Bad Vendor Alert: XV Motorsports

[GMachineDartGT]

***Let I remind everyone customer was 7 months past return period.

***Offer was made to return, repair and re ship the tank at XV expense as goodwill. Offer refused.

[ted]

they are just a reseller, buy else where

[go-fish]

While I'm not Anti-XV, I've bought the stiffening kit,I don't see much on their site I'm impressed with. They seem to perpetually out of stock on most items, the GM belt buckles are a huge turn off, and the prices are absolutely rediculous. It's obvious they desire to be a low volume high dollar operation. That's fine with me because it is a free market economy. I prefer to give my money to someone who is more competitive with their pricesand has much better customer service.

The products they carry can often be found at better prices. Hothckis suspension systems are a much better value than the XV OEM derived suspension. THe seatbelts, as shown earlier in this thread, can be found elsewhere and without the 80'S GM buckles.

They do have some top notch products and for those they can set their prices however they want to and your not going to find it elsewhere.

As for the original complaint about gas tanks, there are cheaper and much better products out there. There are vendors that have been building tanks for decades. Also, I would only go with a company that uses top notch pumps like the Aeromotive A1000 because an in tank pump has to be proven.

[ajantics]

I really like the gas tank they have and I am thinking about ordering but I need a fuel pump that can handle more than 500hp. I don't think the tank cost that much compared to others I have looked at plus it looks stock.

[Cuda54]

I have an electric fuel pump on my 72 Cuda feeding 525hp 440-6 and it work great. Using 3/8 fuel line and 3/8 pickup in tank fuel pump is on the frame not sure what brand. Has a regulator before the carbs.

[JoltinJoe]

Let's stay on topic.  This is a XV bashing thread.

[Ornamental]

Let's stay on topic.  This is a XV bashing thread.

Staying on topic is a good idea.

***Let I remind everyone customer was 7 months past return period.

***Offer was made to return, repair and re ship the tank at XV expense as goodwill. Offer refused.

I don't think this is a lie, and I see no need to bash XV for this. Not having things in stock, but pretending to have is another thing, hopefully this is a thing of the past. If XV now have in stock, and can deliver what they sell, I won't be too concerned about buying from them.

[gkring]

First off I have spent alot of money on XV parts. Products are top notch even if they are not always 100% bolt in. Customer service is not that great and I would recommend buying from a distributor than from them directly. They are obviously focused on building complete cars and the individual sales is just a way to keep the R and D costs down. I do think they should be pretty lenient with a return policy. Most of these parts are bought months or even years before they are actually put into use. I could not find anything on their site having to do with warranty or return policies.

[MJS73]

***Let I remind everyone customer was 7 months past return period.

***Offer was made to return, repair and re ship the tank at XV expense as goodwill. Offer refused.

The tank was installed 4/15/10 and we spent many hours tracing why the car would die intermittently, then had to deal with the "we've never had a problem/we know there's a problem - disassemble everything and tighten up the connection/we've never had a problem" runaround the ignored phone calls and emails and no response until I finally emailed to ask if someone was going to get back to me or if I had to hit the boards to report my experiences.

Considering the conflicting answers, the denial then acknowledgment of the problem, the refusal to return phone calls and emails until I asked if I had to "go public", your offer to ship the tank to you (and be without the car in the meantime) so you could correct the connection problems was less than acceptable.

Bouchillon, on the other hand, gave me a ship date that was two weeks out when I ordered the tank. When I called after two weeks to check, I was told it would be another 7-10 days.  When I reminded JR that he had told me two weeks and explained the problems I'd had with XV, he said he'd pull a guy off another job and finish and ship the tank that day, which he did.  That's customer service.  What you did was not.

Mike

[brads70]

At first XV products "caught my eye" but I've heard nothing but bad things about them here and other boards. Then when looking at their competition they seem HUGELY overpriced? With the current economy it's surprising that they would not bend over backwards to please there customers? One bad experience cancels at least 100 good ones..... reputations are "costly" to change....... Good thing about a free market economy is this thing eventually sorts itself out "naturally"
Integrity ALWAYS wins out in the end! 

[ChallengerHK]

Bad customer service is one of the biggest things that has kept my car sitting in garages for decades. One of the great things about places like c-c.c is that we get reports on company's behavior.

[70_Hemi_Cuda]

good thread here, I had been looking at buying a complete tubular k-member setup from them, now I may look elsewhere

[jvike]

I've bought Level II front and rear suspension, brakes, stiffening kit. I've never had any problems with them, always ordering overseas direct from XV trought Scott Landis. Top service. I've had missing parts in the level II rear (dampers). Got them right away. Time come to order the front suspension Scott had manually conunted every nut and bolt before shipping. Twice I've recived defect dampers, no problem XV paid for shipping both ways to Norway, and one time I changed one of them becouse the two front dampers where different design, again top service and fast. Also I have gotten help when ordering wheels from a different company and we've discussed technical soulutions when installing the system. I can't say how pleased I'm with the service I've recived from Scott@XV. I would absolutly recommend this company and at least their suspensions!

[TKat13]

I've first had similar issues with XV; just seems they are not very responsive to emails or phone calls (voice mail was always full). However, as soon as Scott jumped in, everything went great. Updates on the progress of the part I ordered, shipping estimate, etc.

Moral of the story, Deal with Scott.

I was at the brink of not ordering anything else from them, but after dealing with Scott, I'll give them another shot.

[MJS73]

Here's the final chapter to this story...

The XV tank/pump is basically a stock tank that has had an electric pump cobbled to it.  The fuel outlet and return lines sit about about 1.5" higher than the tank, so the the tank (which is supposed to sit flush to the floor pan) needs to hang lower and custom brackets have to be fabricated.  Also, the fuel pump's electric connection is a 2-prong plug that is not at all secure and does not have a solid connection, so I can easily see how bumps, vibration and even heat could cause to connection to open up just enough to cause the pump to turn off, which is what happened to me many times.  In fact, on my way to the shop to have the tank/pump changed out (a drive of about 20 miles) the pump turned off and stalled the car 6 times.  Each time I had to pull to the shoulder and wait a few minutes before the car would start.

The Bouchillon tank/pump is a custom fab with a recess for the fuel lines and electric connections, so it sits flush to the floor pan.  The electric connection is a weatherpack-type connection.  The problem has not re-occurred since the Bouchillon tank/pump was installed.

And the Bouchillon tank/pump is $100 cheaper.

Mike