I had ordered a S197 GT JLTII+SCT XCAL3 Pkg from Doug at Bama and I thought you would all want to know about this. Doug is a pretty decent tuner but he is a GREAT Individual! In calling to report the dramatic performance increase with just his CAI/Tune in the first outing compared to my all-time best. I casually mentioned that my S&B Filter had gotten a little crushed by UPS but it was no big deal after I popped it back out. The wire was just slightly crimped. I thought he would want to know so he could take action to prevent it in the future. I went on thinking nothing of it. Well! Guess what shows up on my doorstep this afternnon via UPS? Another S&B Filter! Now I have a spare. I called protesting but he just said, "I treat people the way I want to be treated. Thats how I operate my business. You are not going to have damaged merchandise unreplaced by me". Ohhhh! The JLTII/ Mailorder Tune I was so happy with? Results in Sig. This almost sounds like a paid testimomial LOL!
im saving my nickels for a tuner/cai combo. i've been thinking about brenspeed but i have read so many things like this about doug i may just have to get mine from him.
Maybe he's better over the phone. He seemed very put off by having to answer several of my emails previously, so I switched over to Brenspeed. I like the service and tunes I'm getting now, better. Maybe he doesn't like having to answer emails, but that's part of doing business on the internet. But glad he worked out for you. I know there's plenty of people that have had good experiences with him. Moving to talk.
Personally speaking. I've been one of Doug's customers, for well over 2 years now. And although at times, it may take him a week or so, before he's able to respond, however. It's not because he's put off, by having to answer e-mails.. The fact is..Doug is still a one man operation, who's extremely busy with dyno tuning sessions along with taking customer orders, both online and over the telephone. In which it's nearly impossible to answer each and every e-mail he receives, prior to a 5-7 day period. Perhaps vendors such as Brenspeed, and other tuners have much quicker response times, but they also have customer service departments, and employees to depend on.. Where on the other hand, Doug clearly does not..Therefore, as far as I'm concerned..His custom mail order programs, are well worth the wait. IMHO..there isn't another vendor/tuner, who's as dedicated to their customers as Doug is..For he's always been there, in providing both feedback and support, whenever I've needed it most !
I'm not talking about a delay in emails. I know he's a one man show, and expected that. But with a few of the responses I got, he seemed VERY put off. And while we're at it, maybe he should hire a person or two. You can't do EVERYTHING yourself. At least get someone to do the grunt work... shipping, receiving, payments, stuff like that.... But he just never seemed seemed happy to have me as a customer. Where as Marcello and Brent always seems glad to hear from me. My tunes were never right. With both cars I was off on AFR, even after sending dyno sheets and having him tweak them. I made sure to label each email about the proper car, but things go confused several times. I got mislabeled tunes a few times, and was never really sure which tune was for which car. I had to ask more questions than I felt I should have. Again, this is just my experience. I know plenty of people have had great experiences. Obviously Doug and I just didn't click. I wouldn't tell people to not do business with Doug. That said, I am more apt to recommend Brenspeed. Unless you want an auto tune. Then I'll probably still recommend Doug.
I'm sorry to hear that your experiences weren't good ones.. Although I'm not trying to make excuses or anything, but perhaps you just may have caught Doug on a bad day or something.. Just as everyone does, once in awhile.. However what you've just described, doesn't sound anything like Doug at all..In fact there's been times where he would spend well over an hour on the phone, addressing each of my questions until he knew.. I fully understood where he was coming from.. Even after I apologized for taking so much of his time..His exact words were, he's a very firm believer in treating others, in the very same way that he would expect to be treated himself.. Needless to say, that was more than enough to convince about his character as a person..In which I haven't forgotten to this day.. As for hiring people to help take the weight off his shoulders..well he's already tried several times, and so far.. he just hasn't found the right people yet. So perhaps this may be putting a whole lot of stress on him..At any rate, I sure wouldn't want to be in his shoes right now
I do apologize for not posting this in talk! I dont know how I ended up putting it in tech. I have had nothing but excellent service. He has also been extremely friendly on the phone. I do feel your pain on the email situation. I almost didnt do business with him because my first two emails where apparently eaten by the Spam Filters. That said I am very happy I just picked up the phone. Its very rare to have a business go out of their way to spend extra time and money on a customer. Especially when its just because they feel its the right thing to do and the customer has absolutely no expectation of such an action.
