Issues with Vivid Racing and Agency Power

[trunkmonkey]

I purchased a Agency Power Exhaust System from Vivid Racing after seeing it advertised and discussed on various Porsche forums. A representative from Vivid Racing stated that the exhaust would specifically fit a 987.2 car.

Turns out it does not, fitment is different for Gen I and Gen II cars. I contacted Agency Power and received confirmation about this from a rep named Matt Jobin, "We have not installed one of these on a 987.2. This is designed to fit the first Gen 987"

I had the exhaust professionally installed and the installer modified the exhaust for fitment (shortened the pipe leading into the resonator) This of course makes my problems with the product more complex. The installer made the fitment without my knowledge, however the product should have never required specialized fitment. My complaints:

1) The exhaust has signifiant drone and reverberation, it is not acceptable for daily driving as advertised by Vivid Racing.

2) Additional cost I incurred for installation, an additional 1.5 hours of shop labor time.

I contacted Dan Mermelstein from Vivid Racing who was completely unhelpful and shrugged the issue off. He's response was I received a discount on the exhaust (apparently discounts mean no customer service) and that the exhaust is modified and no longer his problem. This issue resulted as a direct result of Dan's advertising this exhaust fitting my specific vehicle. The exhaust was miss advertised and therefore certainly his problem.

Further research shows that Vivid Racing and Agency Power are the same company. Under no circumstance should this exhaust have been sold to a 987.2 owner when Agency Power had never even tested the product on it. I am very displeased with the customer service and how the issue has been handled by both companies.

I would recommend anyone considering purchasing from Vivid Racing make your decision carefully as they will not provide you acceptable service if you have issues with their products. I would also be wary of products from Agency Power as they do not test their products before selling them, and if a issue should occur neither company will honor their products.

[catmanluge]

I purchased a Agency Power Exhaust System from Vivid Racing after seeing it advertised and discussed on various Porsche forums. A representative from Vivid Racing stated that the exhaust would specifically fit a 987.2 car.

Turns out it does not, fitment is different for Gen I and Gen II cars. I contacted Agency Power and received confirmation about this from a rep named Matt Jobin, "We have not installed one of these on a 987.2. This is designed to fit the first Gen 987"

I had the exhaust professionally installed and the installer modified the exhaust for fitment (shortened the pipe leading into the resonator) This of course makes my problems with the product more complex. The installer made the fitment without my knowledge, however the product should have never required specialized fitment. My complaints:

1) The exhaust has signifiant drone and reverberation, it is not acceptable for daily driving as advertised by Vivid Racing.

2) Additional cost I incurred for installation, an additional 1.5 hours of shop labor time.

I contacted Dan Mermelstein from Vivid Racing who was completely unhelpful and shrugged the issue off. He's response was I received a discount on the exhaust (apparently discounts mean no customer service) and that the exhaust is modified and no longer his problem. This issue resulted as a direct result of Dan's advertising this exhaust fitting my specific vehicle. The exhaust was miss advertised and therefore certainly his problem.

Further research shows that Vivid Racing and Agency Power are the same company. Under no circumstance should this exhaust have been sold to a 987.2 owner when Agency Power had never even tested the product on it. I am very displeased with the customer service and how the issue has been handled by both companies.

I would recommend anyone considering purchasing from Vivid Racing make your decision carefully as they will not provide you acceptable service if you have issues with their products. I would also be wary of products from Agency Power as they do not test their products before selling them, and if a issue should occur neither company will honor their products.

Are you talking about Vivid Racing from California or the one from Florida?

[trunkmonkey]

I purchased a Agency Power Exhaust System from Vivid Racing after seeing it advertised and discussed on various Porsche forums. A representative from Vivid Racing stated that the exhaust would specifically fit a 987.2 car.

Turns out it does not, fitment is different for Gen I and Gen II cars. I contacted Agency Power and received confirmation about this from a rep named Matt Jobin, "We have not installed one of these on a 987.2. This is designed to fit the first Gen 987"

I had the exhaust professionally installed and the installer modified the exhaust for fitment (shortened the pipe leading into the resonator) This of course makes my problems with the product more complex. The installer made the fitment without my knowledge, however the product should have never required specialized fitment. My complaints:

1) The exhaust has signifiant drone and reverberation, it is not acceptable for daily driving as advertised by Vivid Racing.

2) Additional cost I incurred for installation, an additional 1.5 hours of shop labor time.

I contacted Dan Mermelstein from Vivid Racing who was completely unhelpful and shrugged the issue off. He's response was I received a discount on the exhaust (apparently discounts mean no customer service) and that the exhaust is modified and no longer his problem. This issue resulted as a direct result of Dan's advertising this exhaust fitting my specific vehicle. The exhaust was miss advertised and therefore certainly his problem.

Further research shows that Vivid Racing and Agency Power are the same company. Under no circumstance should this exhaust have been sold to a 987.2 owner when Agency Power had never even tested the product on it. I am very displeased with the customer service and how the issue has been handled by both companies.

I would recommend anyone considering purchasing from Vivid Racing make your decision carefully as they will not provide you acceptable service if you have issues with their products. I would also be wary of products from Agency Power as they do not test their products before selling them, and if a issue should occur neither company will honor their products.

Are you talking about Vivid Racing from California or the one from Florida?

This Vivid Racing is from Gilbert, Arizona..

[PTEC]

I have only ever heard bad things about them, including from people who have worked there.

[Andrew D.]

I have only ever heard bad things about them, including from people who have worked there.

+1

[zdimic]

Oh, you should hear my story than...

Vivid Racing sucks!!!

They've 'upgraded' my ECU (they sell Softronic stuff) and caused $10000 in

damage to the engine. They definitely don't stand behind their products.

So let me describe short list of problems:

- Program would not properly load, nor unload. The only time it was

successful, it took 2.5hrs to flash back to normal. Car was on a charger,

and battery just hardly made it. Charger was starting to flip in and out as

current draw was too high. Few more minutes, and car would have been bricked

again.

- Oh, yeah, this program bricked my car. Vivid charged me shipping ECU in

both direction to fix it, for something that was clearly not my fault.

- Error handling in the program is a joke - I'm Director of Technology and I

make software for life, and would fire whoever wrote error handling of

Softronic program in a second.

- As a mentioned, about $10000 in damage to the engine/transmission. Program

was getting confused and allowing too much boost.

- You better don't think about emissions if you run this software. After

'upgrade' engine spews about 100 times(!!!) as much pollutant as before

programming. Contact me for scans of emission tests.

- Vivid refused to offer any refund on the program, even though I can't load

it again; of course would not cover any damage; and would not even allow me

to resell license for this program to anyone else. So, it doesn't work, and

yet there is no recourse...

I have never, ever been as disappointed and angry with any company, as much

as with Vivid Racing and Softronic. In a world of greedy, large and

incompetent Telco's, that says a lot...

If there is interest, I'll post more details, but in short, STAY AWAY!!!

[coleta]

can you post the emissions test?

[zdimic]

This is funny :)

As I started posting my story, I got this today from Dan Mermelstein, owner of Vivid Racing:

He posts on the facebook:

"I have never met a dumber person...

...

Where ever you post, your full email information and story will be posted.

From email:

Everywhere you post, I will respond by posting the entire email string including your personal information showing how ignorant you are.

If this is not a treat to show my personal information, I'm not sure what is...

I actually would like to post whole email stream, but no one would have patience to read it.

[zdimic]

can you post the emissions test?

Here are emission tests.

Check CO, that is 1.18 instead of 0 at idle and 2.05 instead of 0.29 at 2500 rpm.

HC (unburned fuel?) is also double at idle, and 50% higher when running...

emission.pdf

[CaptnCrash]

can you post the emissions test?

Here are emission tests.

Check CO, that is 1.18 instead of 0 at idle and 2.05 instead of 0.29 at 2500 rpm.

HC (unburned fuel?) is also double at idle, and 50% higher when running...

My last experience with vivid was "vividly" terrible. Stay away, very far away.

--CC

[coleta]

Thanks, and sorry to hear about all of this.

[zdimic]

I had chance to describe my story of issues with Vivid racing and Softronic in a bit more details. It's long, but if you're interested, it's here:

http://www.6speedonline.com/forums/997-turbo-gt2/238106-issues-softronic-vivid-racing-ecu-upgrade.html

[Loren]

I had chance to describe my story of issues with Vivid racing and Softronic in a bit more details. It's long, but if you're interested, it's here:

http://www.6speedonl...cu-upgrade.html

And they closed your thread there - because Vivid is a "paying" advertiser on that site.

[trunkmonkey]

I had chance to describe my story of issues with Vivid racing and Softronic in a bit more details. It's long, but if you're interested, it's here:

http://www.6speedonl...cu-upgrade.html

And they closed your thread there - because Vivid is a "paying" advertiser on that site.

6 speed closed the thread of my complaint as well, so did planet-9 and vivid is a sponsor of both...

[zdimic]

Wow, this is something I have trouble believing.

Owner of Vivid Racing altered my review from 1 stars to 5!

He also removed any negatives (I resubmitted, so you'll see two if you follow link, except he'll delete it probably).

This is what is left of the review:

<p>Car feels alert and nimble, love this software!</p>

And this is what I wrote:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Z Dimic submited review for Softronic ECU Flash Porsche 996 TT 3.6L 01-05

Product link where review submited: http://www.vividracing.com/catalog/softronic-flash-porsche-0105-p-25302.html

Review Text:

Car feels alert and nimble, but program is not mature.

It does not load properly, has caused me massive engine and transmission damage and is very poor performer in terms of emissions...

Be careful!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Please, please link this thread from wherever you can, this is BAD,BAD company. This thread is already very high when you search for vivid racing, and is #1 for 'vivid racing issues'

[trunkmonkey]

Wow, this is something I have trouble believing.

Owner of Vivid Racing altered my review from 1 stars to 5!

He also removed any negatives (I resubmitted, so you'll see two if you follow link, except he'll delete it probably).

This is what is left of the review:

<p>Car feels alert and nimble, love this software!</p>

And this is what I wrote:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Z Dimic submited review for Softronic ECU Flash Porsche 996 TT 3.6L 01-05

Product link where review submited: http://www.vividraci...05-p-25302.html

Review Text:

Car feels alert and nimble, but program is not mature.

It does not load properly, has caused me massive engine and transmission damage and is very poor performer in terms of emissions...

Be careful!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Please, please link this thread from wherever you can, this is BAD,BAD company. This thread is already very high when you search for vivid racing, and is #1 for 'vivid racing issues'

Dan had deleted the bad review of the exhaust I left as well. If you search his site you'll notice there are no bad reviews thats because he deletes or alters them.

[Tinsby]

Wow, this is something I have trouble believing.

Owner of Vivid Racing altered my review from 1 stars to 5!

He also removed any negatives (I resubmitted, so you'll see two if you follow link, except he'll delete it probably).

This is what is left of the review:

<p>Car feels alert and nimble, love this software!</p>

And this is what I wrote:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Z Dimic submited review for Softronic ECU Flash Porsche 996 TT 3.6L 01-05

Product link where review submited: http://www.vividraci...05-p-25302.html

Review Text:

Car feels alert and nimble, but program is not mature.

It does not load properly, has caused me massive engine and transmission damage and is very poor performer in terms of emissions...

Be careful!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Please, please link this thread from wherever you can, this is BAD,BAD company. This thread is already very high when you search for vivid racing, and is #1 for 'vivid racing issues'

Dan had deleted the bad review of the exhaust I left as well. If you search his site you'll notice there are no bad reviews thats because he deletes or alters them.

Probably too late for you to do anything as far as a refund, but for future reference remember that if you buy with a credit card you have a level of protection. The sale of any item has to meet a level of 'merchantability' which means it has to perform as described and be fit for sale. If the device or whatever you order doesn't work you can file a dispute with the credit card company, after contacting the seller. Make sure you keep all paperwork to the seller and to the card company. However modifying the part to make it work won't go in your favor, let it alone as you received it and file the complaint.

If you have incurred damage due to an aftermarket part it may be best to seek the advice of an attorney. If you have $10k in damages to your motor you surely won't have to spend that on a competent attorney to have your case adjudicated.

As far as Dan or whoever editing out your comments, you need to have the ORIGINAL POSTING to compare with what he or his minions have allegedly done to your post. A screen shot of the posting would be good for evidentiary purposes. If your post doesn't agree with what IS posted, then you have proof.

Sorry to hear of all your troubles.

Cheers,

Tinsby

[trunkmonkey]

Wow, this is something I have trouble believing.

Owner of Vivid Racing altered my review from 1 stars to 5!

He also removed any negatives (I resubmitted, so you'll see two if you follow link, except he'll delete it probably).

This is what is left of the review:

<p>Car feels alert and nimble, love this software!</p>

And this is what I wrote:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Z Dimic submited review for Softronic ECU Flash Porsche 996 TT 3.6L 01-05

Product link where review submited: http://www.vividraci...05-p-25302.html

Review Text:

Car feels alert and nimble, but program is not mature.

It does not load properly, has caused me massive engine and transmission damage and is very poor performer in terms of emissions...

Be careful!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Please, please link this thread from wherever you can, this is BAD,BAD company. This thread is already very high when you search for vivid racing, and is #1 for 'vivid racing issues'

Dan had deleted the bad review of the exhaust I left as well. If you search his site you'll notice there are no bad reviews thats because he deletes or alters them.

Probably too late for you to do anything as far as a refund, but for future reference remember that if you buy with a credit card you have a level of protection. The sale of any item has to meet a level of 'merchantability' which means it has to perform as described and be fit for sale. If the device or whatever you order doesn't work you can file a dispute with the credit card company, after contacting the seller. Make sure you keep all paperwork to the seller and to the card company. However modifying the part to make it work won't go in your favor, let it alone as you received it and file the complaint.

If you have incurred damage due to an aftermarket part it may be best to seek the advice of an attorney. If you have $10k in damages to your motor you surely won't have to spend that on a competent attorney to have your case adjudicated.

As far as Dan or whoever editing out your comments, you need to have the ORIGINAL POSTING to compare with what he or his minions have allegedly done to your post. A screen shot of the posting would be good for evidentiary purposes. If your post doesn't agree with what IS posted, then you have proof.

Sorry to hear of all your troubles.

Cheers,

Tinsby

I do have screen shots, dan even emailed me telling me he deleted my comment.

[phillipj]

I have given up on them (Vivid) as well.. The Porsche community is rather tight. I don't understand how they think they can run a business like that. Try Evoms or TPC. Much better to deal with.. Pricey but you get what you pay for..

[Tinsby]

Wow, this is something I have trouble believing.

Owner of Vivid Racing altered my review from 1 stars to 5!

He also removed any negatives (I resubmitted, so you'll see two if you follow link, except he'll delete it probably).

This is what is left of the review:

<p>Car feels alert and nimble, love this software!</p>

And this is what I wrote:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Z Dimic submited review for Softronic ECU Flash Porsche 996 TT 3.6L 01-05

Product link where review submited: http://www.vividraci...05-p-25302.html

Review Text:

Car feels alert and nimble, but program is not mature.

It does not load properly, has caused me massive engine and transmission damage and is very poor performer in terms of emissions...

Be careful!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Please, please link this thread from wherever you can, this is BAD,BAD company. This thread is already very high when you search for vivid racing, and is #1 for 'vivid racing issues'

Dan had deleted the bad review of the exhaust I left as well. If you search his site you'll notice there are no bad reviews thats because he deletes or alters them.

Probably too late for you to do anything as far as a refund, but for future reference remember that if you buy with a credit card you have a level of protection. The sale of any item has to meet a level of 'merchantability' which means it has to perform as described and be fit for sale. If the device or whatever you order doesn't work you can file a dispute with the credit card company, after contacting the seller. Make sure you keep all paperwork to the seller and to the card company. However modifying the part to make it work won't go in your favor, let it alone as you received it and file the complaint.

If you have incurred damage due to an aftermarket part it may be best to seek the advice of an attorney. If you have $10k in damages to your motor you surely won't have to spend that on a competent attorney to have your case adjudicated.

As far as Dan or whoever editing out your comments, you need to have the ORIGINAL POSTING to compare with what he or his minions have allegedly done to your post. A screen shot of the posting would be good for evidentiary purposes. If your post doesn't agree with what IS posted, then you have proof.

Sorry to hear of all your troubles.

Cheers,

Tinsby

I do have screen shots, dan even emailed me telling me he deleted my comment.

Good work on the screenshots, you did just as I would have done. If nothing else it shows the attitude of this place and their refusal to accept any criticism on what they sell. Any right thinking person knows there are two sides ( at least ) to every story. The long and the short of it is, what you paid for didn't work, plain and simple. I hate the "mach schnell Zeig Heil" attitude that I see glaring at me from the treatment you have received. I have never met anyone that is RIGHT all the time, but apparently they must be! There is a local P dealer I will not do business with for the exact same reason, I drive 60 miles to Delaware to get my service work done.

Best of luck,

Tinsby