My Experience with Jnaut and HP Logic
 

My Experience with Jnaut and HP Logic

I have not really opened up on my experience with these two businesses but I think the time has come.

Jnaut did the install on my car. It took over 3 months to do a GTM Stage 2 install on my car. I heard every excuse under the sun as to why it was taking so long. The most popular excuse was blaming Sam@GTM for parts delay. However, when I would contact Sam, he stated Jnaut hadn’t sent payment yet for the requested parts.

When I originally approached Jnaut to do the install on the kit, I was quoted $2700 with a “custom” tune from HP Logic. It was expensive but I heard good things about him. I bought my kit from Billy02987. Billy is a stand up guy and actually helped fix a problem we ran into during the install at his own expense.

So during the 3 month wait, all I heard was excuses. I would get pictures every two weeks of some semblance of progress. Jnaut said he had to fire his assistant hence delays in the install. I know he was also working on multiple cars at the same time. Once Jnaut had to install the tranny cooler, he had to take it to Nissan to get the fluid refilled. The car sat at Nissan for 4 days to get the tranny refilled.

Once the install was done, the problems started with the tune. HP Logic said the injectors were bad and had to be replaced. This is where Billy02987 stepped in and bought new injectors at his expense! That was some good news for an install full of disappointments.

The car was tune by HP Logic. I was given no dyno sheet or AFRs, nothing. I was also charged another $300 after they took back the car once new injectors were replaced. The car was finally tuned and I was able to pick up the car. This was late November. I dropped off the car in August.
The car’s install was mechanically was sound. Only one small exhaust leak; other than that no big issues with install. Jnaut did a decent job just the delays were a real issue.

My real problem is with HP Logic and their business ethics. Fast forward two months.

The car is running pig rich. WOT around 10.1 with dips into 9.6. The car bogs and the 3 to 4 shift is starting to flare. When it was originally tuned, I told both Jnaut and Jack at HP Logic that torque management should be utilized for the 7AT. They both stated adamantly “not possible in Uprev”.
Well to say the least, the car ran like crap. I decided to take it back to HP Logic to have it retuned (my mistake).

I setup an appointment “reluctantly” and took it to get retuned. When I got there, Jack setup the car and spent 25 minutes on it (maybe). He leaned up the AFR a bit. I got no dyno sheet or any feedback.

I paid $380 for a 25 minute retune but the invoice stated it would be a $90 hourly labor rate. I questioned the $380 and they stated that’s the flat fee. Instead of arguing there (my mistake again), I signed and just took my car home. I thought I could always dispute the charge.
Fast forward to now, the 7AT blew. 3rd and 4th gears were trashed due to lack of line pressure. A good Uprev tune and torque management would have remedied this.

I disputed the $380 charge. Visa said nothing they can do since I authorized the charge. Ironically, HP logic sent in the invoice to Visa and the invoice showed where it said the rate would be $90 an hour however they charged $380 flat fee. On the invoice there was an option for flat fee or hourly rate. The $90 hourly rate had the [X] next to it.

I pay for services rendered but he worked on the car for less than an hour. HP Logic also sent in a generic dyno sheet to prove services were rendered. The dyno sheet, which I never got, was a generic dyno. The power band looked like a SC power band. I just don’t think a legitimate business should be practicing this type of business ethics.

I am posting this to make community members aware of my situation.

Wow...I had no idea your problems were this significant! I'm sorry to hear of what happened and can definitely relate...

I'm glad you voiced your opinion, as I was trying to make an appt with HP Lohic back in the day. I understand there are 2 sides to every story, but I tend to side with the customer since I have multiple first hand experiences of bad business practices with performance shops.

I think we all appreciate you posting up your experience! Hope everything gets worked out soon.. Your car is sick!

Alot of money and time was spent but lesson learned.

I just don't want it to happen to someone else on this forum.

I know you know how I feel.:shakes head:

There are always two sides to the story but invoices and dates don't lie!

I appreciate it man!

Man it's tough to find a good shop , my car is stuck at the tunin issue as well and the shop I got it done at has pretty much lost interest in the car , so I took the car and gonna take it to some one else who cares sorry for your issues man it really suk when shops pussy foot around

I hate to hear that happened to you W.O.W. 370Z. I'm not one to turbocharge my Z ever, but if you paid your money none of that should have happened. I hope things get better for you, and she comes out to be what you envisioned.:tiphat:

My best advice to keep looking for someone truly interested in helping you and not just charging you.

I would have never thought a 25 minute retune would be $380. Most shops charge $400 for a full out tune and spend 3-4 hours.

I am still looking for tuner to retune and finally address the 7AT through Uprev.

If I can't find one or don't feel reassured, part out and CTS-V time. But I want to keep my Z!

It is what it is. I pay for services rendered but bait and switch is not cool.

I don't think the retune charge was reasonable. I may be wrong though. Maybe that is the industry standard.

I had my mods done here in Houston, at Baker Tuning. To be honest, i did a lot of research before choosing who would install my mods (not saying you didn't, just normal for me before making purchases) . Digitonium shipped his 370Z to Baker Tuning to install his turbocharger and other mods, Jason Langley is the tuning expert there, if you wanna ship your Z to them i'm sure it will come out perfect. If you are interested you can contact Paul just by searching Baker Tuning here on this site, they're a member of this site also.:tup:

So Jason is the tuner?

PM contact info.

Let me do some research.:eek:

Sorry to hear.

Sad to hear bro :( has the tranny been replaced? How much did that run?

It was covered by warranty. Tranny is on backorder. I haven't had my car for almost 1.5 months now.

Man, sucks to hear this... But not surprised..:shakes head:

I always heard mixed reviews with regard to HP Logic..
And sounds like Jnaut took on more cars than he could handle.. Also not surprising, as this typically happens with upstarts.

Hopefully everything gets resolved..

I appreciate it man. This was actually my second transaction with HP Logic.

They tuned my Procharged 350z and that tune and motor didn't last a month.

I went against my gut feeling and instinct and let them tune my 370z. Jnaut reassured me that it would be different.

I have also seen a common theme among forum members that have tuned at HP Logic. Most have had either the P2A00 code or some other sort of variant of that code. I am included in that list of members. I had a P2A03 that would not disappear.

This isn't a callout thread. It's an experience being shared with fellow members.

WOW! I cant believe someone talked you into trying again!

That was my fault. :shakes head:

I admit when I am wrong.

I admire you trying to stay positive and give second chances though.. Id say considering your bad experiences you have kept things very civil.. you have a lot of patience.

**** happens and you can't change the past. As long as you understand that you won't get overly upset. But I am upset obviously. Car hardly has 20,000 miles.

But don't take my patience and understanding as a weakness.:tup: ( Not you TerribleOne, in general)

i am also surprised that this happened to you , wht will shock you is JNAUT and hp logic built a 40th anniversary with gtm stage 1 and tuned it and it shipped from the owner from florida all the way to kuwait , and guess what the tune was 100% perfect every tuner that saw the graph here said who on earth tuned the car it so smooth , it was just amazin , yes my customer had over heating problems because our temps reach 130f no joke , so even though we upgraded the radiator,and the biggest oil cooler possible but the coolant temps doesnt go down , in the end this is our atmosphere so we have to accept the way it is and try to get along with it such as adding vented hood,fans ,better front fascia etc etc ,so my point is the car was tuned in a totally different altitude than ours and in a different side of the world and was also perfect i wish i can find the dyno graph some where to show you guys how perfect it was:tiphat: , so i have nothing bad to say about these 2 people , i bought the car ready to go as is , but then again it doesnt matter it was just perfect and the first owner was also an amazing person nissan sales manager , i wish them all the best . sorry about your experience .:tiphat:

I am glad it worked out for you being so far away and all.

That sucks. Glad Nissan covered it. So anyone going forced induction in a auto needs to make sure the pressure line needs to be adjusted.

How is it covered by warranty?? :O

Haha thats what im wondering! I guess its who you know. Good job getting it covered!

Thanks for the info wow. Wish you the best in getting this resolved man

Sorry to hear about that, hope you find a good tuner soon :tup:

Jason Langley is rated the number one Nissan GTR specialist in USA by Nissan. He has done a ton of GTM TT/SC installs and is a Master Mech. on all Nissan platforms. Greddy recognizes them for doing more GTR turbo upgrades than anyone else. My car has 20,000 boosted miles with out one issue and just now needing to replace my stock clutch after 20k + miles. Baker Tuning is not only a tuning shop but they have two Baker Nissan Dealerships here in Houston. North store and a south store.

My car is street tuned by the way in conjunction with Sam @ GTM and Baker Tuning. I believe Sam @ GTM is the Nissan tuning genius here in the states bar none. I also understand GTM is located on the other side of usa from you and it is not always easy sending the car out 1000's of miles. Sorry to hear that going with a local shop went bad.

Baker Tuning owns a GTM Stage 2 twin turbo 370z; also with an automatic transmission. Sam built the block with GTM components and is currently running 10-13 psi. Given the car only has 500 miles on it he is going to need AT upgrades very soon. I will let you know how the AT upgrades go very soon.

I really hope you work through your problems and enjoy your car ASAP. ;)

Wow, so sorry to hear that!! I have heard horror FI stories about HP Logic n that was on the g35 platform.. I had them tune my NA but after I went boost I went with roger @ Japtrix instead and I was so grateful I did. But I had a haltech standalone which is why I chose Roger. I asked jack a simple question, can u tune a haltech. His answer was I can tune anything lol.. After all the horror stories n that answer I know all he cares about is the cash flow. Roger @ Japtrix went with me step by step on what he was doin n giving me pointers on what I can do with it myself. Great service n the guy generally cares about cars n a good tune. Too bad he isn't licensed for the uprev software.

Anyway keep ur head up. Just wanted to share my info...
Ohh n btw a buddy of mine went on the dyno also RIGHT after me with Jack @ HP logic doing the tune. He ended up towing his car home.

Sounds like this issue with HP Logic should be in a stickied thread somewhere to warn others.

I have had a ton of issues with shops and I just couldn't do it anymore .. I do all installs myself even if it takes me way longer to do it .. There is some big names out there turning out some garbage for the price you pay .. Reminds me of a little company called Forged Specialties ...

im upset that they had your car for 3 months! did you tell them to take theyre time? whats your second car?

Oh my I just love forums and customers like you that just feel you can spew stuff out and lead people to believe it all.

I believe I have the cars right, if so here is what I know:

First lets go back to your 350Z experience (I assume you are WhiteOnWhite350z from my350z, yes I still have your pms on it) your car with the procharger was attempted to be tuned when your belt broke, then you said your engine blew 6 days later and that you wanted a refund for the cable and license, and then the story was your Z was getting totaled, not sure what that was about but we went ahead and refunded you the money even though you dragged it out 3 months from the time your car "blew an engine/was totaled" to when you sent us the ECU

Then you get the 370Z on which you get the kit installed at another facility for us to tune, whatever they promise you we are not privy to or can control or live up to if it is not our commitment.

Then the car was brought to our facility to tune, the tune was started and got just so far because your tire fell off the wheel, and had to wait until that got sorted out, great hella flush story

I am looking at my accounting and only see a charge to you for the 350Z a couple of years ago and the 380 in December 2011, not sure we charged you the 300 or Jnaut, we are a business and have to charge for what we do, if another shop promises something it is not our problem to live up to their promises it should be up to them to do right by their customers.

As for your continued mentioning of 90 bucks an hour, where have you ever heard tuning done for 90 bucks an hour??? that is our labor rate for mechanical work.

And now to the chargeback you attempted, the credit company agreed with us because of the following:
- you paid after the service was provided
- we know that because the dyno graph was time stamped just 5 minutes before the time stamp on the receipt
- and we had a picture of your car with plate on the dyno
- I did this with the credit company because I felt it was wrong to do the chargeback, trust me I am not going to risk things over 380 bucks

Basically an unwarranted move, considering you had the service done and we had done the right thing before when we refunded you, you never contacted me this time at all, but I know Jack knows about the tranny uprev adjustments and if you want to try it again I will make a point of being present and ensure all is done as you expected.

As for the others it is amazing how people jump in with tidbits of "issues" but no details, feel free to bring them on and I will be happy to address, no one is perfect but I am proud of trying to do right by customers if something is not right.

The problem with HP Logic have been well chronicled going back to the g35 n 350z platform. N wesPak I'm sure you've noticed WHO the problem seems to be about.. Customer service goes a looooooong way, especially in this business. N even more si with the economy n the type of money these guys shell out for FI even knowing its RISKY business.. Ur customer service should go long way.. When u treat someone like a dollar bill n rush then out the door you get threads like these.. This will leave a black eye on a future potential client of yours.. Just my .01 cent.

well I am not sure I understand the runon sentence but not sure where you get the thing about the customer being rushed out, and as for the G35 those were issues that were wrapped in when the shop was still tied up with Japtrix if it is the one I am thinking of, if any of those issues mentioned are post Jan 2009 when I got involved and HP Logic separated from Japtrix let me know and I would be happy to address them

hahahaha. Your sentence is definitely not run-on. :roflpuke2:

Lol you got me, at least I used some commas and made some sense, the other guy didn't even acknowledge what I said in my original post

Ugh -- so sorry to hear. Hope you get the car back and running smoothly soon.

Hey, YGPM!

:iagree:

Sorry didn't think we were trying to be correct with our grammar. Guess I failed my lesson to today.. If we could please get back on topic n stop tryin to sidetrack the issue at hand with some petty grammar issues??
Who's the one name that pops up n every bad experienced customer seems to say the same thing.. Shitty tune n rushed out the door. U need me to go back n check the g35 platform? We got one right here. Guy paid for tuning n it was completed in 25 mins.. Thas a quick $3sumthin n out the door in les than half hour.. Same name n same problem seems to happen. Good luck with that. It's not my business it's yours, I'll know where to go when the time is right.

P.S. left u a whole buncha errors so u can point those out instead of the actual problem.