Worst Whitehead Performance experience

Asus_

This is my honest review of Whitehead Performance. I really hope i save someone from having to experience what i did.

I purchased brand new Airride 3P system. I called several of known shops that do air ride... all of them were busy and some even booked for 3+ months in advance already.

Whitehead Performance and all the greats reviews i hear comes to mind...though they dont specialize in airride but i thought i'd call and ask if they are capable of doing it... ..they say they have done it before and can do it.

Install day comes... i bring the car to the shop Monday.... Amy is the receptionist and greets me. She says the guys at the back are busy and need to move cars to make room for mine and that it shouldn't be long. I wait... had a good conversation with Amy.. before i know it 1 hour goes by, Amy checks on them and says they are almost done and i'll be able to talk to the installer to let them know how i'd like it all installed. another 2 hours go by and before i know it I've waited 3 hours now.. long story short, i finally talk to Marco who will be installing it

I find out that hes never done an air-ride install before.... i talk to Mike (the manager) and he says that he himself has done it but that Marco has not but pays attention to great detail and assures me he will be there with him to guide. At this point im a little concerned but Air lift's instructions are very clear and easy to read so any decent mechanic should be able to follow them and with the help of mike it should go fine... They tell me it will be a 2 day job and it'll be done Wednesday/Thursday it'll be done.. i agree and leave.

No contact from them at all... i call them Thursday... ask if the car's ready and Amy says no,"they need a couple more days but about 10 hours of work has already been done"..... Amy says they lost a day waiting for a "relay". They said since i wanted a clean install that this "relay" would make it cleaner as opposed to the one provided.. i let it go and ask how much.. she says its just a small relay to place in the back and not to worry about the cost as its nothing really much.. Whatever.. we end the convo..

An hour later i decided to stop by for a surprise visit and from the door i can see my car in the same position i left it Monday... ask to see the "10 hours of work"... Amy says they are extremely busy today and that i'd have to wait.. i tell her that's fine.. she then goes to the back and comes back and said yeah there are some customers in the back already and its very busy.. and that today may not be a good day.. i tell her im not leaving until i see 10 hours of work.. the car was supposed to be done today and you need a couple more days and no one told me anything until i called myself, she gets annoyed and shouts "okayyyyyyyyy" and slams the door behind her.

The manager mike comes out to talk. I tell him i want to see the 10 hours of work... he looks at Amy with a "oh ****" face and says well no, i wouldn't say 10 hours. i tell him that i heard nothing from them till i had to call today and he replied he was sorry and that he will be updating me from now on (which he made good on).... i also ask about the relay again and find out it costs $150..... im visibly annoyed now and confirm im not going to pay for it and let mike know that Amy had said not to worry about it and then Amy ends up saying she never said that... lol ok... i tell him why didn't anyone call me to ask if this was ok... he said that there was no need and that legally he is able to go 10% up from the original quoted price... at this point i'm like wtf... i tell him its about the curtsy and customer service to at least ask the person... he respond "i guess you could say that"... at this point after an hour of a conversation and me forgetting to actually look at the car.. even tho he knew i knew it was bs and the car had barley been touched... we settle it and he said it will be ready next Wednesday 100% and there will NOT be any more additional charges but that i'd have to pay for the 150 at least.... so at this point im like w.e its 150... not the end of the world.. i tell him i expect no issues with the install and that it should be smooth from here because they are expensive and i expect nothing but good work from them... he agrees and assures me the work takes time but that it will be a job done right.. so fine i leave.

Wednesday comes... they tell me car isn't ready and that everything is done but they cant figure out the Tank/Compressor (There was no wiring diagram for this as it was from another company not Airlift.. so i dont blame them) but i tell them its fine i will finish that last little bit with someone else and tow the car out of cause at this point im done with them and the car had been there for way too long now.... pay them $2150 total for 2 days of work & relay. I pay out of pocket to get someone else to install that last part of the tank/compressor. Everything's perfect now....WRONG.. Refer to Attached pictures for the bad install.

Turns out the install was bad... Airlift confidently deemed it a bad install and so did everyone else i spoke to and said they wont cover that under warranty. I get the car towed back to whitehead and long story short they play stupid and try not to cover it but then mike eventually says he will cover the bags and they will get it re-installed....... so in the end... Mike did pay for the replacement bags and was willing to put them on all covered by their warranty.... but by then i'd had enough and regretted not taking the car out sooner at the first sign of bad news.. so i eventually got the car towed out of there and payed out of pocket to get someone else to finish the work again.

I will say Marco was genuine and honestly did want to do good work and regretted how many issues i was having but the shop gave him something he wasn't equipped to handle and i doubt mike was ever there to give him a hand otherwise this shouldn't of happened. All in all, im out a ton of time... a TON of money for their overpriced rates of $130 an hour and with work that was crap.

EDIT: Forgot to mention the first day I got there.. mike was having an argument with another customer and it got pretty heated with mike calling him he's on crack and **** lol and to never come back etc.. the customer accused mike of lying and charging him way more than he was originally quoted when he first brought the car... I think the bill came up to 600-700 more then mike quoted him.

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haris73

I got upset just reading this, can't imagine how you're feeling. Really sucks man.

ZontheRocks

One thing I have learned as I have gotten older is to be a Confident Customer.

You were treated badly and their customer service was way out of line, but you still did business with them. Even after hearing them berate a customer over an increase on his bill from a previous quote!

You inquired with shops that handled the job before, but were unwilling to get on their calendars and use patience. You get to Whiteline and they tell you "Nope. Never have done this before, but yeah, we'll take your money."

Even in this compliant, you make excuses for them. Good professionals don't just try to make it work. Good professionals double check their work to ensure it's right and don't wait on the customer to figure out that their work was shoddy.

In the end it looks like lesson learned, so that's good.

Nixin

Truly a cluster f**k from the start to the end! I have used Whitehead a number of times and thought they did a great job. However, this is a horror story. I suggest that you try speaking to Mike again. Remember, you can catch more flies with honey than you can with sh!t.

Let him know that you are completely unsatisfied as you paid hard earned money for an incomplete job. You expect some money back from him, if he even has a bit of integrity.

Let him know that you have already posted your comments here and spoken to several other Z owners. Remind him that bad news travels much faster than good news and that he may want to reconsider his current position. Otherwise, you will have no other option but to contact the Better Business Bureau.

Keep us posted. I want to know how this turns out. Good luck, Asus.

Asus_

i should have left longg ago at the first sign of **** but i figured sure they customer service sucks but i hear such raving reviews about them that their work at the very least will make up for it cause thats all i cared about in the end. I learned a big lesson though, expensive but a lesson lol.

Would this even qualify to report it to BBB? and also to be quite honest, i don't think mike cares. The first day... when the other customer was there, the customer was like.. mike can you do anything for me? i cant pay for this.. you are charging me 700 more compared to what you quoted me... and mike says he wouldn't budge on anything and said he should be happy.. mike also went on to say that other customers have spent over 60k of work on their cars at whitehead and they left with a smile and that the customer should just pay it cause life is too short to complain over 2-3k of work..... it eventually got heated with mike telling him off and stuff.

i know..... im an idiot for not leaving right then and there. When i got my car towed out of their after they partially finished the job, i asked mike how much i owe him... i was expecting him to at least knock off a couple hundred for the car leaving unfinished and me having to get it finished elsewhere.. i even left with the trunk pieces all still disassembled i had to finish the compressor/tank/wiring and then GO back cause they forgot to give me one side of the trunk liner...but anyway.. i ask him and hes like... "nope just pay what we agreed"... and even after i came back with ****** up bags he still didn't offer any sort of refund for all the issues and time.

Nixin

Mike is the owner, he should care about his workmanship, customer satisfaction and overall business and personal integrity. I do believe that this case would qualify for. BBB report and investigation. You paid for services that were not completed. Your car, at that point, was held for ransom. That is NOT a good way of doing business, anywhere. Hold your position, be firm, do not get confrontational and do not back away until you are satisfied. Make the time to get this settled. Issues like this don’t get resolved because consumers shy away or are simply too lazy to deal with it.

mishuko

I have had positive experience ordering from whp. Unfortunate the experience you had at the shop

alcheng

Sorry to hear that buddy, I hope you will get the Z running ASAP.

Zyonara91

You know what travels faster than light? Bad reviews online and on forums such as this. WHP specialty is Z cars, I know they do a fantastic job and they do have a good rep, but this is ********. I remember I dropped my Benz mechanic because the secretary woman was such a piece of work (aka she a grade A moron with a attitude issue). You should always be willing to walk away, regardless of how good something or someone is.

Regardless, you should go back, get your money worth in labor etc. Explain how you don't trust them to do the job right due to the bad experience you had. Like Nix said, Mike should be able to level with you man to man and just keep your cool. When you go talk to him, put your phone on the voice record app you have and slip it in your pocket and just talk as you would normally. Seriously, you work hard for your money and you don't need this ********. I apologize this happened to a solid dude like you, but damn, after hearing this I will never step foot into WHP regardless of the quality work they do. Customer service is EVERYTHING. If they don't fix this issue with you I will never recommend them anymore to any of my Z buddies.

And Sweet Jesus, $130 per hour for labor? Why didn't you hit up RPM? Automatrix?

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2FT3PDLZ

Zyonara91

LOL. Yeah life is short, but that doesn't mean I have to be a complete moron with my hard earned money. You don't see me going out their spending thousands on blow and hookers.

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2FT3PDLZ

Asus_

RPM is my go-to for any work on the car.... but for the air-ride specifically, i wanted a shop that had allot of experience with it. Whitehead told me they've done air-ride and it was no problem which is why i went to them, and i also liked the fact that they work with allot of Z's so they would know where to run the air lines probably better than anyone else....but upon finding out that my specific installer hasn't done air-ride before... i was worried but i relied more on the fact that they have such "amazing reviews" and so many people praise their work so im like as long as they follow the instructions on the air-lift booklet this shouldn't be too much of an issue and if the reviews are as good as they seem then the work should be done clean.

I haven't contacted mike again yet... I have a feeling if he didn't care to offer any refund before, why now... but iunno. I'll try maybe giving him a call.

It's also a Pain in the *** to reach them on the phone, that was another issue throughout the entire time.

mishuko

Any updates? I am interested knowing if they will make you whole.

Zyonara91

+1 on this. If there is no action done on their part for their crappy service I won't touch them with a ten foot pole. Funny, I was thinking about going to them for the bushing, but went with RPM as per your suggestion. Also was going to go get an oil, brake, power steering and coolant job done from them. Guess not.

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2FT3PDLZ

Asus_

I emailed them asking for Mike to call me, so im waiting out on that. I'll let you guys know what happens.

Nixin

Where you happy with RPMs service, treatment, pricing, etc.? I need an LOF ASAP.