I bought my brake calipers from “fastcorvette”. I read there articles, their prices are great, and the calipers they sent me seem to be top notch. The problem started with trying to get core money. They state they will buy caliper cores at $30 each. This would nicely offset the cost of the calipers. They received my cores on November 8th, and I still haven’t received my check. Every time I call them I get a “We’ll send the check out this Friday” response. I’ve called or written every two weeks for the last six weeks.

Am I out of line thinking six months is an unacceptable wait for a core check?

Has anyone had good or bad dealings with them?

 

six months , no you're not out of line. I may be the only guy that hasn't had a bad experience with brake caliper cores. I took my cores to an "event" to buy new ones from VBP , talked w/them prior to the show had mine waiting for me , when i got there they looked at my cores and said they were fine all I needed was a rebuild kit Thats what customer service is supposed to be like , but it seems that some companies can't grasp that idea

 

I stick with well known vendors on this forum. What appears to be a good deal may not be in the long run.

 

Play it safe

 

Same here.

 

I have been hearing bad things about him for almost a year now (told he used his credit card to pay his suppliers then filed for personal bankruptcy)...I believe it was sdixon/Corvetteworks who sent a load of differential cores down there ONLY to be told they were all junk....the quality of his calipers should be good as (I think) they are from Lonestar, but his business practices are sub par.
...redvetracr

 

Went through exactly the same thing with Vet Parts Online. Don't know why these places are ripping people off for their brake cores.

 

No problems getting my core charge back from VB&P.

 

I sent mine to Muskegon Brake as I wanted to keep my numbers match originals. They rebuilt them and had them backto me in 2 weeks.

 

Precision Engineering, in FL, not the Vet Parts Online ripoff experts who used to be known, by among other names, Precision Calipers.

Had my full core refund from Precision Engineering, in about 2 weeks. I like their 'O' ring brake piston design and their prices were very competative.

 

Fastcorvette sent me rubber a-arm bushings instead of the poly I ordered, took them over 4 months to refund me...they suck.

 

Wow, not good to hear! I sent my brakes, steering cylinder, steering pump,etc. all to them -- about last november as well-- I'm very pleased with all the parts I have purchased, but I've heard nothing about the core refunds, and have E-mailed them twice. Doesn't sound like I will.
I just got a beautiful full-color catalog from VBP. I'm going there from now on.

 

They had a cool website with good info, but it was such a pain to get my stuff and I felt their customer service after the credit card charge was way less than resonable. VanSteel for me.

 

....the quality of his calipers should be good as (I think) they are from Lonestar, but his business practices are sub par.
...redvetracr

He uses a private individual to rebuild the calipers and control valves. He's on a cash-in-advance basis with Lone Star, as is everyone else he tries to buy from.

Mike

 

odered a control valve...no problem then ordered 6 solid spicers and they sent greasable generics. Last time cause they wanted to be a pain in the @ss getting me the right ones

 

I have had problems with them too. I foolishly ordered one of their pricey differential units. The diff itself seems to be in great mechanical working condition - very solid. I had complications with them as far as getting the right sized yoke on the thing. Partially my fault, but they worked with me to get it right. After all of that, the damn thing leaked. I ended up pulling it about 3 times before they got it right. Well, it's sitting on the floor right now so I don't exactly know it's right and it'll be a while before I'm rolling again as the engine and transmission are gutted. I also ordered spicers and were sent generics. These were the ujoints for the drive shaft. I went ahead and used them but now I'm thinking I might just accept my loss and purchase some spicers to replace these things.

The first thing I ordered from them was their spindle removal tool and a complete rear trailing arm overhaul kit. Very nice kit and products I must say. Sadly, I had to wait over a month before I got the rest of the pieces to complete the overhaul. It ended up taking me almost all summer waiting for springs, shims, spacers, etc. to complete my simple overhaul. They "thought" those parts had been sent out already.

I can't leave saying only the bad about them though. The last thing I ordered recently from them was a front sway bar. I wanted the inch and 1/8 but they were apparently out of them. After two weeks and no sway bar I called them and spoke to a gentlemen since Kimberlee was out of the office. He said they were out of the one I wanted but could give me a inch and 1/4 instead (no extra charge). Difference of like $6 or something, so I said ok. After hanging up with him the phone rang within a few minutes and it was the same person I just spoke to. Said they were going to throw in a set of poly end links too.

While I have had setbacks with them, everytime I speak with "customer service" they seem willing to fix things and want to do it right. I'm careful about what I order from them now. If its something I know I don't need for a while I'll go ahead and get it from them because the parts do seem to be good quality. Unfortunately, leaving bad tastes in peoples' mouth is not the way to do business.

If you're still waiting to get your core refund I'd keep pressing them. If you've called them as many times as you say, Kimberlee probably knows you by your first name now. Be sure to express that 6 months is unreasonable.
GL

 

My Nitemare With Them Started With A Rearend That I Ordered That Over Heated So Bad I Could Not Touch It With Out Third Degree Burns On My Fingers. After 9 Months Of Trying To Get Througgh To Them About It They Suposedly Fixed It. They Sent It Back With The Wrong Yoke. I Sent It Back And They Got It Back In A Month.i Bought Trailing Arms Off Them And One Looked Like It Was Used. They Were Supposed To Be New. I Then Sent In The Cores For The Arms In November Of 2005. After E-mailing Them 10 Times And Threating Them With State Attorney I Finally Got My Refund. Iwas Hung Up On, Promises Of Call Backs At Least 10 Times. I Would Never Deal With These People Again. Good Luck With Anybody Who Does.

 

Even with website sponsors, do your homework. A number of sponsors show a Better Business Bureau link. Don't take it for granted; check it out. We've all seen plenty of threads that stretch into pages on bad supplier/service. A company that can afford to throw a lot of money at advertising sticks out like a sore thumb when they don't deliver on their message. This forum is a wonderful advocate for the consumer; if one company can't deliver, its likely one of us knows one that will. I've noticed when suppliers that become the subject of critical service, they get beat up pretty good. This thread is a good example.

 

I have ordered quite a few parts from them and received nothing but quality service. My last order, for a rear TRW mono spring arrived and I realized that my rear cover had been chaged somewhere along the way to a 78-79 style rear cover. This caused my mounting hardware to be different than the normal '69 hardware they sent me (smaller bolts). This was my fault entirely, not theirs. I sent an email and dropped a voicemail to their customer service line and within 24 hrs I got a response. 2 days later the replacement parts showed up on my door step before I even returned the old stuff to them. Now that is customer service in my book. Sorry to hear others are having trouble but my experiences have been great

 

Remember that differential I said I got from them in my earlier post? It looks like they're picking it up tomorrow. That's right going back for the 3rd or 4th time. Hell I don't even remember at this point because it's just plain ridiculous. My plan this afternoon was to button up some of the rear and get ready to install the new spring I'm getting from VanSteel. I started by filling up the differential with gear lube and adding posi additive. I got'er topped off and gave it a few spins to slosh some grease up on the gears and stuff. At this point I noticed it was leaking from the same spot that had been "fixed" the last few times. I can only assume that the leak this time is worse because it never leaked before when I had it on the ground and spun it over several times. Previously, the differential leaked after a few miles of use. Apparently the new yoke they installed was just as faulty as the one that was removed. I was told it leaked through a faulty dust cover at the pinion yoke. I'm sick of playing games with them. I can't believe they like paying shipping both ways on the thing this many times. I would have been extremely pissed off if I hadn't caught the leak and installed it then had to rip it all back down again.

Don't waste you time and money on their differential units.