will NOT buy from ECS tuning ever again

[rsrider]

Hi Jason - well here is another bad story for you. I live in NZ and have now placed 2 orders with ECS in the past 4 months totalling over $3600USD, which in $NZD is about $6000. Prior to making my 2nd order which was for timing gear and other items I asked someone to give me an itemised breakdown of the kit. The guy (through the chat function on your website) sent me a link which took me to the cart and had everything listed that was supplied. It turns out that he had sent me a list for the wrong kit (2593417 instead of 2593413) - luckily I did some homework and did not place the order based on this information. Anyway - the next day I went back on the chat function and asked someone to send me the CORRECT kit information. I was then told that they could not do this as it was against company policy and something about "All our kits are approved by blah blah blah". Clearly this was of no use to me.

Anyway - I finally placed my order (order # 215-486-010) on the 15th March and at the time of placing the order EVERY part was showing that it would ship within 2 business days. 2 days later I receive an email saying that the Subframe bushes were now not in stock and that they had to be ordered from another depot and would be in stock on the 24th March. Between the 15th March and the 24th (today) I went online and spoke to someone at ECS twice to make sure they were still coming in on the 24th. I spoke to both Joel and another guy (name escapes me) and on both occasions they confirmed to me that the bushes would arrive on the 24th March. I explained to both of them that my car was currently stock on a hoist, so it was quite important I had an accurate ETA.

This morning I went online to check the status of my order as it was late afternoon US time on the 24th and I noticed that the bushes were now stating 26th March, not 24th. I spoke to Matt via your chat function and he proceeded to inform me that the subframe bush had NO ETA, was unavailable and they had no idea when it would be in stock!! This obviously made me extremely annoyed. Here I am waiting for these bushes for 9 days with my damn car stuck on a hoist and all for nothing! No offer of compensation or a discount. All they gave me was a $20 discount on shipping! (on a $2000 order - Gee thanks).

The service I have received prior to placing my order and afterwards in my opinion has been completely sub-standard. These are NOT cheap parts, especially to someone in another country who basically has to add 30% onto the value for their own currency + pay duties and customs charges. I can get these parts from other companies (e.g JHM) and if it wasn't such a hassle to cancel my order and start again with them, that's exactly what I would have done!

Needless to say - it will be unlikely that I will be supporting ECS for future parts purchases. This has all left an extremely bad taste in my mouth.



UPDATE: In addition - after removing the subframe bushes from the order I noticed that the shipping INCREASED from $192 up to $219. I thought if anything that the shipping should DECREASE. So I contacted the chat line again and spoke to Anthony. I advised him that the shipping had gone up. He first of all tried telling me that it was correct. I explained that it wasn't correct. He then amended the shipping from $219 to $199.92. I explained to him that if I added this same order to the cart right now my shipping cost was only $207.08, therefore less the $20 discount they had given me the shipping total should only be $187.08. Instead of just agreeing and reducing the shipping he made me wait on the chat function for almost 12 minutes while he "checked it out".

[ECS Tuning-Audi]

PM'd!

Jason

[s vier]

8 years of using ECS. Probably $5-7k in orders total. Zero issues.

Just don't try to plan everything perfectly to the exact day it will arrive and you'll never be disappointed. Add a 2-3 day buffer. A million things could slow it down.

They even added items to their catalogue at my request! That's service!

[ECS Tuning-Audi]

8 years of using ECS. Probably $5-7k in orders total. Zero issues.

Just don't try to plan everything perfectly to the exact day it will arrive and you'll never be disappointed. Add a 2-3 day buffer. A million things could slow it down.

They even added items to their catalogue at my request! That's service!

Thank you for the feed back and the support over the years, it's greatly appreciated!

Jason

[hikaru]

Bought the jack pad kit for the B6. Its missing 2 well nuts. Called customer service, didn't catch his name. When I asked for replacement, he hung up on me.

[ECS Tuning-Audi]

Bought the jack pad kit for the B6. Its missing 2 well nuts. Called customer service, didn't catch his name. When I asked for replacement, he hung up on me.

Sounds out of character. Could have been an accident. Did you try calling back?

Jason

[hikaru]

Sounds out of character. Could have been an accident. Did you try calling back?

Jason

Tried chat, got the same response. Once I asked for replacement, never responded.

[ECS Tuning-Audi]

Tried chat, got the same response. Once I asked for replacement, never responded.

Live chat is not intended for customer service it's for sales. Chances are if they did/do respond they will tell you you'll need to e-mail or call customer service.

Jason

[B-Time]

Called customer service, didn't catch his name. When I asked for replacement, he hung up on me.

I've had a similar experience. Complete a$$hole. Exactly why I will never support them. Only auto parts vendor I've ever had an issue with.

[ENV²]

Very robotic answers on here from ECS.

not good.

I was going to order some parts from them. Glad I came across this. Never now.

[hikaru]

Live chat is not intended for customer service it's for sales. Chances are if they did/do respond they will tell you you'll need to e-mail or call customer service.

Jason

Tried calling again, flat out refused. Didn't get his name. You guys are willing to lose a customer over $6?

[ECS Tuning-Audi]

Robotic? How so? I was trying to suggest a solution to a possible accidental hangup and informing him that you might not get much luck with Live Chat as it's not really for customer service issues. Personally there isn't anything else I can do for him without more information. If the kit is missing parts there is no reason why we wouldn't send him replacements. That's just poor business if there is supposed to be a specific quantity and it doesn't meet that, then we refuse to send it to you.

I've gone above and beyond for many customers on these forums. I'll be happy to do the same but I need some more information like an order number, last name, or an e-mail address. Because if I call the customer service manager and say " Hey I have a customer on the forums who didn't get the proper quantity of X part in X kit can we send him the extra ones he needs?" The first question he will ask me is what's the order number or do you have a last name/e-mail so I can bring his order/information up?

Feel free to PM me with an order number/e-mail address/last name and I'll look into this.

Jason

[ECS Tuning-Audi]

Tried calling again, flat out refused. Didn't get his name. You guys are willing to lose a customer over $6?

Please e-mail Chis V. in customer service and he'll take care of you.

[email protected]

Jason

[agent47]

Up until now I have ordered twice from ECS. Jason has personally answered all my questions- I mean endless questions. And the sales guy was great too- I told him what I wanted and I didnt have to search or anything, he just emailed me a link to the cart with stuff added to it. They might sell things for 5-10 bucks over the cheapest deal you can find online but their customer service is just good to the bones which is why I would go back to them for anything I need.

[ECS Tuning-Audi]

Up until now I have ordered twice from ECS. Jason has personally answered all my questions- I mean endless questions. And the sales guy was great too- I told him what I wanted and I didnt have to search or anything, he just emailed me a link to the cart with stuff added to it. They might sell things for 5-10 bucks over the cheapest deal you can find online but their customer service is just good to the bones which is why I would go back to them for anything I need.

Glad to help, happy you were able to get what you needed with ease!

Appreciate your feed back!

Jason

[qwnzr]

Another ECS horror story: On July 12th I ordered some parts from ECS(needed new lower control arms and tie rods) and seeing that they carried parts from 034(got some motor/transmission mounts and some sway bar end links) I made the mistake of assuming it would be cheaper and easier to order all the parts from ECS. Boy was I wrong... So when I originally ordered the parts the 034 parts were supposed to ship out on July 23rd, as ECS has to ship stock from 034 to their warehouse. I was fine with that, assuming that I would probably get my parts right around the end of July. So the 23rd roles around and my parts still haven't shipped, ok parts from 034 are a little late, I'm fine with that. I waited another week before finally getting in touch with ECS, and one of their customer service agents offers to split my order in to two orders, shipping out the parts they had in stock and shipping the 034 parts when they arrived (which I was told would be the next day (Friday), or Monday.

So first ordered shipped out via ups on July 31st, and UPS attempted to deliver it on the August 5th (Horror story trying to get parts from UPS is whole other story, took 6 days to finally get my package from the first day they tried to deliver it...) Second order which was supposed to ship out July 31st or August 3rd finally shipped on August 10th, received it Today, open up the package and the sway bar end links I had ordered aren't there, in there place are some sway bar bushings and mounting brackets for a golf (end links were supposed to be for b5 s4). Get in touch with ECS and I find out that first I have to ship the package back to them, then wait till August 24th before they can even ship the correct product to me. Meanwhile I noticed that the sway bar end links are in stock at 034motorsports, so I asked if they could just swallow the cost of shipping a pair directly from 034 to me. Obviously the answer is no.

I'm at my wits end here, I've needed to do some major suspension / steering work on my car for over a month now, its getting sketchier and sketchier to keep driving my car, and I'll still have to wait close to another month before I get the end links and I can do a proper wheel alignment. What really frustrates me is that I've been a huge fan of ECS, ordered thousands of dollars worth of parts from them and have been recommending them to all of my friends and never had an issue before with their customer service. Really regretting not just paying the extra cash and ordering the 034 parts directly from 034Motorsports.

[ECS Tuning-Audi]

PM'd

Jason

[qwnzr]

So guess what? After all this, finally shipped back the wrong parts on Wednesday August 26th(got busy, couldn't send em out earlier), on the Friday the 28th got an email confirming my end links had shipped out. So jump forward till today, September 8th. Got a delivery from ECS, all excited I finally have my end links. Open the package and lo-and behold the exact same wrong part that I had been sent previously. Called up ECS customer support, spoke with Mike, explained the situation, his solution? "Ok send those back to us, and once they have been shipped out we'll send you the right one"

I can not even begin to express how fed up I am with ECS at this point. I would have hoped that after me explaining to Jeremy explicitly that ECS' own label on the package was wrong that maybe just maybe they'd actually double check their inventory/034 product skus to make sure they were actually sending out the right parts. But I guess not.... 58 days after the original order and I still don't have my end links. At this point in time frankly I feel like I'm owed a free set of end links, I've spent several hours going back and forth on the phone, email and worst of all the live chat... Was charged for this item over a month ago have been told twice now that even though its entirely ECS' fault they can't even make an exception and send me the right part now, even though they clearly know I have no intention of keeping this part (as I've already sent it back to them once) which is for a completely different model of car.

I'm so tired of wasting my time on this dumb issue, and coming from someone who works in a customer support related field, I'm amazed out how little ECS seems to care about their customers. I understand that you can't make exceptions for everyone, but when you fuck up, waste the customers time and money, and then fuck up again the exact same way, the answer to what are you going to do this time shouldn't be "the exact same thing we did last time when we fucked up and wasted your time/money"

At this point wondering if I should start a case with BBB.org, I don't think I'm being unreasonable suggestion they send me those end links and refund them from my order, or at least hook me up with some kind of discount.

[ECS Tuning-Audi]

PM'd

Jason

[KissMySSSSS]

In all fairness their service was never that good to begin with. I never had them not send anything but their attitude towards sales was just that.. Sales... Service after... Not spectacular.


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[Seerlah]

I understand that you can't make exceptions for everyone, but when you fuck up, waste the customers time and money, and then fuck up again the exact same way, the answer to what are you going to do this time shouldn't be "the exact same thing we did last time when we fucked up and wasted your time/money"

I'm sorry, but this here is gold. Made me lmao!

[louie.gee.14]

No issues over here ordered a couple of coilovers n both times got em after 3 business days.


Sent from my iPhone using Audizine mobile app

[ColtS5]

I'm equally, not a fan. They have one of the best, if not the best, websites and good to great prices. I've purchased items from them since 2001 or so, when I had my B5 S4. It was always hit or miss on deliveries. A V-6 spark plug "kit" came with four plugs. Items would ship erratically, and even be dropped shipped from their suppliers, coming days after the other items you might have ordered for a specific job. Two-piece rotor defects, on my B6 S4, and later B8 S5 were poorly handled.

The "In stock" message on items is hit or miss, and the "chat" is worthless. I called back in September about stock rear ARB brackets, and was told you had to buy the bar to get the brackets, which was not true. They will not take care of issues or mistakes the first time, and do nothing to fix their mistakes. Mistakes happen, we get that. But, it is how you handle the mistakes that differentiate between those who offer great customer service and those who could care less. In this day and age, with so many choices, that just doesn't cut it anymore. When the order goes through, and arrives as promised, it is great. But if there are any issues, it becomes a nightmare. ECS does not care to go the distance to make it right, when they make an error.

[ECS Tuning-Audi]

I'm equally, not a fan. They have one of the best, if not the best, websites and good to great prices. I've purchased items from them since 2001 or so, when I had my B5 S4. It was always hit or miss on deliveries. A V-6 spark plug "kit" came with four plugs. Items would ship erratically, and even be dropped shipped from their suppliers, coming days after the other items you might have ordered for a specific job. Two-piece rotor defects, on my B6 S4, and later B8 S5 were poorly handled.

The "In stock" message on items is hit or miss, and the "chat" is worthless. I called back in September about stock rear ARB brackets, and was told you had to buy the bar to get the brackets, which was not true. They will not take care of issues or mistakes the first time, and do nothing to fix their mistakes. Mistakes happen, we get that. But, it is how you handle the mistakes that differentiate between those who offer great customer service and those who could care less. In this day and age, with so many choices, that just doesn't cut it anymore. When the order goes through, and arrives as promised, it is great. But if there are any issues, it becomes a nightmare. ECS does not care to go the distance to make it right, when they make an error.

As far as taking care of our customers this couldn't be any further from the truth. The past is the past but as of late we do everything in our ability to be sure that the customer is satisfied.

Absolutely mistakes happen and some people will always have expectations that are way too high. There are handfuls of threads and reviews where I have personally taken care of customers or referred them to our customer service department for solutions. Our Facebook page review section also reflects this.

To me, this "bump" seems out of context as there really is no issue at hand but rather an experience from a very long time ago. That being said I'll have this thread closed because it does not reflect how we conduct business anymore.

[visabroke]

That being said I'll have this thread closed because it does not reflect how we conduct business anymore.

so because someone posted up with a comment/review and it wasn't positive you want to get the thread closed?

[Bhee7]

Ordered 2 days ago from ecs, that being my second order ever and within 2 weeks apart, first one came within a good time considering thanksgiving week etc. Bigger order being shipped out now, prompt email letting me know my items have shipped.

Will definitely use them again.

Need to get a discount code or something for the forum members!

[nevets77]

The few times I've ordered parts I had to wait longer than expected or estimated from them. I'm currently waiting 12 days and counting for an item to ship that is listed as being in stock and available . Other items that were ordered from competitors on the same day have already been received and installed. If I ran my my company with this type of service I would be out of business. They have one or two other costly products that I'm planning on getting, but I may have to consider ordering those from another source.

[ECS Tuning-Audi]

The few times I've ordered parts I had to wait longer than expected or estimated from them. I'm currently waiting 12 days and counting for an item to ship that is listed as being in stock and available . Other items that were ordered from competitors on the same day have already been received and installed. If I ran my my company with this type of service I would be out of business. They have one or two other costly products that I'm planning on getting, but I may have to consider ordering those from another source.

Can you PM me the items you ordered that read as in stock and have not shipped as well as your order number?

Thanks,

Jason

[t1bud42]

I understand back order items. I have been waiting almost three months to get a maf for ecs tuning. I feel at some point they should just ship me what ever they got in stock and eat the price it's crazy.

[riverz]

ECS has been mostly good with me. I've recently got the run around on some pricing for an S4 valence and ended up paying more than I should have but so be it despite the items list price on the site. On the flip side I ordered some RS4 RSB bushings and the wrong ones were sent out. They got me the right ones on the way ASAP and at no charge.

[Vierpunktzwei]

Ordered cam tool kit from ECS on 6/16 in anticipation for having it weekend of 6/24-25, had to phone in order, as website kept showing error with payment. Spoke with sales dude, placed order over phone, gave credit card info, all good. A few days passed, no emails for confirmation of order or shipping. Seemed weird. Called in again to check, no evidence of order, apparently never got placed. That was 6/22. New sales dude apologizes and takes new order, they agreed to honor sale price of tool kit and offered to split the overnight shipping. I'm thinkin' sweet! I get the tracking number by email for the overnight delivery but it's scheduled for delivery on 6/28?? I'm expecting actual overnight shipping, like 6/23. Nope. Call in again, lady in customer service apologizes and shows tool kit already shipped economy snail mail. She offers to refund split overnight shipping cost. I ordered a bunch of stuff same day from JH Motorsports, six emails later of confirmations, ordered, shipped, etc., no issues. Complete contrast in service from JH to ECS. No more orders from ECS, too many f-ups. Lesson learned.

[ECS Tuning-Audi]

Ordered cam tool kit from ECS on 6/16 in anticipation for having it weekend of 6/24-25, had to phone in order, as website kept showing error with payment. Spoke with sales dude, placed order over phone, gave credit card info, all good. A few days passed, no emails for confirmation of order or shipping. Seemed weird. Called in again to check, no evidence of order, apparently never got placed. That was 6/22. New sales dude apologizes and takes new order, they agreed to honor sale price of tool kit and offered to split the overnight shipping. I'm thinkin' sweet! I get the tracking number by email for the overnight delivery but it's scheduled for delivery on 6/28?? I'm expecting actual overnight shipping, like 6/23. Nope. Call in again, lady in customer service apologizes and shows tool kit already shipped economy snail mail. She offers to refund split overnight shipping cost. I ordered a bunch of stuff same day from JH Motorsports, six emails later of confirmations, ordered, shipped, etc., no issues. Complete contrast in service from JH to ECS. No more orders from ECS, too many f-ups. Lesson learned.

PM'd

Jason

[MarcusDubya77]

I have ordered numerous parts from ECS and have never had any issues at all. I have dealt with customer service and sales. All have been extremely helpful with me.

[ColtS5]

As far as taking care of our customers this couldn't be any further from the truth. The past is the past but as of late we do everything in our ability to be sure that the customer is satisfied.

Absolutely mistakes happen and some people will always have expectations that are way too high. There are handfuls of threads and reviews where I have personally taken care of customers or referred them to our customer service department for solutions. Our Facebook page review section also reflects this.

To me, this "bump" seems out of context as there really is no issue at hand but rather an experience from a very long time ago. That being said I'll have this thread closed because it does not reflect how we conduct business anymore.

Out of control? It shows a long time trend of bad service. Again, I could fill a page with the issues I have had. Great website, fair to great prices. Some good in house products. Customer service and product knowledge are lacking. Severely. Product defects (Two-Piece Rotors) that take months to sort.

Again, mistakes happen but ECS just does a terrible job in sorting the issues, and will never go the distance to make it right. I've moved on, as there are much better suppliers that go out of their way to ensure you get what you want, on time, packaged correctly, assembled correctly, quality parts, great prices. We should not have to beg, for ECS to right a wrong....

[AZAudib8]

ECS, is a great company and have order a number of items over the years and never had any problems.

Sent from my SM-N920T using Audizine mobile app

[maxnik2003]

I have purchased quite a few parts from ECS and was quite pleased with everything, however, my last order from ECS turned out to be the worst decision ever made.

I purchased an Android Deck for my B6 Avant a few weeks ago (aka RNS replica). The item description was promising:
- "Bremmen Parts is aware of these issues and is proud to offer a direct-fit multimedia head unit that alleviates the inherent issues with universal aftermarket radios"

First of all, I ordered it On June 3rd, the item was in stock. However, once I finalized the purchase there was no expected shipping date..then a week later I decided to check my account again:

Order Number Date Ordered Expected Ship Date Status Items Total
220-339-560 Jun 5 2017 Jul 10 2017 Shipped 1 $463.17 US

July 10th!!!!for a stock item?

Thankfully the item was shipped a bit earlier and did arrive by UPS on June 27th.
So when I took the time to install it, it turns out to be another TYPICAL, cheap China made radio.
The unit didn't work the way it was advertised. Typical Chinese manuals did not cover the subjects how to make it work. So I decided to chat with ECS to see if they have other/additional manuals.

ECS rep told me that they don't have any additional manuals and that I should search through the forums to get answers to my questions (like why I can not change illumination to Audi red color).
instead of understanding my problem and trying to resolve it, they simply transfer it to me. When I asked ECS rep if he could contact their supplier to ask my questions, he simply sad that they don't do business with them anymore. really? what about you backorder? IF your supplier can not reply to your question ,then why do you still do business with them? And why the supllier name is Bremmen Parts? Not XYZ CHina

"Tony Sibounheuang <[email protected]>
Thu 06-29, 6:15 PM
You
Hello, thank you for the email, unfortunately, this is an issue that is not covered in the manual and beyond what is with the installation instructions, we do not have any troubleshooting or reference guides for the software itself to change that specific color illumination setting and we do not have any other detailed information to help. We apologize for the inconvenience and suggest checking various online forums and searches that may cover the issue."

off course ECS doesn't want to name their supplier, so ECS customers won't know the real cost of the product as well as ECS markup...x2

Since Bremen parts, it is aka ECS outsource China I advised everyone to stay away.


So far the only option that I got from ECS is to get the item Returned....hmmm... are you going to prepay the parcell and refund another 156$ in Canada duties?NO? And who is going to pay for my wasted time? i dont think that option works for me.

I am highly disappointed with ECS customer service and the way they deal with issues...

[ECS Tuning-Audi]

maxnik2003 sorry to hear you're having issues with the Bremmen radio. Where I can't offer much support as to the workings of the radio (I'm not running one so my hands on time is very limited) maybe I can be of some assistance in another manner. Please shoot me a Pm and I'll see what I can do.

-James

[maxnik2003]

maxnik2003 sorry to hear you're having issues with the Bremmen radio. Where I can't offer much support as to the workings of the radio (I'm not running one so my hands on time is very limited) maybe I can be of some assistance in another manner. Please shoot me a Pm and I'll see what I can do.

-James

PM sent

[miSZukk]

When will ECS allow us to pick up parts on location like Summit Racing. That's my biggest problem with them! I live 10 minutes away but have to wait almost a week for parts


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[Okedokey]

My biggest issue with ECS is when you order and pay for something listed in stock and the. Almost immediately you get a message saying it's on backorder! Grr