FNCG

WARNING – Assaultech Performance. I wanted to share my recent unsatisfactory experience with a company called Assaultech Performance, who often advertise their products here. Recently I saw good prices advertised by them for Sparco race seats for my ZO6. I called them and spoke to “Danny”. He assured me these were first quality and that they were an authorized distributor for Sparco. I ordered two seats. I asked him to ship them to Danny Popp, at McCluskey Chevrolet in Cincinnati, as my Z06 was there having some work done. They arrived a few days later. About 24-48 hours after they arrived, Danny Popp and I opened one of the boxes and took the seat out. It was fine. Over the next 3 weeks Danny Popp installed the driver’s seat prior to our next track day, but did not have time to install the passenger seat. Two weeks after that, I took my car back to Danny Popp so he could install the passenger seat. We opened the box and took out the seat which was covered in a clear plastic bag with Sparco logos, and tied under the seat. After removing the undamaged plastic bag we noticed a cut on the inside of the left leg bolster. It was about one inch long and deep enough to expose the white padding underneath the black cover. I immediately called “Danny” at Assaultech. He told me to email pictures to him, which I did. Subsequent telephone conversations with him that day resulted in him stating he’d have to get approval and would either send a new seat or at least a new upholstery kit. I said I would prefer a new seat. He said he’d have that approval probably by the next morning. That was on October 24th. I did not get a call the next day. Numerous subsequent telephone calls resulted in him saying we should have inspected both boxes within 24 hours of receipt, and they did not want to replace it due to the four or so weeks since it had been delivered. We would have inspected both seats if they had suggested that, but they didn’t. Danny Popp felt it was much safer to keep that seat in the unopened box at the service department. Assaultech said they felt I could have caused the cut. I said I could prove that I had not done that since the Sparco bag enclosing that seat had been tied around it and that bag had no cuts in it, witnessed by two other people at the time. Over the next week Assaultech said that “maybe” they would pay half the cost of the upholstery kit, but felt it was all my responsibility. Now Assaultech will not answer or return any of my phone calls, or messages. So now I am stuck with personally paying for the repair of an expensive new seat that was defective when shipped. I guess we should all remember the old adage of “caveat emptor”, meaning “buyer beware”. I thought you might be interested in my experience with Assaultech.

DRUGschnorr

thanks for the feedback

Dan@Assaultech

I wanted to get our response out there to this issue. First and most importantly I am very sorry that you are in this situation Mr Stewart.

We are sorry that we did not specifically say you need to check your packages immediately, but this is common practice when receiving shipments. Insurance claims must be made within 24-48 hours of receiving a package. I understand wanting to keep the seat in the box, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't have been opened, inspected and reboxed. We went back and forth several times with our distributor who shipped these as well as with Sparco. In the end, Sparco was un-willing to rectify the issue because of the time frame in which is was addressed (Received Sep 14, first call about issue on Oct 25).

I, "Danny" never said you cut it or did anything wrong, quite the opposite infact. I was very sympathetic to the situation and still am. We even offered to come out of pocket $100+ for a new cover, which you told me was unsatisfactory to what you wanted.

Bottom line for anyone reading this, please check your shipments immediately upon arrival. That way any problems with the shipment can be taken care immediately.

If you read through the thread about seats, you can see several customers who recommend us. We are straight shooters and get our customers product fast.
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-p...our-c5-10.html