I feel the need to share my experience with the s2ki community in hopes of helping someone else avoid some headache in the future. I documented and dated everything that happened since I had an off feeling shortly after my purchase. In a nut shell, I ordered a header and it came in defective. After over 3 months with no resolution, I had to do a transaction reversal through my credit card.

4/16/2015 - I placed my order over the phone with John at MVPmotorsports for a coated Berk header.

4/23/2015 - I called to check the status of the order since I had heard nothing via email or phone yet. I was informed that MVP did not have any coated headers in stock and that one would have to be dropped shipped to me from Berk as soon as it was available. I found this a bit odd since I wasn't told this when I placed the order. This is when I started documenting everything. Still, no big deal as of yet because I wasn't in a rush for the header and figured it would take no more than two weeks. Little did I know....

5/16/2016 - One month from the day I ordered the header it arrived at my doorstep. It needs to be noted that not once during this month process was I contacted on the progress of the order. I did call MVP to check on it was told that there was no solid date, but should be soon. I was still ok wiith the month turnaround when I found out that it was being delivered from my fedex account notifications. I went home from work and went straight back after hours to install the header. I noticed that the number three runner was extremely close to the unibody when installing the header. I went forward in hopes the the give in the engine mounts would increase the clearance, given which way the engine torques when under a load. On my drive home, which is 25 miles from work, the car vibrated terribly under a load. When I got home I inspected the header and found that it was rubbing the unibody at that number three runner. It was late and I was calling it a night.

5/17/2015 - I went back to work on a Sunday to remover the header so I could get a refund or replacement under way as soon as possible.

5/18/2015 - I called MVP and asked for a refund. They stated they would have to contact Berk and make sure everything was kosher to send the header back. This puzzled me since MVP was the one who received my money, but maybe they were checking to make sure I did in fact recently receive a header from Berk recently since it was dropped shipped.

5/21/2015 - After hearing nothing from MVP, (notice the trend) I called Berk myself and spoke with Bryan. Bryan seemed like a really nice and knowledgeable guy. He convinced me to try and stay with the header and to let them try and find one that had more clearance vs me getting a refund. I had confidence and really wanted to stay with the product after talking with Bryan. We discussed that worn engine mounts could play a role in the clearance which was something I had already checked and found no problems with. (I did go ahead and order some anyways since the car had 100,000 miles on it. My factory ones were fine when I took them off, but I was happy to install the Vibratechnics that I bought) He said he would send a return label to my email that day. After getting off the phone with Bryan I called John at MVP to inform him that I was going to give Berk a chance to get a header out to me that fit right instead of a refund. He had no problems with this. Bryan had to call and get conformation that I placed the order with MVP for the exchange and I contacted MVP as well since I never got an emailed receipt.

5/29/15 - I finally received a shipping label from Berk. We were in contact for the week that it took to get the label. There was an excuse that the shipping label didn't get sent out correctly and he would try again. When that didn't work, I called and he said he would print it off, fax it, and send it to my e-mail as soon as he got off the phone. I got it 6 hours later which was past midnight my time. I shipped it out same day.

6/4/2015 - Berk received the header and I was told when I talked to Bryan that they had coated ones in stock and there would be a two day turnaround to get one out to me. He had to mount mine up on a jig and find one of his with more clearance.

6/10/2015 - I emailed Bryan and was told that they were fixing my header up on the jig to measure it as he typed. (so much for that two day turnaround) He sent me pictures of mine mounted up and one he had in stock mounted up to verify if I thought the clearance would be enough. I noticed in the pictures that the one he had mounted up was not coated even though I was told that the had coated ones in stock. I replied that the clearance was plenty and he said he was sending the header out the next day for coating. Based on the initial purchase I figure another month wait time was in store. We are now closing in on two months for this whole ordeal.

7/1/2015 - I received an email from Bryan stating he thought it was picked up yesterday from coating. (Bryan was out of the office from June 22nd through July 13th for Formula Drift) I was told by Bryan's employee over the phone that they did in fact received it and that it would ship out and I would receive a tracking number as soon as it did.

7/9/2015 - I called again as I had yet to receive a tracking number. I was told that they actually had just received it yesterday from coating and that would ship it out first thing. I was told that it would go out via a two day service for the time frame involved for the header and was given the tracking number over the phone. I verified that the label was created after I got off the phone and found that it was.

7/13/2015 - After checking the tracking number and finding out that it was STILL not shipped out I called John at MVP and asked for a refund. What is the point in a two day label if you take 4 days (two working days) to ship it out? John stated that they needed to verify that I sent the header back to Berk before the refund was issued. I offered to give him the tracking number for the return to expedite the refund seeing as the time frame for Berk to respond to email was over a week. John said he didn't need the tracking and that he would just verify it with Berk. I had already waited 3 months...what was another week I thought.

7/16/2015 - John had still not heard anything from berk and when I called to find this out he stated that I never gave him the tracking number to verify I returned it. I informed him that I in fact offered to give him the tracking number but he said it wasn't needed. So, I gave him the tracking number and he said it would take 5-7 business days for the refund to post to my account.

7/28/2015 - I called as I had still not received a refund. John at MVP stated that they had an accounting error and that he would expedite it and it should post by that Friday.

7/31/2015 - I waited until late that Friday and still saw no refund. I had given up hope that anyone from MVP or Berk was going to follow through on their word and called my credit card company. They were helpful and reversed the charges without issue that day after explaining the situation to them.

It should be noted that I was never once rude or even acted agitated that the process was taking so long. The only time I expressed my urgency was When I called and found out that I had been lied to by a Berk employee that they received the coated header when they in fact had not. Also, it should be noted that almost every contact had to be made by me. Every time I spoke with Bryan or emailed him, it felt like I was reminding him of the order and that it wasn't until then that action was being taken. I was just getting that "oh yeah" vibe. All in all it took over a fourth of a year to get this resolved. And I never got a product that I wanted in the first place. I'm not one to talk bad about a company, so I wont. I will just leave these dates and comments for others to form their opinions.

Pics for reference.

This was the rub mark after 50 miles of driving. It was vibrating the car badly and was extremely loud. It also rubbed through the paint on the unibody. It would have certainly rubbed through the header if left on the vehicle.

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