my VAN AMBURG ENT experience

[phatboyfilms]

First off, I just want to say I have been hesitant to post anything on here as it’s just not my nature to be a basher & the majority of people I have done business with will try to make things right if you give them the opportunity to. Mistakes happen & that’s really not what makes me feel justified to post this - what I have an issue with is with people that just make excuses, refuse to take any responsibility & don't make any effort to fix their mistake. That’s not how I run my own business & not how I expect to be treated as a customer. I have always been a -there's always two sides to the story- type, I can't wait to hear Mikes side.

Here is the condensed version:

Took my 2012 Pro-RMK to Van Amburg Enterprise (VEI) to have their Boondocker Tunnel kit installed (wanted it done right & figured no one would do better installing this than VEI themselves). Paid extra for powder coating cause I wanted it to look good. Over 5 wks later & after several, oh sorry we didn’t get to it this wk, conversations they finished. Only time i remember getting a call back from them to this point, is when they called to let me know to be sure & bring payment in full when I pick up sled. Oct 19th I picked it up & was told nothing but how they thought it turned out really good. I thought I was good to go. About a month later I sold the sled (bought a 2013).

1st ride track got chewed up from rivets they installed in the tunnel.
Contacted VEI about the problem. Mike VanAmburg told my buyer it was my fault because I somehow “rushed him” & “was breathing down his back” (I patiently waited while he had my sled 5 wks). Mike tells me, my buyer is an idiot for not catching the track rubbing before it chewed it up, so it’s my buyers fault. Also was informed I should’ve installed HIS spacers to keep track from rubbing tunnel, which was never mentioned prior to this. He did offer to send his spacer to my buyer, nothing more.

At this point phone calls are going nowhere so I emailed them, letting them know I was definitely not satisfied & we need to work this out. I offered – AT MY TIME & EXPENSE – to go get the sled (6hrs roundtrip) & bring it to them. Their response: “Scott thank you for the feedback. We will note your experience and build from it. We do appreciate your business and hope your next experience is a better one."

To this point I have been nothing but polite & patient even when I was greatly frustrated. Asked them several times to try & work this out somehow between us. nothing.

After several more phone calls they asked for pictures. Pictures were emailed & they said they would look at them & get back to us. No word back. After calling a few times, got ahold of Mike, just to have him tell me they studied the pictures & determined it was clear to them the track had been damaged from rubbing the tunnel, not their rivets (claimed track rubbed the tunnel from user misalignment of the track). I went back & looked at the pictures again & the base of the paddle has no wear, but the middle is shredded.

I emailed back, letting him know I disagreed with him on the pictures. Offered to personally go take the sled to ANY reputable dealer in the area for inspection - again at my time & expense, unless that dealer concluded the track was damaged from their faulty install. Nothing, not a word from VEI.

So I thought I would post here to let others know what to expect when they send their money to Van Amburg. I hope this doesn’t happen to anyone else.


Just in contrast, my brother & I bought 2013 Pros. After 10 mi of riding his drive-shaft broke. We were upset for sure. When we got off the Mtn, we called our dealer (Allsport Polaris in Spokane,WA). The service manager told us he was really sorry this had happened. He told me to bring the sled in first thing & he will do whatever it takes to fix the problem as fast as possible, assuring us Allsport & Polaris will stand by their product! Were we annoyed the new sled had issues, yes! But I was also very impressed with Allsport and there absolute willingness to not only fix my sled but do it as fast as they possible could so i can be back on the mountain riding! I appreciate great service!!!

 

[Blk88GT]

Ouch.

That's some pretty poor service.

 

[Kooter]

I also have tried calling Van Amburg several times about a month ago with limited success. The last time I called I finally did get thru. To be honest, in my discussions with them, I decided not to go with their products because I felt they were suspect at best. After reading this, I'm glad I went another route!
Service is everything no matter what business your in. Hope you find a resolution....

 

[KMMAC]

Were all of the paddles on that side cut like that???

 

[phatboyfilms]

Were all of the paddles on that side cut like that???

Yes all of them.

 

[line8]

Sucks....but, to add balance. I've made 3 purchases for 2 different m8 parts and they were excellent to work with.

 

[bholmlate]

Sorry to hear you had such a bad experience. Until now I have never read anything bad and have only heard good things about VEI. It looks like both parties are at fault to some degree. From the looks of the damage there had to have been quite a bit of vibration from the track rubbing and the new owner should have been aware something was going on but that is just me. However this still doesn’t excuse lack of customer service. It sounds like from what you are saying that you were willing meet somewhere in the middle to make things right. It is a shame that VEI was not willing to do the same and I am sure they have their own reasons for this as well. There are always two side to things like this However, it always sucks to be holding the short end of the stick that is for sure. The old saying holds true again that you never assume a job is well done regardless of who is doing the work without taking time to look at everything that was done with a magnifying glass to make sure yourself.

 

[summ8rmk]

I'm sorry to hear u had a bad experience.
I know that mike and his whole family (including his mother) do a lot for the snowmobiling world. They are heavily involved with WSSA. , local clubs, fundraising, grooming, and more!
They donate A LOT of time fighting for our rights as snowmobilers. Including going to Olympia and speaking with legislators and representatives.
I have never done business with VEI on a personal level but they are also a meal fab shop and have done work for my company with no known issues.
Again I'm sorry ur experience was bad with them. I am not trying to defend thier business practice.
I just want people to understand that mike does a lot of work for all of the snowmobiling community. He does this because his whole family is into snowmobiling and he doesn't want to lose any ridding areas. Not because he has to!

 

[Cascade Addiction]

No problems with mine

I have full tunnel support and rear bumper from VEI, have zero issues, I even have the supplied long rivets in places that probably should have short, (installed myself), Even with long rivets there is no way the track should hit them unless the track is not tracking straight, from what I can see on mine. I would have to side with VEI on this, sorry for your issues. I have had nothing but excellant customer service with them and able to contact Mike personally for help with install.

 

[polaris910]

check the shop out

Go there check the shop out! Mess,Dirty, and tons of B.S. turn around walk out. And down the road they'll say remember when ve was building ? Oh ya we're just to far behind just one of there lines.

 

[phatboyfilms]

thx for the input everyone. Its hard to tell someone's tone from a keyboard, so i just want to say if my perspective is different that yours, I'm not trying to be a jerk, just sharing my perspective. here are my thoughts:

From the looks of the damage there had to have been quite a bit of vibration from the track rubbing and the new owner should have been aware something was going on but that is just me.

- i thought the same myself at first, but i have never had this happen so i dont know first hand if this could happen without knowing or not. so i have been asking around - one mechanic did tell me that last yr he inadvertently put a bolt in a tunnel backwards which made it stick into the tunnel a little too far & rubbed the track. He told me it wasn't noticeable, he didnt catch it for a couple rides later when he saw the track. Track spinning at 50 mph, not going to take much to make a substantial wear mark, I'd think thats prob why the inside of the stock tunnel is very flat.

However this still doesn’t excuse lack of customer service. It sounds like from what you are saying that you were willing meet somewhere in the middle to make things right.

- this really was the whole point of my post.

The old saying holds true again that you never assume a job is well done regardless of who is doing the work without taking time to look at everything that was done with a magnifying glass to make sure yourself.

- i understand what you're saying, but i have little different philosophy: Do what I do best & rely on others to do what they do best. I dont change my own oil & when i take my car to a professional, I dont go under the car & check the oil plug when they are done. I dont rotate my own tires, nor do i go around my car & retorque all the lug nuts after Les Schwab does. When my sled needs work, i take it to a professional i can trust, that knows more than i do - they know what to watch for as they deal with these things all day long, vs me who does not & would not have this same insight. I'm not saying to be ignorant, but someone elses mistake is still someone elses mistake, whether I am fortunate enough to catch it in time or not. The sled was ridden once, not several times.

I have full tunnel support and rear bumper from VEI, have zero issues, (installed myself),

-you didn't have VEI install yours, which is where my problem was. I paid for a complete install.

Even with long rivets there is no way the track should hit them unless the track is not tracking straight, from what I can see on mine.

- i'm assuming yours is Pro-RMK WITH their spacers installed (that i was not given or even advised i might need)?

I have had nothing but excellent customer service with them and able to contact Mike personally for help with install.

- Really am glad to hear this, I really am. However, Let me know how it turns out if they ever make a mistake. We all try, but Nobody is perfect, so knowing what a company is going to do about their mistakes is extremely important to know. Everything is usually rosy until there is a bump in the rd.

I know that mike and his whole family (including his mother) do a lot for the snowmobiling world. They are heavily involved with WSSA. , local clubs, fundraising, grooming, and more!

- I commend mike for this but dont see how this makes him exempt from good business practices, if anything one would think you would be treated even better as a fellow snowmobiler. Me & my whole family give charitably, i would say quite a bit actually. I donate a lot of time to youth programs in my community. Not because i have to either. Doesnt mean I have a different set of rules than everyone else.


Its clear to me Mike knows he messed up for 2 reasons: 1) he used the worst excuse i know of - well he rushed me - Excuses to me are admission of guilt. He wouldnt have said that if he honestly believed he did a first class job, would he. 2) he would have taken me up on my offer to let an independent professional look at it, if he really knew his work was good - had nothing to lose on that deal.

I am providing Mike a chance to prove to all of snowest how good their customer service really is. This is really a golden opportunity for Mike.

 

[summ8rmk]

I agree with u 100% about customer service. I wasn't trying To excuse poor customer service with other good deeds. But if I didn't know mike personally, hearing ur side of the story makes him sound like a total a-hole. Maybe he treats all of his customers like that, I don't know. I hope not. There are always atleast 2 sides to a story. It seams u did everything u could on ur part to be a good customer (from ur side of the story). From reading ur post u seem to be a smart level headed person and even though I don't know u, I am taking ur side on this issue from ur evidence, the pics and ur calm intellectual post. I just didn't want a bunch of people to boycott or start bad mouthing mike. U know how snowest can get!

If I was treated the way u describe that u were treated I would not work with that vendor again.

From looking at the one pic I would not worry about running that track. It won't affect the life or performance of the track. Not saying that it's acceptable. But it is what it is. I would drop the track out of the tunnel and cut, grind or smash anything protruding into the tunnel.

 

[phatboyfilms]

Summer8rmk - thanks for the post, I think we are on the same page.

Also, with regards to running track u are correct, although it does effect the value of the sled, it does still work fine & I'm with you on your comments regarding that.

My Problem is, like i said previously, I sold the sled & am trying to keep MY name out of the mud. While I don't think I have ANY liability for VEI's poor work, its my name on the line now. My name & reputation means everything to me. So I am stuck trying to make my buyer satisfied with me.

 

[HighmarkerX]

They should fix it and put a new track on it for you. It's not like they can't buy a take off track for you! There's lots of them around. The money for them to buy a track would be a lot cheaper than losing business due to poor reviews.

I heard of a similar story of a aftermarket shop installing some tunnel sides incorrectly and they took care of their customer by buying them a new track.

 

[Devilmanak]

Sorry to hijack, but this kinda applies: I bought an IQR VE tunnel extension, it was shipped from WPS. (Not that it makes a difference.) They forgot to put a bend in it to match the stock IQR bend. (Top of tunnel, where they mate.) It wouldn't have fit between the exchangers and tunnel without the bend, so it WAS supposed to be bent there. Anyway, I had to rig up a brake with some clamps and such and finish the job myself. Irked me, I paid $150+ for a high end product that didn't come with any hardware and wasn't completed!
Sounds like quality control may be an issue over there.

 

[phatboyfilms]

They should fix it and put a new track on it for you. It's not like they can't buy a take off track for you! There's lots of them around. The money for them to buy a track would be a lot cheaper than losing business due to poor reviews.

I heard of a similar story of a aftermarket shop installing some tunnel sides incorrectly and they took care of their customer by buying them a new track.

Yup, seemed like an easy fix for them. I just don't get it.

 

[just-pinch-it]

Seems that if they would have ran it on a stand, they would have quickly figured this out. And, if they knew it needed a shim kit, why didn't they put it in. Most of the aftermarket stuff I ever buy needs a little re-engineering to get it right. There are always clearance issues on sleds: hood, pipes, tracks, suspension parts, the list goes on. I don't believe the track clips will let the track misaligned enough fir it to hit the tunnel, well at least I never seen it.

 

[phatboyfilms]

Interesting. I've received a couple private messages stating basically same terrible service from VEI on work done in their shop, but both won't post publicly because its Mike VanAmburg. Talk about politics.

Thx to the guys that contacted me. anyone else feel free to send me pm if you don't want to post here.

Thx all. Still not one word from Mike. I'm guessing he thinks if he stays quiet I'll die off & he won't have to face the music.

 

[friscospices.com]

Wow I was just going to order there rear bumper for my 13. Glad I read this, I hate poor customer service more than a cheap ****ty product. Thanks PBF

 

[Jay]

friscospices.com what a great avatar, made me smile.