Asylum]

I wonder how fast Elff's car is now (going down hill of course).

[elff]

It will be as fast as a stock K04 soon.

[miller11386]

I incorrectly assumed that as well. 
and it's not a Fluke.
Ask Miller
Ask Roxer
Rob the Elder has practically a Book dedicated to how long and how many problems he had with his DDM v8 conversion.
I believe 40rty also had similar issues with his v8 conversion.

Personally
I think DDM should  not be in the kappa business anymore.

Similar experience. Gave a lot of money up front and never got any real progress. I was pretty distraught because i handed thousands to ddm and that was still not enough motivation to move on the project. I ended up making a trip to personally talk to Dave, look him in the eye and shake his hand and was assured progress would be made and the build would be wrapped up soon. Months later, still no progress so I had the car put back to stock (I recall paying top dollar for stock parts that were thrown away by most) . I also recall DDM not being able to ship the car in a timely fashion, so i had to fly down. Luckily ihawk was kind enough to take time out of her Ashville trip to me to pick it up from the airport and drop me at ddm so I could bring the car home.  Took off the rest of my after market parts and sold the car shortly later.

Bottom line is DDM has a great parts line. Also Dave is a great guy and I've considered him a friend. Dave did refund the balance of my money after returning it to stock. Unfortunately for whatever reason the big projects are the last on the list for them and that's tough to swallow when you are the one shelling out the money for a big build that never moves. It was the reason I got my supra so I didn't have such a limited vendor base to support me in my goals.

I hold no ill will about any of it. It taught me valuable lessons about setting expectations and paying after work is satisfactory completed. I wish everyone at DDM the best, but would urge them to stop with the "big builds" to avoid such situations in the future.

[elff]

I personally think they owe me somewhat of a refund on top of what I got and I will be calling them after Nationals.
I know they got my original email, but it was ignored.

I work in an industry where I am not allowed to make these types of errors.  I would be fired in an instant if I was that incompetent in what I do because in IT, if we fail, it can cost a company 6-7 digits worth of lost income in a single day.

[Sol Asylum]

Let's be honest, most of us would be fired if we failed to do the job we are paid to do.

[kwtoxman]

It seems to me many vendors have been treated with kid gloves for a long time and one had to read between the lines. Some shocking stuff has been reported over the years. I'm grateful for all the true and honest feedback. Keep it coming.

[ChopTop]

Well to state the obvious things are different when you own a company compared to working for one.  As long as you have a car that isn't mainstream then the businesses that support it become important, or seem to become more important, to people who aren't talented enough to make their own parts or mechanically inclined enough to install performance parts.  So yes I believe that people tend to censor themselves when it comes to the few vendors that support an unpopular car (as compared to the usual suspects).  That doesn't mean that a vendor shouldn't be criticized, but there's also an element of being embarrassed to admit that you were a victim of unprofessionalism.   But in the end it's really about actions speaking louder than words.  If a business can do that they will garner a loyal following.