Hello NAM, Alta and UNIchip

I have a little story to tell, it’s called “The $699.98 Receipt”.

I was one of the early buyers of the Alta tuned UNIchip PNPs.

Here are the results. http://alaskaoregonwesternwashington...94&auth=5orfua
__________________________________________________ _____________
COMPLAINT ACTIVITY REPORT Case # 22192594 Better Business Bureau serving Alaska, Oregon & Western Washington

Consumer Info: Bridge, Chris Business Info: ALTA Performance
CMR 402 BOX 1192
APOAPO, AE 09180
- 049 637-3506 ext 429 503 693-1702


Location Involved: (Same as above)

Consumer's Original Complaint :
I bought a UNIchip PNP unit from Alta Performance on 30 October 2007, Pay Pal transaction number 4CG92218V77600130, Alta invoice number 124001, for the price of $699.98.

The first unit was shipped from Alta on 28 December 2007. When I received it, it did not work. I sent it back for an exchange on 30 January 2008. The replacement was sent to me on 10 March 2008, it did not work. I exchanged it again on 23 May 2008, it still would not work. At that time I was instructed by the management at Alta Performance that UNIchip of North America, 2615 SE 39th Loop, Suite B Hillsboro, OR 97123, would work directly with me to get it to work, case number ZQM-740131.

I sent the unit to UNIchip of North America on 16 July 2008 and got a replacement or reprogrammed unit that I installed, this also would not work. I worked the issue with UNIchip for several weeks. Unichip offered to send a new wire harness and email software to correct the problem, this also did not work. On 1 December 2008 I informed UNIchip that I was done trying to make this work, on 8 December 2008 I reiterated my intentions to both UNIchip and Alta. On 12 December 2008 I was instructed to send the product to UNIchip.

On 17 January 2009 I informed Alta Performance that I wanted a refund. Alta refused to make a refund, stated that my complaint is with UNIchip but offered credit towards product instead. I reluctantly accepted this offer and Alta sent an intercooler and boost tubes in place of a refund. The products they sent do not fit. I spent most of 13 Feburary 2009 trying to install them. I would never have accepted the offer of store credit if I was aware that these products were so poorly engineered. I again asked to be refunded my purchase price on 14 February 2009. Again they refuse. So now I am seeking assistance in getting a refund.

During the entire ordeal I have been very patient. I have incurred significant postal and insurance costs in sending product back repeatedly. I worked with both these companies for over a year to get there product to work. I have only tried to be civil with the people at Alta as well as at UNIchip.

I am due a refund. Alta's position is that I should be refunded by UNIchip. UNIchip's position is that I should be refunded by Alta.

I don't really care which one sends me a check, I just want my money back. I do have the products that Alta sent me in place of a refund; this implies they were issuing a refund in product. I will send these back as soon as I am instructed to.

Contacts at Alta are Adam Taft and Stephen Douglas, adam.taft@altaminiperformance.com , stephen.douglas@perrinperformance.com . Contact atUNIchip is Jack Jones, jjones@unichip.us .

Thank you
Chris Bridge


Consumer's Desired Resolution:
A refund of $699.98

BBB Processing

02/15/2009 web BBB Complaint Received by BBB
02/17/2009 LJB BBB Complaint Processed by BBB Operator
02/17/2009 Otto EMAIL Send acknowledgement to Consumer
02/17/2009 Otto MAIL Inform Business of the Complaint
03/03/2009 OttO BBB NMBR- No response to first notice to business
03/03/2009 OttO MAIL NMBR-Resend Complaint to Business
03/16/2009 OttO BBB No Response received from Business on 2nd Notice
03/17/2009 LJB MAIL NMBR-Resend Complaint to Business
03/27/2009 LJB BBB No Response received from Business on 2nd Notice
03/31/2009 LJB EMAIL Inform Consumer - Case Closed UNANSWERED
03/31/2009 Otto BBB Case Closed - UNANSWERED
__________________________________________________ _____________

Case closed, customer looses.

The whole time I tried my best to be a good customer and give these companies opportunity to fulfill their promises of satisfaction, but when the last harness I hooked up caused my wipers to run spontaneously I had to give up. If this unit causes accessories to function improperly what else is it doing?

It is sad that my when I show consideration and patients it results in Alta having my $699.98, UNIchip has their POS/PNP and I have a receipt. To date I have also incurred about $190 in postage and insurance for shipping their nonfunctioning products.

Adam, I sent your parts back, insured (like I have done so many times before) because I have integrity and would feel remise if they were lost without your due compensation. USPS insurance claim ($700) # VI 008 598 324 US , USPS tracking # 0308 2040 0002 3460 1753 . Wow, another $53.45, OUCH, now I’m way over $200 in shipping costs. You should have them back shortly Sorry I used a couple of the hose clamps to put my car back together, do you need to be reimbursed for the loss?

For all the folks tempted to post “I have a UNIchip that has worked fine for X# of miles” I’ll be the first person to say good for you, that is what I wanted to have also. But that can’t change my experience, and your post wouldn’t be helpful. I know there are many out there that have this working as advertised.

When it did work for me, a few days at a time, about ten days or so all together over a one year period, I was very impressed by the performance.

In addressing the protracted timeline, I live in Germany, and the military postal system as dependable as it is, is slow at best. Often I must wait up to eight weeks for packages to arrive. Alta will not ship to APO addresses, so all parts I received had to go to a third party to be sent to me, at additional cost to me. This is why there are significant breaks between returning product and receiving replacement parts.

A word of advice to other customers, if Alta tells you to work out details with another vendor, don’t do it, just get a refund before they involve a third party they can try to shift the responsibility to.

Adam, Stephen or Jack do you care to comment?

 

damn this sounds like a big pain in the ***, i feel really bad for you. i would also like to hear what alta has to say now. its sad that a company that big wont refund a measly 700$ to satisfy a customer.

 

I will start by saying I DO NOT have a UNI chip installed and probably never will.

But I will say this.

If it is working in so many other cars and just will not in yours, it sounds more like a problem with YOUR car not the product from UNI Chip. So what other mods have you done that would not allow the UNI Chip to work?

As for the the other parts you received from Alta in place of the UNI Chip these are also installed in many many other cars with out problem. So again it sounds more like YOUR car is the problem not the parts.

Now as to Alta not refunding your money, that is just wrong, and i do agree that they do owe you a refund and UNI Chip owes Alta a refund.

Now not to Alta's Defense (I feel they should still offer you a refund, you did act in good faith and were very patient) but their policy is as below: I.E. Electrical parts are not returnable.

As to the OP posting this here. I do not think this was a very good idea and it may even possibly violate site guideline #2, the one about respect, but that is not my call. My feeling is that the OP's post is bordering on slander, however true it may be.

Now to Alta, are you going to do the right thing and give this patient gentleman a refund?

 

mine worked but I saw the writing on the wall and sold it for something like $250 after paying $750. None of the Alta parts I've purchased fit perfectly but I was able to get everything to work in the end and they were helpful and supportive along the way.

I'm sure it was a huge loss for Alta to sell this product and deal with the issues almost everybody had with it. I'm sorry to hear you were not able to get any kind of satisfactory resolution after all you've been through. Ultimately as your vendor it was 100% Alta's responsibility to reach resolution with you. If they did give you a full credit towards the purchase of other parts I'd say that is a fair resolution. Having installed their boost tubes myself, and a similar intercooler by another vendor I can attest how difficult and frustrating they can be to install, and in the end I think I probably spent more than a day between all three, including two trips to the hardware store. Are you absolutely sure there is no way they will fit? I know the intercooler does require a lot more cutting than they represent both with the inlet and outlet as well as the inside of the bumper and grille trim and the cold side boost tube is a VERY tight fit and took a great deal of patience to install.

My thought is if you could get the intercooler and boost tubes in at least you would have something to show for your time and expense.

 

You got boost tubes and an intercooler. If this met or exceeded the purchase price of your unichip I'd say they did well by you. What exactly doesn't fit? Tubes are always a ***** to install and get straight.

 

I have a unichip for sale, anyone interested?

You got allot more than most of us. I bought the Unichip for $780.00 and purchased the boost tubes and the intercooler. And they all had the same fit as yours. I am feeling like you did way better than me. I would have loved it if alta would have done that for me. All I can hope for now is that they make some big concessions on the price of their new tune (whenever it comes out) for all of us Unichip owners who bought from them and just delt with the cells. And yes I have sent mine in to alta and unichip both multiple times.

 

1. Slander is spoken, this is written; thus it would be libel.
2. Where's the untruthful part? everything is documented pretty well. Unless of course he made it all up - which I doubt.
3. No lie = no lawsuit.



In for Alta's response.

 

Is this a US spec car?

 

I don't see how this is libel or slander. The OP clearly showed that alta gave him boost tubes and an intercooler in exchange for the alta pnp and the trouble with it. They took a total loss on the pnp and sent him product, thats alright in my book. The fit of the intercooler and boost tubes are a COMPLETELY separate issue, you should talk to Alta about that privately. To tell you the truth, I think Alta did alright in the situation by taking care of you with store credit if you will. Like I said before, any issues fitting the intercooler and boost tubes are separate.

 

If they proved anything it is that they try to do their best.

Dont forget when you buy a tune or a PNP you are messing with your cars computer. No one said it would be trouble free. thats a risk you take.

 

bummer... only problem I ever had was I wanted some stickers for my gauge pods...ended up recieveing a whole new set of gauges/pods/ect.

I simply sent them back at thier expense, and had them resend the stickers that were not in the second guage package...

Its just a shame to hear.. Christina at Alta was amazing to work with... Most courteous of any vendor I've nearly ever dealt with!

 

OP - That sucks. I'm one who ended up with a good unichip but it took several tries.

Someone mentioned it might be a fault with YOUR MINI. I doubt it. Success rate for the unichips is pretty low!

What gets me is that Alta never responded to the BBB requests. That's a black mark that won't go away.

 

you do know it is not alta's fault the unichip sucked.

 

Yup, me neither. I just corrected the other guy. Some people just like to throw around the word anytime anything negative is mentioned...

 

That's not really relevant, because they took the money.

 

What concerns me more than the fact that the BBB did not receive and response from Alta, it's that Alta even sells the Unichip given it's history of being somewhat problematic and lacking the proper customer support. Alta is NOT required to respond, and really who gives two %^&ts about the BBB?

IMO, at 700 bucks, the whole MINI line should be put in the crapper until the bugs are worked out. And given the OP's Unichip issues, his MINI would have been the perfect test case to iron out some of the bugs.

Opportunity lost.....And the fact that the MINI Community is a rather small one....

Score:
Unichip = 0
Consumers = 1

The way I see it, Unichip just lost a potential customer.....because if I want a headache, I'll go back to visit my x-wife.

 

they gave you over 700 in parts. that tons of people have and that work great even if they are a pita to instal. its a mini what do you expect

 

 

I have to say... I was slightly convinced at first that you were just having major issues with your car accepting the Unichip, but after reading about your other issues with Alta parts (i.e., boost tubes and FMIC), I'm more inclined to think that you just didn't know what you were doing on the install. Lots of MINI owners have had Alta's parts installed with no issues at all, myself included.

I just have hard time believing that parts that fit everyone else's R56's aren't fitting yours.

Edit: I should add that I Alta has always treated me well as a customer. There are a lot of companies won't take any open electronics and such back for a refund. You should have read their policy before hand. At that point they really weren't obligated to do anything. They could have told you to go take it up with Unichip, and just rid themselves of the hassle. But they didn't, they swapped your stuff out a million times and gave over $800 in parts ($100+ more than you paid for the chip).

I'm really sorry that you had to go through all this, but the whole situation can't really be blamed on Alta. It was your responsibility to check their return policy, and Unichip's responsibility to make a system that works.

 

you haven't done enough reading evidently. What this guy is experiencing is not unusual. YOU may not have had any problems but lots of other people did. Same goes double for the unichip.

 

Yeah, evidently you haven't read through my post. I'm fully aware of the issues with Unichip. I was talking about the intercooler and boost tubes. Thanks.

Edit: After re-reading it, maybe it wasn't 100% clear what I was talking about. Now it is.

 

sux...i went thru the exact same situation with unichip

 

As an early adopter of the Unichip, I went through a couple of versions. Was a real pain shipping back and forth across the border. But it has been working ever since.

Drove to Alta and Jeff installed the intercooler (which was fast and seemed easy) and the boost tubes (which took twice as long and were a pain).

Even though there's been a few goofs at their end with some other parts, Alta's been supportive and I'm looking forward (impatiently) to seeing what they come up with in their ECU project.

 

To clarify a few things and address some questions.

This is a US spec car.

My car has the following mods, Alta catback, Alta intake and Alta turbo inlet tube.

When I started this ordeal with the PNP I had a DDM RIS intake, Alta catback and the turbo inlet tube on order. I use 93 octane gas supplied by Esso. I swapped the DDM intake out for the Alta intake because Alta and UNIchip suggested the intake could be the causing the PNP to throw cells.

No my MINI is not a special addition where after market parts don’t fit, and the stock tubes bolted right back up after I was done trying to fit the Alta parts. The Alta hot side tube was nearly 2 inches shorter than the stock tube. I clamped it to the turbo and tried to pull it down to the stock intercooler and could not get it to fit, and then reversed by clamping to the intercooler and pulled up towards the turbo, it just was not long enough. The Alta intercooler with the more forward mounting position exaggerated this problem.

Adam addressed this in an email correspondence on February 15, 2009, “From the description you made I would agree the hot side boost tube is too short (a couple have shipped that way recently and we have now addressed the problem.) I will get you a new one of those ( I need your inv# etc. to determine the address etc.)”

The cold side tube also had fitment issues in that the tube that branches off for the sound generator went directly between the mounting location for the stock air box mount on the manifold and the firewall. This created a solid firewall, tube, manifold intersection. I solved this by cutting the air box mounting point off. I started with the cold side tube when installing parts and was not anticipating further fitment problems, otherwise I would not have done this.

If the prototype tubes fit properly then Alta could possibly have a problem with quality control at the manufacturing level.

Some folks here think I got a great deal. Yes Alta did send me an intercooler and boost tubes, I did not really want them. The intercooler was discounted at the time so the parts added up to just a little over $700. So, no, I did not come out ahead by getting these parts, even if they fit.

 

I am starting to think that Alta handled this whole Unichip thing wrong. I work for a large parts company and when we sell an item that is a total failure and is just bad, everyone not just some had problems. and yes some are better now, however I haven't talked to one person who didn't have some problem with it. We do a recall and bite the bullet. But as it is some people got refunds some didn't.