[34dean]

Stay away from Excelerate Performance in Branford, CT. I recently had a very bad experience and found their customer support ridiculously poor.

I scheduled to have a new charge pipe installed and told them ahead of time I had a hard stop leave time for a meeting. They assured me it would be done in time. It wasn't. It ran over an hour late and I missed my meeting that afternoon. As i was leaving, the service technician and counter attendant told me that there was damage to my coolant system and that they "patched it up to get me on the road" but I should "have it taken care of". I was in such a rush to try and get to my meeting that I needed to get out of there rather than argue with them. Fast forward to a week later and my car was leaking coolant. I had to pull off the road and fill my tank. It happened a few days later again.
I use my car for work and could not continue with this so i had my local mechanic sort out and it needed multiple parts. Total with labor was $465.00.

I sent a copy of the work performed to Excelerate and asked what they would do for me, seeing as how it was them that caused the damage.

Here are the emails:


Hi (Contact at Excelerate),
Your shop recently installed a new charge pipe on my 2015 BMW 335i.
In performing this work, damage occurred to my coolant system and coolant leaked out of my car twice causing me to pull over and wait for the engine to cool down and then fill. Your shop mentioned it to me upon leaving and told me to bring it to my mechanic. I brought the car to my local shop and they sorted the problem. A copy of the receipt is attached.

Please confirm how you will reimburse me for this work. I am okay with a shop credit as I am planning on more modifications.



Hey Todd,

Good to hear from you, and thanks for the email! I would be happy to figure out what we can do for you here. Was there someone here you spoke to that had said to take the car to another shop for the repair and we would cover the bill? That is not typical procedure but there are exceptions to every rule!

I do not see any emails in regards to this prior to this one. Just want to make sure I'm not missing anything!


(Me)
I am not sure the person’s name but it was the person that took my payment. The job went much longer than I had expected and I needed to get to a meeting which I ended up missing because it took longer for the car to be finished. My guess is that the damage may have occurred in the technicians haste of getting finished? Because my car was losing so much coolant and that I had to stop a couple times, I brought it to my local mechanic because I needed to have it fixed and I rarely am down in the New Haven area with business.


(Them)
Thanks for the reply, and apologize again for the appointment that ended up taking longer than anticipated. The damage did occur on reassembly, but it was not because of haste. The coolant fittings are plastic and are a common failure point on these cars. They go through a ton of heat cycles which makes them become more and more brittle over time, and susceptible to cracking under little pressure. This is what happened here when he went to reinstall the hose. It is something that was unavoidable in this case.

The conversation around check out was not that the vehicle should be brought to another shop for the repair, but that we would have to find some time to make this repair for you despite how busy things were in the back of the shop. We just would not have been able to get parts the same day so we repaired it the best we could at 5:00pm. Per our parts & service warranty, if there is an issue with the install the vehicle need to be brought back here for the repair. You can see the specifics on our website here: https://excelerateperformance.com/se...rranty-pricing.

I would also like to bring to your attention that we knew what the issue was, so the ~$80 diag charge was not necessary. The leak was just coming from the bleeder hose. Furthermore, the replacement breather hose lists for $41.63 and you were charged $85.00 for the same part. The radiator hose was also marked up. Those list for $75.00 and you were charged $125.00 for it.

If the vehicle had been brought back to us, it would have been a $41 dollar part with no labor, as we would have good willed the 20 minutes it would have taken to replace it. Given the above circumstances, and the fact that the policy was not followed, my hands are tied in this situation and there is nothing I would be able to offer.


(Me)
This is disappointing to hear. I was never told to bring the car back to you, I was told to see my dealer. To be inconvenienced twice on the highway and then having to bring it to have it fixed due to your shop's error should not be at my cost. I was even willing to accept a shop credit towards more work I was considering your shop for!

I am left with a bitter taste in my mouth and find your decision extremely unfair.



(Them)
Hey Todd,

Thanks for the reply, and I apologize again for the frustrations caused by this. As previously stated the intention was not to send you out with a car that leaked, but rather to get you headed home as soon as possible and straighten it out for you when we had time to schedule it back in; and you had time to bring the car back down. Apologies if this was not properly conveyed upon checkout.

If the car had failed you twice on the drive home the proper thing to do would have been to turn around and leave the car with us so we could rectify it for you. I am not truly looking to be abrasive, but there is not anyone in the shop that would tell you to bring the car elsewhere as that simply breaks policy.

With all that being said, we do not want to leave a bad taste in anyone's mouth and appreciate your business. To help offset the troubles we would be more than happy to offer you a $75.00 gift card and the absolute deepest discount possible on the parts you were looking at moving forward. We do not want to stick you with the price of the repairs, but if the vehicle was returned to us all we would have needed was a $45.00 part (picture attached). While it puts you in a tight spot, this puts us in one as well since we should not be held accountable for another shops unreasonable mark up.

Let me know if you have any in perusing the above.

Thanks for understanding




(Me)
It failed twice after I had returned home from your shop. Once a few days later and then again a couple days after. Clearly the damage caused by your shop worsened over time.
I am extremely busy and scheduling any time to be without my car is a major hassle. This entire experience has been beyond frustrating and I am out $465 due to your shop's damage.





I did not receive a reply to my last reply. I also contacted my local mechanic who told me they used OEM BMW parts and that there was no way the parts cost Excelerate stated were true.


I would appreciate hearing input from you guys.


Thanks,
Todd

[T5viggen]

As much as it sucks, I'm not sure I would put much blame on Excelerate .

First off I feel that its bad planing to have it done on the day of a meeting let alone within a specific time frame. Any one of endless complications could come up on used cars regardless of the typical ease of install. Step back and think, if you had not been in a rush would you have had them fix the issue then and there? Another shop might have had the same issue arise and needed more time to have it fixed properly. Estimates are just that, estimates. It's what the job will cost if everything goes to plan. I'm not sure if you work on your own cars, but it's always a great day when a day of maintenance or installs go without anything breaking or bolts needing extra persuasion or countless other issues that come up and turn your simple 2 hour job into a 4+ hour headache.

Second, that hurry put you in a rush to leave there without any documented proof of the coolant leak and statement that they would reimburse you for the fix done by another shop. A lesser shop might have pushed you out the door without mentioning anything and/or denied it all. With no written proof of it, they conferred with their employees and still stepped up and admitted to the problem.

Third, I don't blame them for not taking care of a bill from another shop at face value. That other shop will mark up parts and labor. Hypothetically: That shop that you brought your car to might charge you $1000 for a job. The cost to their bottom line for parts and paid employees might be $500. Excelerate would now be paying $1000 instead of costing them $500 for same job.

At the end of the day, I think it was your hurry that caused the extra headaches. I know it's not what you want to hear, but I think Todd has it right.

[_tlink]

I agree blame should not be placed on Excelerate.

You knew about an issue and were told that you needed to get it repaired, from the text they never explicitly told you to take it elsewhere. You also decided to neglect the repair since you are "so busy" and it inconvenienced you on 2 occasions. Modifications always come with a chance of breaking components on accident (has happened to most) and extra issues come along with it. Yes maybe Excelerate could have addressed their warranty policy better but at he same time that information is public. This is more laziness then anything on your end since you didn't want to follow up with them and decided to take it straight to another shop and then slap Excelerate with the bill.

[NormanConquest]

I've had tons of work done on my car both at independent shops and bmw service station and I never ever walk in expecting my car to be done in a set time. I establish a back up plan such as requesting a loaner, friend picks me up, or urber/cab. Rushing technician is a recipe for disaster and establish bad relationships. Due to my patience and working with the shops I've had BMW service station give me massive discounts or perks while independent shops give me top tier service. I think this was more of the owner not putting himself in the other parties shoes, unfortunately something most of society is lacking nowadays

[cmplaya]

OP getting ripped to shreds....