Hello all,
as the topic suggests I am very dissapointed with alpine developments services. I have been reading these forums from the UK for nearly 2 years and have had plenty of help and good services from people like MAd John, but alpine developments have really fallen in the crap hole.

I ordered a supercharger from them back in june, before they took my money I had nearly an instant response to all of my emails, but as soon as my account was debited for the cash I had no response or update of when I might be looking to get the supercharger.

After trying to get intouch repeatedly I finally got pissed off and handed matters over to my credit card company who is now in the process of getting back my money.

So let this be a lesson to all the fellow Tibby drivers.

If alpine are reading this, please respond to my card company as quickly as possible because I am seriously tired of waiting and I no longer want your supercharger kit.

Refund my money so that I can hopefully invest it in more trusted and respected people like Viper if he is interested in hooking me up with some FI.

 

Get in contact with dmdicks here and he can help you out, he got in with Alpine after your purchase and hes handling their affairs now.

He'll prob post here soon. Not that its an excuse but apparently before then it was one person running it thats like 75 years old and they just moved from California to Colorado.

 

just tryin to BUMP this straight to the top, cause i'm interested in getting a SC from them in the near future but not if they aren't reliable.

 

Ok guys, supercharger has arrived in the UK, Im having to pay £290 in tax that around $550 but I had no notification that it had been sent out or any sort of response from alpine as of yet.

This probably means that I will have no help and support if I run into problems.

I will keep everyone updated to the services I am not receiving from alpine and will be as honest as possible.

Anyone thinking about buying from alpine should definately consider a very long wait and poor customer service. I will let everyone know about the quality and contents of the kit I have received by tommorrow, so watch this space.

 

Supercharger install should be pretty straight forward, and they do provide a form of directions, which 95% of other aftermarket parts don't.

If you need help just ask us.

 

Unfortunately, until lately, the kits weren't "Sitting on the shelf" waiting to ship. They were put together as ordered. Also, I doubt they shipped it via airmail, considering the weight, it PROBABLY went via sea freight right? That takes some time.

No idea why they wouldn't have talked to you, but we've had these things pop up before, and folks forget to say that they've been calling EVERY FRIGGING DAY FOR AN UPDATE, and there is no update to give. Check the Importshark forums for examples. PM the user DMDICKS and he'll answer you.

 

Alpine was in the process of moving offices which delayed shipments, then the manufacturing of the intake manifolds were on back order ........ everything should be back up running, they are still building kits as the orders come in so shipping is currently 1-3 weeks for North America.

If anyone lives outside the U.S. contact Importshark and we will search for the lowest possible shipping price and take care of shipping ourselves. We ship the kits out of N.Y. so shipping is slightly lower.

 

The Delay on this particular kit was due to a back order at Magunson who supplies all the aftermarket roots type superchagers. This delay is world wide as Magnuson supplies the superchargers for many different companies.
Also unfortunately the move caused about a 2-3 week delay on top of the Magnuson delay. John is 73yrs old and is not very good at responding to emails. He's much more responsive on the phone. Did you try calling him before you decided to go to your credit card company?
I will not lie and say that the turn around time is the best in the business, but you cannot say the customer service is bad. Anyone that has actually called and talked to John will realize that he is all about customer service and in many occasions has given out his personal cell phone number for people to call him during evenings and weekends. How many company owners are willing to do that?
I get so tired of people coming on the forums to bash Alpine when only one side of the story is given. In most cases these people don't bother to even phone John to see what the back up is. A backup at Magnuson is 100% out of Alpine's control and people must be understanding and patient in these situations. Yes Alpine has problems with quick turnaround, but these are being addressed and things are improving. You cannot turn a company around in a few days but trust me when I say things will change. Turbo kits are now in stock ready to ship. 90% of the supercharger components are in stock. There is still a back log at magnuson so ship times for the supercharger kits will be longer than with the turbo kit.
As far a customer support is concerned. Alpine has a brand new support forum where questions/answers can be posted as well as this forum. Also a new tech support email has been set up for any/all tech support questions. Turnaround time on tech questions are 1-2 hours at most. Also there is a online live tech chat that is manned mon-fri 7-4pm MST.
The bottom line is you got your supercharger kit. It may have taken a while but you got it. Alpine is not a crooked business like some others in the past. If you pay for something you will get it, how soon depends on what is ordered and whether Magnuson is still having problems.

 

Firstly, the supercharger seems to be undamaged and very well coated in black. It has come with the 5th injector and the new idler pulley and a few vacuum lines. There are no instruction in the box but I think I can get them from the website. So the product is good so far, I will let everyone know how it performs after and during installation.

Secondly I was very patient and didn't call or email at all, but when someone does not reply to an email simply asking for an expected delivery time or an update after 6 weeks of their money being taken and thinks it's fine not to respond because they are in the middle of moving or parts are not being on schedule, that is not acceptable.

All they had to do was send me an email explaining the problems they are having and everything would have been fine, but instead I got no response. That is not good customer service.

I believe when I didn't need to call anyone before I made the purchase why is it necessary to call after, if they responded via email before that is how it is done after.

If I just had a response there would be no need for me to get angry and go to my card company. People seem to respond alot better as soon as they are involved!

This is my experience of Alpine and I wanted to share that with everyone on this forum. The rest is up to the readers to decide whether or not they want to deal with alpine.

 

I appreciate you sharing your experience. Just know that it was YOUR choise no to phone in to check for a status. As I stated John in 73yrs old and is not the best at responding to emails. I'm on a computer all day at my full time job so I can respond much faster. In the future please email me at alpinetech@alpine-developments.us and I will respond.
For anyone else reading this please take heed that things are in the works to greatly improve ship times. Also be assured you will get what you ordered and you will be pleased with your purchase.