FA20club.com Turnaround Times On Modified Tune Files

[King Tut]

Originally Posted by feldy

To all the e-tuners out there. Its in best interest of everyone if you stop offering free updates for life. As that business model will just get out of hand in the long run. Offer discounts at best for re-tunes 6months down the line and so on. Have a solid deadline when tunes can be locked down and then when people are happy that's it. Otherwise you will just end up getting booked with new tunes and old customers who got a tune a year ago is still asking for stuff and the cycle will never end. Its clearly catching up with everyone.

I'm not going to lie I almost feel guilty as hell sending tony stuff now after how much I spammed him over the summer and what not. I was at the point of paying for that discounted 3rd tune from him just to update my pump gas tune. If the consumer is starting to feel guilty I can't imagine the stress Tony has. these cars are not even the only cars he tunes. This is just one platform imagine offering free updates to every platform you offer tunes for its a logistical nightmare.

And I agree. Tony was the 2nd person to offer tunes for the frs. He had to compete with the first tuner who came out and offered free updates for life. Maybe offer that for the first few that bought tunes and then cut it off or something.

I am not opposed to that. That is definitely the way the business model is in the Open Source tuning world. You pay a little more up front for the intial tune and less for any secondary tunes if you change parts or want to up the boost. The difference is that he is selling EcuTek tunes where we already invested around $600 just for the license and cable and now are paying Toni more for the tune. With that kind of $1000 investment you would like to not have to pay any more money in the future. I have been running on the same tune file for over 2 months now. Is it perfect? No. Are there things I would like changed? Yes. Is it worth me taking the time to submit logs and have Toni try to fix them? Not at this time, which is why I haven't. I do like knowing that should I decide to spend the time and effort that Toni will be there to make small quick changes to my ROM and e-mail it to me, but I submit very specific log files that demonstrate exactly what I want changed.

[jamesm]

this is just another case of a common problem. honestly i feel bad for them, i doubt they're out to upset their customers. imagine that on top of that, all of this old workload that is bogging them down returns them nothing. that money's long been spent. this is why i always argue that the model is broken. free updates for life is not a sustainable business model.

free base maps, with a la carte updates for a fee. you have to couple workload to revenue. there's nothing wrong with being swamped, as long as your making money the whole time. it is correct that the ecutek model just doesn't support this because of the licensing cost and the fact that no one else can tune your car. you're literally married to your ecutek tuner, for better or worse (usually worse in my experience), unless you don't mind paying a bunch out of pocket again.

i wish nothing more than for tony to transition to using an open platform and make this all work under a new model. he's the best tuner we have if you believe the internet. i'm close by and having tune issues, i'd love to run his tune instead but i'm not going to marry the guy for it .

[ecko04]

Always better to call before resulting to these threads...they always seem to take a turn for the worst.

[feldy]

I had a big long post but all this talk about ecutek vs open source needs to stop in this thread. It has nothing to do with the subject at hand. This thread just got derailed.

Originally Posted by jamesm

this is just another case of a common problem. honestly i feel bad for them, i doubt they're out to upset their customers. imagine that on top of that, all of this old workload that is bogging them down returns them nothing. that money's long been spent. this is why i always argue that the model is broken. free updates for life is not a sustainable business model.

free base maps, with a la carte updates for a fee. you have to couple workload to revenue. there's nothing wrong with being swamped, as long as your making money the whole time. it is correct that the ecutek model just doesn't support this because of the licensing cost and the fact that no one else can tune your car. you're literally married to your ecutek tuner, for better or worse (usually worse in my experience), unless you don't mind paying a bunch out of pocket again.

i wish nothing more than for tony to transition to using an open platform and make this all work under a new model. he's the best tuner we have if you believe the internet. i'm close by and having tune issues, i'd love to run his tune instead but i'm not going to marry the guy for it .

[CK_Bladesmith]

I just called them about my logs and was told that he just got finished with tunes up to October 5th. Just be patient guys. Giving them a call is the best thing you can do.

[Yobiwan]

base tune for 1week,
1st logs for 2week
then 2nd log for 1week (I received today =)!!)
It's hard to wait but be patient guys. calling to him is another way of consuming his time.
If you got autoreply email for logs then he will send tune.

[mike_ekim1024]

Originally Posted by CK_Bladesmith

I just called them about my logs and was told that he just got finished with tunes up to October 5th. Just be patient guys. Giving them a call is the best thing you can do.

The long wait is one thing, but the lack of professionalism is another. I emailed concerns about my tune having knocks, and sent them another log. What I got back was the auto reply to the log - nothing about my concerns, nothing saying sorry we're back logged, and to this day I don't know who I was corresponding with because the emails were all impersonal or short sentence fragments.

Below is an example of great customer service (from modbargains). Personal, but professional and timely. Even if they can't help, they gave me useful advice. I have no affiliations with them, this is just an example.

"Mike,

I don't have any matching paint or paint pens for touch up on these wheels I apologize. I would suggest finding a local wheel repair specialist. I know sometimes you might be able to find a mobile repair guy who will come to you and repair the wheel, usually they're pretty good, and the matte gunmetal isn't too hard to match.

Good luck! Let me know if you need anything else!"

[FR-S Matt]

Originally Posted by CK_Bladesmith

I just called them about my logs and was told that he just got finished with tunes up to October 5th. Just be patient guys. Giving them a call is the best thing you can do.

That's what I'll be doing. Logs were sent Sept. 30th. Nothing still.

[Sportsguy83]

I got a reply yesterday and yes, I was sending them to the wrong email

[JerryMichaels7]

Got the initial tune, sent logs 9 buisness days later got the update, sent logs again, 6 buisness days got a response and I didn't log MAF voltage... just have wait a little, although I am N/A so i can go to stock if i have an issue

[mike_ekim1024]

One thing my fiancé pointed out was that not everyone is a touch typist.. For me, email is faster than phone.. Type, type, type, send - done. But for non techies, it may be the other way around. I hadn't considered this, and was confused why someone would say to call instead of email.

[Ryan86]

Joined FA20Club a month ago, service is excellent, communication is always responded within 12 hours on mail sent in.
Sent many logs and even had remote tuning by Toni, never waited more than 48 hours or 2 days.
Andy and Toni, keep up the excellent work.

[FR-S Matt]

I received my tune file from Toni on a Sunday morning. This guy is dedicated. Thank you FA20club.

[stevo_12v]

Wouldn't waste my money/time on e-tuning unless you want a grenaded engine.
I bought a FA20Club tune, waste of money for two reasons. Tony's lack of customer service/communication and the fact that EcuTek here in Australia are a bunch of money grubbing pricks(I wanted to get an EcuTek tune from a local workshop that specialised in EcuTek, they would not tune it as it was not purchased through the proper channels(MRT), so fuck MMS and fuck MRT).

Wasted a couple hun on a EcuTek licence which I never used(unless you count a 'base tune' as worthwhile). It was flashed back to stock settings and actually runs better than the base tune. Took me over 5 weeks for a follow up email from FA20Crap, just for my first recorded logs. I decided that I'm not gonna piss-fart around with Tony and cut my losses.

My car's FINALLY going to be tuned tomorrow properly on a dyno. Will be using BRZEdit with a local tuner here.. not as good as EcuTek, but less politics and bullshit behind it. I only require ONE map anyway.