BEWARE - Redline Speed Worx, NJ

I have been a huge fan of this website for the past two years since I purchased my GTI in March of 2012. I have gotten some great ideas and advice from this website. Thanks to the many who post on a daily basis!

Anyway, I wanted to share my experience with Redline Speed Worx in New Jersey as they have a strong presence on this site.

After reading posts about Redline Speed Worx, I decided to take advantage of APR's Sale last spring and get a Stage 1 tune at Redline. I drove an hour and half to their shop as they seem to be a reputable tune shop.

Well, I would highly recommend avoiding Redline Speed Worx at all costs. Recently, I had EVAP issues with my car. It started in February when my coolant fan would run at full blast on a cold start and run for 5 minutes after the car was turned off. Since my tune was less than a year old I was led to believe that my ECU would be covered under some type of warranty with the tune shop. However, this was not the case. I contacted APR in February for which I was told that typically tune shops cover any repair expenses if the tune is less than a year old.

I shipped my ECU to APR and paid $ 300 for my ECU to be repaired. I was told by Victor from APR that my ECU was damaged (soldering joints broken) when the tune shop cracked it open. Also, Victor shared with me the fact that if an ECU is damaged by the tune shop that the tune shop would pay for the repair.

This was not the case with Redline! Victor informed Redline's APR account manager of my situation and I was told that it would be Redline's decision whether or not to pay for the repair.

I had the privilege to speak with JR from Redline. Not only did he lie to me saying that APR told him that my ECU had a manufacture defect but he clearly denied any wrong doing when the ECU was clearly damaged when it was tuned.

Again, I would highly recommend that anyone in PA, NJ and NY to avoid Redline at all costs. They clearly do not care about their customers!

Also, please note that JR is the owner of Redline and the way he conducts his business he should be a shame.

It is clear to me that from their postings on this website that they are spending way too much time taking photos and should spend more time learning how to tune a car correctly!

Thanks for letting me share my story.

Sub'd

kinetic said:

Sub'd

Click to expand...

I gotta imagine something good will come from this, RSW guys are good people.

In for outcome.

Best of luck, sucks to be the monkey in the middle. Before you got your tune, did you inquire with the shop, on how they handle warranty for ECU's if it failed due to install? Just curious.

Redline is full of good, honest people. I highly doubt all of this is true. If anything, it's just miscommunication all around.

All I am going to ad to this is the facts revolving around the situation.

Several weeks ago we were contacted by the owner of the vehicle about having issues with his vehicle. We advised the owner to please bring the vehicle in as soon as they could and we would happily look at the issues and do all that we could to help resolve the problem.

Customer never contacted us again, a few weeks went by and just this week we were contacted by APR, stating a vehicle we had flashed (about a year ago I believe), the owner had sent their ECU in directly to APR. Victor at APR stated that the ECU was damaged, but because it was just shy of APR's 1 year warranty (by a day) they would be able to repair the ECU for a cost of $300.00.

We explained to Victor we were happy to hear it was repairable, and that due to it being our customer we would reach out and contact the owner and secure the payment. We tried to do this for the customer, the customer was angry that he was responsible for paying for the repair of his ECU. We contacted APR again, and we were informed by Victor that he would go ahead and aide in this because the customer was upset, and he would take payment for the repair and get the ECU back to the owner.

Yesterday we were contacted by the owner of this vehicle again, and we're verbally threatened over the phone that if we did not pay the customer for this out of pocket repair he was going to "put us on blast on the forums". We are very honest and genuine owners here at the shop, I'm sure 100s of VW MK6 owners will gladly vouch for that fact. We don't take very well to being threatened for things that aren't in our control, so we told the customer to go ahead and do what he needed to do.

At this point we contacted APR again, to find out from the Sales Manager that Victor had erroneously told the customer that in these situations the "shop" is responsible for said repairs. The sales manager did confirm that this was in-correct, and that Victor was going to be reprimanded by management for making these false claims. We were further notified that Victor was not even authorized to be handling these claims, and should have never been involved from the get-go.

We also found out that if, as originally directed, the ECU went to APR via the proper repair channels this repair would have costed the customer MUCH less out of pocket expense. To the tune of $200+ less.

We try our best to help all of our customers with both our extensive knowledge, as well as to make the most cost effective repairs available to them. We hold ourselves to the highest levels of honesty & integrity in our business, trust me when I say we hold YOUR best interests at heart 100% of the time.

I do apologize for this inconvenience to you, but I'm not going to comment any further online. If anyone would like to speak with ME more in-depth I'm more than happy to discuss in person or on the phone. I'm in the shop Monday - Friday 8AM to 5PM, or you can contact me via phone at 908-223-7477.

… I'm not someone that is going to try "hide behind the computer".

Handled SO MUCH BETTER than Gonzo tuning handled their forum threats. Props to you guys. I see both sides, but it seems like if the install was the issue it would have surfaced long before a year. Sounds like someone is butt hurt.

It's always nice to see both sides of the story.

There's always 2 sides to every story....

I understand that timelines were tight for the owner (as the 1 year warranty mark was approaching); however I imagine that the owner contacted the shop well in advance of sending his ECU out to APR. Unless RSW was dragging their feet to resolves this issue, in an effort to allow the warranty period to lapse past 1 year, I don't see why the owner was so quick to circumvent the process and bypass RSW altogether.

Nothing good ever comes of threatening anyone/service provider. Sure, the owner has a right to be pissed that he has a non-functioning car; however he should have realized that the ball was certainly in his court/favour since his ECU was still under warranty.

DubDriver17 said:

but it seems like if the install was the issue it would have surfaced long before a year.

Click to expand...

wrong. an install issue can come up 1-2 years after the ECU was removed. Takes time to contaminate an ECU or for weakened solders to vibrate and eventually break over long periods of time.

I would like to comment on Pat from Redline's post:

First, I contacted the dealership when the EVAP issues began in February. I was told by the dealership (Piazza Ardmore VW) that was an issue with my ECU. I called and spoke with JR at Redline in the beginning of February that my having issues with my ECU. He asked that I drive to the shop where they would remove my ECU and ship it to APR. I asked JR if they could fix it at their shop and he informed me that this is in possible and it would go to APR as it's an EVAP issue. I didn't want to drive an hour and half away for my car to just sit in their shop until APR fixed my ECU. I spoke with JR after speaking with Victor from APR (Victor works in Support) and told him I would take care of shipping of my ECU to APR. At this time, Victor contacted Redline's account manager to inform him that I would be shipping my ECU to them. I was told specifically to include the tune shop at the top of the sales order form so that APR knew who tuned the ECU and that Redline would be held accountable for the repairs.

I decided I would ship my ECU to APR directly when I could go without my car for an extended period. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to ship it until March 20th. Please note that my car tuned by Redline on March 28, 2013. If anyone would like to see the receipt than I would be more than happy to scan and post it.

Pat at Redline is blatantly lying that I wasn't within one year of being tuned by them. My ECU was repaired by APR within a year of being tuned. Also, Pat states that I waited weeks to contact them again. This is correct as I told JR at Redline that I would ship my ECU to APR when I was able to. Not only did pay over $ 700 to be tuned by Redline but now I'm out another $ 400 (repair plus shipping). Therefore, I believe I have one of the most expensive stage 1 tunes on this website.

Pat goes on and states that Victor was not to hand these situations. I'm sorry but that is far from the truth. Victor works in APR's support. When you call APR and ask for Support you will most likely get Victor. APR has a great employee in Victor on their hands. Victor walked me through the entire process and kept me informed along the way. It is definitely difficult not being able to drive your car for a few days.

I had no clue what the issue was with my ECU. When I contacted Redline back in February I was inquiring how I could go about getting my ECU repaired and if they would help out. The best they offered was to ship my ECU to APR. Again, I wasn't going to drive an hour and half away for something I could do myself at home. Because of the uncertainty of what the issue with my ECU, APR nor Redline could tell me in February who was at fault and who should be responsible for my ECU issues.

My first thought was that the ECU wasn't properly sealed. I was told by JR that Redline does a great job re-sealing the ECU. I left it with JR in February that I would ship the ECU and would wait to find out what happened to my ECU.

After I shipped my ECU to APR, I called and spoke with Victor. I was told that my ECU would be repairable but APR needed a payment of $ 300 for the repair. I asked Victor if Redline could pay for the repair. He said he would contact Redline's account manager. On Tuesday, JR called me and asked for my credit card info to process the payment of $ 300. I asked why Redline wasn't going to pay for the repair. JR told me that the issue with my ECU was a manufacture defect. This clearly wasn't the case as at that time APR didn't even know what was causing the EVAP issues.

I was extremely frustrated as I was going to be out another $ 300 for a tune that I believed was performed by a good shop. This is far the truth as JR asked me to pay the repair fees and pay them which then they would forward the money to APR. I said "no way", I will contact Victor at APR and pay APR directly. This is exactly what I did.

On Wednesday, Victor called and told me what my ECU was being repaired and the issue was soldering joints that were broken. I'm not all that familiar with ECU's etc and asked when would this have happened. Victor told me that the joints would have been broken when Redline cracked open my ECU. As soon as I found out that it was Redline's fault I immediately contacted Redline. Please note when you call Redline you speak with JR. I have never spoken with PAT! I spoke very nicely to JR. I told him that I was just informed by APR that his shop was at fault. JR would not take any responsibility for my damaged ECU and wouldn't pay for the repair fees. I spoke out of frustration to JR as I couldn't believe that I was being treated this way. I was within a year of being tuned and APR said that typically tune shops will pay for the repair fee if it's within a year of being tuned.

Also, the proper channels that Pat speaks of his complete BS. Either way I was told that the repair would be $ 300.

Again, I was within the one year warranty period and Redline should have been responsible.

It's too funny. I just tried calling Redline as Pat doesn't want to hide behind his computer but they won't take my calls. Redline has caller ID as I know from calling JR in February and him calling me right back when my number popped up.

I would like to add, that I was making statements with the time of the original flash being done on this vehicle and the date the issues arose only to establish a timeline of events.

Furthermore, the phone call was not initially taken as there was an insurance adjuster on our phone.