I have been a repeat customer of Alta Performance. This happened in my last order:

I ordered a bunch of parts from Alta Sept 1 2008. Received the parts about 5 days later. One of the parts, the turbo tube was too short and did not fit. I sent them a bunch of pictures via e-mail and talked with the tech people. We agreed that I cannot use it. After more correspondence, the finally gave me a return authorization mumber. I sent back the part at my expense with the agreement that they will send me a longer one. About a week and a half later, I received the "new" turbo tube which turned out to be a dirty old one that is even shorter than the previous one. After more pictures, they agreed that this one is worse than the previous one.

At that point, after a bunch more correspondence, the offered me three alternatives:
This is the exact full e-mail from Christina (from Alta):
"I am very sorry about that!!!
Normally, I would send a replacement out to you, but at this time, we do not have any in stock. Apparently the tool/equipment to make this product are broken and people are working on fixing it, and there is no ETA as to when these will be available again...
So at this point you've got a couple options:
You can return the part to us and we will backorder a part for you (But, like I said, ETA in undetermined)
You can return the part for a full refund.
OR you can return the part for in store credit AND I can get you a discount on your next order.
Again, I'm sorry about the inconvenience, please let me know what I can do for you!"

After more correspondence, I chose a full refund. Then they abruptly stopped corresponding with me. E-mails were cc to Adam as per his request. They would not give me a return authorization number (RMA) or written back to me. I am out $$$ and have a dirty old part that does not fit. I had to get hold of my credit card company and they managed to get a RMA for me. Now Alta refused to give me a refund, perhaps because I approached my credit card company. Also, they want me to send them the junk part back again at my expense. This is becoming an expensive lesson for me. Alta is great at taking your money and when there is a problem, you are on your own. They are also great are going back on their word even though it is in an e-mail.

What shall I do now?

 

In my previous dealings regarding the PNP Ecu I had very good interactions with Alta. The product did not really work as planned but they id eveyrhting posisble to try to fix it and eventually turned into a refund (which was fine).

I recently ordered a pair of laminx fog light covers (2 sets)...I made sure to select the correct car (r56)..when received the product...Invoice says R56 fog lamp covers yet they are about 1 1/2" in diameter....called Alta, don't remember who I spoke with first. Let me get your contact information and we will get everything straightened out. Week goes by no call nothing...

Decide to call Alta now or a second time...spoke to chris who asked me to send them a couple of pics to tech@altaminiperformance.com...send him a pic of the cover in front of my foglight..clearly shows its about 2 inches smaller in diameter. They sent me an r53 cover. call him back and he tells me the part # is correct yet i have the wrong product.

I know that it's $30 worth of product but the service really has gone to sh** at alta. Since then I have not received any calls and still have R53 fog light covers while i have 2 r56's sitting in the driveway.

 

Sounds like ALTA is loosing their great reputation for customer satisfaction. Maybe their going out of business.!!!!

 

Hey slinger,

Sorry to hear about an extended problem. Obviously something is amiss here and I am happy to help resolve it.

1) We did have some issues with trimming on the AMP-INT-430 INLET Hose R56

2) If ANY clients got one that was bad, we will replace it. PERIOD.

3) The tooling to make the item did break. Making it impossible to make new ones for a period of time.

4) Tooling is cycling now, and fresh shipments are going to clients each week.

5) Credit Card companies can't get RMA's. Something must be amiss with the chronology above. We issue RMA's to clients like yourself and follow through with them on replacements or refunds.

6) We need the part back to make the refund to you. Seems easy enough. Send the part back, SEND ME the tracking and I will handle it personally. NO BIG DEAL! But yes, no returned part, no refund. Even the credit card companies will tell you, the part needs to be returned to be entitled to a refund.

7) The e-mail quoted by Christina seems to be very reasonable. Including offering a discount and a refund. (See #6 above to get the refund)

8) Finally, I answer EVERY SINGLE E-MAIL I GET! No matter how silly to how important, I at least acknowledge every single one. PLUS you are a member of NAM, send me a PM! I ANSWER EVERY SINGLE PM AS WELL! So the comment that we" abruptly stopped corresponding with me" goes a bit flat to me.

GET ME THE INFO on the return shipment and I will process the refund personally. Not much more I can say than that!

THANK YOU for your business and I hope to get this resolved and move forward for you on other fun things with your MINI!

 

Thanks for the post. I was involved with this one too. Not to point the finger of blame elsewhere, but Lamin-X labeled the items incorrectly. My staff pulled and shipped you the correct part, but you then got the wrong part.

Now Stephen and Chris both jumped into get things handled ASAP for you! In fact Stephen just spoke to you and gave you the tracking number for your replacement shipment.

I would look at it this way, it IS only a $30 item, yet we got the head of purchasing to jump in, get you the right item, chew out the manufacturer all within a 24 hour period. I think you are being a bit unfair by saying you didn't hear anything back. I HEARD both Chris and Stephen talk to you on the phone.

I ask that you correct your statement to be reflective of what happened and how quickly we addressed the issue for you. We have no problem taking criticism, but I don't see how we could have helped correct this any faster or better.

Thank you again though for your order!

 

We aren't going anywhere! Still loving the MINI's, loving the community and thankful for the business the NAM membership gives us! Looking forward to 2009!

Anything else folks, PLEASE let me know!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS NAM!

 

I understand your frustration in getting a part that doesn't fit your car. Yet from what your telling us and reading Alta's letter to you it seems that they are acting in a completely professional manner and doing everything humanly possible to satisfy you at this point. They are offering a full refund, store credit, or putting your part on back order. They've also answered your emails and spoken with you directly. Not sure what more you can ask for?

When you customize and modify a vehicle there are times when you'll run into road blocks or difficulties.

 

First I will say I have spent thousands with Alta and have dealt with everyone you mentioned and they are a great bunch of folks. I met Adam at SEMA and he is a stand up guy. I have had nothing but positive dealings with them and think it not fair to slam a vendor in a public forum without all the proper communication. You know you can call Adam direct if you have an issue...I did more than one time and never had a problem speaking to him.

 

Jumping on board....
I am a fairly new customer of Alta and haven't spent all that much money with them (yet) but I have just recently had an experience where Adam and his crew went above and beyond what could be expected to provide complete customer satisfaction.
I am not saying that there are not unfortunate situations that occur but I am convinced that when they do occur Alta will do everything within their power to resolve the issue.
Sorry that you've had problems but I'm betting that your issues will be resolved in pretty short order.

Just my $.02
Jim

 

I think that is a very fair statement. We ARE NOT PERFECT (try as any company would of course) and there will be those unfortunate cases where someone or something falls through the cracks. I hope we can continue to minimize them whenever possible.

Thank you again!

 

I recommend ALTA, for both their products and their customer service. Now you know, if you have any problems, PM Adam immediately.

 

 

I have spoken to Adam before and have cc him many times in my e-mails. I laid out my issues fairly and asked NAM for help. My question is what to do next. You like Adam and like dealing with Alta, that is great. It does not solve mine issue.

 

Adam, Please reread my post one more time.

True, credit card companies do not issue RMA. I asked them to help me get one from you. They did it by reversing the funds. Then someone in your company gave them a RMA and it was sent to me. I asked for an RMA and a refund but then silence from you and your company.

I feel I should not have to continually paid for shipping of the defective part back to you. That is the main issue. The replacement part was even more defective than the original. Then you want me to pay for shipping back to you again, even after I paid for shipping for the first defective part and the original in the beginning. I think you should cover shipping for the defective part back to you.

Christina was very reasonable in her e-mail to me. But then silence when I asked for refund over and over again. Then someone laid down the law, no refunds for me.

All I want is to me made whole. No extra cash for defective parts. This means refund for the part, refund for all shipping.

Since I cannot get anyone to reply to me, this seems like the reasonable way to go. Remember this has been three and a half months.

 

Well thanks Adam, you're right I did hear back from Alta..after my fourth call..And I did get the tracking # after I called back again today...

I thank you guys for getting everything worked out in the end....just a courtesy call would have been nice of what was going on...

I do have to say previously dealing with you never had any problems with the pnp ECU...so my error was just not contacting you...

 

Yes, I have spent a thousand +++ with them as well. This one really fell through their normal process. I am not saying they are a bad company. They sometimes require a lot of follow-up before they do anything. I am only outlining my issues and asking NAM about what to do.

Just want it resolved without wasting more money.

 

I guess I am not the only one to experience this service from them. Hope you get your issue resolved as well.

 

eR1C,

Christina was very professional in her e-mail. I enclosed the entire e-mail so you can see what she said w/o any changes or snips. After I asked for the refund, I also asked for the return authorization number many times and even cc Adam. They stopped corresponding with me. Without the RMA, I could not get the part back to them. They also refused to pay for shipping for the first or second defective part. I ended up with all this out of pocket costs. Then, they refused to do the refund saying that I am not eligible for it.

 

I have written many e-mails to them about this without response. I think Alta will find the e-mails if they looked at their server backups.

 

You continue to bash the vendor....sounds to me like there is more to the story!!!!

 

Just answering the questions and comments.

 

yeah.. kinda made me wonder... looks like the vendor said.. ok this is what im willing to do.. after you brought it to nam.. he said stay in touch with me.. and we will get this resolved.. personally i think with alta's post here, there really isnt anymore complaining you can do.. i realize you got the wrong part.. he has offered his solution.. so why not take the intiative and get it taken care of? kudos to alta..

 

Hope it works out...but like I said sounds like there is more to the story.

 

No story, Thanks. I hope it works out as well. All I want is to be made whole w/o paying out of my pocket for returning defective parts many times and get my full refund.

 

while i never bought anything from alta, it seems like they have some good products/customer service and are well known in the mini community. honestly, i hate pinhead comments like this since its listening to one side of the argument and that's it. thats how bad rumors start. we dont know both sides to the story, so its probably best not to jump into a BK thread.

and secondly, learn how to spell before you bark off some inane judgment.

/rant. ok, i feel better now.