Why ECS Tuning sucks.....

I’ve bought lots of stuff from ecs and pelican, but have been using outmotoring, detroittuned, wmw, and even amazon much more lately.

 

Thank god I never ordered from them

 

Is there a list of M/A sponsors on the site?

 

Found it after a little digging and searching.
https://www.motoringalliance.com/showcase/category/sponsors-vendors-dealers-shops.16/

 

My favorite is eMINIparts.com. Very friendly & helpful as are all of the M/A sponsors.

Back to ECS. I tried to buy JCW suspenders for my R53. Called & talked to a rude guy who didn't have the time to help me. Called eMINIparts.com & they set me up with a very friendly price.

Fast forward 4 years & I managed to buy some oil filters for my GTI from ECS. Took quite a while to get them & I'm only about 60 miles away from them. Lesson learned I'm done with them.

I'm very glad Jalopnik wrote that article exposing them for the lying cheats they are. Caveat emptor folks.

 

Have never purchased from ECS but did from Pelican before ECS bought them. Won’t be buying from Pelican. I’ll use the sponsors of M/A.

 

I thought we had more sponsors, but I always use the sponsor sites. DT and eMINIparts are my go to's. Bought from ECS twice, first time my order didn't ship within a month so I cancelled it. Mind you if I hadn't reached out they would've never let me know what the hold up was, it was a back order for some lug bolts. LUG BOLTS. The second time I ordered same deal only I didn't wait a month to cancel, it only took me 2 weeks. Awful place, awful customer service.

 

In most instances its the lowest price that people are looking for. The days of Mom & Pop stores are like black & white TVs.

As far as censorship goes, put a post up over there at the BBB site, I would not have an issue with it if it was to be informative and not bashing.

 

Bytetronics, Dinan and RMW have all been criticized of late over there.

 

I try and use the M/A sponsors as much as I can, sometimes the wallet has to find other vendors. I have never used ECS, prices were usually the deterring factor. I have used Pelican on multiple occasions with no issues. Parts were always on time, usually earlier than anticipated, and the customer service was great. As the article mentions they do have some good DIY write ups.
Speaking of parts, I need to get a few things on order before I forget.

 

I usually buy from MA’s sponsors, but I have gotten some stuff from ECS - Taillights, headlights, and fog lights. All arrived quickly, packaged fine, and undamaged (though I haven’t installed the fog lights yet - should be doing that soonish though).

The article did mention that ECS is addressing the complaints, so maybe I’m a beneficiary of that.

As far as Pelican goes - I visit them regularly for the guides, not only the ones for MINI but also when working on my friend’s and family’s various GTIs. Haven’t had any problems there either.

 

I've only ever had 2 issues w/ ECS.

1) I bought a small piece of plastic, a filler plug. It was in a MINI OEM box, that was in a bag, that was in another bag, that was put in a box, that was put in a box and then shipped. I received a 14"x12"x4" package for something the size of a standard house key that was made of hard plastic and wasn't fragile.

2) I placed an order for 10 or so parts, but lets say exactly 10 for the sake of explanation. I paid for expedited shipping as it was Tuesday morning and I wanted to be sure that I got the parts in time to do the job over the next weekend. Tuesday goes by... no shipping notification... wednesday, no notification. I called Thursday morning and found that one of the parts wasn't actually in stock (a ZIP TIE for $1), so they held all $300 of parts because a $1 zip tie wasn't in stock. I told them to cancel the zip tie and they had the order on the way within the hour. It arrived late on Friday, so my Saturday wrenching session was saved. A smaller, more personalized shop like Way/DetroitTuned/OutMotoring would have figured that out themselves and called me to confirm what I wanted to do. Odds are that those shops wouldn't have had my odd selection of parts on hand, though (fuel filler neck and associated bits).

I order big stuff or unique items from the smaller, community vendors (ex: I bought my strut tower bar from Way as I like Texas Speed Works designs and he bought them out for those designs, so I think he should get the business). I also paid a bit more for Collin Green's coil over setup for all of the R&D that went into improving over the BC/Swift stock equipment. A place like ECS serves a purpose every now and then.

In regards to not treating employees well... I've been there. I've worked for places that I enjoyed, were bought out and then became not-so-fun places to work. You either try to fix it, suck it up or leave. It's a business and, if it doesn't belong to you, you don't get to make the rules. That's life in the modern era.

Oh yeah... Kudos to DetroitTuned. A few weeks back I got a chance to do a night on the track and needed a Schroth harness setup quickly. I called DT, they did a bunch of calling around and found what I needed in-stock and had it shipped quickly so it arrived within 48 hours of my phone call and I made it to my track event securely attached to the seat. Another reason to appreciate the community shops!

 

I am happy to say that I have never bought anything from ECS. I will buy what parts I need from a supplier that I know is basically a small mom & pop business, and I have never had a problem getting a part...sometimes it takes a minute or two. I buy parts from places like Detroit Tuned and Out Motoring. Even if it costs a couple of dollars more, I know that these businesses take pride in their customer service...and that means a lot to me. Plus, if I do have a problem I can talk to the boss to resolve the problem, not just an employee. So far, in the 40 years I restored air-cooled VWs and the three years I have been in the MINI community, I have never had a problem that was not resolved quickly to my satisfaction.