I installed the CPP box this spring (although I had bought it early last year) and experienced about 2" of play in the box and a leak from the input shaft. I understand if no one wants to read the foregoing as it is long but I was playing with them to try to see if the bottom line was a moving target but unfortunately customer service is still way down the priority chain. I recently bought a steering kit from them--center link, pitman arm and idler and that worked very well but this will be my last purchase. Here is the chain of emails that went back and forth yesterday:
Sent an email inquiry on how to get a new box given aforementioned problems.
Got this the next morning:
Good Morning Larry,
I just sent you the return info for your warranty. We will need to have this box back here and evaluate it first due to being a couple years old. So we would not be able to do what you are requesting.
Once the box is here you are looking at a 5-7 day turnaround.
Thanks,
Aaron Strietzel
[email protected]
Classic Performance Products Inc.
I Replied:
Even though I bought the box a few winters ago, the box was installed this spring and maybe has 500 miles on it. It is my understanding that your parts have a lifetime warranty per your website--
ALL PARTS GUARANTEED FOR LIFE...{should have realized ... meant read the small print}
Whether that means the parts life or mine I qualify on both accounts.
I will probably try to get by until the car season is over as it is already August and I don’t want the car to be down for what will best case be 2+ weeks between taking the box out, getting it you, your evaluation, shipping a new box and my reinstall. If it starts to give me too much trouble I will buy a new one and send the old one back once I make the swap. I expect that this will work out as I saw your fearless leader’s promise to the restoration/pro-touring community in one of the myriad of monthly magazines I read that he was re-focusing CPP on customer service.
They replied:
Hi Larry,
The product itself carries a lifetime warrantee; the means that we take care of that particular product. If it’s this month or 10 years from now it still needs to be sent in for an evaluation. This does not mean a new box will automatically be sent out. This is based on the evaluation on how we proceed. Here is a link to this info from the catalog and from our website:
http://www.classicperform.com/policies.htm
So when you’re ready to send it in for us to look at please let us know. We would be happy to do so.
Thanks
Aaron Strietzel
To which I replied:
I am confused. Do you mean you may rebuild it or send me a new one and that’s what you evaluate? My time is way too valuable to remove and reinstall a brand new steering box just so I can get a new new box. The box leaks and has excessive play, what exactly do you need to evaluate?
To which they replied:
Hi Larry,
The Bottom line is we have to have the gear box here first. This is the policy on a warranty claim. Again, because these are not just automatically replaced and depending on what we find they are repaired or replaced at our discretion.
Thanks,
Aaron Strietzel
To which I replied:
I will wait until car season is over. I cannot leave this without editorial comment—I get that this policy was developed to avoid spurious claims regarding defective/failed parts that you have supplied. You will pardon me in advance if I find the use of “policy” as a hiding spot weak at best. You are not a monolithic institution which is run by laws and statutes but rather a small to mid-size business existing to service the needs of the auto enthusiast community and as such I am not looking for you to take my word for anything and fully expect you to scrutinize the box that I will return. My proposal was for me to buy (as in pay for) a new box and once you had a chance to inspect my box to confirm the accuracy of what I have told you about the issues I am having, then you would issue a credit. If you decide, using reasonable discretion, that the box is not problematic then you could withhold the credit. If you decide the box is rebuildable, then I don’t think its unreasonable, given the inconvenience this has caused me, to expect you will rebuild it and sell it to someone else at whatever price a rebuilt unit is worth. Giving me the choice of either living with the problem for several months until driving season is over or taking my car off the road for the next 2-3 weeks is not what I would call reasonable. I leave you with what is the real bottom line for any company (let alone a company in a highly competitive business niche during a major economic upheaval)and that customer service means meeting the reasonable requests of your customer base.
To which they replied:
Larry,
We don’t sell this box as a rebuild type box so therefore this is why we cannot just exchange automatically. If this is a simple fix it will be repaired and sent back to you… If you were to buy another box at the end of this warranty you would most likely end up with both steering boxes and like mentioned before we could not sell as new so this is the reason for you sending this back first before anything is shipped out.
After your driving season is over contact me and I’ll give you another RMA number to reference.
Thanks,
Aaron Strietzel
To which I replied yesterday:
Again, I will wait until winter but you basically missed my point regarding your relegation of customer service to doing the minimum necessary. Do me a favor and Google “Stew Leonard’s”. It is a very successful retail company based in Connecticut. The motto that built the company is the following--
"Rule #1 -- The Customer is Always Right"; Rule #2 - If the Customer is Ever Wrong, Re-Read Rule #1."
Unfortunately, this is not my first encounter with your vaunted “customer service”. I bought a hydro-boost system for my Bel- Air from you which at the time had a relatively long lead time. Unfortunately, the customer rep I placed the order with wasn’t paying attention and ordered a small block unit and when I contacted your company I was told I would have the same wait time as I had for the 1st unit. Not finding this acceptable I called the manufacturer and talked to the owner directly and he was very apologetic (even though it was not his screw up) and he promised me he would stay late and build my unit that night and send it out the next—which he did. Since then he has freely given me followup info on how to quiet the system down which I have been able to do and am very pleased with the system. Now that’s customer service. I assume you are OK with me posting the exchange you and I have had on pro-touring.com, lateral-g.com and the various Chevy forums I am a member of?
It might be helpful for you to read this thread as this directly relates to your reputation with the pro-touring community--
http://www.pro-touring.com/showthrea...g-out-of-ideas!!!!
Please read the whole thread. By the way, I wasn’t advising you to rebuild my box and sell it as new as no reputable retailer would do that. I was saying, rebuild and sell as rebuilt and take the hit as I already have a 2nd install in my future.
Aaron is now so sick of my ball busting that he has stopped responding.
After reading the entire thread I realize I will get the same BS as 69 camarokid except I will have the lag time of living on the opposite coast and likely never get my money back because they can either hang up the phone or stop emailing me back (see above) and the possibility I can make myself a nuisance in person is highly remote. Plan B of either a Lee box or a Delphi 670 will be put in place after car season.
Brian Hobaugh SCCA National Tour June 2014
First Hemi 'Cuda Convertible Ever Built
Short clips: Goodguys Pleasanton autocross and pit videos
CPP--bad steering box & customer service
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