This is so sad I want to cry for you my friend. I have seen your post and all your enthusiasm about your project only to hear that it has not been completed.

Powerchip and everyone else involved dropped the ball on this one . Seriously, $30K, which is a lot of money. Your frustration is understandable but to be honest I would have been in jail long time ago. I would have started from the head all the way to the janitor...I would have B-tch slapped everyone.

How can they quote you 10k for a tune?, WTF!! I sure hope MBworld does something regarding this...this is just too low, Please MBWorld tell me you stand behind your members, tell me this guy didn't spend 30K of his hard earned money feeding the mouths of god knows how many *******s only for him to go home at the end of the night and tell his wife he just blew 30K out the window and hasn't driven his car in 10 months....PLEASE tell me you would do something....Tell me there is justice...

I know a lot of people with 55K's that currently need tunes. From this day forward powerchip is crossed off my list. It will spread like wild fire...I always give recommendations on which tuners to use, and they sure won't be one of them.

Get your car to Arizona man...Hooleyboy, mad respect for stepping up to this challenge. The best friend someone could have in this industry is honesty and compassion for people like him.

Hey- I have a 1990 honda civic, i'll sell it to you for $15k- it's an SI!!

^^^ Exactly my point. There is one of the guys I was pushing. Thx.

I will be willing to help you pick up your ride. Also could help arrange towing if needed. PM

hell yeah, thats stepping up to help a member.

Agree w/ everyone else - $10k for custom ECU tuning is way too much, even for your one-off custom MB/AMG/Kleemann/etc project.

Are they developing a standalone control unit and tuning it for you or something? Otherwise, excessive is an understatement - my first impression is that it sounds like an "opportunistic" quote given the extensive, on-going mod expenses you've incurred to date in your C55 build.

PC custom-tuned (i.e. by a live human ) bassn_07's record-setting, heavily modded E55 - while I don't know what he paid, you might want to PM him and "compare notes." I highly doubt it was anywhere near $10k. Why do they assume yours would be so much more difficult/costly?

Wow, what a sad situation. I feel very bad for the OP. I hope that this board and the members of this board can help him out and get his car running right. Next time do some research before you spend your money.

Vadim charged me only $299 with his holiday special. Since when did Powerchip become such a ripoff???

10K means they dont want to do it. Its like a dude getting a tattoo in a place the artist doesn't want to do it.

wow, 10k...
i paid fraction of it for dyno tune and prolly most gain out of all...
go wid different tuner and spend remaining 8~9K on other mods or savings account....

Ill do the tune for you for 9 grand

Are you located on the east coast? I have someone you should talk to before you spend that much money.

No they said they trust Vadim's work. He had lots of nice things to say about Vadim. They sit side by side in the same office.

Why did your thread in the w211 AMG forum get deleted?

This is truly an outrage. The guy has been a loyal customer for a couple of years, he spent a LOT of money with them, has been very extremely patient throughout the entire process, and have always been praising Powerchip along the way.... yet now, they leave him out to dry If they do this to some of their best customers, what should others expect?

Not to mention the "lost parts" issue. When a high-end company dealing with very high-end cars starts losing parts, then a red flag should be drawn out right away.

Like I said, this is truly an outrage. I hope Powerchip can issue some type of explanation or they'll start losing a lot of business.

Glass half-full me says because his car is a C55.

Glass half-empty me says because there's less traffic in this section.

it appears that it has been merged into this one....

you the man!

yah....less traffic = less attention......this is absolute CRAP

Whoa, this thread is out of control! lol

I started multi-quoting, but then gave up.

Listen, I think that some clarity and perspective might help.

Vadim and Powerchip are NOT the same company. Any money paid to Vadim or business given to him has nothing to do with Powerchip. Vadim rented space from Powerchip and purchased goods like any other customer - that was the extent of the business relationship. People who say "Robert paid Vadim all this money, so Powerchip owes Rabert" are so wrong. Anything that Robert paid to Vadim is between Robert and Vadim - it has NOTHING to do with Powerchip.

Robert's car is a bit of a potential problem for anyone. Robert has called many shops looking for another place to work on or finish his car. I know that at least one of them has quoted him a very high amount (it was us, evosport) due to the fact that there are so many known problems and shortcuts with the car, the risks to work on it are high. With high risks, you better get a high reward - so that comes with a higher price tag.

Taking a known problem car is a losing bet for nearly any shop or tuner. You have a customer that has already spent lot's of money with one shop and not reached their goals, so they have little money left. Then they want the new shop to fix everything (which typically means undo and redo everything) for less money. That does not make sense.

For those that say "Powerchip just did not want to do it" well that is not true. They did want to do it, at their price. It was clearly not worth it to them to take on the risk with this car for any less of a financial reward.

Should they by punished for that? WHY would they? It is called free-market. If Robert does not like it, he can gladly go to another tuner or shop. There is no problem that I see in any of this.

Maybe some of you need an analogy. I used to be a business and turn-around consultant. In that industry, you basically apply the same tools to each job. However, the price to the customer is radically different. If you believe you can fix the problem easily and in little time with no "follow up" or "warranty" work on the back end, then the price is lower. If you know you will have a lot of face time and follow up meetings, then you price it much higher. It is the same here.

To sum it up - risk must equal reward. There is a significant risk to work on this car. As such, Powerchip internally decided that it only made sense for them if the reward was $10,000.

Like it or not, that is a totally practical and rational business decision.

Enough has been discussed on this, there is nothing more to gain. People will have their own opinions and are entitled to them. What I am not OK with is a company being bashed for making legitimate business decisions.

Robert - if you believe in another tuner, go to them. That is your choice and it sounds like almost anyone here would support you in that.

thanks
Brad

it was not deleted it was merged as he started the same exact thread in two forums, and this is the proper forum.

Posts like this are what are "CRAP"

there are rules on this site, and if you don't like them - DON'T VISIT THIS SITE.

Starting the SAME thread in multiple forums is not allowed (not on this forum or any that I know of). This discussion has NOTHING to do with the w211, now does it?

This is the proper forum for it.

If you don't agree, maybe you want to step up and try moderating the forums? Or maybe you just want to hurl insults and accusations without having the facts? So which is it? You can PM the answer to me as I am now closing this thread.