I know their products are great, used many on customers cars but I really hope they're not slacking on customer service hoping that their products' quality takes it's place.

I ordered a Torque Arm through a local vendor on Monday. I was told that it was on the shelf and would ship that day and I would have it Tuesday (I'm in MD so UPS ground is 1 day). Nothing on Wednesday, but a shipping information email was sent to the vendor saying that the package was scheduled for delivery on Thursday. Well here it is Friday with no parts yet. So I get on a 3 way call between the vendor, Steve Spohn and myself. I'm then told that "We've been swamped and it will go out on Monday". Meanwhile, two additional orders placed by the same vendor after mine was placed showed up at the shop yesterday. Here I am waiting on a torque so I can measure driveshaft length and it's going to be another 4 days before I see it.


Very, very disappointed.

 

Well thats Spohn for ya.I ordered a T56 xmember/torque arm combo from Spohn and then they sent me an email that it would be 6-8 weeks before it would be complete.So I said forget it and just get the xmember itself w/o torque arm and got it in a couple days.Which was nice.But then 6 weeks later I received the xmember/torque in mail.I was charged for something I didnt need and when I sent it back the charged me $110 restocking fee b/c they said it needed to be powdercoated,which it was never installed.So be careful w/ Spohn if you have problems w/ their product b/c they will charge you for their mistake.I HATE Spohn cause they charged me alot of money for their MISTAKE not mine.I would not recommend them to anyone.Sorry bout venting but figured this would help in your decision on the wait for the part.LOL

 

I would have called card company and disputed that.
That is total B.S. Not to mention some very poor service.

On that note has anyone else noticed just how customer service has taken a backseat everywhere these days... not just spoony, but everywhere.

Case in point...
I am tring to get a loan for a car. The loaning bank says there is some charge on my credit report from 7 years ago.
Call the current owner of the name of card, they have never heard of cannot find the account and give me a fax number to send info so they can "research it" and attempt to cleaar it up. That was two days ago. I have still heard nothing and they refuse to give me a number to see what is going on with this BS.
This just reinforced just how much I am against credit cards...

 

when i ordered my x-member and tq arm form spohn they did tell me the wait was 6-8 weeks and i received it in about 4 weeks which was great. i just ordered from them a set of lca's and panhard bar and they told me that they are in stock and will ship out on monday. i hope i get them before friday if not i will be venting about them also

 

i try to stay away from them, very pricey and the customer service sucks, i have his t56 cross member and it sucks for lowered cars it hit on everything. i am going to have one made that is flat so i can make it over speed bumps. it is the lowest part of my car

 

I've never had any problems with their parts and they're the only ones that make the torque arm for the th400 swap so I really have no choice. This is the first time I've ever had a problem.

 

I ordered some subframe connectors online on Thursday, but haven't receive an e-mail to confirm my order. That is the first time that has ever happened, regardless of who I've ordered from.

ssean92 - I know of which you speak. I have one too, and although I haven't hit anything with it yet - I know that day is coming.

 

I keep hearing this more and more often, I will never order from Spohn... theres just too many better vendors.

 

They do make good stuff - you just gotta know what to expect going in.

 

yeah you just have to make sure you factor in at least 4-8 weeks from most of these reviews... which to me is worth alot more to go with some other vendor. Lakewood, competition engineering or some other bigger company that does not run into these shipping issues nearly as much.

I have never heard anything bad about the actual product, but the shipping and customer service have gotten horrible reviews.

 

goody... hope i get my strut tower tops soon... :-/

 

I understand how many of you guys feel like waiting a couple of weeks is frustrating, but realize that the reason why there is such a long wait time is due to the amount of orders they are receiving. Every year, spring time rolls around and the automotive performance industry gets very hectic. Waiting a couple of weeks for products that are often made for you specifically (many of their products have add on options), is not unheard of, nor is it poor business practice.

With regards to pricing, I don't think they are expensive when you consider the quality of their products. Alot of aftermarket companies have their products sitting on a shelf waiting to ship right away, but you have to keep in mind that they don't have 1,000 employees, and a good amount of their items are made when you order. They also offer a larger variety of products than alot of aftermarket companies. I am not a suspension expert by any means, but I have yet to see an aftermarket suspension piece that was better made than their version.


As far as the T56 crossmember hitting things on the road, I am willing to bet that you can jack the car up, and you won't find more than scraped powdercoating, and no actual damage to the crossmember. I had one on my car with 12 year old sagging factory suspension, which was the problem, not the crossmember. After shocks/struts, no more problems with ground clearance.

Just a few things to keep in mind...

 

just curious...how much lower does the T56 crossmember sit. I was going to make sure i ordered one from Spohn because he really has EXCELLENT parts when i decide to T56 swap.

I have sfcs(not installed yet), lcas, panhard, and lots of other misc. stuff i have ordered from him and have been very satisfied.

 

Well, most of the stuff i ordered from spohn i would expect is off the shelf stuff - strut tower tops, sway bars. only thing i can see taking extra time is the wonder bar... We'll see - it's gonna be a week and a half before i am even ready for them, so hopefully i will have them not long from then. I've had good luck with spohn before!

 

just from seeing the t-5 setup my friend has in his car - it hangs pretty low - even with an upgraded suspension he hits it on high speed bumps and bad driveways...

 

i have never had any problems with spohn, in fact i sat on the phone with steve one day for about 35 mins and he got me the parts i needed and there were here in 2 days, and the problem was fixed with his parts. his parts and quality are great and as said in previous post this is the busy time of the year.

 

i totally agree with you on the CS part.
funny, back in the late 80s and 90s CS was top priority, then early 90s was about "quality" and ISO certs
now... it's needing to speak India-nese to understand anything...
look at it this way, as least you got them on the phone and that wasn't outsourced LOL

also....
never underestimate the Credit Card company power. If you are a good customer to them, put them to work and dispute it

F-body motoputz's know that, i fought them last year and beat em, to bad i didn't have to go that route with Thunderracing since their CS was EXTREMLY EXTREMLY poor.

Some places need to see how Summit CS handles things. NEVER a problem, returning or communicating with them. Falt out awesome.

 

I love Spohn's products, they're top notch. But, you gotta remember they don't have a name like Hotchkis or Edelbrock. They have a company probably 1/50th the size, and their parts are even better than these big league names IMHO.

Everyone's just stuck in that "gimmie now" mindset. Sometimes we just have to sit back and wait. I bet Spohn's top customer base is thirdgen, and look how many ppl are on here now. He's probably swamped with orders everyday.

Sometimes miscommunication happens too, everyone here is human.

I am with you on the restocking fee mishap though, that sucks. I would have been upset too.

 

I work in the performance automotive industry. Have for 7 years now and I'm only 23. When we get super swamped (which is usually 10 months of the year) I don't tell people that I'll have their motor out to them in a week when I know it will be a few months. And I CERTAINLY DO NOT send them FAKE shipping information either. He told me that he had one on the shelf and it would ship Tuesday, then he sent me the email that said it was scheduled for delivery on Thursday. When I called to ask him where it was on FRIDAY he told me it will ship Monday.

And I wish Comp. Engineering or Hotchkis made what I needed, but Spohn was my ONLY option. Up to this point I never would have considered otherwise.

 

I agree... If they would be honest up front, then the customer would expect a delay and not feel "LET DOWN"...
I personally have not ordered from Spohn, but a few people I know that have ordered the T56 Xmem from them says that the pitch on it is wrong and causes mis-alignment of the trans and rear end. From what I have heard on here, I plan on staying away from them.
Places I have had a good experience with are
Thunder Racing www.thunderracing.com
TPI parts www.tpiparts.net
Summit (95%) www.summitracing.com

 

Exactly.

If he had been up front I would understand. He told me I would have it on Tuesday so I started the project and now the car is up on stands, new trans is in but I can't measure for driveshaft length and finish up the job. So now I'm pushed back another week. Not like I could have gone racing today anyway because of the rain but if the weather was nice today I'd be more pissed.

 

I totally understand. A while back I ordered some cables from Moates. They were in stock and had plenty of them. I had reserved time in the shop my friend works at to do some problem solving with my laptop, TTS datamaster program, and the cables from Moates. I payed extra for 2 DAY SHIPPING, to get them a day ahead of time, to have them for my reservation the next day. It took 5 days to get the cables. I called and complained, he just said UPS has been running behind the past few days and there was nothing he could do. He already had my money so he could give a **** less... If I ever see that guy, I am going to jam my thumb up his ***.

 

I used to work in a small fab shop.
You know what we did starting about October when the orders slowed down?

We started looking at the past 5 years orders, looking for trends and stable numbers on parts. We then worked all winter early spring to build the stock pile up for spring/summer.

Did we sometimes make too many? sure. Did they stay on the shelf for more than a few months? no. The people appreciated it too. They knew how we operated and what to expect. They knew that if we said we had it and it would ship "X" day, it would ship the absolute latest "X" day. If we told them, hey sorry but we have alot of big stuff we are working on it will be a while, they at least knew it up front and had the choice, not stuck in limbo.

I know perfectly well that fall/winter is slow on speed shops, and spring/summer is hell (who doesn't). That does not mean that you send everyone home early during the winter months. It means you do your homework and look at the parts sale trends and prepare for it.
Will you ever do it perfect? I doubt it. I also know that alot of spoons stuff is modded. So he cannot make the base part (that can be sold to the average person) and adapt it as needed at customers request? That way the bulk of the work is done, he does the mods and a day or two for powder coat, bam... done. Days not weeks.

Or maybe I have just been on both sides of the counter so much that I know how the customers think and act, and how things should be run in a shop to cope with high sparatic loads. or I have just been in shops that were really, no more like EXTREMELY well run.

 

well you know what my car is lowered and it has new shocks and speings so guess that isnt my problem. i am 2 inchs lowered. and yes it is way to low for lowered cars. it is lower then the exhaust by at least 2 inchs

 

LoL @ people bitching about stuff taking 2 weeks for things to get to their door. Custom made, quality parts take a little bit of time. My strange rear end took almost a month. But I am not gonna start bashing Strange cause this is the normal wait time for stuff like that.

I talked to Steve a couple days ago on an a-arm that wasn't working right with my car and he told me I could ship it back and they would look at it and make any adjustments if need be. Worse comes to worse he said, we would just switch the bad ones with some replacements or adjustable ones. Never had a problem with his product (until now with the a-arms) but he was very helpful over the phone with them. He is good in my book. I just want him to come out with his K member soon! hehe But he said since it is very busy this time of the year with orders, he can't afford to put the k member out yet. So he IS making an effort to get your orders out on time. Hell, he is even holding back his k member everyone wants that he could be making bank off of right now but is holding it back so he can get other orders out faster.

 

I think the thing that stands out the most here is the gentleman who was CHARGED for Spohn's mistake. I HATE when that sh*t happens. Venders have to stop with the "Oh well, waddya gonna do" attitude. Like others have said on here, use the credit card company to dispute if the vender won't come good.
There are many people on here who seem to love Spohn's, and as many who don't. It's almost like that for most any vender, your not going to find a "perfect" vender out there. There will always be at least someone who has had some kind of experience they didn't enjoy. That's just the nature of the beast. But with so many on here saying they would never deal with Spohn, and the fact he will not do "group purchases", but he is a sponser - buy from the sponsers. LOL.
Some say his products are of some of the best quality, so they're stuck with that choice. Well, I'm not trying to solicite business for anyone, but I got in on the UMI Performance "group purchase" for SFC a few months ago, and I think I can speak for most who have dealt with them, when I say the product and service where superb. I talked to Ryan for a good while on the phone about many things. One of them was why he was not a sponser on here. He said he tried, but (to make a long story short) was given the impression that this board already had a big suspension sponser - Spohn.
I will be the first to say that UMI should be a sponser on here. The products are just as good as Spohn's, prices are better, and so is service, and UMI isn't even a sponser right now and is doing group purchases on here.
And as for suspension sponser's, well, that's what business is all about. Choices and competition. Not cutting down Spohn's stuff here, just saying there are other companies to deal with out there. If Steve was such a good sponser to the members on here, who should all be loyal to all our sponsers on here, lol, why won't he be loyal back and at least give group puchases?
I just think the new owners for this board should take note and get other sponsers like UMI aboard. There is nothing wrong with choices, that's just business and life.

 

However, Spohns items can be ordered bare metal, or powdercoated. If it was powdercoated when he received it, then yes I could see a restocking fee since this is now a 'custom' part instead of a bare metal piece that Steve paid to have powdercoated and he would have to wait unti someone wanted to have it in the color it was.

I don't know why people continue to compare smaller operations to Jegs and Summit. I'm sure Steve and crew are doing the best they can do and can't afford to have people sitting at a help desk 24/7 to answer questions. Besides, Summit and Jegs just outsources their customer service to companies that specialize in handling customer service questions.

I ordered my T56 crossmember on a Friday, got it on a Tuesday and it is tucked up tight, I could probably drop mine down 2" and it clear, but then again I'm only dropping the front and not the back.

 

LOL @ you not reading the post

I'm not mad that it's taking so long to get here, I'm upset because he told me it was in stock and would ship the following day. Well it didn't go out and instead of saying "I messed up", he dug himself a deeper hole by sending the email with phony tracking information. I scheduled everything around his word that I would have had my parts early last week. Now my project is pushed back even farther.

 

This post was about companies being honest about shipping time and items "in stock".... They may have 4 of the item in stock, those 4 may already be paid for and ordered by a customer, but should they still say "yes we have them in stock"... NO because they are going out to other people.... If they are out of stock, should they say "yes we have it in stock and it will ship tomorrow"... NO.... A little honesty with the customer goes a long way, and also strengthens the Seller-customer bond. One thing about human nature is that everyone wants immediate gratification.... "i want it here and now"... So if you are excited about ordering stuff for your car (as we all are, because we are car nuts), and they say you'll have it in 4 days or whatever, then you feel letdown and taken advantage of when it doesnt happen.... I agree that some people may not be as patient as others, but honestly still plays a big part with people gtiving you money, effectively keeping you in business...

 

shop size has little to do with it.
If the shop is run propperly, and only offers as many parts as they can handle in a reasonable time frame then shipping delays should not be a problem unless you have supplier delays. Which if that happens you are up front with the customer and tell them that.

If you want to operate a shop with 3 people (exaggerating here) but offer some 75 parts, you are gonna get a **** poor service wrap really quick. Which would be deserving. You only handle as many parts as the shop can.

As far as the "I want it now" attutude, yes as Americans that is what we have come to expect. If the part is customized, yes you can expect SOME delay. But if is just a "off the shelf" normal thing... yeah I can agree that waiting 2-8 weeks is unexcusable. That just goes back to parts offered to what the shop can make ratio.

And the numbers of orders taken need to be addressed with shop load. It is not always a bad thing to tell customers up front, we have a really heavy load it will be a while, maybe you would want to look at getting that part elsewhere.
Yes I know that statement is the shop owners sin, but what would be worse a customer ordering the part expecting it in a timely fashion. Then when it takes weeks threads like this are started and they find out they are not the only one and then they not only cancel the order and go elsewhere they also tell others how poorly they were treated by X.X.X. shop and they had to ge elsewhere.
Or the shop comes clean and refers them elsewhere where they get the part they need and have nothing bad to say about the shop. Other than, they were honest and told me it would be a while, so they refered me elsewhere.

 

I just want to add that I've ordered quite a bit of stuff from Steve and have never had any problems. I have his wonderbar, subframe connectors, lower control arms and rear coil overs. The shipping was very prompt, I had each of them at my door about a week after I placed the order. They also fit perfect, no issues.

 

took me 6 weeks to get my touque arm

 

Good news is I got the TA yesterday. It's in the car already and seems to fit well. Just wanted to update. That is all.

 

i just got my lca's and panhard less than a week so steve

 

just got my 6AL box today... less than 4 days... Thanks Summit Racing...

 

Eh, I've ordered a few items from Steve and have always got them within a few days. Hell, even been a few times i've bought some of his stuff from a buddy that he was going to use on his car, then decided not to and didn't have the instructions, and Steve was nice enough to email the instructions to me, even though i didn't buy the product from him!

 

LOL I get my stuff overnight if I order early enough...
one of there distro centers is like 8 hours from me.

 

Again, comparing Spohn to Summit is ridiculous, Summit has people specifically to work a warehouse and ship out orders while I'm going to assume that Spohn doesn't have quite the people to do this. Thus the reason for a longer wait time on parts.

 

I am jealous... you bastard... lol

 

I was up there sat and saw them packing yours up. lol I was getting my a-arms and coil over kit

 

Pretty aint it Looks even better under the car.

 

really the same goes for jegs too!

 

Yup that it does. I have the 700 version and I did have the T56 x-member at one point.

Too bad you got red though

 

[QUOTE=Tobias05]
Sometimes we just have to sit back and wait. I bet Spohn's top customer base is thirdgen, and look how many ppl are on here now. He's probably swamped with orders everyday.
QUOTE]

That is exactly the problem, Steve got his start with thirdgens and has since put thirdgens on the backburner. He's too involved with making parts for other vehicles to keep up with the times but still cant keep up with just the 82-02 camaro/firebird parts orders. When a business tries to get to big to fast they get knocked back down. Customer service goes down hill and parts that have been promised for years are still in the works. (ie) K-Member, strut tower brace etc. I like spohns Products, almost every suspension part on my car is Spohn but i wonder how much longer he will be in the game........jt

 

Well, i speak from personal experiance - this past week i ordered about 700 bucks in parts from spohn - 2 bus. days later i had tracking numbers and two days later they were at my door - everything complete, correct, not a scratch on the powder coat - pretty good in my book

And jt - don't forget that thirdgens are far froma popular car now - that are beginning to see at the youngest 15 years old!

Either way - people are quick to share and point fingers when they have a bad experiance. I certainly would have disputed that charge on the card... but other than that, i had to wait for 3 weeks to get an extended pilot bushing from summit..

 

That's another thing I like about UMI, they shipped really fast and arent as expensive as sphon.

 

And I can't believe that at the prices they offer that they're nearly as good as Spohn's parts. I'll stick with Spohn and deal with the wait.

 

it sucks waiting for things when you want them. i have the privelage of only being 45 mins from spohn. so i have a few parts from them and am planning on ordering more now. but i go right to them to pick up the stuff and some stuff that is very popular is hard for them to keep up on, the place is not very big and ive been in there a few times now and only see a few people working. it looks like a small buisness, but they get so much work they cant keep up on it all. but they are great guys there. i went there to order a adjustable wonderbar and tubular a arms and left with the wonder bar and had to wait two weeks for the a arms. but for the quality parts they supply us with the lil extra wait is well worth the quality.

 

I bought my weld-in sfcs from Spohn and had them in less than 5 days.

I bought my wonderbar from Spohn; same story.

I bought my lca relocation brackets from Spohn; same story.

I sent them an email asking for suspension advice and got a reply the next day.

I called with questions of the sfc install and Steve Spohn returned the call within a few hours.

I think you could find someone who has experienced problems with virtually every company on earth; people screw up, that's human nature. It would be unfair to judge Spohn (or any other company) however, on the experiences of a few.

Sometimes, though, those negative experiences become the norm, rather than the exception, as they did with F-Body Motorsports. It got so bad with them they were banned from advertising on this site.

 

Yea i hate to be a badmouther but F Body Motorsports sucks, it took 2 months to get in a set of centercaps and some emblems.